Back Home

Well for anyone that is still reading this I have finally made it back home. I do not even remember all of what happened since the last time I posted. Kate came down for the last two weeks to Xela that was really exciting we went to Antigua and some little trips outside of Xela. The school threw me a big party on the graduation before I left it was very nice but sad. Me and Kate headed up to Mexico and went to San Cristobal and then on to Playa del Carmen. We hung out on the beach there and went to see Chi Chen Nitza that is probably spelled wrong but it is a huge Mayan ruins site in the Yucatan. Then we both flew out of Cancun, Kate back to Boston and me on to Ketchican Alaska for friend from High School Katy Graves' wedding. It was a really great time seeing old friends and being there for her wedding. Then it was back to Cincinnasty. I have been here for a couple weeks now getting reoriented to living in the states. Seeing some old friends and trying not do anything at all most of the time. This will probably be it for this blog for the moment. Although it looks like I will be going to Colombia sometime next spring so I will probably start it back up then. Thanks for reading.

Dancing

I do not remember if I have written anything about this before but I have been doing something other than learning Spanish and teaching English and Bike repair, and that is learning how to dance Salsa. Before I came here to Guatemala I had taken a couple of classes of Salsa in Mexico and knew just enough to fake it with out really knowing what I was doing or looking that good. Since I have been here I have been taking one or two classes a week and going out dancing quite a bit.
It is a ton of fun and one of the things that has made my trip here enjoyable. I just got a video from my friend Asya who went to this school a couple months ago. Her and I performed a dance for her graduation and she got some one to video it and now with the wonders of the Internet all of you can see it for free. Just click here.

Stamps

Something that I noticed while my parents were here is that there seems to be a fascination with stamps here in Guatemala. I am not talking about the kind that you stick on envelopes and send letters places I am talking about the rubber kind that you have to have a stamp pad for. When I was with my parents in Antigua we went to get some ice cream. The process at this place was that you tell the cashier what you want they ring you up and print out a receipt and hand it to another worker who than stamps the receipt and gives it to you and than gets your ice cream. Now why they need to stamp the receipt I have no idea. Then I was reading a book that I got from the library here at PLQ and noticed that there was a stamp on one of the middle pages that said PLQ. I decided to count how many PLQ stamps there were in the book and in a two hundred page book there were more than 30 stamps. I mean I can understand one or two so that the book can not be stolen but 35 seems to me to be a little excessive. Who knows maybe there is some cultural reason that Guatemalans use so many stamps. If anyone has any insight on this please feel free to let me know.

Long Time No Write

Wow it is have been a long time since I have updated this thing. Part of it has been laziness and the other part that I have been really busy. Lets see what have I been up to in the last month. Well one of the reasons that I was so busy is that I was acting as the coordinator of Proyecto Linguistico Quezalteco. Carrie the normal director was in the United States attending the United States Social Forum. Check out the website if you did not hear about it. www.ussf2007.org. It was pretty fun to do her job for a week or two. I worked about 35 hours per week and it felt like a long week. I guess that is what happens after 6 months of hardly working at all.
Now my parents are here it has been fun showing them around town. They have been here for a week now doing some of the little trips from the school and hanging out with me. This week they will be studying at PLQ so that they can speak a little more Spanish. They are already talking about coming back next year if things go well this time.
The other big news in my life is that I actually bought a plane ticket home at the end of August. Well sort of home. I am actually flying out of Cancun straight to Ketchican Alaska to go to my friends Katy and Amos' wedding. That should be a ton of fun. Get to see some old high school friends and hang out in Alaska for a couple of days. Then I am heading back to the Cincinnati. And from there who knows where.

Super Cute

Last week the English class that I had been working with performed a play. Nana another student and at PLQ was helping out and since she does theater in the States we decided to try a play here with the kids. The story which they chose was of Tecun Uman. A mystical Mayan warrior who fought against the Spanish invaders. Nana wrote the play in English than we worked on translating it to Spanish so that they could actually understand what they were saying. This is the opening scene with me hiding behind the curtain making sure they were saying their lines correctly.
The kids were super nervous backstage before the show. Most of their parents were there and a whole bunch of students from the school. They did really well though most of them even memorized their lines even though we did not require them to do that. It was really good for them to work up to something rather than just learning some random vocab words with out much context. Here is Kevin the King of Spain in his castle . We also did a little bit of social engineering and cast the boy that was getting picked on during class as the lead role. And it seemed to work. They seem to accept him more now. We did have to put one foreigner as a stand in for someone who did not show up but it worked out well.

The picture above is Tecun Uman fighting Pedro Alvarado with the Quetzal bird looking on from the chair. As well as the two narrators and lots of dead folks on the ground. On the right is the final bow a little disjointed but at least they got there.

