Eli in Guatemala

Guatemalan Independence Day is on my birthday, September 15th! Really though, it is mostly just a day of rest for everyone after the craziness of the last couple of days. That was fine by me! I watched the third and final parade in the morning, then got ceviche and sat by the lake and read. Plus, my host mom, Argentina, got me a delicious apple and carrot bread/cake sort of thing and she and her husband, Francisco, sang Happy Birthday to me! I had never been so happy to have a day off to relax by myself! 

Day 2 of the Independence Day celebrations was easily one of the craziest days of my life. I'll try my best to put it into words!  Thursday – September 14th The day started at 3:30 a.m., when the majority of our students (most with at least 1 family member) met in town to board three buses that would take us on the day's adventures. Guatemala has a tradition the day before Independence Day of running a lit torch across the entire country (think the Olympic torch) to celebrate independence. In the last few decades, this tradition has evolved a bit. Now, rather than running a torch across an entire country, every school in the country goes out of town, then returns later in the day after lighting a torch and runs the torch through their town. Or at least this was my understanding of it at 3:30 on Thursday...  In any case, we boarded busses to head to DinoPark, essentially the Guatemalan version of a themed park with life-size dinosaurs. It's all based on the Jurassic World mo...

Guatemalan Independence Day is September 15, but most of the celebrating happens in the days prior to the 15th. Most of the celebrations revolve around young people and schools. While everyone partakes in the celebrations, it's really the schools that are the heart and soul of all of the major events. Working at a school, I got to be in the center of all of it! So much happened over these couple of days that I'm gonna give each day its own post! Wednesday – The Parade Wednesday's big event was the parade for Grades K-5. The theme for the parade was "a day of flowers", and our school really went all out! The day started very early as all the teachers gathered around 6:30 a.m. to decorate a flatbed truck with hundreds of live flowers (donated by the families of our school) and dozens of paper flowers made by our students. The truck is where our band would sit and play during the parade! Most of the students in the band showed up to help us decorate the truck as well...

Antonio, who goes by Tono, is the English teacher at La Puerta Abierta, and he has become a great friend as well. On Sunday, he took me to his home village of San Antonio Palopó, a 10-15 minute drive from where I'm living in Santiago. San Antonio Palopó is a very small town, nestled in between the forest and the lake at the foot of the San Pedro Volcano. It was easily the most tranquil and serene place I've been so far in Guatemala, and I can't imagine growing up in a place like that. We played basketball with some of his cousins and neighbors, and then hot and sweating from the games, we found a secluded area to swim in the lake. Away from the bigger city, the lake was incredibly clear and blue. And the views were amazing. It was also super cool getting to meet Tono's parents, cousins, and friends. It was a great way to spend a Sunday!

Over the weekend, I along with a few teachers and most of the 6th grade class met at the town's basketball courts for hours worth of full-court games. It was exhausting, but a ton of fun. Basketball is popular in Guatemala, easily the second most popular sport behind soccer. Interestingly, basketball was long considered a women's sport in Guatemala. Apparently, that perception has changed quite a bit in the past 10-15 years as the NBA has become more popular in Guatemala, and it's now played by men and women alike. But basketball remains a very popular sport among the girls and women here!

I've been joining the Puerta Abierta band for practices after school! They are gearing up for next week's Independence Day parade, and a private concert afterward. It is the first time La Puerta Abierta has ever had a band, and for a bunch of 7 to 12-year-olds, it's really impressive. All credit to Pedro who is an amazingly dedicated music teacher and a great friend as well. Pedro claims to only know how to play bass and saxophone, but in the past two weeks, I've seen him play the guitar, ukulele, recorder, trumpet, and marimba. Pretty darn talented for a 22-year-old music teacher!

I've learned that Guatemala takes its coffee super seriously. Every restaurant has an espresso machine, and when people go out to eat, they will usually drink coffee after their meal. Santiago has several specialty coffee roasters who serve some of the best coffee I've ever had. One is Cooperative Co-Atítlan, and while most of their business consists of exporting coffee to high-end coffee shops in the U.S., they do open a small coffee shop every Saturday with great views of the lake and volcanos. These two pictures were taken from Cooperative Co-Atítlan no more than five minutes apart. Rain and thunderstorms come completely out of nowhere here during the rainy season, and the rain is biblical.

 Lake Atítlan is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. It's pretty easy to see why. The lake sits between at least three major volcanoes, volcanoes that haven't been active for thousands of years. The terrain means that the best way to get between towns on the lake is by boat; it costs about $4.00 or 30 Quetzales to take a boat from one town to another. The views of the lake are absolutely breathtaking.

To get to Lake Atítlan, my shuttle passed through and stopped in Antigua Guatemala. Antigua is one of the most historic places in Guatemala (antigua translates to ancient). It is surrounded by volcanoes and its roads are paved with volcanic rocks. When I was there, the country's most active volcano was erupting. Pretty cool!

During my first day in Guatemala, I explored Guatemala City. I visited the Mueso Popol Vuh, which holds one of the largest collections of Mayan artifacts in the world. I also visited the city of Cayala, which was full of cobblestone streets and white buildings. I had lunch at a cafe, and learned that Guatemala takes its coffee very, very seriously. I took a long walk through the city on my way back, and although it was raining the whole time, the city was alive and vibrant. I finished my day with a steak sandwich at a restaurant right around the corner from my hostel and a cerveza gallo (Central American countries do cheap beer so much better than the U.S.)

I wanted to put this blog together so that my friends and family can follow along with my trip. I've never put together a blog and don't really know what I plan on posting! But here we go, thank you for following along! The Basics: I've come to Guatemala to volunteer at a school, La puerta abierta .   La puerta abierta is located in Santiago Atítlan, a traditional Mayan town and one of about 12 towns located around Lake Atítlan, the third largest lake in Guatemala. While La puerta abierta employs about 12 full-time staff members, the school relies on volunteers to support their teaching. It is a community school, meaning that families help put their children through school (right now, K - 6th Grade) by volunteering at the school themselves, selling artisan crafts and clothing at the school's tienda, and more. It's a place full of amazing people dedicated to improving literacy and education in what is otherwise a relatively poor and uneducated area of Guatemala!