_     Many people said we were crazy for thinking we could do it, but two of my classmates and I had our hearts set on going to Tikal and we actually did!!! Tikal is one of the largest excavated sites of the Maya with numerous temples that are pretty famous.  I remember being in 6th grade and attempting to make the Mayan calendar and learning about Tikal then.  It is a region that began a LONG time ago (around 200 BC) with a long history of battles and rebellion.  It is unique in that it is set in a jungle setting and the temples are enormous (some over 70m high!). To create the site, there was a wealth of knowledge about the cycles of the moon in relation to the earth and plants.  There is a certain tree that specifically has to be cut at a certain point in the phases of the moon which will prevent it from growing back for 53 years, but if not cut at the correct time, it will have grown back to full height in 7 years. 

                Many of the temples built were done so to honor kings and leaders, and temples were actually erected on top of each other as it was an honor to have your temple built over the previous one and built higher than those who came before you. 

                With the rich history that it has, I just KNEW I HAD to get to Tikal, but from Xela that required going back to Guatemala City (4-5 hour bus ride) and then getting to Flores (8-9 hour bus ride, or 45 minutes by airplane). Flores is pretty much the main portal into Tikal, which is about 45 minutes from there.  Although it seemed crazy, we wanted to do it, so we did.  There is actually a bus line (Linea Dorada) that has a trip leaving from Xela at 3:00 Friday afternoon, going to Guatemala City, transferring to an overnight bus that leaves at 9:00pm and arrives in Flores at 6:00am.  It includes transportation from Flores to Tikal, the guide in Tikal, lunch, travel back to Flores, and a return trip with a bus leaving Flores at 9:00pm and eventually getting back to Xela by noon on Sunday.  As crazy as it was to go through so much travel for only a few hours in the park, it was definitely worth it! It would have been faster to take the plane, but the entire trip ended up costing us about $160US. Not bad at all.

                Linea Dorada is considered more of the luxury bus line and I definitely saw the difference immediately.  The bus had a bathroom, air conditioning, and even  TVs (even though they weren’t on at all).  It was a pretty comfortable ride from Xela to Guatemala City and would have been just about perfect, but there was a massive accident with a few trucks and trailers and we were basically at a standstill outside of Guatemala City for quite some time.  The distance that would have normally taken about 30 minutes took about 4 hours.  Luckily, the traffic for the entire city was a complete mess and the connecting bus actually waited for us.

                The bus to Flores was super plush.  They had these reclining seats with a leg rest, served food and drink (naranja con soda is SOOOO Good!) and I was actually able to sleep pretty well all the way to Flores.  Once we arrived in Flores, we were met at the bus terminal by a driver who picked up some other people for the tour and our tour guide, Luis.  Luis actually spoke pretty decent English (especially considering that we were told that our tour would be in Spanish!)  It was about a 45 minute drive to Tikal and we stopped along the way at a (extremely overpriced!) gift store. 

                Once in Tikal it was great learning about the history of the area and the importance of Tikal throughout Mayan History. It was great seeing the Temples and knowing that some of the structures were built over two thousand years ago.  There was such a fascination with astronomy and the alignment of things that the village was even built in the middle of the rainforest in a group of trees that will allow for the area to be hidden because the trees will grow back in 7 years if they are cut at the wrong time in the moon cycle, but won’t grow back for over 50 years if done at a specific time. 

                It was extremely hot and I felt like I was about ready to pass out most of the day, but I was extremely intrigued in the history and all of the massive temples and all of the stories that our guide had to share.  I was initially upset when we were told that our tour would only be 9am-2pm, but I was definitely ready to leave by then and felt that I had seen everything that I wanted to see. 

                We arrived back in Flores around 3:30pm and didn’t leave again until 9:00pm, so we decided to spend the rest of the day seeing what Flores had to offer. There was another lady who was on our tour who worked for USAID and she was an awesome person to talk to about her job and her perspective on things and the work that she was doing between the US and multiple third world countries. I think we were all intrigued thinking about the possibility of having her job one day! She spent pretty much the entire day with us and was pretty fun to hang with.