Fame or Infamy

Well I am not sure if this means that I am famous or infamous or maybe just that I go out to much but there is a photo of me in this month´s issue of XelaWho. It is a silly free monthly that is put out here in Xela. There are some pretty funny articles sometimes and they always do this imitation of the society pages in a paper where they have pictures of people that they take at the local hot spots. King and Queen is one of my favorite bars. That night was Carrie´s birthday party. In the picture with me is one of the bar tenders. Yes, I go by Jacobo here most of the time (pronounced ha co bo). It is the Spanglized version of my name and a bit easier for Spanish speakers to pronounce although there are quite a few native English speakers that call me that as well. Check the picture out here...
http://www.xelawho.com/barfly/index.htm

Hot Water

So as I might have mentioned before Xela and the highlands of Guatemala is much colder than Nicaragua. I was sort of expecting a much warmer average temperature. It can be really hot here during the day when the sun is out but when the sun goes down the temperature can drop significantly. It is actually quite pleasant warm during the day but a little chilly at night maybe like fall weather in the northern United States. However, this does mean that hot water is a necessity. It was not something that I remember ever encountering in Nicaragua. It was just so hot that the water was luke warm anyway and you did not want to take a hot shower. But the way to heat up water is what is really fun in Guatemala. Although some people do have gas powered heaters most rely on the electric kind that are attached to the shower head. Not really the best system in the world in my opinion. First of all the obvious problem of electricity coming in close contact with water. As you can see from the picture the wiring is not really up to the best standards and can cause some problems if you happen to reach up with wet hands. The shock is not to bad but it is a little surprising. Second there is the problem of water temperatures. The water is heated as it comes through the little device there. So the less water that is going through the hotter it will be. Depending on the shower head you can have either a very hot shower that drips out or a not so hot shower that flows pretty good. Good thing I do not really like hot showers anyway.

Super Chivos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I am sure that this did not make big news in the United States or most of the rest of the world for that matter the but yesterday Xela´s soccer team won the Guatemalan finals and turned the whole town into a huge party. Guatemala only has one national sport so it would be like taking the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley cup and whatever the basketball championship is called and putting them into one. They had a two game final one here in Xela and one in San Marcos. I went to the game here in Xela on Thursday night. My friend Andrew and I waited in line for over two hours to get tickets on Wednesday and than went to the stadium two hours before the game and still did not get seats. That is Andrew in the fore ground of the picture and Ruth (a teacher from the school) and Maryanne (a student) in the background and some random lady blowing a whistle with her eyes closed.We were standing behind the goal all the way at the bottom of the stadium. But it was still pretty fun. The atmosphere was great. Everyone was singing and yelling and cheering. Until they started losing that is They only lost one zero but the Xela fans are passionate but once they start losing they give up on their team pretty quick. Even the mascot and his grandson the chivito could not get the crowds energy up. A disappointing loss but there was still another game to go. I did not make it to the game on Saturday but went to a bar to watch it. It was a really good time. The Super Chivos won 4 to 1 and the whole bar went nuts every time they scored. And the owners gave everyone a free shot of tequila when they one. After that everyone took to the streets in the Central Square or a little further out where they had set up a huge stage and there was live music while folks waited for the team to arrive. The pouring rain did not even stop people. From right to left Victor Carrie Angel and I are standing waiting for the team to arrive.

Moving On

So it has been a really busy past two weeks or so. Last week was the last of my eight weeks at language school here in Xela. But no worries I am not leaving. I did have to graduate though. It was pretty fun I had been thinking about it for a while. The school encourages students to do something that they learned at the school or that they really like to do. People have read poetry, played instruments, played games, just talked, or done nothing. I read a little thank note to folks in the school than told a joke in Spanish and than read my grandpa´s poem "Lightly" which I had translated into Spanish. I think that it went pretty well. The two folks in the foreground of the picture are Nancy who knows a bunch of folks from Philly because she worked at Pendle Hill and Celina another student who was there with her dad. They were both also graduating this week.

Also last week I was looking for a place to live since I had to move out of my family. There are a lot of hostels and other places that rent rooms for the month but I got lucky and found a furnished apartment for a pretty decent price. There are two other women that I share the apartment with one from Chile and one from Guatemala. I have been there almost a week now and I really like it. It is nice to be able to chose what I eat and come and go with out thinking that I am bother the family I was living with or anything.

This week was mostly taken up by settling into my new living situation and trying to find a volunteer job. I checked out quite a few different places. And found one that seems to fit well. It is actually another Spanish Language school but they have a lot of volunteer projects going on one of which is a bicycle repair class. The class has actually been dormant for a while because they did not have any volunteers to do it so I will have to start out by doing some advertising and such but I think it should be fun. They also have an organic garden which I might help out in. And I will continue teaching English to the kids at the cultural center next to the school were I had been taking Spanish lessons.

But I do manage to have a little fun in between all that. After graduation I went out dancing then on Saturday was Carrie the International Coordinators birthday. Check out me holding up the pinata just after she busted it open.

People of Xela

This one is going to be pretty picture heavy so if you have a slow connection it would be a good time to go get a drink rest your eyes or whatever.

Ok so I am having a little trouble with the formatting but here goes from left to right. Look who showed up in Xela!!! None other than Hannah Hoover a friends from Earlham. Neither of us knew that the other one was going to be there. Next me and Xiu after Xelaju the local soccer team scored. Next Carrie the international coordinator and Carlos the director of my school.

