Earth Lodge

(As a reminder, you can click on any photos to see a larger image)

The last few weeks here have been really, really tough for all the volunteers. Since Semana Santa is so huge here, all the regular employees have the week off. The volunteers have to pick up the slack and work around the clock for a full week which is really friggen hard when you have thirty kids who refuse to listen to you and make fun of every little mistake you say in Spanish. I totally lucked out though. Usually the nurses don't have off during this time, so I would be expected to go and work in the kids' houses with all the other volunteers since they dont really need me in the clinic. Fortunately, one of the nurses decided to take her vacation time and since Tia Rosa was away on her honeymoon, it fell to me to cover the nurse's shifts. I got to work what would otherwise be considered a tough schedule: 24 hours on, 48 hours off, but next to the grueling schedule of the other volunteers, mine was a cake walk. Sadly though, once Semana Santa ended and all the employees returned, I had to jump back into doing my inservices. I'm not allowed to be out of the clinic for that long during my shifts, so I had to move all the charlas to my days off, so now I've been working 24 hours on, followed by half days in between. It doesn't sound like much, but having those two days off in between made the shift worth while, it's completely draining otherwise.

Anyway, we all decided that we deserved a little getaway, so all the volunteers went to the well-hyped up Earth Lodge. I had been hearing about this place since I was in language school. It's a resort tucked away in the forested mountains overlooking Antigua. The only way to get there is to have their driver pick you up; the resort is down a long unmarked dirt path that DEFINITELY didn't look suitable for driving on. We had gone up the side of the mountain for about fifteen minutes, then we drove along the ridge for a while on the dirt road. One side dropped down into a steep slope that went down to the bottom of the mountain. I'm pretty sure our wheels were riding the edge of that cliff; the people on that side of the van were squirming in their seats quite a bit. Eventually we came to a dead end and we all had to get out and walk the rest of the way. They definitely get points for being remote.

The walk down to the resort

Misty jungle...

They had the two healthiest dogs in all of Guatemala!

The place was really great. They had cabins tucked away on little trails and a huge meadow of avocado trees (they're a fully functional avocado farm. Too bad we weren't visiting in harvest season (which I now know is January and July))

They also had cool succulent plants everywhere. Check out this one, it's like a tree!

One of the rooms that my friends rented. It had a tree growing right through the center of it, so cool!!

Here's our cabin. I stayed in the cheapest option, an 8-bed dorm for $7.50 a night. It was amazingly clean, way better than any camping experience I'd ever had before.

Right outside our front door was the Mayan sauna, basically a small stone house with benches inside. There was a metal barrel cemented into the back wall; you can make a fire from the outside of the cabin and it causes the heat to radiate inside the home. I had big plans of taking this baby for a whirl, but sadly I got way too busy relaxing to find time for it.

The main lodge was where we spent most of our time. They had a lounge area with the same couches Jamie and I had in Jersey! I love these couches! Needless to say I spent a lot of time spread out on one reading.

They also had a bar with a good happy hour ($1 drinks from 5-7)

But the best part was definitely the view. This picture doesn't even begin to capture it.

Liz and Vero contemplate the meaning of life while looking out over the beautiful vista

Okay, so this place has a reputation of having really great food. We had to prepay for the dinners, but they had a menu for breakfasts and lunch. Gotta say, it lived up to the hype. At Q60 for dinner ($7.50), it was definitely worth the price. The first night we had lentils with shredded carrots, roasted vegetables,

Here's supper the second night. Saturday nights you can choose to add meat for an additional Q20 ($2.50). I had a BBQ pork chop, beer bread, sweet and sour vegetables, AMAZING potatoes au gratin, mixed black beans and a side salad. These pictures aren't doing any justice to the food, it was really delicious (and healthy!!). Their dinners are also family style so every table gets a bowl of everything that was served, that way if you want more you can grab some!

Here's the pila (sink) where the local folks do their laundry. Unlike other towns that only have their water running one day a week (and thus it becomes everyone's "laundry day") this pila was fed off of a natural spring so it always had a nice flow of fresh water :)

Edith and Bianca testing out the hammocks and deeming them to be good quality

I spent Friday night taking full advantage of the happy hour specials, then playing my favorite Swiss board game, Brandi Dog! (Which I now know is spelled as Brandi Dog and not Brandy Dock. Sometimes it's hard to understand accents :) This is the game that we had been playing at the volunteer houses that reminded me of Sorry. Erika has a nice version of it (rather than our paper version with the noodle pieces). Turns out that this game is somehow affiliated with a large residential center in Switzerland for people with developmental disabilities. All proceeds go to help with their care. I'm going to buy this game when I get home!!