Flores was a cute little  town and there were people everywhere just looking like they were enjoying life.  There were people selling some of the best looking food I had seen since arriving in Guatemala (but I knew I had a serious bus ride ahead of me, so I definitely did not succumb to temptation!).  There were boat rides to the other side of the lake, and we asked a guy how much he would charge to just give us a half our boat ride, and since he only charged 70Q (less than $10) we went ahead and did it.  He even showed us where there was a “mirador” and stopped for us to climb up a serious incline for about a half hour (definitely not at the top of my list after being exhausted all day) to go to the lookout to see the view from the highest point around. It was pretty much gorgeous. I was kind of nervous that he would leave us because he dropped us in a pretty secluded area and if he wouldn’t have been there when we came back, we would have simply been stranded for who knows how long. 

                Since we took so much time on the mirador, it almost worked perfect that we got back to the boat for a “sunset cruise” back to Flores.  It was of course gorgeous and was an awesome bit of relaxation at the end of the day.   We ended up just walking around the town for a while realizing that souvenirs were definitely more expensive in such a touristy place, and we were better off buying any and everything in Xela.  We went to a cute restaurant for dinner and sangria at the end of the night and ended up taking tuk tuks (cute little 2-3 people motorized carts) back to the bus station for the trip back. 

                The trip back was pretty uneventful. Although I didn’t sleep much through the night everything worked pretty much according to schedule.  We arrived back in Xela around noon on Sunday and I spent most of the day sleeping and around town trying to enjoy my last weekend in the country.  Although everyone thought we were crazy for the trip, and I admit it probably was, it was definitely worth it for the experience.

_  I knew before I came to Guatemala that my goals and objectives here were not only to learn the language and spend some time in the clinic, but I wanted to know about Guatemala.  I wanted to learn about the history and culture, the education and political system, the Mayan people, problems and difficulties facing the people and the country. Overall, I basically wanted to learn way too much for only a short period of time in the country.

                Fortunately, I feel that I was lucky to have chosen a language school that is so much more than that.  The language school that I choose was Pop Wuj, and it definitely stood out to me amongst the other schools in Guatemala as well as Central and South America was the number of social projects that they support.  The school is a non-profit, and any money that is made is directly put into their many projects, all which were quite interesting to me. 

                One project is the safe stoves project, where the school goes out and builds stoves in houses that had previously been cooking on an open flame in the one-room shacks that serve as the living, eating, and sleeping area for the entire family therefore contributing to serious health (especially respiratory) problems.  Another is the guaderia, a daycare that was founded because of the number of single women whose husbands would go to the United States in hopes of finding work to be able to send money to provide for the family yet never found a way to send any money.  The women were generally left with no education or skill therefore unable to find work and a way to support their family.  The guaderia is the daycare where children can be cared for while the women work, but also provides work for some of the mothers, and there are workshops and classes regularly working for the betterment of their lives and families. 

                Another thing that I like about my school is that they do see the importance of not only learning Spanish, but learning about Guatemala and I have had numerous lectures about the education and health system, problems affecting the country, traditional dress and an entire week of cultural competency lectures covering the history and culture of the Maya and Guatemala.  As a result of many of these lectures (especially the education lecture) and things that I would see day to day, I became very much interested in another project sponsored by the school: scholarships for students.  In Guatemala, children are not required to go to school and since many of the families cannot afford to send their children to school (neither public nor private), the children simply don’t go.  Of those that do actually begin school, only 35% finish primary/elementary school. There are also no working laws similar to the US with minimum work ages.  Many times instead of going to school, children will get jobs when they are as young as 5 or 6 years old.  The lack of education is especially true for indigenous females who (as I was told by a patient who was appalled by the fact that I was 26 and not married and without children) are expected to be married by age 14 or 15, have children shortly thereafter, and then are simply expected to do what is needed to take care of the house and children as well as try to contribute in some way to the income of the family.

                I inquired about the scholarship program and found that for a student to go to school for a year is less than I even spend on a handbag. We all know that there is only so much that one person can do, but I feel like that phrase is often used as an excuse to do nothing.  I know that there were so many generous people who contributed to my education and upbringing as I was definitely not born with a silver spoon in my mouth and depended on the generosity of others to get me where I am today, so I decided that even though I may not be living really comfortably right now, I am living good enough to contribute in some way.  I inquired about the scholarship program and decided that I wanted to be a long-term donor for a student.  When I was learning about a student that they were looking for funding for, I found out that the family actually has two daughters in search of assistance with tuition and decided that it would be near impossible to provide the opportunity to be educated to only one sister and tell the  other that she must simply wait until someone else comes along, so I decided to sponsor both.  Carmen, who is in charge of the social work programs at the school was super excited that I was actually in Guatemala and would actually be able to meet the girls.  She set up the meeting and I was actually able to go and meet them today. 

