CPGC Guatemala

It is sad not being in Guatemala. Life feels so meaningless at home. When I first got back my family was not even in town. I went to bed the first night in a huge bed in a huge house all by myself. It was so lonely. Where did all of the people go? The parrots and dogs and children? The noises from the streets? It is beautiful at home, but besides the ocean, it is really a man-made beauty, not a natural beauty. Where did all of the green mountains, magenta flowers, yellow butterflies, and green volcanoes go? Where did all of the people go? Why does everyone live so far apart? I miss my babies. I miss Ana Lucia’s lack-of-oxygen smiles, Lester’s hugs, Astrid’s personality, Yandel’s dimples, Cindi’s dancing skills, Angelita’s smile, Kateryn’s baby fat, Hansel’s first steps, Cori’s games, and Carmelina’s joy, Olga’s jokes, Lily’s love, Zara’s blabbing, Felix and Victor’s games, and Julio’s dislike of sweets. I used to get one million hugs and kisses everyday and now I’m lucky if I get 4.

I want my babies back!

The final weekend in Guatemala (August 6th to 8th) my sister and I headed to Lanquin and Semuc Champey. The 8 hour shuttle ride with a lady from South Africa, newlyweds from the U.S., and people from Denmark and Holland was very interesting. The driver stopped about 4 times to see different women- one of which was his wife and another of which hopped in the car and drove the rest of the way with us to Coban. When we stopped in Coban for a bathroom break, he did not return for an hour. We were very excited to finally arrive in Lanquin that night at around 6pm. We instantly went in a truck to the bat caves of Lanquin. There were millions of bats flying every direction. It was pretty sweet and a little creepy.

The staff at El Retiro (the “hippest” hostel in Lanquin) was infuriating. They were not nice and “lost” everyone’s reservations. Luckily, they still had a loft available for my sister and me (meaning a loft above someone’s room with a curtain as a door). Despite the staff and the fear I had as I slept in an open room, the hostel was really cool. The buildings all had thatched roofs and the environment was just beautiful. It was located on lush, green land next to a flowing river. Dinner was buffet/cafeteria style. There were people from all over the world (people from the U.S., Canada, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Sweden, and England). People were just there to travel. People were typically traveling for a few months, until their money ran out, or indefinitely by just stopping and working along the way.

Europeans and Australians have such a different mentality from (U.S.) Americans. They are so carefree, adventurous, and healthy. They have little to know plans and just follow where life takes them. It’s such a refreshing way to think. (Granted, I know the people I met are not representative of all Europeans and Australians, but of the people I met, this is how they all seemed to think.)

Anyways, the next morning a group of about 20 of us headed to Semuc Champey via truck. We began our adventure by jumping off of a swing into a fast flowing river. We then toured dark caves with candles. It was a crazy experience. We would not have been allowed to do this tour in the U.S. or any other country without signing release forms and wearing helmets and proper foot gear. We all wore flip flops and swimsuits only. We all followed each other into dark caves, each holding a candle. You never knew if you were going to fall and have to swim, or if while swimming you were going to hit a huge rock. It was a little scary but very exciting. Some people chose to climb up a rope through a waterfall. I used the ladder to the side of the waterfall (which was pretty dangerous itself). At another point in time we had the option of climbing a little higher and jumping into darkness. The first guy that went hit his butt on the ground, so I opted out of that jump. On the way out of the cave we took a “shortcut” and at one point in time had to sit hunched over as small as possible on a rock, surrounded by rock walls, with water rushing through, only able to see a small hole where the water went. The guide said, “Put your foot here, the other there, now hold on here and don’t let go. Now…. JUMP!” You could not see where you were going, how long you were going to be submerged in water, how far the drop was, but you JUMPED! It only lasted a few seconds and we were all fine, but it was scary! We all made it out alive. My sister actually left 15 minutes into it, when she heard we would be in here for 2 hours. Claustrophobia got the best of her. We ate our delicious lunches packed in banana leaves by the hostel, and then went tubing down the river. We then had the option of jumping off of a bridge into the river, which I opted out of having had enough adventure that day and since the first guy the jumped off said he hit the bottom.

We then made it to the real Semuc Champey- beautiful natural pools of water. We hiked about an hour to get to the lookout point above all of the pools. It was miraculous. We were then very excited to actually get in the pools. The clear, aqua colored water was magnificent. The fish did not come up and eat our dead skin like we were told, but it was still an amazing experience. It was basically paradise. One guy in our group said we basically have a place like this near us (Havesu Pi), but I highly doubt it is anything like Semuc Champey. The greenery and vegetation cannot be beat outside of a rainforest climate.

