The teacher from the pre-school asked me to bring in a watermelon or a papaya today for the kids for their final activity for the letter O. I chose watermelon cause I think papayas are kind of stinky. The kids had to cut out an O out of their watermelon.. then they decorated it with corn flakes adn powdered chocolate... I just ate teh watermelon plain but for some reason the kids loved chocolate covered watermelon with cornflakes.
We had visitors in class today. At the volunteer site there is an extended family of 22 that was here the past week. They come down every other year. 3 teenagers and their mom came to visit our classroom for their last day. They only were there for a little under 3 hours and Im suprised at how uninteractive they were with the kids. They did their posing with the kids in their laps and took their pictures. I told one of the girls who started to do the dishes that I would do them so they could play with the kids. When I went outside 3 of them were sitting down and not interacting with the kids when the kids were asking to be pushed. I was suprised at how tired out they got and that they couldnt play with them after they interupted the teachers lesson and were causing the kids to be distracted. The people were really nice, Im just not sure if a 3 hour visit is worth the time. I guess the kids get to have fun with more adults for a while... but one knew a little spanish and the others just a few words. So there was much confusion in the interactions. One of the americans was shouting left at the kid to turn left as he was being pushed. I had to tell him 4 times before he stopped speaking english to the boy. I mean what I am doing is pretty short term... but I think it is a wee bit more helpful to the teacher than a 3 hours.
Marina was able to come home and I saw here when I came home from lunch. She is in pain but can walk around.
At home I played memory again. And when I got only the second pair out of 30 pairs... emily almost started crying again because she thought it was her turn to go and I took her pair. Luckily we only played one round of that and we went onto coloring. She liked my flowers and wanted me to teach her. But its impossible for a 6 year old to draw good flowers and color in the lines... so she had to deal with hers. I made a drawing for both girls and in return they both made me one.The are standing on my desk in my room.
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Thursday June 2, 2011
Marina, my grandma, is having gallstones removed today at the hospital so I wrote her a good luck card with grammatical help from my teacher. Her surgery was at 8 am and she stayed at the hospital overnight for observation. It was done for free... I´m pretty sure, stuff gets lost in translation. And Ingrid said that they were American doctors that did the surgery and that there were tons of American/foreign volunteers at the hospital taking blood pressure and doing other things. It took 2 hours to hear how she was doing, but it went well. She is in some pain, but that is usual.
In class today we were still learning about the letter O. What I thought would be a simple activity turned out not to be. All they had to do was take a sheet of newspaper, twist it, and make the shape of an O and I would tape it for them. WOWZA! Took over 15 minutes to do. Also a thing I´ve noticed that kids aren´t good at is applying logic to puzzles. They dont realize that the straight edged pieces go on the outside and that they cant put an edge together with an inside piece.... they try and try again and fail each time. I try to explain that the straight goes on the outside but haven´t gotten it quite yet. Tis a bit frustrating for a puzzle enthusiast like myself.
Unfortunately on a walk during my Spanish classes, I found a wonderful place that sells over 20 different types of cookies... So far I´ve been 3 out of 3 days since I found it. Ooops. My favorite by far right now is coconut oatmeal. YUM!!!
After dinner tongiht, me Nataly and Emily played cards again. Unfortunately this time Emily, 6, wasn´t winning and was a bit mad... she was sent over the edge and I was laughing because she was complaining about having to play a card when she didn´t have to. Sadly this sent her into a raging scream and she started crying... of course all I could do was smile because it was over stupid card game and secondly she was crying over something she didnt have to do. She was sobbing saying I want to play.. when no one was telling her she couldn´t so I quickly rapped up that game with a purposeful loss and went to back to my room since I figured she was tired and thats why she cried. It was kind of funny though how quickly she can go from loving me and giving me hugs to hitting me.
In class today we were still learning about the letter O. What I thought would be a simple activity turned out not to be. All they had to do was take a sheet of newspaper, twist it, and make the shape of an O and I would tape it for them. WOWZA! Took over 15 minutes to do. Also a thing I´ve noticed that kids aren´t good at is applying logic to puzzles. They dont realize that the straight edged pieces go on the outside and that they cant put an edge together with an inside piece.... they try and try again and fail each time. I try to explain that the straight goes on the outside but haven´t gotten it quite yet. Tis a bit frustrating for a puzzle enthusiast like myself.