                When I met the family, I felt like I was looking at what me and my siblings must have looked like 20 years ago.  The kids were SO cute (and rambunctious!) I learned that the father left to live with another woman three months after the mother gave birth to her fourth child.  He left her alone to raise all of the children on her own and since that point over 3 ½ years ago, has still not contributed a dime financially. 

                The girls that are receiving the scholarships call me their “madrina” (“godmother”) and are so super sweet.  They are 7 and 8 and one wants to be a secretary, the other a nurse.  They have a little sister who is 4 and their little brother is 3 (soon to be 4).  The older girls were wanting to spend time being near me and asking me questions about my family and where I live, telling me how much they liked my hair, and wanting me to talk to them and teach them some English.  One even had a decorated bobby pin that she gave to me as a present.  They wanted to take me to see their house and the chickens that they have outside, but since I was along with the social work crew for the day, we had several other stops that we needed to make before the end of the day, so we planned on me coming back in a week to see them again and see their house.  Even if I would not have gotten the chance to meet them, I think that I would have felt it necessary to help in some way, but after meeting the girls and the entire family, I feel like it is so much more personal.  I am told that I will receive monthly updates and will be able to keep in contact with the family and am so happy that I was actually able to see them in person first and be able to have it mean just that much more.

_  Today we had a mobile clinic to a remote area serviced by the school. Every week, the school packs up necessary supplies and takes a group of 6-8 students, the social work team, and a doctor to the communities to provide care where there is otherwise an unmet need. Each site is visited about once per month.  We set up shop in community centers, schools, and even people’s homes.  We have an area for registration, triage, examination, and pharmacy services. There is a lecture given by the social work team about some subject that is pertinent to the community served at that particular visit.  There is a community contact person who helps to set up location and logistics, as well as maintains contact between the Pop Wuj organization/clinic in Xela and the community served to assist with things such as proper follow-up or any necessary follow-up in the capacity that can be done via whatever means possible (if necessary). 

                The village that we went to this week was about an hour drive away (with no traffic) and is called Xeabaj II.  It is a village that was destroyed in (1994 or 2004?) by a hurricane and had to be relocated, which is why it is now referred to as the second.  The remote road to get there is long and windy and definitely has its fair share of bumps along the way.  When we arrived to the village, it was clear that it is definitely not a place of luxury and excess.  The houses were generally the typical one room huts constructed of mainly cinderblocks with the tin roofs, but there was no paint to be seen.  The roads were all unpaved and simply cleared spaces of dirt.  We pulled up in front of what appeared to be a one-room school house with tables and chairs that look as if they were meant to be for preschoolers.  As soon as we arrived, people were definitely waiting to see us and excited that we were there.  We found space in the one room school as well as the building next to it for all of our stations and began seeing patients. 

                Seeing patients was especially difficult as much of the aspects were being run by 4th year medical students somewhere between beginner to intermediate Spanish level, yet we were needing to work through the few patients who knew Spanish to translate, as much of the village only spoke K’iche.  Things ran surprisingly well for a group of native English speakers with little Spanish knowledge working through native K’iche speakers with various levels of Spanish knowledge to translate to patients only speaking K’iche. 

                I started the day working in triage, which I found may not be the best fit for me.  Our job was to get the basic information to get the patients through to be seen by those who were doing the detailed visit and exams, but I had never been in this role before and found myself trying to ask way too many questions and take a detailed history and work on diagnosis rather than just get the simple reasons for the visit.  I noticed very early on that almost everyone noted that they had back pain, headache, cough and “heart pain.”   The back pain and headache really don’t surprise me since there are so many women that carry their children (up to maybe 2 or 3 years old) strapped to their back, and carry what appears to be quite a bit of stuff balanced on their head…generally with no hands.  The further information that I got from people about “heart pain” varied from what sounded like reflux, to anxiety, and even a woman who complained of pain in her heart that started seven years prior when her husband got sick and died and her heart became very sad.