Semuc Champey is definitely a must see. It definitely makes the top ten places to visit in the world.

My sister came to visit me my last 10 days in Guatemala and we went on a 3 day tour of Livingston, Quirigua, Tikal, and a Spanish fort. We got picked up by a shuttle at our house at 6am. We then picked up a few more people around Antigua (from Iceland, Holland, and Chicago) and then headed for Quirigua. Quirigua was a small Mayan ruins town. We walked around and saw all of it in about 30 minutes (much smaller than the Copan, Honduran Mayan ruins). The shuttle was freezing cold from the air conditioning, and Quirigua was burning hot and humid.

After a few more hours of driving we got out at Puerto Barrios (on the east coast of Guatemala) and hopped a lancha (motor boat) to Livingston. When we all sat down on the boat we were excited for a beautiful boat ride. The boat driver brought out two tarps and said “lot o water.” We all had no idea what we were doing with the tarps and the guy chose not to give any directions, perhaps assuming we all only spoke English, and that was all of the English he knew, so we all sat there. He put one of the tarps back and covered himself with the other.

After about 3 minutes in the boat we were all soaked and sick to our stomachs. After about 10 minutes the boat driver realized I could speak Spanish and asked if I thought the sea and sky were beautiful. I had no idea whether the sea or sky was beautiful because I could not see, my eyes were full of water. After 45 minutes, we were on land again proud of having survived.

My sister and I showered and then walked around Livingston. Livingston is not an island, but is only accessible by boat and has a large Garifuna population (black population). The island is very cute and safe. They told us there is no crime in Livingston because they depend on tourism. We walked the entire town in about 30 minutes passing by tons of restaurants, houses, boats, and beautifully colorful cemeteries. We tried the two local dishes- tapada (a delicious seafood soup) and coco loco (a drink where they go grab a coconut, slice it open, add a few items, and then you drink the delicious coconut milk from the coconut). They were both too die for.

The next day we were not surprised to see that our “beautiful sailboat ride” had turned into a survival experience on a lancha trying to get across the “beautiful rio dulce” as quickly as possible. When we first boarded the boat the waves were crashing down on the boat. The boat was filled with water and it was very difficult to step into the boat without getting your feel smashed by something hard such as the boat or the dock. It was pouring rain and a little scary. Once we made it from the sea to the rio dulce, things calmed down quite a bit though. It was not sunny, but the river was still beautiful. There were families, men, and women paddling canoe like boats down the river. People were fishing. Birds were flying. We thought we had made it across when we docked. Turns out we were just stopping at the house of the boat driver to drop off some flowers.

Short after, we arrived at Flores, the beautiful, cute town near Tikal. We wanted to explore the small island during our one hour, but it started to pour so we just ate at a restaurant close by. The limonada was delicious.

We hopped back in the car and made it to our main destination, Tikal (the largest Mayan ruins in Guatemala). We took the sunset tour of the ruins. We saw howler and spider monkeys. We listened to a guide make up information about the ruins. Everytime one lady would ask a question (regarding something she had read in a guide book) he did not know how to respond. You can never know whether people are talking fact or fiction here. We climbed a pyramid and watched the “sunset.” It was a beautiful view up above the tall zapote trees, we could see for miles. Unfortunately the clouds blocked the sunset.

The next morning we went ziplining in the Tikal forest. It was fun, but very rushed. We then drove back to Antigua via a Spanish fort. The fort was actually pretty interesting. It was small and yet you could spend a long time exploring all of the little passageways. It’s surrounding on a waterway and lush greenery were beautiful.

I have decided that all of the Guatemalan paisaje is breathtaking!

The last day of work (August 5th) was incredibly hectic which on the bright side did not give me time to cry. I got there at my usual time (approximately 8:15 am), I said “buenos dias” to everyone and they all smiled and said hello or good morning back. I had finally gained the respect of everyone at the hospicio and yet I had to leave. I thanked Paty and Elena for giving me such a wonderful experience with some oven mits and spatulas. I then went directly to the babies. It was sad to hug and kiss them for the last time. They were all so cute and were all so happy to see me (unlike my first day of work). Unfortunately Ana Lucia had a fever, so instead of the usual smile I get where it looks like she is having trouble breathing because she is so enthused, she just gave me a regular smile. I helped clothe the babies and then had to finish with the inventory.