The boys are in the house. Shazad me and Andrew all started school the same week. Miriam and Jake who both know Kate from Lexington Ma.

The two ladies on the ends are teachers at the Salsa school that I go to and the woman in green comes to help even out the male female ratio. Ted the guy in the middle was at the school but just left for the states. On the right is Anna one of my teachers at school. Probably marking up my home work.

Adventures in renewing my visa

When I entered Guatemala on February 1 I got a 90 day tourist visa. This visa actually was not only for Guatemala but also for Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras. May 1 would have been my 90 day limit so last weekend I headed off for Mexico to renew my visa. Now legally you have to leave Guatemala for 72 hours in order to get a new 90 day visa. However, I had been told by most of the people in Xela that it could be done for a small bribe in one day. Just head over to Mexico Grab some lunch and head back with small tip, or just bat your eyes a few times, for the border guard and everything should go smoothly. However, it did not quite work that easily for me. Getting out of Guatemala and in and out of Mexico was easy enough. I had some tacos for lunch and I was all ready for my new 90 day visa. I have never bribed anyone before I do not think and so I was not really sure how to do it. I tried everything I could think of though and I really felt like the guy was not taking the bait. I mean I had my wallet out, I took some money out and laid it on my passport, I tried asking if there was any other way to pay or to pay a fine or something. I really started to think that maybe I had gotten an honest border agent. And I started to get a little worried. I had not brought things with me to stay for three days in Mexico and I had already gotten an exit stamp from Mexico but Guatemala would not give me the entrance stamp so I was feeling country less. Finally I came back in and was offering a little more money and and there was no one else in line and the border agent came around the counter and told me that if I left him a tip in my passport and filled out the normal form he would give me the stamp.
So that over I now just needed to get home. It was almost4:30 and the last direct bus back to Xela left at 2. I asked around at the bus station and was told that I would be able to catch a bus from Coatepeque to Xela (Quetzaltenango). See the link to the map at right if you want to know where things are. Quetzaltenango, Coatepeque, and Tecun Uman (the border town) are all in the western part of the country. I was not sure that I really believed that I could catch a bus but any town is better than on the border so I gave it a try. I made it to Coatepeque just before 5:30 and quickly got of the bus and started asking around if there were any more buses for Xela. After a couple of wrong directions some one said "Yeah see that bus leaving right now that is the last bus for Xela." Luckily Guatemalan buses are always looking for late coming passengers and they spotted me running towards them waving my arms yelling Xela. All in all it was a long day but I got my new 90 days and back to Xela in one piece.

A Day In the Life

So I have been here for about six weeks now and have some what of a routine. Not totally but I will tell you what a normal week for me looks like. So far I have always studied in the morning although there are students that study in the afternoon at my school. So I usually wake up around 6:30 or so because that is when the sun starts coming into my room. That is my room to the right. The baby also starts crying around then as well, I can usually lay in bed until my alarm goes off around 7 but than it is time to get up and start getting ready for school. I usually head down for breakfast around 7:25. Four out of five days breakfast is beans and a scrambled egg eaten with tortillas tamalitos (corn tamales with nothing inside cooked so that they are hard), or bread. I need to leave my house by 7:45 or slightly after to arrive to school on time. Going there it is all down hill so that makes it a little easier. 8 to 10:30 is class time working on grammar or pronunciation or what ever the theme is that day. Than it is break time there is always bread and coffee water or tea and of course fusbal or futillo as it is called here. It is the passion of a few of the teachers and some students as well. Than back to studying except for Tuesdays when there is a conference that I usually go to. Class is over at 1pm and I head back up the hill for lunch. Lunch varies a lot more than breakfast or dinner and is usually pretty good. It is the biggest meal of the day and some businesses close so that their employees can go home to eat. The afternoons vary a lot. Mondays the school show a documentary which I go to sometimes. But Monday and Tuesday afternoons are usually my days to get things done like washing clothes, getting money out to pay the school. Checking my email, going to the market or what ever other errands I have to run. Wednesday and Thursday are teaching English days so I have to hurry back to the school to get there by two in order to plan the class with the other teachers and than we teach from 2:30 until 4 an than discuss how the day went and things afterwards. Thursday is also football (soccer) night so at 7 we head off to a field and play soccer with students and some teachers. Friday afternoon their is a dance class every other week. which I usually go to and than at night there is the graduation. The picture is some of the teachers who always sing before the meal. It rotates every week who brings what one week the students provide the drinks and the school the food and the next week it switches and the students make food and the teachers provide the drinks. There usually are some students who go out afterwards dancing or to a bar. Dinner with my family is at 7 at night and usually consists of beans fried plantains an tortillas tamalitos or bread. Afterwards it is time for studying. Weekends vary I have gone on some trips with the school or else have free time to read study or hang out with friends. I have gone to two Soccer games here. They have been a lot of fun.

Pictures

Here are some pictures that I promised.
NO I do not have any of my stool sample although I thought about taking one.

This is a picture of who is called the Ugly King from the Strike of Sorrows. It is a play on the beauty pageants that normally take place at festivals. Instead they elect an Ugly King who is the person who can best make fun of politicians and the government or who is quick thinking on their feet.