                We saw between 25 and 30 patients and after they were all triaged, I went to work in the pharmacy.  I was told upon arrival that working in the pharmacy would be really interesting since it isn’t something that we normally do working in the medical field and that we will probably never have the chance to do it again.  The pharmacy consisted of a 5-drawer plastic unit with different medications that were donated to the clinic.  Even with things such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen, patients are only given a certain amount and may get a bag with generic pills that are the same thing, but simply have a different appearance.  We counted them out, put them in the bags depending on amount needed, wrote out the instructions, and then counseled patients on taking them, of course again translated through anyone who was near who had some sort of Spanish speaking ability.

                Things definitely worked quite different from what they  do in the US, especially with the need for the translators being anyone we could find to do such, and not necessarily being able to work according to HIPPA/ confidentiality clauses.  The people in the area were extremely grateful for us being there and definitely helped show how rewarding international medicine can be.  I always questioned ability to provide quality care when there is a serious language barrier, but it was quite evident that the clinic is a huge asset to the community.  There were plenty of things that we didn’t do that would have automatically been done at any location in the US for fear of a law suit that may come for anything that may go undone in a workup, but it really lets you see medicine at its core: just doing what needs to be done with what you have.  It really makes you question how much of what is done is actually necessary or if we simply have a healthcare system that is being run not by a desire to help patients and promote health, but instead is being run considering what needs to be done to avoid possible conflict with the legal system. 

_  So, instead of being able to do a day by day,  I just have to go ahead and give a synopsis of the entire week.  This week was so busy that there was no way I would actually be able to sit and tell about each day, but at the same time although it was busy, it wasn’t the most eventful…it was more routine than anything. 

                This week I chose to spend time with the comadrona (midwife), Dona Ana. She is a midwife who practices about 40 minutes away from Xela in a mostly indigenous community that primarily speaks Mam.  I was excited about the idea of seeing a few babies born as well as the many differences that I was sure would exist between my Obstetrics rotation at a US hospital, and that of a rural Guatemalan comadrona.   I had no idea what I was in for! She definitely is not someone who people only come to when the water has broken and they are ready to deliver, and in no way is she simply a midwife.

                It was fairly evident immediately that she takes on the role of the leader of the entire community.  She seems to have that thing about her that when she walks into a room and opens her mouth, everyone listens.  Everyone who is anywhere near where she lives knows exactly who she is and where she lives.  When getting on buses, we don’t even need to try to explain where to stop, we simply say that we are going to Dona Ana’s. 

                She has clinic 5 days per week and is available for deliveries 24/7…with no assistant, no nurse, no other comadronas or doctors, simply her running the show and taking care of everything.  It was really a good experience to spend time with her to learn not only about care for pregnant and delivering women, but to see that she is basically a primary care doctor who sees everything from sore throat, hypertension, diabetes, and ankle sprains, to women who are actually there to deliver their children.  She also practices with a good mix of both the traditional Mayan medicine using only herbs and plants with modern medicine as well.  I was amazed by the different herbs that she would pull out that claimed to treat hypertension, diabetes, muscle cramps and soreness, uterine fibroids and any GYN problem that you could think of.  Not only did she have the herbs that claimed to work, she also showed me recorded blood pressures of patients who came in with hypertension (even with preeclampsia in pregnancy) and they would simply make a tea out of some herb and drink a glass three times a day and subsequent pressures were as good and even better than those that are seen with the modern medicines.

                Most of the patients were pretty good about us being there, and were more than open to talk with us about anything (at lest those who spoke Spanish. Those who spoke only Mam, Dona Ana would give us a quick synopsis after they left.) Everyone was really good about letting us do parts of the exam, and Dona Ana would always take a look at a patient and then call us over to try to explain to us what she was doing and ask us what we thought was going on, if it was a pregnant patient, she would ask us to extimate the gestational age by trying to guess size in relation to the umbilicus, and she would try to make us figure out where the head, feet, rump, etc. were.  She also tried to get us to be a bit better at figuring out what the fetal heart rate was from a very quick listen with a stethoscope.  It was clearly a lot different than using the Doppler that picks up the heart rate and spits out a number for us.  With everything, we were able to see a way to come to the same conclusions, and make an accurate assessment using only the basics.  With all of the talk of technology in medicine and the dependence on so many pieces of equipment to make our diagnosis, and it was really good to see how we were able to do it all with simply our eyes, ears, hands, and of course our trusty-dusty stethoscope.

