Remember to check out the website following Bob from Guatemala to Chile
http://www.walk2gether.org/en.aspx
I'll be walking the first 2 weeks in Honduras! Follow me!
Friday, January 8, 2010
Update
Just an update on what I’m doing now in Guatemala. After spending Christmas in Honduras, participating on the Walk2gether send off, and just finishing up my first Mission Awareness Trip, I am back in the office in Sololá. I began teaching English classes in December to the social workers of the Sololá region and am holding a special class for translators every Friday. I teach classes two full weeks out of the month. I travel to the 8 different subprojects of Sololá. I have to travel by bus, van, pickup, boat, mototaxi, and by foot to get to all the different locations. It’s a lot of traveling but I am really enjoying teaching these classes and I am excited to continue. I also began organizing soccer tournaments for each subproject on Saturday mornings. The winner of the subprojects will then face off in an inter-regional tournament later in the year and we will crown a Sololá champion.
My schedule for the coming weeks looks like this:
Jan 5-7 I will be joining the walk for some activity days with my co-workers from the regional office to say goodbye to Bob as he leaves Guatemala and crosses into El Salvador.
Jan 14-28 I will be participating on the first leg of the walk in Honduras. There are usually 3-4 days of walking and then a rest/activity day. I hope I can make it the whole way. We start walking at 4AM and each day will walk between 35-40 kilometers (about 25 miles). We will be camping out in tents and sleeping bag, or in churches and schools.
Feb 1 My schedule will be back to normal and I will be back in the office working/translating/teaching.
Feb 6-13 Mission Awareness Trip where I will be the translator and help to organize and lead all of the weeks activities.
Christmas 2010 Santa Rosa, Honduras
This year, I got to spend Christmas 2009 in Santa Rosa, Honduras at the Hogar de Niñas, an orphanage for girls. Dani, a volunteer herself, has been living there and working for CFCA for over a year. She was pulled out because of the political instability of the country. Dani and I left on December 21 at 5:00AM to catch a bus into Guatemala City. In Guate, we had to go and pick up my passport, which was being kept by Guatemalan Migración.
Just a quick back story on how it ended up there: I had gone the Friday before to the city to renew my passport as my 90 days were about to expire. I had a co-worker with me, Don Santiago, who was familiar with the city. We left at 3:00 in the morning to get a bus and avoid traffic. It’s about a 3-hour trip if you are lucky. The bus was on time, but that was about all that went right. First of all, we went to the wrong location. My guide lead me to the US Embassy and after waiting in line for a while and finally getting up to the window, the woman said that I was mistaken and needed to go to immigration. OK. No problem. I arrived about an hour later at the correct place after asking for directions, taking a number of buses and then walking the majority of the way. The woman at the window asked me if I had a passport size photo. I said I did not as this was never mentioned on any information I had about renewing passports within the country. She told me it was required so I had to go across the street to a mall and get pictures taken there. So I did. 50 Quetzales later I was back with copies of my passport, credit card, photo and the passport itself. She then tells me that I can pay for the renewal at the bank next door. Fine. So I wait in line at the bank to pay. It ended up being around $20 (a large amount of for a volunteer living on $100 a month).
Finally, I think that I am finished. I go back to the original window with my receipt and I’m thinking, you know, it was a big pain, I’m sweating, I’m tired, but it will be worth it to not have to leave the country to get another stamp. I’m ready for her to hand back my passport and in a very chipper voice she says to me “You can pick up your passport on Monday at 10:00AM”. I just stood there staring at her. “You’ve got to be kidding,” I thought. Maybe I had heard wrong. She looks at me funny and gestures her arms so as to indicate “We are done here. See you Monday”. I turned around and looked at Santiago who had been with me waiting around all day and told him the news. He couldn’t believe it either. We took a bus back to San Lucas arriving at around 4PM. After a 13-hour trip, I was returning with less than I had started with. No passport.
