It's been way too long...

What to write about, there has been so much happening since I last wrote. The adventures in Guate are never ending and I am always hopeful that I will find the time to blog about them. It feels as if I am in a vortex going 100 mph. I pass all these surreal experiences and before I can even think twice about them I'm already to the next adventure.

Christmas break was really awesome, it was a nice breathe of fresh air to head back to the states and be with people I love. Even though I spent nearly all of my break fighting a severe cold/sinus infection, that has still not gone away with multiple prescriptions of antibiotics, the joy I felt being with my brothers to visit my mom the day after I flew back was amazing. I hear Christmas in Guate is pretty cool with fireworks going off everywhere, but I could not have imagined staying here.

School has been going really good and the relationships that I have built with the students as well as the owners have been paying off. Tonight Jenny and I went to dinner with the owner, her daughter, and one of our co-workers. The food was actually really delicious, the last two times I experienced Korean food those would not have been the words you heard coming from my mouth. This time for some reason though it tasted really good and we really enjoyed the company.

If I had to pick an adventure to blog about since being back in the country it would be my hike up Volcan de Aqua. Jenny and I had the pleasure of joining a group of our friends in participating in a hike to fight domestic violence here in Guate. The hike was put on by the British Embassy and the goal was to get at least 8,000 people involved. The idea was to split the 8,000 people up into 6 different groups. Group 1 was supposed to  leave Antigua at 5:30 am and hike all the way to the top of Aqua to join together and make a heart. The other 5 groups left in designated intervals in the hopes of creating a chain all the way down the face of the volcano. We ended up being in group 4 and were directed to walk 1/2 way up the volcano. Anyway events in Guate seem to always be disorganized and most people run late to any social event that takes place. We were scheduled to leave Antigua at 7:30 am and head to the volcano in a bus, instead we waited in line about 30-40 minutes and left around 8:00 via the back of a police pickup truck. This should have been our first hint...Our small group of friends started off up the volcano and soon split as we were all at different levels of "in-shapeness" (yeah I know that isn't a word =)). Our group reunited about 3/4th of the way up the volcano while we sat for about an hour waiting for the signal to grab hands and form a chain. About 1:30 we started getting really hungary and decided that maybe the chain wasn't going to happen since the suspected time was to be 12:30. With that said, we hiked back down the volcano and reached the bottom around 4:00. I wish the adventure would have stopped there...instead we found ourselves in a near violent setting, surrounded by thousands of people mobbing down the main street of a small town anxiously waiting for their turn to catch the bus home. As we were waiting we saw a handful of people being carried through the crowd injured or recovering from a moment of unconsciousness. We also watched a vehicle try and make it's way through the crowd and getting stuck as the people surrounded it in protest of letting it continue on. The weight we felt pushing into your back got heavier and more aggressive as we approached the rope held by two police officers and the one and only person who seemed to be in charge of the whole ordeal. It was a feeling of relief to pass the rope and head to your seat on the bus as well as a feeling of fear for the rest of the people who were still waiting. The good news is that no riot was documented the next day in the newspaper and our friend Lisa who was about an hour and a half behind us had also successfully made it out of the mob.

I have so much more to say, but I guess I will have to leave it for next time (which will hopefully be within the next week...)

Heather