This is an example of the kind of things that a lot of people wore during their parade. The robes are similar to the ones that the men of the Catholic processions use. They do sort of look like KKK members though. Each different major had a different color and a different float.


There were quite a few things against Bush. I figure you can read the first part and the second part I won´t translate but it does not say anything nice.






Now to switch gears a bit this is Semana Santa. The only pictures that I took were at night so they are not great but if you click on this one you can see the bigger version and see the guys wearing robes and half hoods. That huge thing made of wood is being carried more guys in robes. They switch every once in a while but they walk really slowly. I can not imagine what it does to their backs.


Same float as the previous picture. It is a little hard to see because of the lighting but Jesus (the guy laying down) is really dark skinned. Maybe even a color close to what his actual skin color was. It was interesting because it was one of the only portrayals of him that I say with dark skin.




These things were really cool. Of course this one is older and has been run over by a few cars but I saw it when they were making it and it was much more elaborate. It is made out of colored wood chips with a bunch of flowers and things. They make them in the street where processions than walk over them. Sort of like the Native American (and maybe Buddhist) tradition of making sand paintings just to wipe them away when they are finished. You can still see the shape of the chalice in this one which was probably originally filled with flowers.

I do not know how well you will be able to see this one. It is a stitched picture of the view as I look south from my house. It was a really pretty evening but I am not sure if the picture really captures the beauty. Definitely have to click on this one to enlarge it.

Getting Sick

CAUTION: THIS POST MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR CHILDREN OF ALL AGES. ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK EVERYONE POOPS.
So getting sick anywhere is not really that fun but normally a bought of diarrhea I would just wave off as something that I ate or a night with a couple to many beers and keep on living. But here in Guatemala there are much worse things that one needs to worry about. We had been warned about things like parasites and amoebas in our welcome speech and all the places that we could get them. But I normally have a pretty strong stomach and figured that I would probably be all right. But low and behold I invaded by the little amoebas and caused to run to the bathroom every 20 minutes. Actually it was not that bad but after three days of it I decided that maybe I should get checked out just in case. So the school sent me to the clinic where I received my jar.
Now I have given urine samples before but I do not think that I have ever given a stool sample. Mind you this jar was not really that big in fact it was a baby food jar. And I sort of stared at it for a little bit not exactly sure how things were going to work. Of course this is not a set of vocabulary that I have in Spanish nor would it really be that easy to explain even in English. But I had all sorts of questions about aim and what if it overflows and how should I hold it. But the woman said that I needed to have it back before 4 PM and it was already 3 PM. And I really wanted to carry around the jar for as little time as possible. So I ate a snack and headed for the bathroom. It was actually easier than I thought. I managed with out making a mess and twenty minutes later I had my results back. Yep I had amoebas and I a high level of something else yeast I think. So i headed to the regular doctor who after poking me a bit and reading the lab results gave me two prescriptions one for the amoebas and another to bring back the good bacteria after I finished the first ones.
So I have finished the first meds and now I am on the second one and I am feeling much better I just hope that all those little suckers are dead and that I do not have to poop in any more baby food jars in the future.

La Huelga de Dolores/Semana Santa

So here in Guatemala and most of Central America Easter is not just a one day affair. It actually lasts a whole week and is called Semana Santa or Holy Week. It is a time for a lot for religious celebration as well as some rather non-religious revelry. Many people get the whole week off and most get at least Thursday-Sunday. Those that are not participating in one of the many processions, and have the money for it head for the beach or the lake.
However, here in Guatemala there is something else before Semana Santa called the Huelga de Dolores or the Strike of Sorrows. This a strike that the students of the public University here have been doing for over 100 years. It starts around the time that lent starts and goes until the last Friday before Semana Santa starts. On that last Friday the students have a big parade. In the past it has always been very political. The students would denounce the government or the police or the president. However, recently especially here in Xela it has become very monetary in nature. the students always went around asking for money from businesses and people in the weeks leading up to the parade and if the business would not give them money than they would paint the outside black or graffiti on it. But in the past they were not asking for that much money $5 or so from little corner stores but recently they have been asking for much more money. And it has turned in to a lucrative business for the leaders of the Strike. This year they did have a parade and there was quite a bit of political content to it.
How do I know all of this about the strike do you ask? Well part of the reason is that I had to translate a talk given at our school about it. I was actually really nervous about it before hand. It turned out to be not as hard as I expected. I managed to get all of the ideas across even if I did have word for word translations for everything that the speak said. Plus he was really nice about it and only said a couple of sentences before allowing me time to translate. Since than I have translated two other talks at the school. What is more difficult than understanding the Spanish is trying to write it down fast enough to be able to repeat it back in English.
I forgot my camera adapter today but I should have some picture of both the Huelga parade as well as some of the religious parades up soon.
I