_


                After an extreme hiking trip, a few classmates thought it would be nice to go to the hot springs.  We met at the school early in the morning and took a chicken bus to the town of Zunil.  I wondered why it was called a chicken bus, and someone told me it was because of the chickens that they put on top, but I couldn’t help but wonder if it was simply because of how tightly we were packed in the bus.  The buses are literally old US School buses that no longer passed inspection that get decked out with a crazy paint job, a few hand rails, and a gated area on top where they can put bags, any luggage, or literally, chickens in crates.  In the bus, we are expected to sit three per seat.  I don’t think that was possible in kindergarten, let alone with grown people who all have a bag or two.  The people in the middle always end up with half a butt cheek on the seat and the middle person from two opposing seats usually have to brace themselves with the other.

                We got to Zunil pretty quickly, as I think the driver simply wanted to go as fast as he could for as long as he could, which meant that there were several times where he just honked and expected a bus or car to get out of the way and when they didn’t, we needed to swerve to avoid serious life threatening injury.  After getting to Zunil, we walked down a very unsmooth stone path to a courtyard with a beautiful church where we were told to just get in the back of one of the pickup trucks.  The trucks had an iron support attached to the bed of the truck so it can accommodate like 20 people standing.  We took the truck up a winding and very muddy (with mud of course splashing in the back of the truck) road to Fuentes Georginas, a natural spa in the midst of the mountains.  There were four pools that were supplied by the sulphur springs that flow near the hot volcano and provide pretty hot water, with varying degrees of heat in each pool.  Of course all of the “manly men” were trying to prove that they could actually hang in the hottest pool, and each would come out screaming like a baby.  I think the hottest one had the prettiest backdrop and I wanted to take pictures, so I went ahead and braved it. After being in for a while, I realized it really wasn’t as bad as it seemed, but you can definitely tell a difference in temperature between the edges of the pool, and where the water is directly entering from the waterfall.  When I came out, I realized that any nastiness I felt like I had encountered through my days of inadequate showering was literally burned and/or melted off of me. 

                Overall it was pretty relaxing, but we didn’t want to hang around for too long.  The first Sunday of each month in Quetzaltenango (Xela), there is an artisan fair that is supposed to have the best food and crafts, so of course we wanted to make it back for that.  There were quite a few nice things and of course I wanted to try my hand in haggling, and I definitely learned how to play the game. I got SUCH good deals (and anyone who knows me knows that my cheapness may surface and make this a major highlight of the entire month!)

                Although the fair was nice, we had to rush because we had big plans…an ALL AMERICAN party at the school.  A bunch of us refused to miss the superbowl, so we decided to meet up at the school and have pizza, dips, wings, and everything American while watching the football game. Of course it was a bit different watching it with Spanish commentators, but it was one of the most amazing superbowl games in history! It was pure suspense the entire time! There was never really a moment of reassurance that either team would or would not win.  Of course we had a great time!

                Overall “day of fun” was exactly that.  It was such a great day filled with a few days of activities, and of course, it definitely lived up to its name!

_


                Today  I was super excited about the trip to Chicobal, the volcano that had once erupted, leaving behind a perfect crater on top to create a lake, Lake Chicobal which became a sacred Mayan area.  It was about a 40 minute drive in vans and there were beautiful views the entire way.   We were told that the hike wasn’t too bad, but I got concerned when we got to where we were going and while climbing a hill to park the van, the van wouldn’t move forward. It kept rolling back and me being in the back seat, I saw my life flash before me as I saw us descend farther back towards the car that was behind us. Several of us offered to get off to reduce the weight, but we simply would go with the gas floored until we would start to roll backwards then stop for a while and try it again.  We finally got to the parking space and I had yet another “oh shit moment.” I had only been hiking once before and it was a life threatening experience as my friend and I didn’t think to bring food or water to our 5-6 hour trek, but at least there were stairs the entire way.  This time I stood staring at the steep incline before me and wondered why the people who created these paths didn’t know that you can’t just make a road going straight up the side of a mountain/volcano, but you need to weave and wind back and forth to reduce the incline.  Nonetheless, I had signed up for at least 2-3 miles of extreme uphill climb.

