Halloween - Always a Suprise!

Tarzan and Jane or Adam and Eve?

In Guatemala they use banana leaves for many of their native dishes.  They are easy to find and cost a whole fifty cents!  The question is whether to be Tarzan and Jane or Adam and Eve?

We had a Halloween party at our house!  It was a blast!  As you can see from the pictures the teachers were pretty creative with their costumes.  We had Elmo, Pippy Long Stocking, white trash, and a present.  Everyone brought appetizers and we feasted all night.

Elmo and Present (Blake & Tate)

Holiday Weekends



Miss Nicole Sanders-soon to be Mrs. Bartlett

The picture above is of Nicole Sanders and me the evening before her wedding.  We girls went out to celebrate!  She was married to Mau Bartlett on Saturday at a beautiful ceremony here in Xela.  The weather was perfect.  It truly was a wonderful day to celebrate two incredible people.  We think weddings in the states are long, this wedding started at 10:00 am and the party didn't stop until 11:30 pm.  Dustin and I stepped out around 5:30! 

 

Beautiful day

On the dance floor

This weekend was a three day weekend here in Xela. Monday was Dia De Los Muertos or Day of the Dead. The whole city takes off and celebrates in the cemetary by flying kites, placing flowers, and eating the traditional dish, fiambre (a hodge podge of meats and veggies soaked in vinager and beets) YUCK!

Grave

The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died



Line heading into the cemetary



IRTRA

View from the Broadbeck's Guest House

This weekend we had the pleasure of going down toward the coast and staying with the Broadbeck's (former directors here at IAS.)  There home is beautiful.  It is situated about 30 minutes from Xela toward the coast.  We enjoyed great fellowship and fantastic food.  Santa Maria is the name of the town where the Broadbeck's live.  As of Sunday afternoon, they have received 200 inches of rain this year!  No wonder the place is so lush and beautiful.

Enjoying the sun

The ladies of the group decided to get a massage on Saturday morning at a resort named "Irtra."  An hour massage for $15, you can't beat that.  While the ladies pampered themselves the guys worked out and played raquetball.  Michael and Dustin enjoyed the pool after some intense games.



The view from my seat for the weekend!

I took up residence during the day in this seat.  This was my view and I loved every minute of it!  Irtra is beautiful.  The weather was great and I even got a little tan.  This weekend was the perfect getaway from the cold and rain that we have been experiencing in Xela.  THANK YOU Broadbeck's for a wonderful weekend.

Family Breakfast

This morning we woke up and began the preparation for family breakfast!  Our friend James came over early and started making homemade biscuits while I began bacon and gravy.

The "Family"

Slowly all of the teachers arrived at our apartment each with a different addition to our breakfast feast. The menu for the morning was as follows: biscuits and gravy, bacon, quiche, yogurt, granola, fruit salad, beans, tortillas, banana bread, orange juice and coffee.

The perfect biscuit

James making homemade biscuits

Needless to say we are still recovering!  It was wonderful and all were saying how it felt like it was a holiday.  Lots of love and joy filled the room.  The fellowship was very refreshing and good for our spirits.  It was a nice morning to be inside secondary to tropical depression Matthew which has conveniently situated itself over Guatemala for the time being.  Rain, rain, and more rain! 

He Bought Me Flowers!

Dustin came home from the gym yesterday with his hands full of daisies! Wonderful!

Xela Weekends

Just a quick little blog about Saturday. Some teachers including D went off to climb the volcano (Santa Maria) mentioned a few entries ago and me and two friends stayed behind to enjoy a day of relaxation, coffee, and picture taking. A friend from camp, Jen Joy, came to Guatemala to visit for two weeks. It was very nice to have her around. We went to some coffee shops I haven't yet experienced and leisurely walked the streets in search of the perfect pictures! The picture below is at 4:15 a.m., D is ready to climb but still slightly asleep!



We visited the cemetary (when visiting Xela one must do this). The traditions of Guatemalan funerals and burials are very interesting. However, after dark the cemetary becomes very dangerous due to gang initiations and the fact that marble is stolen to sell on the black market. The following picture is of one of the statues in the cemetary, it may be hard to tell but the wing and hand of the statue has been broken off and stolen.