I had been working on that inventory for about 2 weeks and could not wait to be done. I finished counting and recording all of the items in both the little kid and the big kid rooms. The Excel document consisted of about 5 sheets and about 400 rows per sheet. I finally finished by typing in the last of the library books. I then had to explain to the ACIs (“moms”) and teachers how the inventory was organized and how they can put the date at the top of the next column and change the numbers depending on whether things are added or taken away so the head people can see where everything is going.

I then spent the rest of my time putting photos of all of the kids and some of the ACIs (“moms”) on the walls in everyone’s rooms and in the hallway. I had about 200 hundred photos and everyone was swarming me trying to look at all of the photos before I got a chance to put them up and then asking if they could keep the photos for themselves (the children and the ACIs). It was very difficult to get all of the photos up before the kids got back from school since the moms kept picking up the photos and moving them out of their piles and I had to convince them that it would be better if the kids got to see the photos of themselves everyday instead of them taking the photos home so only they got to see them.

The photos brought mixed results. Everyone loved them, but they all wanted more. They kept asking for more photos (for all of the photos I have ever taken of them), and for photos of other kids for them to keep. The moms tried to take all of the photos before I got to put them up despite the fact that I had photos for the moms already. The little kids (3-4 year olds) were so excited to see photos of themselves. I tried to put up photos of just the children but I ended up putting about 2 up where I was in the photos with a group of kids. Sergio did not realize that I had put the photos up and while I was in a different room putting up photos he grabbed my hand and brought me to his room to show me that I was on the wall. It was so cute! Then I went back to putting up the photos in another room and he came right back in, grabbed my hand and showed me I was on the hallway wall too. He was so ecstatic. They would grab their friends, point, and shout, “There you are!”

As I was completing the photos in the babies’ room (the final room), I was asked to come into the big kids’ study room. I was in such a hurry and I thought they needed me to fix some inventory problem, but when I arrived, all of the kids and moms were in there with the teachers and they all said, “Thank you Kara” (in English this time) and gave me a sign that said “Thank You Very Much Kara” with all of their hand prints on it. It was sooooo sweet! I was overwhelmed. And they all ran up and hugged me goodbye. It was more than I ever hoped for. It was the perfect goodbye! And the teachers, Wendy and Beatriz hugged me goodbye and gave me flowers and thanked me for everything. They apparently really appreciated all of my organizing and inventory-ing. They were so sweet! All of the “moms” and teachers and head people thanked me and blessed me and said such kind words. I was so overwhelmed I could not think of the words I wanted to say. It was the perfect goodbye!

And then when I was running out the door so I would not miss my ride they informed me that I had to go see Mari in the social work room. I thought I would have to spend about an hour answering questions and filling out an application like I had to the first day. I thought I was definitely going to miss my ride. I ran into the room and Mari handed me a certificate of completion and a Hospicio de San Jose t-shirt! I felt so honored and I was so happy to have a shirt to remember everyone by everyday.

I then rushed out the door to catch my ride. I did not have enought time to think or cry. I was so overwhelmed by how appreciated I was and how kind they all were.

I wear that t-shirt everynight to bed now.

A week ago (on the weekend) I went on my first solo trip. Kayleighs family came and they went on a trip all over so I braved the trip alone. It ended up being really fun and I feel like I was more open to meeting new people because I did not have Kayleigh as a crunch. It was a really good experience.
The first day was really ugly out so I just utilized that time to get birthday gifts for everyone. They have beautiful, huge oil paintings of the lake for 200 quetzales (or 25 dollars). I actually felt bad at how low you can get the prices. The girl offered me the painting for 150 Q, but I paid 200 anyways. It was still a bargain! I cant wait till you all see it =)
I stopped for a slice of cake at around 4pm and chatted with a nurse from Australia with really cool stories. She kindly invited me to dinner with her and her friend. We had delicious Italian food and ran into a guy who stayed with my homestay family a week before and his friends. We all ended up talking all night long. Its so fun meeting different people from different stages in their lives with different, interesting stories.