Unfortunately on a walk during my Spanish classes, I found a wonderful place that sells over 20 different types of cookies... So far I´ve been 3 out of 3 days since I found it. Ooops. My favorite by far right now is coconut oatmeal. YUM!!!
After dinner tongiht, me Nataly and Emily played cards again. Unfortunately this time Emily, 6, wasn´t winning and was a bit mad... she was sent over the edge and I was laughing because she was complaining about having to play a card when she didn´t have to. Sadly this sent her into a raging scream and she started crying... of course all I could do was smile because it was over stupid card game and secondly she was crying over something she didnt have to do. She was sobbing saying I want to play.. when no one was telling her she couldn´t so I quickly rapped up that game with a purposeful loss and went to back to my room since I figured she was tired and thats why she cried. It was kind of funny though how quickly she can go from loving me and giving me hugs to hitting me.
PHOTOS --from lake atitlan!!!! link included
More photos hopefully to come this weekend... sorry takes awhile here to upload them .
https://picasaweb.google.com/102053822137252130189/LakeAtitlanGuatemala?authkey=Gv1sRgCPjA5PG1-qHs_gE&feat=directlink
https://picasaweb.google.com/102053822137252130189/LakeAtitlanGuatemala?authkey=Gv1sRgCPjA5PG1-qHs_gE&feat=directlink
Wednesday June 1, 2011--- Tour of the Guatemalan Beer factory
Volunteering: Had to help out more with the kids again today since there is only one teacher. It was interesting trying to get 17 kids who are playing outside to come inside on my own when I don´t speak Spanish that well and don´t like to shout.
During my lessons today we went to the la Cervercercia Centro Americana where they make the famous Gallo beer of Guatemala. This one factory produces ALL of the beer that is distributed worldwide and also makes drinking water, soda, and chips. If you type in ¨Cervercercia Centro Americana ¨ you can learn more about it and all the fun facts I don´t remember. I would put in a link but the google here is in Spanish and I doubt that a Spanish link would be helpful to most. There are 5 different holding/mixing tanks in one room where the beer is started from 5 ingredients. Then it gets shipped underground through pipes to tall things that look like grain elevators where it ferments for 7 days and then it sits for a day before it is bottled in a different warehouse, but all on site. I got to see where the beer is mixed and the bottling factory. The older containers/mixing place is run by 20 people. The newer one is run by one person and many computers and is more efficient and can produce more beer than the older one. The bottling factory is still run by many people and robots/computers. First the old bottles are taken out of the crates, delabled and disinfected. Next they go through a computer to see if there are any abnormalities with the bottles, as in if they are dirty or broken. Next they are sent to be filled. They are heated right before they are capped to have a one year waranty and this prevents them from adding any preservatives to the beer. Next they are labled. And one guys job is to just sit there and pick out any bottles that are poorly labled. They use soap and water so the bottles slide along the assembly line with ease and prevent them from getting stuck. They are then repacked into the crates they came in and shipped to the loading dock. The bottling factory was wicked hot and humid with no fans and obviuosly no AC EVER. Even in the hotter months. They said its between 85-95 degrees inside... but the humidity makes it feel so much worse. There is tons of humidity in the factory because lots of hot water is used in the bottling process.
The guy told us an interesting story about why they pour beer to have the foam form on top.
1. The foam releases the smell of the beer and makes it more enjoyable for the person drinking it so they can smell it before drinking it.
2. The foam keeps the good flavor in the longest. He said if there is no foam, the prime time to drink it is 8 mintues after pouring the beer. But if you pour it with the foam, it has 22 minutes of prime time flavor. Afterwards the quality of the taste declines... I guess.
3. I forget exactly what.... but I think it may have just been to identify it as beer and not apple juice or something else...
Tonight I hung out with the Emily and Nataly and played a card game that was never ending. I had to forfit becasue it was getting old and no one was going to win.