Saturday I woke up and ate a fantastic American breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs and toast. After reading for a few hours, me and a few of the girls went for a hike in the mountains. It was really gorgeous, lots of farmland surrounded by jungle.

Great overlook

And because Guatemala loves to surprise me, we stumbled upon a (abandoned?) zip line! Who needs gates? Kids will learn to stay back the hard way.

It goes straight across to another mountain, then people can walk up a bit and take a return line back. If this was working I would have totally done it!! (though its really easy to say that when the option isn't there)

After our hiking I went back and relaxed some more. I got a ton of reading done on this trip which was a nice change of pace. All in all, I really loved Earth Lodge. There were some down sides for me (it was really hippie-dippie for me, lots of white kids in dreadlocks running around.) It annoyed me that they were visiting Guatemala and staying in a resort like this, completely separated from the real experience of Guatemala. I had to remind myself that I had no clue who these people were and they could also be volunteers just looking for a break. Luckily there was plenty of room for all of us to do our own things with limited interaction. Everything was a good value, even if it was a little expensive by Guatemalan standards. I ended up getting two nights in the room, five full meals and countless drinks (alcoholic and not) for under $65. Not a trip I'd be making every weekend, but definitely do-able again in the future when I want some quiet time :) Now we're back to the orphanage and back to the grind for one more week until the nurse gets back. I have an entry in the works about my experiences in the clinic these last three weeks, so be on the lookout for that!

MIni-vacation!

All of the volunteers are going on a mini-three day vacation to a place called Earth Lodge right outside of Antigua. It's an avocado farm and eco-resort that rents out cabins in the woods for some loungy-downtime (exactly what I excel at!) This place sounds amazing! Dinner is part of the package, they serve homemade vegetarian meals and pastries. MMMMMM LOOK AT THESE PASTRIES

There are a bunch of hammocks there, a 24-hour bar and a Mayan sauna!

And the best part, check out these cabins. They're TREEHOUSES!!!

Lucky for me, the trip needed to be paid for well in advance, so me losing my wallet didn't screw me over! We'll be coming back Sunday, so hopefully I'll have lots of stories and pictures to share with you then!

Easter

Gotta say, Easter was a bit of a disappointment for me. Of course if I was more religious I might describe the Easter celebration here as being very beautiful (or at least devout) but I think the level of commercialism that I'm used to made it hard to appreciate the festivities here without feeling that a part of it was missing. Namely the part shaped liked a giant bunny. I mean, I KNOW that Easter is for Jesus but the magical pact that exists between Him and the Easter Bunny seems to only be valid in the United States. There was no candy to be found, no pastel colored clothes and ham dinners. There was absolutely no mistaking that this was all about the resurrection of Jesus, and we celebrated with a 4-hour long mass, a viewing of Passion of Christ, and a final presentation of the Stations of the Cross in nearby Paramos. As riveting as all that sounds, all I wanted was a Cadbury creme egg and an Easter egg hunt.

I did end up getting part of my wish. They have a quasi-egg hunt here for the kids. I call it quasi- because it's only quasi-fun. Actually, I shouldn't say that. It was fun for the kids, they liked it. I'm just used to different things so I found it disappointing. They use REAL eggs here which is pretty cool. Someone has to blow the yolk out of all of them the night before (that's a lot of work for 200 eggs!) Once the hollowed eggs are dried, the kids paint the outsides and put glitter on them, normal fun Easter stuff. Then 50 of the eggs get money put into them (ranging from Q1 to Q250- .15c to $40). The eggs are hidden throughout the grounds and the kids go find them. Here's the part that sucks though. There aren't enough eggs for all the kids. There are 200 eggs for 400 kids and 150 of those eggs have NOTHING IN THEM. They're just empty eggs. There's no limit on how many eggs a person can get either, so all the fast kids ran out there and scooped up a bunch of eggs, meanwhile me and my kid in a wheelchair tried to get through the grass at a frustratingly slow pace. It sucked that he didn't stand a chance at finding any eggs. He didn't seem to care too much, but I was definitely sad about it.