The second day was beautiful (extra thanks to the previous ugly day)! I took a lanza (motor boat) to 3 islands with a group of people. We went to San Marcos, San Pedro, and Santiago Atitlan. All of the islands were beautiful, but horribly hit by tourism. I wished the tourist places could just not be there so I could get a real experience, but then again I guess I should be glad they let me visit. My favorite part was just looking at the beautiful blue lake, blue sky, and meeting a 3o year old lady from Mexico getting her PhD in bio-chem. She was actually the first Mexican person I have met in Guatemala. Previously I had only heard that Guatemalans “hate” Mexicans, and Mexicans “hate” Guatemalans (both for absolutely no reason). My friend did not seem to “hate” anything about Guatemala. She only said that when she thinks of Guatemala, she thinks of a poor country. But she was very nice and seemed to love Guatemala! We ended up meeting up for dinner that night in Antigua after we both got back on different shuttles. It was so nice talking 100 percent in Spanish all day!

p.s. I thought I was going to die on the 2.5 hour microbus (shuttle) ride back to Antigua. The driver went about 100 miles an hour down and around a mountain with pot holes everywhere. We were constantly bouncing and I thought we were just going to fly off the edge, or hit a car coming in the other direction. We survived. Again, I appreciate the roads in the US!
I also met a mother and son on the shuttle ride from Nicaragua and Aruba who just finished a week trip fixing cleft palates here in Antigua at Hermano Pedro. They were really kind and interesting! I cant wait until I have the skills to do something like that!

Having not trained well, including having been sick for the past 2 weeks in which I barely ran because I barely got enough sleep to excuse getting up extra early to run, I decided to run a medio maraton (half marathon), El Maraton de las Rosas. The race began today at 8:30 a.m. in the central park of Antigua (my city). The first kilometer consisted of slow walking because there were so many competitors, it was impossible to run.  The first six kilometers were tons of fun running around Jocotenango (a neighboring pueblo), chatting with 3 friends of the family I live with who I had gone to church with and had a 4 hour lunch with last month, David, Edgar, and Diego. Kilometers 6 through 12 were comfortable because we got to run on a paved highway as oppose to the usual cobblestone. I had a cramp that only lasted for about 1 kilometer! Kilometers 12 through 18 were a little brutal. We were running back on the cobblestone, and now in a very hilly (*read uphill) pueblo, Ciudad Vieja. The fans were great, helping us along, giving us agua pura, gatorade, and cheering “!animo a las mujeres!” I appreciated the feminine support! My back hurt a bit, but I found a posture that made it all better. My running group was great. For about 2 kilometers I felt like I was holding the group back, but then I stepped it up and the boys were behind me for a bit. I felt like we did a great job of staying together and supporting/pushing each other. Everyone had their own time where they needed the support. It was nice knowing that I was not the only one needing the support.

The last 5 kilometers were off and on. I heard I only had 3 kilometers left when in reality I probably had about 5 kilometers left, so I stepped on the gas prematurely. When I read the 18 kilometer mark on the ground and realized that was when I really had 3 kilometers left, I slowed down a bit a little upset I had pushed it prematurely. There was a little bit of paved road between the 18 and 19 kilometer mark which was pretty exciting. We slowly but surely sped up as we neared the end. When I first hit the cobblestone at 19 kilometers I began to speed up, but ran a little too hard. Everytime I thought I was really close to central park, I started booking it, but then slowed down when I realized I had no idea where I was. It was difficult to pass people because everyone was on the sidewalk (where it is less cobblestoney) so if you wanted to pass someone you had to jump off of the sidewalk to the awful cobblestone, and then jump back up to the sidewalk. (It is interesting to see a city with no sort of step size regulations by the way.)

We had a great pace going by the end and then when we saw the finish line we waited for David to catch up so we could run across the finish line together. We then all started to sprint and David took off and creamed us, then came Diego, then me, and then Edgar. We finished in around 2 hours and 13 minutes. We then waited in a gigantic line for our “free” t shirts,” at which point in time I learned that “agua” means gatorade, and you have to say “agua pura” to get water.

I felt great after the race, eating my “free” banana and apple and then shaved iced with fruit.

Interesting Note: The water they gave out was in bags and you had to bite them to get the water out. They also gave out water with miel (honey) at around kilometer 5 to recharge the sugars. They did not bring in any extra port a potties or anything, so the line at the public restroom in which you pay 3 quetzales (38 cents) to use was excedingly long. I wore a shirt that said “por el SIDA, Educate” (Educate yourself about AIDS), and received zero comments. The kilometers were marked occasionally (at around 3, 6, 10, 12, 16, and 18). Oh, and a half marathon is 21 kilometers (or 13 miles) in case I didn’t make that clear.