During my lessons today we went to the la Cervercercia Centro Americana where they make the famous Gallo beer of Guatemala. This one factory produces ALL of the beer that is distributed worldwide and also makes drinking water, soda, and chips. If you type in ¨Cervercercia Centro Americana ¨ you can learn more about it and all the fun facts I don´t remember. I would put in a link but the google here is in Spanish and I doubt that a Spanish link would be helpful to most. There are 5 different holding/mixing tanks in one room where the beer is started from 5 ingredients. Then it gets shipped underground through pipes to tall things that look like grain elevators where it ferments for 7 days and then it sits for a day before it is bottled in a different warehouse, but all on site. I got to see where the beer is mixed and the bottling factory. The older containers/mixing place is run by 20 people. The newer one is run by one person and many computers and is more efficient and can produce more beer than the older one. The bottling factory is still run by many people and robots/computers. First the old bottles are taken out of the crates, delabled and disinfected. Next they go through a computer to see if there are any abnormalities with the bottles, as in if they are dirty or broken. Next they are sent to be filled. They are heated right before they are capped to have a one year waranty and this prevents them from adding any preservatives to the beer. Next they are labled. And one guys job is to just sit there and pick out any bottles that are poorly labled. They use soap and water so the bottles slide along the assembly line with ease and prevent them from getting stuck. They are then repacked into the crates they came in and shipped to the loading dock. The bottling factory was wicked hot and humid with no fans and obviuosly no AC EVER. Even in the hotter months. They said its between 85-95 degrees inside... but the humidity makes it feel so much worse. There is tons of humidity in the factory because lots of hot water is used in the bottling process.
The guy told us an interesting story about why they pour beer to have the foam form on top.
1. The foam releases the smell of the beer and makes it more enjoyable for the person drinking it so they can smell it before drinking it.
2. The foam keeps the good flavor in the longest. He said if there is no foam, the prime time to drink it is 8 mintues after pouring the beer. But if you pour it with the foam, it has 22 minutes of prime time flavor. Afterwards the quality of the taste declines... I guess.
3. I forget exactly what.... but I think it may have just been to identify it as beer and not apple juice or something else...
Tonight I hung out with the Emily and Nataly and played a card game that was never ending. I had to forfit becasue it was getting old and no one was going to win.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Tuesday, June 30 2011
At volunteering today, there was only one teacher so I was able to help more with the kids.
And thats about the most exciting thing that happened today.. ha everything is pretty routine.
Oh! I lied. I knew I was going to miss my bus because I saw it rounding the corner and I was in the middle of the block, not at the bus stop. So I decided to give it a pathetic run... and here they actually stopped for me in the middle of the block and asked if I needed a ride!!!! It was AMAZING!!!! Nesha---the cranky Number 2 bus driver would NEVER do anything like that. If he were to say anything, it would be a laugh in my face as he drove off.
Note:
1. All the kids here wear uniforms public or private.
2. They only go to school for like 4-5 hours a day. They are always walking home around 12/1 when I am getting off volunteering/walking to Spanish class.
3. There is a guy that walks along the main roads picking up trash with tongs. Other places that arent touristy can be completely trashed with garbage EVERYWHERE. Its interesting that they take the time and resources to make the streets pretty for the tourists.
4. Forgot what day this was... but a guy at my bus stop was from Hondorus and spoke pretty good English. He told me he needed someone to give his heart to and asked if I would give a little bit of my heart to him. I almost puked on the spot/died laughing at the cheesey-ness. He also said I looked beautiful... with a burnt pealing face, baggy pants, a sweatshirt, hair up not washed for the day, no make up, and to top it off glasses. Twas a bit funny.
5. My teacher said that people here dont trust the police, or the justice system or the government. She said there is lots of corruption. She said that you can bribe a police officer out of a speeding ticket. Also that the presidenential candidates all most likely have a connection some sort of drug group because it costs money to advertise and they cant pay it all out of pocket. So when in office the president needs to [repay] the drug people so they look the other way with certain things and let them carry on with their dealings.
6. Key boards here are difficult to type something with an English punctuation so sorry for my lack of appostraphies and quotations. Also there is no spell check in English hence all my spelling errors so sorry.
And thats about the most exciting thing that happened today.. ha everything is pretty routine.
Oh! I lied. I knew I was going to miss my bus because I saw it rounding the corner and I was in the middle of the block, not at the bus stop. So I decided to give it a pathetic run... and here they actually stopped for me in the middle of the block and asked if I needed a ride!!!! It was AMAZING!!!! Nesha---the cranky Number 2 bus driver would NEVER do anything like that. If he were to say anything, it would be a laugh in my face as he drove off.
Note:
1. All the kids here wear uniforms public or private.
2. They only go to school for like 4-5 hours a day. They are always walking home around 12/1 when I am getting off volunteering/walking to Spanish class.