                Now I am well aware that I am not the most athletic person in the world, but I try to make sure I stay somewhat physically fit and don’t get too terribly out of shape, but I realized that my lack of hiking experience combined with my body not yet adjusting to the altitude and me having problems running out of breath after climbing a flight of stairs may make this trip a bit difficult for me. After about 30 seconds, I felt like my lungs were on fire. I realized then that I would officially become the fat kid at the back of the pack who just can’t keep up with the group.  I had realized a few times before while exercising in the cold that I have a bit of a wheeze sometimes, so after getting to a point where the entire group felt the need to rest (about 100 feet from our starting point) I asked a friend if I could use her inhaler.  It definitely made my breathing easier, but after about 10 minutes, I became so lightheaded that I once again saw my life flash before my eyes as I envisioned myself falling backwards over the steep incline that would be more similar to falling off of a cliff than falling down a hill. I once again felt the need to rest and realized my heart rate was 180. What was I thinking taking albuterol? It had been at least 8 years since I had last taken any! I have spent the last few years studying drug side effects and knowing how problematic using another person’s medications are, but still, I figured it would be better than feeling as if one of the characters from mortal combat created a fire ball to destroy my existence and instead placed it in my lungs for me to feel the eternal fire.  I couldn’t help but feeling like it was a catch 22 when I found the relief of a decline, realizing that as much as that may help me at the moment, it meant an incline on the way back. After a few hours of seeing signs that I thought meant “the lake is in 200 meters,” but instead basically said “congratulations, you have made it another 200 meters” We finally got to the top.  The lake and the view of the volcano Santa Maria were beautiful. From there we took some very steep (1-2 feet height, at least) steps down to the lake and had lunch. This was again a moment where I realized that the downside of my descent was knowing that it meant only another incline with my jello-esque legs.  We got to the lake and enjoyed about a half hour of lunch.  There were four other girls there from Iowa and a Guatemalan kid with an Iowa Hawkeyes shirt on, so of course we had to have our little celebration and take pictures.  It was amazing being amongst the clouds and seeing that the clouds did not hide the sun and make everything dark, instead we watched as the clouds encroached upon us and made it so there was simply a fog so dense that it would be very generous to say we had 20 feet of visibility.

                After lunch came again the steep incline back to the highest point surrounding the lake before the steep descent. We chose to take the “easier” way back up and instead of taking the stairs, the path was pure sand.  I am sure that not everyone has tried to walk on sand (not the packed and hard stuff, but the fluffy, move every time you move stuff) before, but that definitely did not seem like a walk in the park to me.  I got to the top and began the descent and couldn’t believe that I had actually climbed up that thing. I don’t know why we decided to try to walk it instead of simply climbing it because I’m sure it wouldn’t have been much different than rock climbing, except we were dealing with dirt, sand, rock, and mud. I looked at the slide down realizing it may have been worth the extra 20-50 pounds to carry a sled up so I could just slide right on down the thing.  Still, I was much happier to be going down than up. Although my lungs were no longer on fire, my legs were still jello and I was afraid to take too big og steps for fear that my legs would give out on me and I would then find the quickest way to the bottom.

                We got back to the bus to leave, and realized that one of the vehicles that we brought was blocked in by a cliff in front, a fence to the right, a truck to the left, and a Rav4 directly behind it. Of course this presented quite a problem as the owners of that vehicle were somewhere amidst the hellish terrain with no method of contact.  I was extremely amused by the effort of 4 men who attempted to pick up and move the rav4.  A pickup ended up attaching a rope to the rear bumper and instead of trying to move it back, they simply attempted to pull it to the side.  After hearing a loud CREEEEEEEEKKKKK, they decided to go back to the effort in manually picking it up with their hands and moving it. To my surprise, it worked. They turned their attention to the pickup truck and turned it enough that our vehicle was able to be moved with quite impressive maneuvering.

                We all packed up in the van to go, and with 17 people in a 15 passenger van, I was surprised at how many people we were stopping to pick up. All of the seats were clearly full with us in them, but at one time there were 9 people standing in the van in the small amount of space there was between the seats and the window, with the sliding door open and several people with only their feet in and them hanging on for dear life as we drove through many twists and turns and an extreme decline. At one point during the return trip, it started pouring rain and there was definitely rain coming up from the floor of the van.  Rain soon turned into hail more forceful that I have ever seen in my life.  The ground looked as if it were covered with 3-4 inches of snow composed of pea sized hail. 