Lesson Learned: Having not trained at all, if you feel like it, you can run a half marathon!

Sorry it´s been a while. There is so much going on here, it´s hard to find time to blog.

Anyways, last we talked we were working on the website and funding. Our plans quickly changed. It turns out the website will not be ready for us to translate for while.

We had our first English class last week teaching the alphabet to about 20 kids at the same time. It was chaotic! The kids were very talkative and it was hard to get their attention. Everyday since then, when they get back from school, the first thing they ask is if we are going to teach English today. It´s really cute how excited they are for English class, and yet they act like they don´t want to do it when we gather them up for class. When we say it´s time for English, it takes them forever to go to the room and they put on a pouty face. Even in class they look sad as if they hate the class until it is their turn to pronounce the word. When it´s their turn they exude joy and are ecstatic to speak.

We have only worked on the alphabet and vowel sounds thus far, although we have also made numbers charts and have the days of the week and months planned in our heads. It is a little chaotic at the orphanage and hard to find a time to teach English. They are either eating lunch, brushing their teeth, doing their homework, at the park, or getting their teeth cleaned at the dentist. The English classes are a bit impromptu and we have not had as many as I´d hoped to.

The day of our first English class, we spoke with the directors of the Hospicio and were given a new project. We are now in charge of organizing the two study/stimulation rooms. We are almost done with one of the two rooms, but have yet to start the inventory. They want us to develop a system where people have to sign out pencils and books, etc, because the system right now is basically if you find something, you can use it, but chances are no one is ever going to find it again. I cannot wait to organize everything. It is a big task! I hope we make a system they can use. It sounds a little too military for my style, but it seems like that is what they need at this point in time.

We have not gotten very far with the inventory because it is very difficult to leave the babies. We finally found our niche with the babies and it´s hard to not be with them. In order to complete our tasks we are definitely going to need to take more time away from them, and spend more of it in the classrooms. Wish us luck!

Kayleigh, Emily, and I drove to Xela (Quetzaltenango, Guatemala) this Saturday with Lily (our house ¨mom¨/¨sister¨), her husband Julio, and their two-year-old daughter, Sara. They were so nice to have taken us on their family three-day vacation! We were so lucky to be invited, we obviously snapped up the offer despite the fact that we would miss 4th of July with fellow gringos here in Antigua. (*Not actually a problem in the slightest by the way.)

Julio drove the 5 hours it took to get to the city. We stopped to eat a chorizo (round slice of pig meat in two tortillas) at a little restaurant at the side of the road. The places to get food at the side of the road here are 1000 times better than the options in the U.S. The roads in the U.S. are 1000 times better than the roads here though. During our weekend vacation one pleasant man actually commented on how nothing is free in the U.S. and here everything is free. He has a point. It is very nice that people have more freedom in certain ways such as the height of their house, or the ability to have as many people in a car as you´d like. It is nice that there are not as many strict rules that sometimes feel superfluous. However, I greatly appreciate the flat, safe roads in the U.S., the clean streets, and the security you feel while walking in the streets during the daytime knowing that there is less likely a chance that a crazy man is going to hit you and if one does, someone will try to help as opposed to ignore it because it is the norm. Also, while it is nice that people can get rides from each other by hopping in the back of a truck, it´s probably not as safe.

Back to Saturday- we arrived in Xela around 8pm. Julio, Lily, and Sara went to a quinceñera, while Kayleigh, Emily, and I went to the 3rd Annual Guatemalan Salsa Competition. It was lots of fun. I was expecting a more professional atmosphere, but was pleasantly surprised by the casual atmosphere in which we could hoot and holler. My salsa teacher, Nancy, and her partner, Andrés, were in the competition. It started with ¨amateurs¨ which included a few gringas, proceeded by ¨young professionals,¨ and concluded with ¨professionals.¨  My teacher had the best smile, but unfortunately not the best moves. All of the couples had amazing moves that I would have never guessed were salsa moves since I´ve only seen the basic steps which so far have had strict rules as to where you put your arms and such. The performance was lots of fun with lots of cheering. On the way out a local asked Emily if she wanted to dance and she said no, so when he asked me, I followed the same ¨no¨ response. I kind of regret it. I was thinking of too many reasons to say no at the time. I forgot that it could have been tons of fun to practice my salsa moves in real life (outside of the classroom). I should have just said yes.

