Feria, Coro, y Cambios

¡Feliz martes! Another week has passed more quickly than I could have imagined, although I have definitely had a week’s-worth of experiences and changes. From the longest ferris wheel ride of my life to working my way into the church choir to beginning full-time volunteering, this week has brought a lot of opportunities and helped me learn a lot about myself.

We had a tour of General Hospital in Xela late last week - it was great to see how they improvise with what they have got to provide some really top-notch healthcare. 

I finished my first big round of Spanish classes on Friday – what a weird feeling! Now I have got eight weeks of class under my belt, which should be enough (fingers crossed!) to get me started with volunteering. The biggest thing I have noticed in the language piece this week has been how much easier it is to read the newspaper now. I have been reading an article or two each day, which would have taken me hours a couple of months ago. It still takes a while, but not quite that long J.

Part of the theater performance from this weekend.

This weekend was hectic but unbelievably fun. On Saturday afternoon, I ventured to the fair one last time before it shut down for the year. I worked up the nerve to ride the ferris wheel (which may sound easy, but it was honestly the world’s fastest ferris wheel – more like a roller coaster than anything), and definitely got my 10 Quetzales (around $1.25) worth; we were on the thing for an hour. The first 30 minutes were great, but by the end, getting my feet on the ground felt like landing after a long plane ride! Later that night, I went to a theater performance with a few friends; it was one of the most artistically creative things I have seen! The audience ended up being ‘part’ of the show, as we actually followed the actors around to different rooms.

For the last few weeks, I have been talking with people about ways I can get involved with music; I miss it a ton. I had some luck talking with one of my teachers at the school, and on Sunday, she took me to meet the choir at the church close to my house. Everyone in the choir was great and extremely welcoming! I got to sing with them and am planning on singing every Sunday that we are in Xela. I am hoping I will eventually be able to work my way up to playing piano a time or two as well…

The view from the choir loft at church - my new gig! 

The biggest change this week has definitely been the switch from full-time class to full-time volunteering.  Toward the end of last week, I found out that one of my clinic sites fell through due to a lack of physicians, which left me with one clinic site and weekly piano lessons with kids. At first, I was surprisingly anxious because I felt like I would end up wasting a lot of time and not have enough to do. It took me a couple of days to realize that my anxiousness was more fear than anything – fear that, for one of the first times, I would be forced to slow down a lot. This idea still intimidates me, but I think this time is going to do me a lot of good. I have decided to talk with people from Xela and the surrounding communities to get a real grasp on their needs and possibly work toward starting something more long-term that I can continue supporting once I return to the States. I got a promising start on this today in a meeting with a guy named Hugo, who has connections with leaders in small towns and works on starting up community-development projects in those areas.

The view of the Xela feria from the top of what may be the world's fastest ferris wheel.

This week has taught me a lot about change. One thing I realized is that, although I like to think of myself as adaptable and comfortable with change, change is a difficult thing. It is counter to the order we try to create in our lives. A lot of change has happened at once in the past week – between the change from class to volunteering and the changes in where I will be volunteering – and it has been challenging. But, I have learned a lot about myself and re-affirmed the importance of ‘adaptability’ in my life. This quote struck a chord with me this week:

“Once you accept the inevitability of perpetual change, you can abandon your quest to gain control, and instead, go with the flow.”

Living in Guatemala has definitely pushed me a lot in respect to change, and for that, I am incredibly grateful. I am realizing more every day that in each change, each challenge, there lies space for something great. We don’t always know what it is, but I think that is half the fun…

Here goes another week. Te extraño y te quiero, and I will talk with you soon!

Paz,

Nico

The 100-hour bus ride.

Hola, todos, and happy mid-September! It seems like a lot more than two weeks since I wrote my last post; school has started for everyone back in the States, Guatemala celebrated their Independence Day, and I have spent nearly 100 hours traveling on a bus to experience the cultures and sites of several countries.

Enjoying some fresh coconut juice from a road-side stand on the bus ride! 

I started up Spanish class again yesterday, which was a big (but welcomed) change from all of the English-speaking I got used to in Belize. I have a new maestra, Sheny, and absolutely love her. She is a petite, older woman that has a ton of stories and opinions on just about everything. I think this week is going to be a lot of talking, which is fine by me! We start learning ‘subjunctive’ this week, which is generally thought of as one of the most difficult parts of the language. Here goes!

It is difficult to pick a starting point for everything that has gone on the past couple of weeks, so I will start with a Sparknotes version:

I finished up my time in Mexico, and then took a bus back to Xela where I had a few minutes to eat lunch, re-pack, and head out to Belize. I spent the last week traveling to Belize, Tikal and Rio Dulce with some friends from my group and had an amazing time. Now, I’m back in Xela, slowing down a bit, and gearing up for volunteering to start next week.

Scuba diving in Belize - all ready to dive! 

Belize was a big change from Guatemala: a lot more tourists, English as the national language, and, of course, the ocean! We spent most of our time on a beautiful island, Ambergris Caye. I ignored the more rational part of myself that has some reservations about deep waters (sorry, mom) and tried scuba diving for the first time. Wow! After some training in shallow waters, our guide took us out to the Belize Barrier Reef, which is second only to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. I saw more fish (and turtles, sting rays, sharks…) up-close than I ever thought I would, and the colors were unbelievable.