Luckily, picking it up that Monday was not much trouble. Armed with my documentation and fully legal, we set out to look for the bus that would take us to Esquipulas. It took some doing but we found it and were headed for the boarder. From Esquipulas you have to take a taxi across the border. At immigration in Honduras we had a little scare as they wanted to charge Dani $154 for still having a piece of paper in her passport that they were supposed to have taken out when she left the last time. We finally convinced the employee that we were volunteers and we didn’t have that money and that it wasn’t her fault that the paper was still there. We then arrived in Acotepeque, Honduras and saw one of Dani’s co-workers there. She told us they would take us to Santa Rosa in their pickup. One less bus for us to take. We slept most of the way an arrived in Santa Rosa at around 10PM. A full day’s travel.
I stayed close to the orphanage in the Hogar de Ancianos, or old-folks home. The nuns there were so nice and I had my own room all prepared when I got there.
The next day, Dani came by and we walked to the orphanage to meet the girls. When we got there, I was immediately mobbed. Everyone wanted a hug and to know my name and, more than anything, to touch my beard. The girls were so sweet and we played games all afternoon. I met the nuns who run the home and everyone there was so welcoming. In the afternoon, Dani showed me around town and I met more friends and co-workers. Later that night we even went out for Chinese food. The next day, Dani and I went with Ricardo and Iris, the people who drove us from Acotepeque, to visit a community in San Miguel. It was a long drive and the roads sort of disappear after a while. This will be one of the places that Don Roberto will stop and visit on the activity day of his walk through Honduras. It was really neat to see and be involved in the community itself and see how excited they were to be able to host Bob Hentzen in their town. What is even more exciting for me is that I will be on the walk with Bob for 2 weeks in Honduras so I will get to go to the community again and see what they have prepared. We went back to Santa Rosa that night, stopping on the way at a sponsored families home, where they served us tamales (a traditional Christmas food).
Thursday was Christmas Eve, or La Noche Buena. This is the day were most of the Christmas celebrating takes place in Central America. Everyone stays up late to see the fireworks at midnight and eat a special late-night dinner. It preparation, we spent the morning decorating the orphanage with holiday drawings done by the girls. I even drew a Santa Clause for my group. Many of the girls helped the nuns to make the tamales that would be eaten later that night. In the afternoon, Dani and I lead the girls in making gingerbread houses. Ours did not turn out very good due to the fact that it had expired a while back. The girls still had fun with it and were very dedicated.
We had Mass at 5 and all the girls dressed in their Sunday best. That night for dinner, I learned to make tortillas (although mine lacked a certain “roundness” quality typical of the staple food). Later that night we watched “Elf”, a Christmas favorite of the girls. and as midnight approached, everyone came outside to watch the fireworks and receive presents. It was a very different Christmas for me, being away from home for the first time, but to spend La Navidad with the girls from Santa Rosa was a great experience and one that I will always remember.
On Christmas day, we said our goodbyes and thank you’s and headed back to Acotepeque to meet Bob and Christina Hentzen who have a house there. The following morning, we accompanied them to Guatemala City to greet the sponsors who were arriving for the December 2009 Mission Awareness Trip. More to come on this incredible week.
Just a quick back story on how it ended up there: I had gone the Friday before to the city to renew my passport as my 90 days were about to expire. I had a co-worker with me, Don Santiago, who was familiar with the city. We left at 3:00 in the morning to get a bus and avoid traffic. It’s about a 3-hour trip if you are lucky. The bus was on time, but that was about all that went right. First of all, we went to the wrong location. My guide lead me to the US Embassy and after waiting in line for a while and finally getting up to the window, the woman said that I was mistaken and needed to go to immigration. OK. No problem. I arrived about an hour later at the correct place after asking for directions, taking a number of buses and then walking the majority of the way. The woman at the window asked me if I had a passport size photo. I said I did not as this was never mentioned on any information I had about renewing passports within the country. She told me it was required so I had to go across the street to a mall and get pictures taken there. So I did. 50 Quetzales later I was back with copies of my passport, credit card, photo and the passport itself. She then tells me that I can pay for the renewal at the bank next door. Fine. So I wait in line at the bank to pay. It ended up being around $20 (a large amount of for a volunteer living on $100 a month).