Land of Mountains and Volcanoes

So I have been in Guatemala for a week and a half or so right now. As I said in my last post I went straight to bed the first night that I was here however the second night turned out to be much more interesting. So it was St Patricks day or at least the day to celebrate it here in Guatemala and I figured that I should go out and see what Xela had to offer in the way of night life. Some of the other folks staying in the hostel that I was in were heading to a little bar to start the night and invited me to go along. There we met a couple of their Guatemalan friends. We had a couple of beers there before heading up to the disco upstairs. It was quite interesting. Lots of music although no dancing for me. The place also had a ping pong and pool table. I played ping pong a bit against the owner of the bar downstairs who had gotten bored and come up to play. He was pretty good but I managed to beat him once. Then my new Guatemalan friends said that we should go and check out this other party that was being held by a organization that is sort of a clearing house for volunteer activities in Guatemala and specifically Xela. So we headed over there where the music was still blasting. We walked in to a Talib Kweli song so I figured it must be an ok place. The party was still raving at 4 or so when I decided to head home. All in all a good first night out in Xela.
That Monday I started Spanish school at Proyecto Linguistico Quetzaltenango (see right for the website). It is a really good school from the word on the street. The teachers are paid a little more here so there is some competition to get in. I could tell right away that it was a little more professional than the school that I had been going to in Nicaragua. It also has a very left leaning political bent to it. Many of the teachers were involved in the Guerrilla movement. Just yesterday there was a talk by one of the teachers who had been one of the main voices on the underground Guerrilla radio. It was really interesting. They have a lot of activities, conferences on different subjects, documentaries and trips to nearby places. Definitely enough to fill up the week. I think that it will take me a bit to get into some rhythm of things.
I am also living with a family. They are really nice. There is a mother and two sons one of whom has a wife and 7 month old baby all of whom live in the house. Then there is one other son who comes over a lot but lives somewhere else. Just today I held the baby for the first time. It was fun. He seems to like me because even when he is whining a little when he looks at me he gets a big grin on his face.
This past weekend we took a trip to the top of the tallest volcano in Central America. It is 4200 meters tall or so. It was really nice we started out early Saturday morning and hiked most of the day until we were about an hour from the top. Then we stopped and made camp. We had to carry all our own food and water but the school provided tents. We made a fire and I got to try my hand at cutting up large branches with a machete. It is pretty difficult and we were definitely not as good as the locals but we did manage to get some chopped. I never knew that Central America could be so cold. I mean Xela is cold at night or when the sun is not around. It probably gets down into the 40s or so but on top of this volcano with the wind it got below freezing and even with all of the warm clothes that I have here plus my sleeping bag it was damn cold. Of course in the morning when we noticed that our tent only had mesh walls that probably figured into the problem. We got up on Sunday at four in the morning to hike the rest of the way to the top. There we watched the sun rise over the mountains of Guatemala. It was pretty amazing and after I got warm I felt that it was worth it however even the beauty of the sunrise was hard dampened a little because of the freezing wind. But I survived and the hike down was pretty easy.
Now it is on with week two. Here at this school we switch teachers every week in order to get a different style of teaching and learn different accents. I think that it is a good method. I have liked the two teachers that I have had so far. This weekend there is a trip to the beach which I think I will go on. Then the local soccer team is going to play so I think that some students will try and go to that.

Goodbye Nicaragua, Hello Guatemala

The other title for this post could be "Fiery Entrances and Long Bus Rides." with the subtitle "Taxis and Addresses in Nicaragua."
So I finished up my last couple of days at language school in Nicaragua. I got a 95% on my last test and even got a diploma. I took one last look at the ocean said goodbye to my friends and headed for Managua. I took the direct bus even though it was probably a little slower just to make things a little easier. And I got to Managua no problem. So than it was bargaining time. Taxis in Managua do not have meters nor are they zoned. They go on the name a price system. So usually the taxi driver will quote you something and you will decided whether you like the price or not and either try to bargain, get in or walk away. So the first taxi driver I asked quoted me 80 which was to high so I walked away. The second driver said 120. I just laughed and the third quoted me 70 an I bargained to 60 (wish is about $3). It was probably still a little expensive and cost more than my 4 hour bus ride but it was night and I had my big bag so I did not feel like trying that hard. So off we went. Oh yeah and taxis pick up other passengers along the way if they are going the same direction you are. So we picked up two other folks and were doing all right until the car stalled on a big hill. Have no fear the driver backed into a driveway popped the hood and started fiddling. I sat tight and took my cue from the other passengers who seemed to be ready to wait it out. After not to long the driver said we were ready to go. The car still would not start but after a tricky move that involved driving backwards down the hill for a second to get the car started than backing into the driveway and then taking off. So we headed off again and after dropping the other two passengers were on our way to Emily´s house.
So a bit about addresses in Nicaragua. Although there are some houses that have numbers they do not usually mean much and most of the streets are not named anyway. So people get around by using "well known" land marks. Things like large intersections, stoplights near well known places, big trees or where things used to be before the earth quake in 72. Yeah that's right in order to know address in Guatemala not only do you need to know every major intersections building and restaurant in town you also need to know where things were 30 years ago. Oh yeah and to make things better the cardinal directions are not used that often either. Two blocks up means two blocks east because that is where the sun comes up, like wise down is west, towards the lake is north because the lake is north and towards the mountains is south. So you can imagine that people might get a little confused like my driver who confused the entrance to the hospital with the gate of the hospital and tried to drop me off 8 blocks from where I wanted to be. Luckily I had been there before so I told him no and after a little discussion he realized his mistake. Picking up other passengers, having the taxi break down, or run out of gas are some what normal things however having the taxi catch on fire as you pull up to your destination is not. Just as we came to a stop in front of Emily´s house the engine caught fire. We both quickly hopped out of the car as the taxi driver yelled for someone to give him water. He did however run around the back and toss by bag out before opening the hood and dousing the engine with a hose and buckets of water that Emily´s neighbors were supplying him.
The rest of my stay in Managua was rather calm comparatively. We drank some. Danced some and I said goodbye to some friends. Than began the long bus rider to Guatemala. I got on the bus at 2:30 in the morning. Sort of a strange time for leaving but it meant that I got into Guatemala City by 4 PM or so. The other option was staying over night in San Salvador so I took the 2:30 bus. The bus was really nice and I was able to sleep some. The only not so great part was that we did not stop until 2 in the afternoon for food. Man was I glad I had some Ritz cheese crackers. But we made it and than I took a taxi to another bus station and made it to Xela by 10 or so. I was pretty exhausted so I went straight to bed. More on the adventures in Xela and my first week in Language school coming up.

