So Monday, February 1st (holy crap it's Feb. 2010!) we took a tuk tuk to Bri's for class because I had the white board. We had already brainstormed about our charlas for Wednesday, but when David came to visit before lunch, he of course gave us all creative, better ideas and activities to use. Mirsa actually gave us the afternoon off to prepare our lesson plans and charlas. Mine is about the importance of surveys for every tourism business. Tomorrow she is going to correct our spanish when we go to headquarters. I have no idea what else we did today because I'm writing this later.
Tuesday we went to Santa Lucia. Our group has decided it is best if Patty and I take a bus from the muni and the others from their side of town so that we don't end up waiting for each other or walking a bunch. We had two hours first this morning to work on our charlas, but I didn't really do much because I was waiting on Mirsa to correct my lesson plan. Of course though, she had a two hour meeting at the same time. We then had a medical session about sex: STDs, watched a movie about HIV affected volunteers, pregnancy, contraception, etc. Highlight from this was definitely when Kathy put on the condom hat. Then we got another vaccine and lunch. After lunch, we had diversity activities that some current volunteers lead and then some guy came and spoke about history and development in Guatemala. I went home afterwards to correct my lesson plan, make posters, and organize note cards for tomorrow.
Today we had class at Bri's to practice our charlas. It was pretty hilarious. Evan taught some key english phrases and when he got up to practice his charla, we noticed he had misspelled Good Morning on his poster. Ha! We went home for lunch and I changed and shaved to look more presentable. We met about 1:30 to prepare the room for our presentations. I was third. I feel like I did okay for the first charla, but I definitely should have memorized more and practiced more spanish. During Bri's charla, a local drunk man wandered in and talked with Evan and me. We finally got rid of him after listening about his love for Peace Corps and his friend who was a volunteer who helped him get electricity and potable water. I think the PC staff at our charlas thought we did pretty well considering the circumstances. Afterwards, Evan and I went to a local restaurant for beers. Guess who was there? Our drunk friend from the charlas, Jose Leon. He bought us a liter of beer and we had some more quality conversations with him. He repeatedly invited us to his house, but we repeatedly politefully declined.
Friday we had class at Bri's. Yesterday the rest of the group went to Patty's and helped her make a pineapple pie for our teacher, Mirsa, since this was our last day with her. We ate that this morning and then headed on a field trip to a local organic macadamia nut plantation, Valhalla. It was really cool. We learned about the process and then got to try some macademia nuts, then some covered in chocolate, and then we got free facials with macadamia nut oil. It was great. One of the highlights of the tour was the bathroom. Evan put it to great use! We then had the afternoon free!
Saturday we got up early and met Craig at the gas station to embark on our journey to Iximche, some ruins a couple of hours away. We went in order to participate in a traditional mayan ceremony in the language of Mam. We also learned a little about customs and beliefs of the mayans. We had a barbaque type lunch that some locals cooked for us. When we headed home, Craig dropped us off in Antigua and we had some brews and snacks. (pics to come...it takes too long)
SUPERBOWL SUNDAY! So I laid around in the morning, as per usual on Sundays here. Then showered, shaved, and headed to Antigua for our training superbowl party. It actually rained here yesterday for the first time since we have been here, so I took my rain jacket just in case. The game and hanging out with other trainees was really fun. The Saints beat the Colts! It was especially cool because the Saints practiced at Millsaps in the summers when I was there. I was supposed to be home by 8. I ended up getting my curfew extended, but still missed it because we left after the game. We all traveled together though in a taxi so that was the safest. When I got home, my family was having a meeting with my cousin and her fiance because he came to ask for permission to marry her. After several drinks, I didn't understand what the post-meeting family meeting was about so I just played with our dog, Brinkley, in the background. After the family went to bed, I may or may not have eaten several bags of chips out of our tienda because I hadn't eaten dinner. Don't worry though, I told my host mom about it the next day. Overall, Superbowl Sunday was a success!
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