3. There is a guy that walks along the main roads picking up trash with tongs. Other places that arent touristy can be completely trashed with garbage EVERYWHERE. Its interesting that they take the time and resources to make the streets pretty for the tourists.
4. Forgot what day this was... but a guy at my bus stop was from Hondorus and spoke pretty good English. He told me he needed someone to give his heart to and asked if I would give a little bit of my heart to him. I almost puked on the spot/died laughing at the cheesey-ness. He also said I looked beautiful... with a burnt pealing face, baggy pants, a sweatshirt, hair up not washed for the day, no make up, and to top it off glasses. Twas a bit funny.
5. My teacher said that people here dont trust the police, or the justice system or the government. She said there is lots of corruption. She said that you can bribe a police officer out of a speeding ticket. Also that the presidenential candidates all most likely have a connection some sort of drug group because it costs money to advertise and they cant pay it all out of pocket. So when in office the president needs to [repay] the drug people so they look the other way with certain things and let them carry on with their dealings.
6. Key boards here are difficult to type something with an English punctuation so sorry for my lack of appostraphies and quotations. Also there is no spell check in English hence all my spelling errors so sorry.
Monday, May 30 2011
I was back volunteering at school today because I was feeling much better. Today we started learning about the letter O. Twas really exciting for the kids.
At Spanish classes today, I went to put more money on my phone. Today it was triple your minutes day... what me and Kristen didn{t know for awhile was that when you buy your minutes are tripled, but also when you talk your money declines 3x as fast. On our jaunt around town, I got a tour on where the American fast food restaurants are. There is a Dominos which has 2 for 1s Monday-Thursday. Also there is a Burger King. But what is most amazing of all her is the McDonalds!!! You would think you were at a 4 star restaraunt the way this McDonalds looks. First of all there is a seperate McCafe to buy your coffee in a completely different room than the fast food. Not only are there tons of fancy drinks, but there are fancy banana bread, marble bread, cookies, AND whole cheesecakes and carrot cakes that look like you could purchase from a fancy bakery downtown. ALSO there is a garden about 4x the size of my family room and kitchen at home for those of you that know the size with seats/booths through out. There is a HUGE fountain in the center and to top it off inside there is a lion fountain with 4 foot bamboo shoots around it. Id eat there everyday just for the looks. I am for sure returning on Sunday when I dont have meals prepared for me at my house.
Tonight my grandma, Marina, ate dinner with us for the first time. And afterwards she was asking the girls if her show was on. I asked if I could watch, not knowing what it was. And it happened to be Dr. G Medical Examiner!!!!!.... in Spanish. This turned out to be perfectly fine surprisingly. I understood most of it and knew what each diagnosis was.
At Spanish classes today, I went to put more money on my phone. Today it was triple your minutes day... what me and Kristen didn{t know for awhile was that when you buy your minutes are tripled, but also when you talk your money declines 3x as fast. On our jaunt around town, I got a tour on where the American fast food restaurants are. There is a Dominos which has 2 for 1s Monday-Thursday. Also there is a Burger King. But what is most amazing of all her is the McDonalds!!! You would think you were at a 4 star restaraunt the way this McDonalds looks. First of all there is a seperate McCafe to buy your coffee in a completely different room than the fast food. Not only are there tons of fancy drinks, but there are fancy banana bread, marble bread, cookies, AND whole cheesecakes and carrot cakes that look like you could purchase from a fancy bakery downtown. ALSO there is a garden about 4x the size of my family room and kitchen at home for those of you that know the size with seats/booths through out. There is a HUGE fountain in the center and to top it off inside there is a lion fountain with 4 foot bamboo shoots around it. Id eat there everyday just for the looks. I am for sure returning on Sunday when I dont have meals prepared for me at my house.