Birthdays and Goodbyes

When you live in San Juan going to Managua for the weekend is considered crazy talk. However, it was my last chance to see Mark and Emily was going to be celebrating her birthday so I had good reasons to go. So I hoped on a bus and headed up to the city of heat and smog. When I got there Emily was in the middle of getting a manicure/pedicure that her friends had gotten her for her birthday. And not to long after I got there Lenin her room mate's boyfriend, got there and decided that we men could not be sitting around watching the women get pedicures and we headed out for some beers and pool. When we got back the party was getting started and soon there were a good number of people there. There was eating drinking dancing and a cake that one of Emily's co workers had dropped off just before the party got started. Soon it was time to head out for the bar where Lenin's band was playing. First we had to push one of the guest's cars to get it started and after they were about to give up and leave it we finally got it started. Luckily the bar was only a few blocks away from the bus station that Mark was to leave from. So he lugged his big bag and guitar to the bar with us. His bus left at 2:30 in the morning so we had to keep the party going until then. Not hard since there was good live music and than some salsa dancing. Quite quickly it was time for goodbyes as Mark headed off for long bus ride to Guatemala City and than on to Mexico City to catch his flight home. It was a bit sad to see him go but we had a good trip and know that there are other adventures awaiting us as we go our separate ways.

Spanish Language School in San Juan

Sorry I have been a bit lazy about putting up posts. So I have been in San Juan del Sur just over two weeks now. It has been really nice. After the first weekend I started going to Spanish school here in San Juan del Sur and living with a family here. It is similar to what I will be doing in Guatemala although there will not be a beach and ocean there. It was really fun. In the morning I had classes from 8-12. Here is a photo of me with my teacher Carolina. It was felt good to get back into learning Spanish in a formal setting. It has been a while since I have taken any classes or had to do home work but if felt good.
The first week I paid to do the school activities in the afternoon. We did things like walk to the top of the big hill looking down over the city as you can see on the left and had a dance class. It was nice and gave me some more time to practice my Spanish. They also took us to one of the beaches that are nicer than the beach at San Juan and most of them are totally undeveloped. The second week at my school there were not any other students who were paying for activities so I decided not to either. It would have been a bit boring by myself and plus that I way I had more time to laze in the hammocks at my house or explore the town or do whatever I felt like doing.
Almost every afternoon around 5:30 you could find me on the beach watching the sunset. This is one of the best ones although I have way to many pictures of beautiful sunsets on my camera. It seemed like every day was nicer than the last one. Sitting on the beach sometimes with a cold beer watching that sort of sunset is pretty hard to beat. Than it was off to the house for some dinner. The family I have been living with is really nice. They have had students staying with them for almost ten years. At least one or maybe two of their sons is married to someone who stayed with them.
They did host multiple students though. Which was great because I got to know some other students but also meant that I probably did not speak as much Spanish as I might had if I was the only one there. When I first got to the house there were 4 other students there. Rene from Australia, Stefan and Sarah from Austria (see photo), and Tony who is originally from Greece but has lived in New York for 30 years or so. So it was quite the mix of people there. It was nice hanging out in the evenings chatting or going to a bar for a rum and coke.

It has been really nice here. The pace of life is really relaxed and it is quite beautiful. But now it is time to move on. I will be heading to Guatemala for more Spanish language school and hopefully some volunteering. Stay tuned for Mark and my last adventure together. (It was about a week ago and pics of Emliy's birthday party.)