After a few short days in Belize, we made our way to the Mayan ruins of Tikal in Guatemala, but not without a few hiccups along the way to keep things interesting (including our bus breaking down in Belize and having to get towed to the border). As far as Tikal goes, I think this picture says more than I could in several paragraphs:

Mayan ruins among the jungle at Tikal from the top of Temple IV, the highest ruin.

We spent the last couple days of our free week in Rio Dulce, Guatemala. The only way to get to our hotel was by boat, and the isolation made it a great place to relax after a lot of traveling. One of my favorite parts of Rio Dulce was the cascadas (waterfalls) a short drive from town: it was a small lake of cold water with steaming-hot water from hot springs pouring into it from the waterfalls. I think I sat under the waterfalls for close to half an hour – it was a fix for the hot shower (with good water pressure) that I have been missing!

Mayan cave tubing during our last day in Belize.

We traveled back to Xela on Friday, the day before Independence Day. This ended up being both really cool and a big hassle…Guatemalans have the tradition of running with torches from all corners of the country to the larger cities, and we got to see dozens of groups participate. However, they run in the middle of the roads, holding up traffic for miles. It took twice as long to get back as we were expecting, but it was definitely a fun/interesting trip!

The last few days in Xela have been muy alegre (very cheerful/exciting), in large part because Xela is home to the largest feria (fair) in Central America. So cool! I watched a straight 45-minutes worth of fireworks in central park on Friday night and checked out the fair and a parade on Saturday. Guatemalans definitely know how to party – the fair is open until at least 2 or 3 AM every night, for two weeks.

My host siblings and I at their crepe stand at the Xela feria!

One of my greatest realizations in the last couple weeks has been just how much Xela has become my home. I was surprised at how much relief I felt walking into my room after two weeks on the road, and how much I had missed my host family and traditional Guatemalan food. That got me thinking a lot about the concepts of home and family. Rather than having my feelings of home and family detract from the incredible strongholds I have been blessed with in the States, I feel like I am expanding my family and adding another unique home to my life. The more I think about it, the more powerful and fulfilling this feeling becomes. They always say that home is where the heart is, and I think there is a lot of truth to that; the heart can be in many places at once.

And with that, here goes another week. Hasta pronto. ¡Te extraño mucho!

Paz,

Nico

Vamos a Oaxaca!

Hola todos, y feliz miercoles! I am currently writing this from the rooftop of a home we are sleeping in tonight in the small pueblo of San Juan Mextepec, around five hours north of Oaxaca (written yesterday, posting now since we are back in the city!). It is a beautiful night: the crickets are chirping as my group sleeps inside, some Spanish music is blaring from a fiesta in the park a few blocks away, and I am trying my best to type something substantial on the tiny iPhone keyboard.

My view for the night in the village of San Juan Mextepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, as I'm working on the blog.

The past week has been really busy and productive. I finished up my 8th week of Spanish class - which I cannot believe, by the way - and then made the 20-hour bus ride to the beautiful city of Oaxaca, Mexico, with my group for a weeklong immersion.

Spanish has been continuing to go well, and I am amazed by how much I am able to pick up in conversations now. I would say that the majority of days are 'good' Spanish days, with a fair share of rough days here and there. After this week in Mexico, we have our 'free week' of the program, when I will be traveling to Belize with some people from my group. I can't wait! After that, we have one more week of class, and then I will begin volunteering full-time. I am going to miss the classes, but I am thrilled to have the chance to start applying the Spanish I have learned in the real world.

A view of Oaxaca, Mexico, from the roof of our coordinator's apartment.

Mexico has been absolutely stunning so far. We have explored the city with morning runs, visited the markets, hiked ancient ruins, and met with some unbelievable people. As I mentioned, we are currently in a small town a few hours north of Oaxaca spending a couple days with a traditional healer. His stories and techniques are amazingly intriguing -- for example, today he told us about how babies are prone to receiving the 'evil eye,' and how one way to cure this is to take the child to a woman in town who uses herbs on the child's eyes and then licks them clean. An interesting change of perspective from Western medicine!

The Mayan ruins of Monte Alban, Mexico! 

The most impactful experience for me this week has by far been a conversation we got to have with three young men in transit to the US. On Monday, we sat face-to-face with three immigrants -- ages 13-26, all family -- and talked with them about their journey north to find their family and try to earn a decent living.

There are a lot of opinions out there on immigration, and each one is grounded in unique experiences. The biggest thing that hit me this week is how HUMAN the issue is. Immigration isn't about statistics, it is about stories. And, the more I hear these stories and look into the eyes of the people who tell them, the easier it is for me to put myself in their shoes. Each immigrant's story is unique. This week has been all about those stories for me, which has been both challenging and encouraging. When it comes down to it, we are all migrants in some respect: changing jobs, exchanging information, or physically moving to another place. I think that the more we understand that - and the more we seek out stories that make issues like immigration 'human' - the more we can contribute to making a difference in the issues around us.

With that, I think I had better get some sleep! I hope you are doing well, and te extrano. Hasta pronto!

-Nico

Piñata at the school for Niki's (a girl in our group) birthday!