La Laguna de Chicabal

Saturday, May 18th 2019

Today we went to La Laguna de Chicabal. It is a sacred lake in the crater of a volcano. It is a very sacred place to the Mayan people, and after colonization and an adoption of Christianity, it is now a very special spot for Catholics and Christians to go pray. I got some great photos before the clouds majestically rolled into the crater. We got to meet a man in his late 20s who came up to the lake for a prayer with his family before he attempts to immigrate to the US on Monday. He has two young daughters and is not making ends meet to support his family here in Guatemala. He is traveling with a group of men from his town and are hiring a Coyote for the trek.

The ride from the van to the start of the trail was a real life Indiana Jones ride. We were in the bed of a four wheel drive truck, driving through the jungle on a bumpy dirt road. I was kind of concerned that there were no seatbelts, but we held on for dear life. I have been taking a lot of videos on this trip, and especially for the activities in nature, I think the videos sum up my thoughts much better than I could in words. I’ll be posting a lot of videos on this blog as my way of blogging throughout the trip.

Comencé la clase de español

Thursday, May 16th 2019

The past two days have been amazing. We’ve started both days with 4 hours of Spanish class. My teacher is named Alma and she has been teaching Spanish in Xela for over 20 years. She likes to play basketball and football (aka soccer for the Americans) and she attends her church group twice a week. I have always struggled speaking conversationally in Spanish, but after even one day a lot has come back to me. For our snack break we went to the local market.

There is a shop inside where a lady sells empanadas and other snacks for only 5Q ($1=7.5Q). The chicken empanadas are pretty tasty. We went on a tour of Xela yesterday and took some photos. Zone 3 reminded me a lot of the streets and markets of Hanoi; small crowded markets with freshly butchered meat adjacent to a store selling knock-off Nikes.

Today after lunch, we watched a film titled “When the Mountains Tremble”. It was about the 36 year long civil war in Guatemala and was eye-opening. I had no idea of America’s involvement and instigation of the problems in this country. We then had a nice discussion about everyones first impressions of Guatemala. For some, it was their first time out of the country.

¡Hola y bienvenidos a todos!

Tuesday, May 14th 2019

I made it to Guatemala! Thirteen other students from USC and I will be spending the next four weeks in and around the city of Xela. We are joined by Dr. Erin Quin, a professor at USC and founder of Somos Hermanos, and Erika Clark, Somos Hermanos’ Country Manager. I got in on the early flight to Guatemala City with Bryan and Nate. We waited for a few more flights and went to the zoo. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised with the care of the animals. I have been to zoos in other countries and seen horrific conditions, so I was happy to see they held similar standards to zoos in the states. Monday late morning we got on buses to Xela and settles into our home stays. I’m going to be honest. When my host mom was giving me a tour of the house, I shook my headed and smiled, but understood almost nothing. So much for two semesters of Spanish in school. Good news is that I understood the meal times. You won’t catch me missing a meal! Today we had the Spanish placement test and sure enough, I didn’t know anything on the second half, but at least we get 1 on 1 Spanish teachers. We finished with Salsa class in the afternoon and choco bananos courtesy of Dr. Quin. It’s dangerous because they cost less than a dollar and they’re sold almost everywhere. I made a little video with my GoPro today! Stay tuned for updates on how my trip is going!