Art, Weather, Songs, Drool

I have met an interesting person. Sophie is a woman who volunteers at Casa Jackson. She is taking a six month sabbatical from her regular job as a graphic designer for the Royal Shakespeare Company. When she told me where she works, my eyes popped out of my head. (One eye was successfully returned, but the other was replaced with a fake magical one. Now I look like Mad-Eye Moody.) She is also an artist and currently has an exhibition up in town, so today I went to see it. It was pretty cool. It´s neat to see some art then get to talk to the artist. I meet lots of neat people through the GCP. Hurray.
It has been brought to my attention that I have not provided any comment on the weather here. I guess this could be interesting? May through October is Guatemala´s rainy season, so a typical day is clear to partly cloudy and not too warm in the morning, pretty hot from about noon to 2:00, and cloudy (and very likely raining) in the afternoon and evening. It gets pretty cool at night. I like the weather. I don´t mind the heat, and I really like that the humidity makes my hair wavy. Here, I have mermaid hair.
Update to the list of fun English-to-Spanish songs: ¨Going to the Chapel.¨
Also, I feel compelled to add a note that I am not at my regular internet place, and I just might never come back to this new one. There are two huge black dogs, and one of them just finished slobbering all over the inside of my backpack. Gross.

Ordinary and extraordinary

I´ve been experiencing an interesting phenomenon. Everything here is becoming ordinary. Not that I don´t think Antigua is interesting and beautiful, but I´m definitely getting used to living here. It´s not the best thing, I think, because I don´t want to take my experience for granted. I need to spend more time outside, and definitely more time speaking Spanish.
Hm.
Aside from that, something very out of the ordinary happened today. I was hanging out at the Dreamer Center (the GCP´s main office/school/etc.), waiting for today´s volunteer assignment, and who did I run into but Stacy Schaffer. I find it extraordinary that I encounter Stacy (one of only 19 in my high school graduating class) in Antigua Guatemala when I had only seen her a couple times since high school in North Dakota. Okay, maybe it is not that extraordinary considering the popularity of the God´s Child Project in ND, but I was still quite surprised. Anyway, Stacy is here to volunteer for a few weeks, and that is pretty neat.
Otherwise, what I have been up to lately: On Tuesday I helped sort clothing donations which will go out to communities next week. Wednesday I did that again in the morning and was at Casa Jackson in the afternoon (where we again got a new skinny baby). This morning I got to collect donated veggies again (We had trouble with that. At two of the farms, the boss wasn´t around, so they didn´t give us any. One said to come back in the afternoon, another said come back next week. We only got half the donations we usually get. Hopefully they will be able to collect from that one farm this afternoon.), and this afternoon I will be at Casa Jackson.
That is all for now. I have to run to lunch.
Hasta luego.

Some update-y goodness

Jess and I finally got to Cerro de la Cruz today. We got there in two hours when it totally could have taken 30 minutes. We spent some time searching again for the tourist police, then once we actually got on our way we didn´t realize there was a staircase up the hill. We instead walked the long curvy road (for cars, not people) to the cross. Of course, when we got there it was a cool view. I think I´ll go up there again some time, just to look. It was nice.
Other than that I don´t have a lot of news. It rained like whoa yesterday. We got a new person in our house. I found a bakery with really tasty sugar cookies. Generally, things for me are all kinds of good.

I took a walk today

Today is the day I climbed a volcano.
It was cool. We didn´t go all the way to the top because, let´s be honest, Pacaya is an active volcano. We walked through a bunch of foresty stuff then up a bunch of volcanic rock. It was hot near the top. I only saw a tiny bit of lava, so I think I might go up again sometime this summer. We´ll see. Jess took a few pictures, which I might post eventually if I get a hold of them somehow. Not having a camera here was not entirely the best idea, I think.
In other news, Josè Luis at Casa Jackson has started walking. I put him a foot or two from me, and he walks a few wobbly steps, then he falls and I catch him and we giggle and hug. It´s lots of fun.
Speaking of children, I suppose, I learned about the tradition here re: lost baby teeth. In the U.S., we have the tooth fairy, but here they throw the tooth on the roof, and a special mouse comes and takes the tooth away, leaving five quetzales (a little more than 50 cents). I´m not sure whether the money is collected by the kids from the roof or what. That part was a little unclear.
Anyhow. That is an update.

Birthdays and malnutrition

As I have already mentioned, it was Esperanza´s birthday on Wednesday, but I did not note that the following day was Erin´s (dentist from the U.S. who is staying in my host house, too) and Esperanza´s daughter-in-law´s birthday. In a few days it will be Sofia´s (Esperanza´s granddaughter) birthday. So on Wednesday, we lit candles and sang the birthday song four times. I was so amused. Four times. They sing the song in English, then have a second verse in Spanish. The second verse is ¨We want cake¨times three and another line that I don´t remember.

By they way, Happy Birthday to my uncles Dean and Don.

On an entirely unrelated note, I worked an overnight shift last night at Casa Jackson. I was afraid that it would be super stressful, a full twelve hours of bawling kids. However, it turns out that most of the kids sleep for most of the night. I also enjoyed the opportunity to practice my Spanish with the nurse and the other volunteer, both of whom only spoke Spanish. Thoughout the night, however, I became increasingly suspicious that the kids were holding a ¨Pee on Bri¨contest. I was peed on by three kids, but Dani takes home first place. He got extra points for throwing up on me.
Dani is the newest kid at Casa Jackson, so it is understandable that his body isn´t functioning perfectly. He´s 19 months old and only 13 pounds. When he isn´t being fed (he eats or drinks every two hours), he tries to take bites off his clothes. I suspect (and I am not a medical professional) that he is constantly hungry but can´t eat enough to fill him up. His stomach is probably pretty little, and eating too much leads to barfing. Dani also spends quite a bit of time crying weakly and calling for his mom. I´m not entirely sure (because I have not studied statistical Spanish), but I think a sign in the Casa office says that a kid is required to have a weight three standard deviations below normal in order to qualify for care there. It´s a bummer to be telling you about this stuff, but I figure you should know about what Casa Jackson does. Right now, Dani is the only kid at Casa that looks extremely ill. The other kids look okay, even though I´ve been told they all show up looking as bad as Dani. Actually, one little girl, Dulce, just went home, fit as a fiddle, today. (Comma vomit. Sorry.) It´ll be cool to see Dani get well, too.