San Juan del Sur

San Juan del Sur is Nicaragua´s version of paradise. The town itself is nice but what is really amazing is the surrounding area with pristine beaches and minimal accommodations. Of course the pictures do not really do justice to what it was like to be there but they will give you some idea. First some background on how this trip came about. Halfway through when me and Mark were first planning our trip to Nicaragua we were not really thinking about going to San Juan del Sur. It is in the south and we were planning on just being in Managua and northern Nicaragua. At some point during our trip Sarah who is Mark´s girlfriend from Sweden bought a plane ticket to meet us in Nicaragua. So that meant that maybe we would do some more touristy things in Nicaragua. But I did not want to be the third wheel so I invited Emily, who is a friend of Mark and mine who is working in Nicaragua and needed a break from Managua. Then when we were in Managua I found out that Eric the guy who was here when I was volunteering here five years ago was here. He was supposed to leave Nicaragua the Thursday before we went to San Juan but after hearing us talk about the trip his friend Ana convinced that if she changed her ticket he should change his and we could all go to San Juan. So there ended up being 6 of us heading down there plus Eric and Ana had some friends who were there already.

Eric, Ana, Emily and I met at the bus station to head down to San Juan. Mark and Sarah were to meet us there. Eric and Ana´s friend had been staying at a small beach a little north of San Juan so we arranged to up there. We managed to get to San Juan and I picked out a language school to go to for the next week. Then we headed off in taxi to the beach. Lucky us we got the last hotel room on the beach as far as we could figure. The place was pretty rustic small rooms with a bathroom and a grill for cooking. The guys who took care of the place said they could lend us some pots and pans but we would have to find our own fire wood. First things first we headed to the store down road to grab some things that we forgot in San Juan. After some tense negotiations with the owner of the pulperia she decided to lest us take the five gallon water jug by putting a deposit of 8 dollars on it. Carrying it back was not much fun but collecting firewood along the way we felt like a normal Nicaraguan family out getting fuel for the evening meal. Dinner being set up we hit the beach and although the water was cold managed to get some good body surfing in before the sun went down.

Dinner consisted of friend potatoes onions peppers and eggs. We were pretty proud of ourselves for making a pretty decent dinner with out many implements. We even seasoned it with sea salt which worked pretty well. For breakfast we made a mango-pineapple-rum sauce and made french toast to put it on. Which turned out excellent as well. The picture is Eric and Emily cooking the French toast. That day we rented a boogie board and tried our hand at bogeying. When the sun got to hot we lounged in the hammocks or took naps. Our nights consisted of a fair amount of Flor de Cana (the local rum) and sing alongs with Mark playing the guitar. On Sunday we had egg in the hole for breakfast (and we even managed it with out the College Hill Cook Book). We got in one last swim before heading out. Most folks went to Rivas to head on to Managua, Ometepe, and other locations and I headed back to San Juan del Sur to meet my new host family and teacher and begin my new life as a Spanish student.

Pics from Managua

As promised here are a couple of pictures from Managua. First a little bit about the house that we stayed in there. The house is owned by Luz Marina. When I was in Nicaragua for the first time in 95 or so I stayed there with her and her kids. She is know married to an American and they live in the States sometimes and are building a house on the Island of Ometepe. The second time that I came to visit. Luz was living in the States but I stayed in her house with some other folks. The people who lived with me at that time were Felipe who is my age and was dating Tati who is also my age. Then there were three 15 year olds; Ernesto who is Felipe´s brother, Alfonsos and Scarlet who is Luz´s niece. This time when I got to Nicaragua I again lived in that house this time with Felipe and his new wife Yessira (I think that is her name), and their son Hamilton. Luz was also there and her husband Rock came for a few nights from Ometepe.
Did you get all that?

Here is the 6 of us just before Mark left. A solar water heater that I helped make 5 years

ago. Which is still working well. Apparently I

did something right in my time there.

This is Ernesto who came to visit one morning.

This is me holding Hamilton.

He was fascinated with my camera

so I have quite few of these pictures.

Mark teaching Hamilton how to play the guitar.

Uniles, Nicaragua

After spending a night in Somoto we got up, ate some corn flakes and took a slightly beat up taxi into the countryside. It was an interesting feeling to enter the dusty hills again after being away for over a year and a half now. No sooner had we stepped out of the car and walked a few steps up the path did I see the first familar face in Unile. '"Hoy, Webb!" called out Chungo, the captain of the Unile soccer team, as he rode towards us on his bike. After a brief conversation he headed on and we kept going along the path. We arrived at our first stop, the home of the previous promoter of the solar cooker project I had been working for. She wasn't there but some of her family was so we stopped and chatted some more.

Then, we started our journey up the mountain towards the home where I lived for six months in 2005. I spent some much time making that journey that climbing the hill again felt eerily familar. We made a few stops along the way, greeting a few of the women who were a part of the solar oven group. At the house of Dona Christiana, the house where I would pick up and drop off my bicycle every morning and evening during my time volunteering, we learned that my host father, Juan was working on a construction project just down the road.

We headed along and sure enough, just around the bend I could see Juan's distinct figure, his small, muscular body, and heavily hunched back from years of working in the fields. He saw me coming and gave a shout, "Markitos!". "Juancito!", I replied and we ran towards each other and hugged happily. We learned he would be working for a few more hours so we decided to go ahead with the final stretch of the journey, to visit my host mom, Bernarda, at the top of the hill.