                After returning and feeling as if my body would never move again, a group of us decided to meet up at the local hot chocolate café and do a bit of studying.  I ended up trying to find my way walking through an area of town I had never visited before and by the time I arrived, the group had left. Luckily, I saw a group of other students from school who invited me to join them.  Afterwards, we met up at an El Salvadorean restaurant for dinner and decided to head to a bar afterwards for a couple of drinks.  We saw a bit of lightening and heard some thunder as we left the restaurant, but it  must have really decided to come down when we were at the bar.  We all sat there drinking our Cabrio as the electricity went out. Throughout the bar cell phones created an interesting atmosphere as we continued to enjoy ourselves until we decided to leave and call it a night.

                Just to add a disclaimer to the day. As always, I talk as I think and am not concerned with how things are coming across.  Overall, I had a fantastic day. Even though it sounds like I complained about the whole day, it is only my odd sarcasm as I relay the thoughts that entered my head throughout the day. Will I do that hike again? Maybe after I lose half of myself and begin running marathons for fun, but am I happy I did it? Absolutely.

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                The trip to the beach Champerico was only about 2 hours. It is surprising how much of an effect elevation can have on climate as there was a very noticeable change in temperature within an hour of leaving Xela. It was very easy to tell when were leaving the more highlands climate and entering a more tropical area.  The volcano was erupting again and we were able to see it from the other side, so we were able to stop for a photo op. Along the way we saw tons of macadamia nut trees, coffee beans, cocoa beans, mango trees, papaya trees, and rubber trees.  The last 30 minutes of the drive might as well have been made specifically for the jeep “made tough” commercials as we all bounced along in the old school flat nose van with no cushion.   

We were warned about the extremely strong current and not to venture out to swim, but to just stay ashore for the day.  We were also told about the “shack dwellers” who will basically rob you if you aren’t in the central area of the beach and that we could leave our bags in the van and the driver would stay with it all day. It was 40C (about 103F) and with a black sand beach (since the sand comes from volcano material and not from coral).  Walking on the sand was what I would imagine walking on hot coals would feel like, and I feared that I would become roasted American if I didn’t apply sunscreen every 20 minutes, but I felt so at home and at peace with the warmth.  I spent most of the day standing knee deep (sometimes up to my chest, and sometimes knocking me down and making me fear for my life when not able to get up!) in water enjoying the day.  We realized early on that every time we would go in the water, there would be a different group of men who would start off quite a way away from us and they would slowly creep to the point where they were invading our personal space.  After looking around, we realized that it must be customary for the Mayan women to always wear their traditional clothing even though it is suitable to provide warmth during the blizzard of the century, so they weren’t able to go into the water, only able to get their feet wet, being careful not to lift their skirts above their shins.   I imagine that the men realized the starch contrast in what we had on, as a group of 10 females, most wearing bikinis.  There was even one guy who was extremely creepy and just stood on the sand obviously watching us for over an hour.  Their opinions of us became extremely evident when a man came up to proposition us when we returned to the restaurant area for lunch.

We had lunch at one of the restaurants on the beach, and the food was extremely fresh (we had to put in our order at 10:30 so it would be “ready” for us at 1:30), and there were a bunch of super cute kids running around. I guess as is typical for beach towns, there are some people who like to always “have a good time” and we heard a loud bang at the restaurant next to us and look over to see three men all down laying on the ground not moving.  I had been wondering why the restaurant next to ours was full of people and ours was empty besides us, but  the first thing that came to my head was “well, good. Looks like people at eating at that restaurant are dropping out from the food.” Of course after much speculation, it was determined that they were all drunk and two had already been passed out on the ground. The loud thud we heard was one of the drunk men who fell asleep in his plastic chair and fell backwards off of the 3-foot platform that designated the eating space. He was still sitting perfectly in his chair, except that instead of his legs and the legs of the chair being on the ground, instead his back and the back of the chair were on the ground. He didn’t move a muscle and we were all of course thinking that this man was dead or something.  A small kid that couldn’t have been older than 7 years old came over and tried to help the men, and when the one in the chair got up, we saw that he had a massive abrasion on the back of his head and was bleeding profusely.  Everyone who had been sitting at the table with him and all of the other locals were simply sitting around and didn’t even flinch. I guess it’s a standard occurrence in the area. 

We decided to go ahead and enjoy the entire beach experience and got freshly opened coconuts to drink coconut water which was…interesting.   Not bad, but not my cup of tea.  We all loaded up from there for the trek back away from the  warm tropical climate and back to the highlands.  Overall, it was an awesome day!