An assortment of topics

Today it is raining. I am happy to know that my shoes (unlike my late watch) are water-resistant.
We got a new kid at the malnutrition center today. He is skinny and mostly unhappy. I am excited to see/help him get better.
Three occasions today. It is Guatemalan Fathers Day, and in celebration, people shot off fireworks at 7:00 this morning. It is also Esperanza´s birthday. Extended family have been over all day celebrating for these two reasons. Also, today is the last day in Guatemala for Bryan. Bryan is another GCP volunteer. He lives in the same host house with me and has spent the past 40 days working at Casa Jackson. I think he is also having a little àdios party tonight.
I´ll leave you with an interesting fact about Antigua: Traffic lights are illegal here. The city wants to maintain that ¨really really old town¨ feeling, so no traffic lights allowed.
Goodbye, all, and happy belated Bloomsday.

¨Faithfully¨ en Español

I´ve been here a week now, and so far so good. The biggest disappointment is probably that my watch broke last Saturday. Apparently ¨water resistant¨ was just a joke I didn´t get.
I don´t think I´ve mentioned much about my host family yet. They are terrific. I live with a retired couple and their grown up son, who is a cop. The mom, Esperanza, is a good cook and is very understanding re: my loathing of eggs. The whole family also hangs out and chit chats after supper, and they´re really good about speaking slowly and helping me improve my Spanish. Que bueno.
Jess and I made a second attempt at visitng Cerro de la Cruz yesterday but failed again. We weren´t sure which building/door held the tourist police, and so we asked some passing police officers. They sent us in what we found out was the way wrong direction. So, we will try again later.
I also haven´t written about an interesting thing I saw on Saturday. Jess and I came across a parade/specatacle. A bunch of older-ish women, dressed up as old ladies with grey wigs and masks with lots of garish make-up, danced in two lines following the lead of a little boy dressed as an old man. Loud music was playing off the back of a truck and a man made occasional comments on the dancers. At one point he exclaimed, ¨¡Look at their bodies go!¨ I was amused, even though I didn´t know the significance of what was going on and can´t remember what the announcer called it. Some things in life (and especially in Guatemala) are mysteries.
I guess that´s all for now. Hope everyone is well.
P.S. I didn´t actually hear Journey´s ¨Faithfully¨ in Spanish, but it would be funny if I did.

Rollin´ on a river.

Yesterday I walked around Antigua like whoa. Jess and I were going to go to El Cerro de la Cruz (Google it. The one in Antigua, not the one in Mexico), but we couldn´t find the tourist police (yes, tourist police) place. I guess it can be dangerous to walk up the hill unprotected, so the tourist police will walk up with you for free. Anyway, we couldn´t find the place, so we walked all over Antigua and looked at a lot of churches and stuff. Antigua, by the way, is home to a two mile long stations of the cross. Whoa.
Anyway, it seems that I am being kicked out of this internet place because the guy running it has to leave. I´ll post more tomorrow.
Until then, something else that is amusing in Spanish is ¨Proud Mary.¨
Adios.

Stuff, plus things that are amusing when translated to Spanish

Hello. Sorry it has been three days, but here is a quick update.
The past few days I have been at Casa Jackson but I also got to help with a food (mostly vegetable) distribution to local families at the Dreamer Center. That was neat. The GCP just drives around to local farmers and asks them if they have any leftover produce. They collected a whole bunch of carrots, radishes, peppers, leeks, mini zucchini, cilantro, scallions, and more. Again, pretty neat.
I found out recently I´ll be teaching English regularly in the mornings at the Scheel Center. I start that in two weeks.
As for things that are amusing when translated to Spanish, in the past few days I have seen Family Guy and heard both ¨Time After Time¨and ¨A Whole New World¨in Spanish. I enjoyed it.
Yes, this is a short post, but I have to run to lunch. Maybe more tonight. Or maybe not. Vamos a ver.
So long.

Things I have done

Yesterday I walked around Antigua with my friend Jess. It was great. I forgot how awesome it is to walk around a town full of stuff to look at (including volcanoes).
This morning I was at Casa Jackson again, hanging out with babies. This afternoon I helped in the kitchen of the Dreamer Center then walked to the Bodegona (the supermarket) and purchased some water.
The end.

I´m here*

Hey there. This´ll just be a quick post to say I have arrived safely and spent the day volunteering. I spent the morning in the first grade classroom of the Scheel Center and the afternoon at the malnutrition center, helping to clean and hanging out with an unhappy baby.
Also, for anyone who traveled to Guatemala with me last year, I´ll have you know that literally the first person I saw when I stepped off the plane was a dude with "the best kind" of hairstyle.
Solo digo.
Have to go.
More later.
Good night.

*"here"=Guatemala

What I'm doing here*

Hello, everyone.
For the sake of anyone who cares to hear about my daily goings-on while I am in Guatemala, I will be keeping a blog.
I leave tomorrow morning. Because I will be traveling all day, I probably won't post again until Tuesday. After that, I hope to be posting at least every other day. We'll see what my schedule is like.
That is all.
For now.
Hasta luego.
*"here" = in a blog.