The next day we walked around the beautiful central park with Lily´s family enjoying churritos (tomales filled with some meat), atol de elote (a thick corn drink), and arroz con chocolate (a rice-chocolate drink) for breakfast all for about 2 dollars. We then met the family of the quinceñera in San Juan. They were so friendly, offering us café, homemade cheese tomalitos, and a whole tier of the hot pink, vanilla cake. They asked why we did not want to go to the quinceñera which completely shocked me. We had no idea we were welcome. We would have totally gone! Lily and Julio made it sound like we were not welcome. I think we would have been completely welcome. They were so nice and genuine. Hopefully there will be another opportunity sometime, somewhere. There were 400 invitations sent out, 200 guests- 10 of which were actually the friends of the quinceñera. It is definitely a family event.

Later we met up with Lily and Julio´s friends in the central park. They were just about the opposite of the first family. They were equally as nice but in a more subtle, less huggy way. They showed us two of their three businesses: Los Baños (a place where people go to bathe who do not have hot water), and Ropa Americana (a used clothing store). Late that night we attended el circo (the circus) after a failed attempt at seeing Era de Hielo 3 (Ice Age 3) due to the massive long line. It was my first time at a normal circus (I´ve only seen Cirque du Soleil before). It was interesting, but freezing and late (especially for the 2 year old girl). The acrobatics were good and the lions and tigers were exciting, I just wish I had been more awake.

We ate at Wendy´s around 11pm and then spent the night at Roy´s (one of the two friends) house. It was really nice. The family was equally as friendly but different from the first family. They were very talkative, yet it was clear that we were not to explore the house. We stayed in the room we were given. The house was decorated by beautiful artwork done by the mom. I was in awe of her work. I wanted to go upstairs to see more.

On Monday we ate eggs, frijoles, piña, and ciruelas (plums) with the family and then headed to Xelapan- perhaps the best bakery in Guatemala. It was beautiful. They are known for the sheca bread with anis (licorice flavor) in it or jalea (jam) in it. I preferred the cookies and sweet bread though. It was all delicious. Julio and Lily bought about 40 pieces of bread to give to their friends, family, and coworkers.

After Xelapan, we headed up the mountains to Aguas Georginas (natural hot springs). We met a few girls from Israel in the hot springs. They had just finished their two years service to the army. I learned that service can mean more than battle duties. While 2 of the 3 girls went through basic training to teach translation to soldiers, one of the three girls opted to volunteer with the sick for the two years.

We ate lunch at Las Cumbes- a beautiful lodge in the mountains- and then drove to Masatanango, the hometown of Julio. We visited his mother briefly and then his father for a little bit longer. The day was long with lots of travelling, and yet Julio and Lily were so sweet the entire time. I am going to miss them.

I finally feel like I have the ability to and will make a bigger impact than I previously felt. We have been taking care of the babies-changing them, taking them outside to play, feeding them, and making their bottles and leaving them to their naps- eating lunch and then reading to the kids thus far. Obviously we have been really helpfulful to the two ladies who are in charge of the babies, and we have given the babies multiple breaths of fresh air quite literally. (I´m not sure if I already mentioned that the babies don´t get to go outside when we aren´t there because it´s too difficult for two people to watch them all.) However, I have still felt like I wasn´t making that big of a contribution. If I was here for years I do think letting the babies play outside as they grow up would be very helpful. However, letting the babies go outside for 2 months does not feel very helpful.

We have discussed ideas with Paty- the administrator- about fundraising, but we were overwhelmed with all of the areas to fundraise for- medicine, food, paper and pens, buildings, and salaries. Paty kept showing us different things we could fundraise for and we felt too thinned out. We finally decided we were going to fundraise for the things we could literally put into place in the next month (cribs, strollers, paper, and pens) by making a website with a click here button. However, we do not know how to make a website, nor do we have website contacts in Antigua. I wanted to design a site that had a ¨click here to donate a crib¨, ¨click here to donate a stroller¨, ¨click here to donate paper and pens¨, and ¨click here to make a general donation to the hospicio button¨. I wanted people to know exactly where their money was going. Again, we still do not know how to do this. We also did not know if we had to make a bank account or if we could use the bank account of the hospicio.