When we arrived at the top of the hill, out of breath from the rather steep final incline, no one was home. I knew one of Bernarda's sisters would probably be at the main family house just across the way so we headed over and sure enough there they were, cousins, sisters, and grampa Marcos too! It was a big reunion, and just as things started to settle down, Bernarda came in from doing laundry at the pump, and there were more hugs to be given.

Jacob stayed with Juan and Bernarda for a couple of nights before heading to Managua. I stayed with for a whole week, had lots of fun playing soccer and visiting with familar faces. It felt good to be back.

Entering Nicaragua and Savana Grande

This post time line wise should come before Mangagua. We arrived in Northern Nicaragua from El Salvador via Honduras. We thought that we were going to have to stay on the Honduran side of the border because our guide book told us that the border closed at 5 PM and our buses had taken a little longer than expected. But after talking to some locals that were also headed for the border who said that it would be open we decided to go for it. The border was in fact open and we took a luxury bus the 25 kilometers from the border to Somoto. Check out the link to the right for a map of Nicaragua. Somoto is a small town outside the even small community of Uniles where Mark stayed for 6 months about a year and a half ago. You can read about our adventures there in his post. Since there is not a lot of things to do in Unile other than look at the beautiful scenery, I headed to Savana Grande a small community on the road from Somoto to Ocotal. Grupo Fenix the organization that we both volunteered with in Nicaragua is building a Solar Center(Again see right for more info). We were able to get down and dirty and throw some roof tiles and dirt around. In the foreground of the picture to the left is Rod a volunteer from Canada is smoking out some hornets that had made their nest in the place that we needed to work. The center is made out of adobe bricks which will then be covered with a plaster like substance. We were taking off the roof tiles which were temporarily put up there to protect the adobe so that the real roof could be put on. Hopefully it will happen before the rainy season. After a few days working it was on to Managua.

Managua

I wish that I had the Lonely Planet Guide book that we have been using so that I could quote the description of Managua that it has. Basically it says it is hot, confusing with no down town and no street names and nothing interesting to see. And for the most part it is right as far as the normal tourist goes. But there are many interesting people here and friends and if you never try the soy milk from Dona Sonya at Casa Nutrem you are missing out.
So we both made it to Managua now. I headed down from the North a couple days before Mark and have been staying with Filipe one of the people that I stayed with when I was here 5 years ago. Yes for those of you who knew me than it was 5 years ago. Man how time flies. There is not a lot to say about Managua yet. I did get to drink some Flor de Cana rum with some of the other volunteers that are hear working with Grupo Fenix. Yesterday I attended an Aikido class
with Susan the director of Groupo Fenix and the head of Aikido Nicaragua. It was fun to get thrown around a bit but I am feeling a little sore from it. Do not have any pictures yet but I will have some later of Filipe´s super cute two and a half year old. Hope all you folks in the states are having fun with all the cold weather.

PICTURES and Links

Hey we put some pictures up on the last couple of posts. Also blogspot tip if you click on the picture it will take you to a much bigger version. Also I added some links on the side maybe more to come.

El Salvador

We made it to San Salvador with little problems and once we got there had some idea of where we were going. We were planning on staying with Patrick a friend from CISV Cincinnati. He is doing a program in San Salvador. If you want to read more about what he is doing check it out here http://patrickinelsalvador.blogspot.com/
We had looked up his program online and knew that he lived only 1.5 kilometers from the University and we knew how to get to the University and we had two phone numbers and were pretty sure he was living at one of them. And it all worked well. We took the bus to the University called Patrick and he met us there. His house mates were very welcoming and fed us and let us play games and guitars in their yard. We also got to got Spanish class with him which was fun.
The next day we met my friend from CISV El Salvador Andy and he took us to a place where we went horse back riding up to a look out point on top of a big hill. Again we have some pictures but the computer is not letting me upload them for some reason so hopefully later. We also went and played soccer under the lights it was nice because it is pretty hot in San Salvador so playing later in the day made it a lot cooler.
That night I stayed at Andy´s while Mark stayed at Patrick´s. It was the first time that we had slept more than 5 fee away from each other in almost 4 weeks. A little bit sad but we got over it quickly. The next day I went to the beach with Andy while mark stayed in San Salvador and went to Patrick´s praxis site where he teaches English. After almost 24 hours without seeing each other we were reunited in a quest to watch the US play Mexico. To no avail the game wasn´t broadcast in Central America oh well we got to watch the highlights on ESPN sportscenter of the USA beating Mexico 2-0.
We went to a Museum of martyrs at the site where the 6 Jesuit priests and 2 women were killed during the civil war. Our student guide was very helpful in explaining what happened and showing us around. We saw some really gruesome pictures of the bodies the day that they were found. That night Andy got us box seats to go to the National Stadium. We watched Nicaragua get beat by Guatemala and El Salvador beat Belize. It was pretty exciting and the beers and burgers were good to. Although drinking the night before riding a bus all day that doesn´t have a bathroom is not really the best idea. Oh well a little dehydration is not that bad.


On to Nicaragua.