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                For breakfast, I had mosh…basically oatmeal the consistency of cereal.  I was just about done with carbs and just wanted a piece of meat.  The piece of chicken I had for dinner at the game filled me up like nothing I had eaten yet and I actually didn’t even have an appetite for breakfast, which made me so happy.  After 5 days of starving, I felt like I would never know the feeling of satiety again.  We had a really interesting lecture in the morning where we learned a lot about mayans after the conquistadores came and basically made them slaves.  Each person had clothes that they wore that distinguished them as slaves of a certain person, and so they couldn’t even run away because they were so easily identified.  The land was basically given to the conquistadores by the king of Spain as a thanks for the work they did for him.  In addition to the land, the spanard was also given all of the mayans who occupied the area to work the land.  A portion of what was farmed was given to the “owner” to sell for money, and the rest was expected to be sent back to spain. 

                In addition to the clothes, the mayans were also given names showing who they belonged to. It was pretty interesting to see that the names that are quite common amongst latin americans today came from this time.  If a Spanish man’s last name was Rodgers, then his slaves were Rodriguez, if his name was Hernand, then his slaves were Hernandez. 

                During the lunch break, a couple of friends wanted to try to head out to walmart to get some things, so we ventured out in a taxi and found La Pradera, where walmart is.  There was also a Pollo Campero nearby and since I was craving some protein in my life, I couldn’t help but get a piece of chicken to try to carry me through. It was like a piece of fried heaven, lol.  That night was a dinner at the school that they have every week where a student leads a meal and we all get together to eat.  There was no meat to the meal, but it was full of veggies, which was absolutely amazing to me.  I felt like as much as I had been deprived of meat, veggies were non-existent as well.  I ended up staying at the school pretty late and had a great time getting to know a few more students.

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                School was the same on Wednesday…except I felt as if I was following along really well and was understanding what we were talking about.  It was really interesting and we were getting into talking about the mayan calendar which is definitely an area of much discussion, especially in 2012! As expected, many people in Guatemala laugh at the idea that the world will end because the mayan think calendar ends in 2012. When it comes down to it, the mayan year only has 260 days, so the mayan year 2012 has come and passed. Also, it was not done in a linear fashion, it was made in a circular fashion because it was made to repeat.  I was super into the discussion when I thought I heard the teacher say quantum physics.  I thought I was hearing wrong until I looked around and noticed everyone else heard the same thing…it was downhill from there!

                There was a game scheduled for the local soccer team to play another regional team, so a few classmates decided to go to dinner and the game.  We decided to meet up at a Korean restaurant, but when we got there, it was closed.  I guess they were having some problem with their water, so we walked around looking for something to eat and the smell of street food drew our attention.  Of course there is always a concern with street food, especially in a country with unsanitary water, but the barbecued chicken definitely called to us, so we ended up outside of the stadium with our wonderfully delicious street food.  The game was great and I was amazed by how excited people get about soccer! There was music and chanting the ENTIRE game.  The drums never stopped and there were fire balls and fireworks throughout the game.  It ended in a tie, but it was fun just to be in the excitement of it all.

                I wanted to walk home, but all of my friends wanted to take the cab, and I’m quite happy we did.  On the way back, there were probably 20 stray dogs wondering the street fighting for the scraps of food, so I definitely would not have wanted to be sharing the streets with them! 

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                Monday was a very full day and after spending the entire day at the school and coming home to sleep not so well, freezing in a bed with a pillow about as thin as Lindsay Lohan,  Tuesday was destined to be a bust…and that it was.  I got my “headache” after only about 10 minutes of class and tried my hardest to still try to translate, but it was much more easy and enjoyable to pick up on some stuff occasionally and zone out at other times.

                During the afternoon, I had class and felt like I definitely regressed in a serious way. I couldn’t think of any words, was translating wrong, and just felt like I must have had information overload and gotten to my breaking point where I couldn’t learn anymore.  Kind of sad for day 2 in the process. 

                In the evening, there was a lecture about traditional mayan dress which was quite interesting.  The tradition not only behind the colors and designs of the clothes, but also in the process of making the clothes was really interesting.  The women would make the clothes with waist strap looms and would take up to three months to make just a blouse.  The outfit generally consists of a blouse, belt, and a skirt. 

                Following the lecture, the day was just like most others…home for a dinner of eggs and tortillas and then sleep in the cold.