beach pics ...

made it to xela this morning ... living in a triangle (seriously my room only has 3 sides) ... family is nice and they have a dog ! ...

here are some beach pics ...

3 weeks down ...

thought it be about time to sit down and actually write an update ... can't believe three weeks have passed already ! tomorrow i'm heading to the black sand beaches of monterico and on sunday i head out to xela ... i guess i'm ready ... i've really enjoyed the family i've been living with here in antigua and have had a great roommate for the past two weeks from the states --- she even calls babies nuggets too so she has to be a grand person ! i'm trying to think of what the last couple of weeks have entailed other than school, eating and sleeping .... let's see there was that awesome trip out to semuc champey (the pics are linked to the previous blog post) where i met some really fun gals and a couple guatemaltecos ... toto was our guide for the day and picked up the bar tab by night ! one of the girls i met last weekend works for an NGO here near antigua and shared with me about a center they have here for children suffering from severe malnourishment ... i was able to check it out on monday with her and return wednesday to evaluate some of the kiddos and today my teacher and i went back out and i was given the opportunity to do a little inservice for some of the volunteers (many thanks to monica who sent down a bunch of info in english and spanish) ... if you're my facebook friend you can see a link of some pics andrea took on my profile ... it was truly a blessing to be able to spend time at casa jackson ... and yes i will be working with matt on getting together a suitcase of some things for the center ( now is when you start asking your friends for preemie and 0-3 month clothes, used are perfectly fine, a lot of the donations they get are larger sizes but these kids are so tiny --- seriously look in the pics, the kid standing in the corner is 14 months old and he barely stands up to the height of my knee and i'm not sure by how much he clears 10 pounds ... another item on their wish list is mobiles for the cribs ... more to come ) ... today was my last day of school in antigua ... my teacher was great and it's hard to complain about studying outside everyday in the sun with a view of volcanoes ... i'm pretty sure i know more than when i started but she's also been working with me on the past tense and improving my sentence structure with the use of prepositions and all those other grammar things that i don't know if i even know what they really are in english ( and yes i'm aware a couple of my english teachers read this blog --- but let's be honest, it never really was my best subject :-) ) ... on another note i'm glad i can divide by 8 pretty well ... makes the quetzale to dollar conversion pretty easy ( thanks mom) ...

okay my 8 quetzale (work with me here - 1 dollar) cuba libre is almost gone and they are starting to pump black eyed peas through the bar ... i would include a pic of the awesome view i have right now from this rooftop of the sun setting and agua (volcano) but that might not be nice :-)

strive

a few pics ...

a few pics from the weekend ..... write more later but i know lots of you look forward to pics ... click here

clarification ...

clarification for my confused uncle bill ! ... antigua is also a city in guatemala ... i forgot that it was also another place ! sorry about that ....

went up to the volcano "pacaya" yesterday ... that was one big uphill climb ... and my sorry butt is so out of shape ! i slept like a baby last night and perhaps for like 11 hours ! although i thought the hike was rough it was enjoyable meeting people from all the states, canada and europe in our group ... and seriously - the view ! check out the pics ... started just below the clouds around 3:30 in the afternoon and ascended up through the clouds and were up by the lava/hot rocks ( not sure which ) in time to watch the sun start to set ... loved it .. but when matt comes down i might treat myself to a horse ! actually when matt comes we might sleep up there which i'm thinking would be crazy fun ... perhaps romantic ?!? :-)

time to hit the studies ... two days off was nice !

congrats to the colts !

skipped school today ...

okay not really, went with a couple other students and teachers to a couple museums ... was fun and challenging ... the tour was in spanish but they had some signs in english so that clarified some things !

here are some pics of the coffee museum ... in antigua the coffee is shade grown ... so in their opinion better ... which is probably true but to each his own ... pics

there was also a museum of mayan music history which was really cool and i want to take matt when he gets here ... possibly i'll have the chicken buses figured out on my own by then ! pics

no words to describe ...

At lunch today I glanced over and saw the paper and learned of the recent tragedy in Haiti ... I can´t even describe how upsetting it is to see a country that I love in total chaos right now ... I read that the General Hospital has collapsed and my heart is so sad right now --- the hospital housed many of the kids I worked with when I was down there ... I´m hoping that the work we were doing to get some of them out of there was successful .... Ferdinand is there, well let´s hope was there and is out in one of the orphanages outside of Port-Au-Prince now ... If you don´t know, Ferdinand is my little hero and was my motivation to finish PT school when I so wanted quit ... I carry his picture with me most of the time in my wallet ... I´m sure he has given me more help than I ever provided for him in the short time I was there. i was going to post a link to some pictures but i can´t quite figure that out in spanish ... heck, knowing me i wouldn´t be able to figure it out in english !

So now that I´ve caught up on my Haiti news I guess it´s time to provide some news of my own ...

I don´t really have much to say in comparison! This weekend I´ll go to Volcano Pacaya either with my host family (the dad) and another student that used to live with them that is here now or with a tour group ... so that´s pretty exciting. My sister´s friend is also here in Antigua - somewhere ! we haven´t connected yet but hopefully we´ll be able to bump in to each other sooner or later ...

school is going well ... i can´t believe it´s already been 4 days or 20 hours ! i asked my teacher if i need to take more hours per day next week but she thinks that more than 5 is almost too much ... so hopefully i´m ready for the next school ... but i guess if not they´ll just have to but me in the remedial classes ! although i must say i just helped some guy figure out what time this cafe closes - it´s a start i guess !

the family i stay with is so great ... the dad eats lunch with me every day and the mother eats dinner with me ... jose and louisa (sp?) come and go as they wish - they are easier to understand ! well jose only says pelota, agua, mama and papa ... but he gives the best little kisses ! louisa did my hair last night --- muy bonita she says ! ... it was fun ... the kids also know i always have cookies and chocolates for them so i get swarmed when i get home from wandering around town ....

speaking of wandering the town ... so i´ve kind of started to recognize my surroundings ... there are rules that there can´t be large signs for anything and there aren´t really high rises or anything so it took some getting used to ... fortunately the volcano to the south (agua) doesn´t move so i can use that to straighten myself out ! i must say i´m sure there other great places in guatemala and i hope to see more of them soon but you all should put Antigua on your to visit list - it seems to be a great base for trips to the rest of this area of guatemala