Xela Feria

Wednesday September 15 is Guatemalan's Independence Day which translates to a day of off school for us here at IAS and the week off of school for Guatemalan schools. This week is full of celebration, parades, parades, and more parades as well as Xela Feria. The Xela Fair! On Wednesday morning we decided to go. An overwhelming experience to say the least.



We ate churrasco and churros and left very happy until Guatemalan revenge struck and we hustled to the house. It was a great day to experience Guatemalan culture and share with them the excitement of their independence. Even though we experienced the fair in a 3rd world country there are many similarities food, rides, games and things to buy that none of us need!

Santa Maria

The second weekend of being here in Xela we decided to climb the local volcano known as Santa Maria. We woke up at 4:30 am to prepare for the hike. Santa Maria fortunately is no longer active however, Santiaguito (the volcano behind Santa Maria) is alive and well erupting daily with ash and rock. We got a taxi out to the base of the volcano and so the story begins. Dustin has climbed Santa Maria numerous times however, that was four years ago and the terrain has changed slightly. We got ourselves a little bit lost but with the help of some locals (who climb the volcano in jelly sandles with babies and wood strapped to their back in no time flat) we eventually made it to the correct path. The climb took us about 3 hours with the aforementioned native guatemalans passing us at annoyingly fast speeds. The altitude was hard to adjust to but we made it to the top. What a beautiful sight and well worth the hours of muddy, steep climbing. I would like to say that we descended and went on to have a productive day however, the fact is that we arrived home, ate, and fell smooth asleep.

Primera Semana De Clases (First Week of School)

When we talked about IAS (Inter-American School,)did we mention that it sits atop a huge hill?? My classroom (kristen) is located at the top of the hill, Dustin teaches middle school which is unfortunately located at the bottom of the hill. This fact lends itself towards an increased amount of acclimation to the altitude as he ascends IAS Hill 2-3 times per day.

The first week of school went well. Hiccups were minimal and the students were great. As we all have experienced, with comfort comes a little bit of mischevious behavior shining through now and then as the semester has progressed. Science is going well however, I have had to brush up on a few things...okay a lot of things. Dustin is in his element and loving this experience.

The new staff at IAS is wonderful. Teachers of all ages. We have a very newly wed couple who was married a week before they arrived here in Guatemala. What a honeymoon huh?!?

The teachers are quickly becoming a tight knit group which is very important when away from family and friends. Speaking of...we miss you very much.

Better Late Than Never

September 15 is Guatemala's Independence Day which means that we had the day off of school! As I am sitting in our apartment relaxing, Dustin walks in and says "have you blogged since we have been here?" And so I immediately logged in and will be trying to update you all on a month of wonderful experiences. Hopefully this will get me back in gear to write more often as I thoroughly enjoy describing what is happening with us here in Xela.

Our Guatemalan adventure began with us at the OKC airport. We were excited and slightly nervous as one would expect to be departing on this adventure. We step up to the American Airlines service desk to check in only to find that the information that we had gotten over the phone from American 4 months earlier was inaccurate and we were NOT permitted to pay for an extra bag when flying to Guatemala. We soon learned that Guatemala had an embargo restriction during the summer months secondary to increased travel. I thought to myself...increased travel to Guatemala? Surely not, however, it was true and I immediately burst into tears (as I often do in extremely stressful and emotional situations) this emotional outburst just happenened to be in front of hundreds of travelers anxiously awaiting to arrive at their destination of choice. And then, a saint appeared. A gentleman who worked in the American luggage department asked us to meet him in the baggage claim. Thirty minutes later he had converted six bags into four checked bags and two carry-ons. In my mind this man will live forever as a hero for if not for him we would be prancing around Xela in who knows what.....

40 miles in 4 days

Our last week in Georgetown, Tx we decided to take our backpacking equipment out for a test run around Lake Georgetown. We packed everything in and began a note worthy adventure. Neither Dustin nor I are very patient when it comes to experiencing the journey, we focus on the destination, the goal, celebrating the completion of this adventure with cheeseburgers at Junior's Grill.

To the right you see our hiking garb. Below is our tent and secondary to the heat we had a lovely bout with heat rash.