Tonight my grandma, Marina, ate dinner with us for the first time. And afterwards she was asking the girls if her show was on. I asked if I could watch, not knowing what it was. And it happened to be Dr. G Medical Examiner!!!!!.... in Spanish. This turned out to be perfectly fine surprisingly. I understood most of it and knew what each diagnosis was.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Sunday May 29, 2011--- Last day at Playa el Zonte
We woke up mega early to surf at 7 am. There was only 3 of us left over that actually wanted to continue surfing. Half of the others came to watch and the other half slept. As we were getting into the water... my surf instructor touched the water with his hand and made the sign of the cross....I started getting worried and asked him if it was for luck? He laughed and said sure. Today we were paddling before we got up. Yesterday we simply were lying on the board with our back leg (while standing up) next to our knee so we had the correct foot placement for one foot and only needed to move the front foot forward. Sadly... the next day my arms were tired from paddling. I think its a sign that my month of not working out since my half marathon isn´t good for me. I had a pretty good day of surfing. The waves were even rougher today, but it was all good. I got up almost everytime and stayed on for a decent amount of time. Sometimes the waves were so little that i just hopped off because I was barely moving. Other times I rode it all the way to shore because they were going so fast. And othertimes I fell off because I lost my balance. I had an awesome time and I´m glad I did it. However... I do not know how anyone could actually paddle by themselves and even make it out to the bigger waves. Yet alone actually surf the real waves. I was just ¨surfing¨ on the baby white waves after they had already broken.
We came back for breakfast at around 8:30. We went back to the beach before lunch started. We were dumb enough to walk along the shoreline to where we swam/surfed during the rising tide. The waves rolled in and smashed against the wall to our right and drenched us. Sometimes we couldn´t move because we couldn´t see if there were rocks because the water was too high. So it was a huge struggle and we were smart enough to walk on the raised land on the way home, but we still had problems on the way back. None of us wore shoes and we burned our feet when we weren´t in the shade. So we ran from shaded spot to shaded spot. The sun was OOBER strong there. I got burned even though I put on sunscreen 3x and we were only there til 2. And I avoided the sun at all costs except for when I was surfing, in the ocean and walking back from the ocean. I ended up with pretty attractive sunburn lines. First my face was fried. Then when surfing I was wearing a Tshirt to protect myself from getting a rash from the board and that had a turtle neck piece. So I got burned on the sides of my neck and it stops where the turtle neck was. My arms got burned so I also have a sleeve mark for where the shirt stopped, however somehow my shoulders got burned so I have a white strip of about 4 inches of white arm where the Tshirt sleeve was. To top it off my chest and thighs and parts of my calves got burned. The only things that hurt badly though were my arms, my shoulders when I carried my backpack and my face. I was reminded another reason why I don´t like the beach sometimes. Sand gets EVERYWHERE. I had to Qtip my ears with 2 Qtips to get the sand out. Even 2 days later I am still finding small sand bits in my ears.
We left the hotel at 2:30 and got back at 7:30. It was just supposed to be a 4 hour drive back but a kid in the van was feeling sick and the windy and bumpy roads weren´t helping so we had to stop at least 5 times so he could throw up on the side of the road.
I got home safe and sound... except a little burned.
We came back for breakfast at around 8:30. We went back to the beach before lunch started. We were dumb enough to walk along the shoreline to where we swam/surfed during the rising tide. The waves rolled in and smashed against the wall to our right and drenched us. Sometimes we couldn´t move because we couldn´t see if there were rocks because the water was too high. So it was a huge struggle and we were smart enough to walk on the raised land on the way home, but we still had problems on the way back. None of us wore shoes and we burned our feet when we weren´t in the shade. So we ran from shaded spot to shaded spot. The sun was OOBER strong there. I got burned even though I put on sunscreen 3x and we were only there til 2. And I avoided the sun at all costs except for when I was surfing, in the ocean and walking back from the ocean. I ended up with pretty attractive sunburn lines. First my face was fried. Then when surfing I was wearing a Tshirt to protect myself from getting a rash from the board and that had a turtle neck piece. So I got burned on the sides of my neck and it stops where the turtle neck was. My arms got burned so I also have a sleeve mark for where the shirt stopped, however somehow my shoulders got burned so I have a white strip of about 4 inches of white arm where the Tshirt sleeve was. To top it off my chest and thighs and parts of my calves got burned. The only things that hurt badly though were my arms, my shoulders when I carried my backpack and my face. I was reminded another reason why I don´t like the beach sometimes. Sand gets EVERYWHERE. I had to Qtip my ears with 2 Qtips to get the sand out. Even 2 days later I am still finding small sand bits in my ears.
We left the hotel at 2:30 and got back at 7:30. It was just supposed to be a 4 hour drive back but a kid in the van was feeling sick and the windy and bumpy roads weren´t helping so we had to stop at least 5 times so he could throw up on the side of the road.
I got home safe and sound... except a little burned.
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