so i have been really bad at updating this the last couple weeks but we had parents weekend (which my mom, dad, grandma and grandpa came) and then we just had spring break. so i'll give a little overview of what ive been up to lately:
- parents weekend: it was really awesome to have some of my family come see for themselves a bit of what im doing here. it was information and activity packed, im sure they were exhausted after the 6 or so days they spent here. they arrived on thursday, just in time for pupusas. then friday we went to the UCA, a couple classes (they got to experience sister peggy and gene for those of you casa alums, haha). they came on a great weekend too because it was all the romero celebrations. on saturday we went to the romero march in the city center and then mass at the cathedral with all the masses of people. it was a pretty incredible thing for me to experience and even thought none of them speak spanish, just being in the presence of the march and the people was really powerful i think. sunday we went to the beach which was beautiful and very relaxing. the place we went to had a big water slide too which was super fun too. then monday my parents and grandparents came to San Ramon with me for praxis. in the morning we were at Centro Hogar playing and using their last bits of energy with all my little kiddies. then we went to the Soya for lunch and they met all the ladies at the soy project. then we went to Anita's house (where they do the celebration of the word and where the co-op is) and first we did some serious shopping in the co-op which was great because my family loves shopping and the co-op has seriously beautiful things, plus it was nice to support the co-op. then they came with Katy (my praxis partner) and i on a couple home visits. they learned a ton more about the history of the community of San Ramon and the celebration of the word. it was nice to have them there asking a lot of the questions because although Katy and i knew a lot of the answers to the initial questions they were asking, it always seemed to lead into deeper things that we wouldnt necessarily think to ask about, so we learned a lot from those home visits too. then they left on tuesday morning and returned to the states. it was a short trip but a good one, i hope they enjoyed it!
- i just got back from spring break yesterday which was incredible...and thats not doing the experience justice. a few friends and i (my 2 roommates Tamara and Karina and our "fourth roommate" Andy) adventured through guatemala and belize over the last week. it took us essentially 2.5 days to travel through guatemala up to Caye Caulker (pronounced "key") which is a small insanely beautiful and chill island off the coast of belize. we got there by bus and boat, which was sweet but also allowed for the creation of some insane stories along the way. we stayed for a night in Antigua, Guate which was really fun. its a really cute internationally influenced (and pretty touristy) city with tons of artesian crafts and cute shops all over so we did a bit of shopping. then we spent a night in Dangriga, Belize which was this crazy little carribean town. it was pretty weird because they speak english in Belize so for the first like 2 days of the journey i was like tripping out and kept talking to people in spanish...oops. then we got to Belize City on monday midmorning to take the boat to the caye and actually met up with the other group of 4 from the casa that we were planning to meet in the caye. we traveled in 2 groups just to split up a bit for safety and convenience purposes which was a good idea but it was really fun to all be together on the caye. we chilled the first day but the second day we were there we went on a day long snorkeling sailboat trip which was incredible. and since we had a big group we got a discount. there was the 8 of us from the casa plus then the other group of 4 met these 2 girls from Finland actually on their way here so they kind of became part of our group so we had 10 people total and it ended up being like $43 (in US dollars) for the trip per person. it was from 10:30am until 5pm and included all the equipment we needed to snorkel, plus lunch, water and fruit the whole day, a pre-dinner snack and rum punch while we sailed back to shore, and a guided snorkeling tour through 3 spots for like an hour each. not to mention that the barrier reef that we were snorkeling in is the 2nd largest in the world. basically it was one of the sweetest things ive ever done. we were swimming with sharks, barracudas, turtles, eels, a billion different kinds of fishes, not to mention the incredible reef itself. absolutely worth it. we couldnt believe how cheap it was. the next day we just chilled and soaked up the sun at this beach on the island called "the split". our hostel was right on the beach, white sand, palm trees, hammocks, the whole deal...pretty ridiculous. everybody that was staying at our hostel was awesome too, its been really fun talking
to everyone and hearing their stories. then thursday we left about midday for punta gorda, spent the night there and then left on a boat for a town called Livingston in guate because we heard from a woman at our hostel in caye caulker that we could take a boat from there up the rio dulce which went through like the jungle of guate to a port town that we could take a bus from there to guatemala city. we chartered a boat for pretty cheap to take us through the jungle and we stopped at these hot springs and caves for a while. then when we got to the port city we got on a bus to guate city which was supposed to be like a 5 or 6 hour ride but it ended up taking like 7 to 8 hours because the bus broke down on the side of the highway like 20 minutes outside of the city. we stood on the side of the road in the dark for like 45 minutes with all of our stuff until another bus picked us up to take us the rest of the way. then we got into guate city at like 10pm and found this little crappy hostel across the street from the bus station for $4 a person and just crashed there cuz we were so tired. then we got up in the morning and took a bus back home to salvador. theres sooo much more stuff that happened in between all that, but thats the rough overview of our adventures. if youre ever in Belize, definitely make it over to the Caye's if you get a chance, it was incredible. i could have hung out there for another 3 weeks and been totally fine.
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