Everytime we went in to talk to Paty we got vague information and more ideas as to what we could fundraise for. Today we talked to Paty and I am ready to take action. She is having a meeting with their website guy on Monday, and on Friday we will officially be helpful in a concrete way. We are going to translate the website and letters they send to hopeful donors into English. Their website will hopefully have a button to donate to specific causes within the Hospicio by the time we leave (just as I had planned to put on our website). I am so excited that they have a website and will be including these buttons! We will send letters to family and friends and corporations in Guatemala and perhaps the United States. The letters to family and friends will be to raise for the items we see necessary such as cribs, strollers, paper, and pens. The letters to the corporations will ask for donations for the building they want to build for the older children. The oldest children are 16 and need a place away from all the chaos of all of the little kids.

The cribs are tied up with rope, difficult to move, and fill up the entire room (a.k.a you can barely walk through the room). The strollers are each for one child, but they fit 2 in each by putting one child in the bag compartment down below the real seat. It is a quite ingenius technique, but now the bag comparments are torn. The babies need strollers where their butts do not touch the ground!

I am excited to complete the website so people can easily donate. Once the website is up and running we can send out letters and emails. I am also very excited to translate the website and letters into English. This is somehing I think will be helpful for a long time. The website will be sustainable, and people can continuosly make donations online.

Today we also started planning for giving English lessons. We made pictures that relate to English words and the alphabet to go above the pictures that are already on the wall of the play room that relate to each letter of the alphabet in Spanish. For example, we put a drawing of an apple above the A which is currently paired with a picture of a jester, and wrote the word ¨apple¨ out under the picture so in case we leave and someone can read English, but does not necessarilly know the vocabulary (something I do everyday when reading books in Spanish to the children here), he or she can still read the word out and teach the alphabet and vocabulary in English.

We are not only preparing to teach English lessons, we are also trying to make it sustainable. I feel really good about this day, excited to implement a 1:30 to 2:00pm English lesson each day, but I am also worried it will not be sustainable. We need to somehow develop a program where people can come in for a day or week and teach. There are always volunteers who speak English at the Hospicio (at least during our summer). It would be great to have a sustainable English program here.

Any suggestions?

Also, I am excited to move my Spanish class around so I do not have to leave the hospicio at 2:30 for class just when the boys are getting excited to read more stories. I look forward to the day when we have an English class from 1:30 to 2 and then reading time from 2:30 to 3:30. The kids have gotten into reading here, they just never read for fun when we are not there to read to/with them. I hope we establish a reading time they continue with when we leave.

I hope all of my ideas pan out here, but if all we end up doing is translating the website so the entire English speaking population can read about the Hospicio and is able to donate online, I will be very happy.

Yesterday was the craziest day ever at the Hospicio! There was a reunion (meeting) today from 9am to 1pm for all of the ¨mamas¨ at the orphanage. I was left to take care of the 7 babies all by myself for the first time ever. Normally there are 2 other ¨mamas¨ and Kayleigh with me. We all bathed and changed the babies by 9am at which point in time Kayleigh moved to the 2-4 year old room and the 2 mamas left me while shouting out a million instructions in about 30 seconds all in Spanish may I remind you.

By 9am I was left with 7 babies in their cribs and no toilet paper to wipe their noses or other parts. Within 5 minutes a woman entered to change the diaper of a 4 year old girl I´ve never seen before and then left her with me. I brought 2 kids out of their cribs to play in the room (the amount of kids they told me to have out at a time) which made a couple others cry because they wanted to get down too. The 4 year old girl started to cry, shouting ¨mommy¨and luckilly her mom came in and retrieved her within a few minutes. I rotated the children in and out of the cunas (cribs) so they could each have ¨their turn¨ playing. Unfortunately, every child began to cry when they were put back in their cribs.

At 10am it was snack time. A lady brought the papaya, plates, and 2 spoons. (Normally we have 8 spoons.) She dished out one bite of papaya on each plate despite the fact that the babies eat about 10 times that amount normally. For some reason people sem. To think they know better than us despite the fact that we have been here for over a month working with the same group everyday.

Beverly, the 16 year old mom of Lester (one of my babies), thought it would be a good idea to give her son some of the atol (a pastelike drink) that was for the mamas. So I decided to feed lester first. He did pretty well with the thick drink until I finished feeding him and turned my back to grab the next kid, at which point in time he spilled his atol all over the ground. I had to put both kids back in the cribs to mop the floor, which didn´t make either one of them happy.