Finally, I think that I am finished. I go back to the original window with my receipt and I’m thinking, you know, it was a big pain, I’m sweating, I’m tired, but it will be worth it to not have to leave the country to get another stamp. I’m ready for her to hand back my passport and in a very chipper voice she says to me “You can pick up your passport on Monday at 10:00AM”. I just stood there staring at her. “You’ve got to be kidding,” I thought. Maybe I had heard wrong. She looks at me funny and gestures her arms so as to indicate “We are done here. See you Monday”. I turned around and looked at Santiago who had been with me waiting around all day and told him the news. He couldn’t believe it either. We took a bus back to San Lucas arriving at around 4PM. After a 13-hour trip, I was returning with less than I had started with. No passport.
Luckily, picking it up that Monday was not much trouble. Armed with my documentation and fully legal, we set out to look for the bus that would take us to Esquipulas. It took some doing but we found it and were headed for the boarder. From Esquipulas you have to take a taxi across the border. At immigration in Honduras we had a little scare as they wanted to charge Dani $154 for still having a piece of paper in her passport that they were supposed to have taken out when she left the last time. We finally convinced the employee that we were volunteers and we didn’t have that money and that it wasn’t her fault that the paper was still there. We then arrived in Acotepeque, Honduras and saw one of Dani’s co-workers there. She told us they would take us to Santa Rosa in their pickup. One less bus for us to take. We slept most of the way an arrived in Santa Rosa at around 10PM. A full day’s travel.
I stayed close to the orphanage in the Hogar de Ancianos, or old-folks home. The nuns there were so nice and I had my own room all prepared when I got there.
The next day, Dani came by and we walked to the orphanage to meet the girls. When we got there, I was immediately mobbed. Everyone wanted a hug and to know my name and, more than anything, to touch my beard. The girls were so sweet and we played games all afternoon. I met the nuns who run the home and everyone there was so welcoming. In the afternoon, Dani showed me around town and I met more friends and co-workers. Later that night we even went out for Chinese food. The next day, Dani and I went with Ricardo and Iris, the people who drove us from Acotepeque, to visit a community in San Miguel. It was a long drive and the roads sort of disappear after a while. This will be one of the places that Don Roberto will stop and visit on the activity day of his walk through Honduras. It was really neat to see and be involved in the community itself and see how excited they were to be able to host Bob Hentzen in their town. What is even more exciting for me is that I will be on the walk with Bob for 2 weeks in Honduras so I will get to go to the community again and see what they have prepared. We went back to Santa Rosa that night, stopping on the way at a sponsored families home, where they served us tamales (a traditional Christmas food).
Thursday was Christmas Eve, or La Noche Buena. This is the day were most of the Christmas celebrating takes place in Central America. Everyone stays up late to see the fireworks at midnight and eat a special late-night dinner. It preparation, we spent the morning decorating the orphanage with holiday drawings done by the girls. I even drew a Santa Clause for my group. Many of the girls helped the nuns to make the tamales that would be eaten later that night. In the afternoon, Dani and I lead the girls in making gingerbread houses. Ours did not turn out very good due to the fact that it had expired a while back. The girls still had fun with it and were very dedicated.
We had Mass at 5 and all the girls dressed in their Sunday best. That night for dinner, I learned to make tortillas (although mine lacked a certain “roundness” quality typical of the staple food). Later that night we watched “Elf”, a Christmas favorite of the girls. and as midnight approached, everyone came outside to watch the fireworks and receive presents. It was a very different Christmas for me, being away from home for the first time, but to spend La Navidad with the girls from Santa Rosa was a great experience and one that I will always remember.
On Christmas day, we said our goodbyes and thank you’s and headed back to Acotepeque to meet Bob and Christina Hentzen who have a house there. The following morning, we accompanied them to Guatemala City to greet the sponsors who were arriving for the December 2009 Mission Awareness Trip. More to come on this incredible week.
Saturday, January 2, 2010
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