I got back to feeding Yandel, which made others upset because they weren´t being fed. Beverly entered to feed her son-the only kid I´d already fed! I told her I´d fed him already so she said, ¨You want more my child?¨, grabbed a piece of papaya from the plate (I forgot to mention that I already spilled on the ground), put it up to his lips, at which point I yelled ¨No! That´s dirty!¨ so she took it away which made Lester wail of course.

I eventually managed to feed all of the kids by working two at a time. I then placed two on the ground to play, at which point in time the cleaner came in to wipe the floors, so I had to put them back in their cribs which made them cry again. When she left I finally had a clean, quiet room. I changed the babies´diapers while rotating them 2 (to 4) on the ground at a time. I finally had it all settled with the the babies either playing happilly on the ground or napping in their cribs (which I was told was okay for today) and sat down on the couch to feed la nena (the youngest baby girl of 3 months now) her pacha (bottle). In ran one of the mamas to check up on me and see how everything was going. I responded that it was all good except for the fact that Lester ran out the door with other followers because when she entered, she left the door open! I don´t understand why the people at the Hospicio don´t get that they have to shut the doors behind them!

Half of the chaos that occurred that day would never have occurred if people would stop running in to ¨help¨and leaving the doors open!

One time someone ran in ¨to help¨ and gave Yandel-the one the screams for fun- a cookie thinking that something bad had happened to him despite the fact that I have learned that you should never reward a baby for crying for no reason.

Another time someone ran in ¨to help¨ and I told her the CD player was not working, so she spent about 10 times the amount of time it would have taken me to turn on the radio (the writing on the machine is in English). It took her a really long time to figure out that she was turning the ¨tuning¨ button instead of the ¨volume¨ button. She then proceded to explain to me how to use the radio, despite the fact that I already knew how. It´s so frustrating that people think you are stupid because your Spanish is not as good as theirs. Granted the majority of the time my Spanish is far inferior, but sometimes I swear I am saying things correctly but they just assume I don´t know what I´m saying and try to ¨fix things¨ without listening to what the actual problem is.

By noon I was so excited for the mamas to return, but they did not. A couple people did come help me get the kids to the comedor (dining room), feed them, and bring them back to their cribs for naptime. I then went to the kitchen to get the bottles and hot water (feeling confident from the day before in which I had asked to learn how to make the bottles instead of eating at that time). They gave me the bottles, but not hot water. Instead of telling where to find the hot water, they asked a women to explain to me how to make the bottles. I repeatedly said (in Spanish) that I knew how to make the bottles, I just didn´t know where the water was. Alter about 5 minutes, they lady understood me and took me to the water. *This is one of those times where I swear I said everything correctly they just thought I didn´t know what I was saying.

I finally got the babies in their cribs and with their pachas. The 2 mamas returned from their meeting and I was set free for lunch.

Just as soon as I sat down to my food, one of the mamas ran up to me, ¨Kara, what happened to the baby?!¨ I had no idea what she was referring to and ran up to see what happened. La nena (the 3 month old) had 6 fresh, red cuts on her cheek. I stupidly touch them to see what they were exactly forgetting the number one rule- don´t touch their blood! By this point in time the mamas and I were freaking out. I felt incredibly guilty and confused as to why Sofia had bloody wounds, and was freaking out about contracting HIV. I immediately washed my hands about 4 times and then went to the doctor with the baby.

Turns out… if I had had an open wound and the blood had gone directly into the wound, there would have been a 0.03% chance of contracting the virus. I had no open wound and barely got any blood on me (the blood was basically dry by the time I touched it), so there is 0.00% chance of contracting it. I really wish I had known this information in advance. I wish everyone knew this information so they wouldn´t be so ignorant when it comes to interacting with people with HIV.

I asked a couple more questions, but the doctor was really busy so I left. I really want to know more and feel like I have been wasting so much time not finding out the answers to my questions. From now on I will ask all of my questions! It´s so cool that I have access to all of this information at my project. Everyone brings so much to the table.

In case you were curious… the easiest way to contract HIV is through anal sexual contact. There is a 40% chance of contracting it. Vaginal sex is the next most risky. There is a 30% chance of a mom passing the virus on to her baby. If she follows all of the steps including taking medicine after 3 months pregnant, has a cesarian, does not breast feed, and gives the baby drugs for the first year of his or her life, there is a 1% chance of passing on the virus. To contract the virus from mucous and tears, you would have to put liters of the liquid in your blood.  And as you already know, there is a 0.03% chance of contracting it from blood to blood contact.

Right about now I´m thinking ¨Education, EDUCATION, EDUCATION!¨