I'm complaining far too much than I should be, guess I'm still a little bitter about it. Let me focus on happy things instead. We took some really great pictures while we were waiting for the Easter egg hunt. Check these out:

Here's Hannah with two little girls from the Baby's House

Me with Jocelyn, a little girl who I've taken on a few med runs.

And Rosita! She's adorable (love her curly hair!) but she's also challenging. (By the way, that lollipop is an independent acquisition. Don't want you to think I was lying before about them not having candy)

Stephanie hanging out with Emerson

And finally, me and my little terror Juan Carlos (not to be confused with the Juan Carlos who I teach Spanish to). As much as this little kid tries my patience, he's really adorable sometimes. He's one of the few special needs kids at NPH who's physically aggressive, but even then it's rarely done out of anger, it's almost like a compulsion. He likes looking at my tattoo and for some reason always points to it and says "Guatemala." That's immediately followed by trying to pinch my arm. If that's deflected, he'll either try to pinch my arm again or try to pull my hair. When the second attack is thwarted, he goes in for the bite. Thankfully he's totally predictable so I've never ACTUALLY been bitten. It's always the same moves in the same order. I used to get stressed when he'd go after me but now it's more amusing than anything. It makes me think of Mortal Kombat. PINCH! PINCH! (Finish him!!) BITE!!! It's Juan Carlos' special move.

After the Easter egg hunt I spent the rest of the day vegging out which was absolutely delightful. I'm glad that I'm having the chance to experience these holidays in another country but I'll be glad to get back to the normal rhythm of things when I get back (normal rhythm being gorging on chocolate all day and then eating dye-stained hard-boiled eggs for a week).

...

...and as he paid his bill, left the cafe and headed to the bus stop to return to the orphanage, he was pick pocketed. Bye bye wallet. There was another procession going by and probably three times as many people crowded together. While I was herded through the crowd, my hands firmly in my pockets gripping my iPhone and money, someone pulled my wallet out of my side pocket and took off.

High five to myself for having the foresight to separate my money. All he got was Q100 (equal to $15).

Slap upside the head to myself for leaving my license, credit card and debit card in there. Now I have no way to pay for anything, save for the other Q100 that I had in my pocket.

I spent the bus ride home in a very foul mood. While I can't claim to be happy right now, I'm better than I was. I have so much to be grateful for. Losing my iPhone or computer would have been a much bigger blow, and I'm in a place where I can function quite well with no money. If I were on vacation this would be much harder to deal with, but I have a free home, free food and a recently charged-up cell phone. The credit cards can be cancelled and really all I'm out in the end is $15. I said I came here for experiences and to grow, and that means for good or bad.

Crazy awesome parade

The Guatemalans put us to shame when it comes to their religious observances. I grew up Catholic in a not-too religious family. We took our commandments seriously and telling a lie or talking back to our parents would definitely earn us a swift kick, but church was reserved for Christmas and Easter and nighttime prayers were gradually phased out as we got older. All of the kids had to go to CCD on Saturdays (a few hours of religious education) but I think that my parents were probably more motivated by the thought of having a few hours of kid-free time rather than seriously wanting us to be good little Catholics. By the time I was 12 I was protesting enough for my parents to let me "drop out" of CCD. The other kids continued and eventually received their confirmations while I was destined for a life of eternal damnation. At the very least I can't get married in a Catholic church until I go back and finish CCD, though the likelihood of that happening are slim to nil (see my previous post on marriage).

I think my family is pretty reflective of what most Catholic American families are like. Religion is for little kids (the look so cute in their communion dresses!) and old people. People are too busy during the middle of their life to have time for church. They still consider themselves Catholic, but non-practicing. They still pray (whenever someone's sick or the lottery is really high) but like a distant cousin, contact is usually limited to awkward holiday get-togethers.

Now let's talk about Guatemalan Catholics. Guatemalans are every church's fantasy. They revolve their lives around Jesus. Homes are adorned with His picture, women grasp crosses in their hands as they walk down the street, churches are overflowing on Sundays (and Saturdays). If God ordered a sacrifice in Guatemala, hundreds of Abrahams would flood the streets, willing sons in tow. That being said, it's no surprise that Guatemala is world-renowned for it's Easter celebrations. And not just it's Easter celebrations, because unlike in the States, they make it very clear that Lent is 40 days long and you FEEL those 40 days here. There are shrines to Jesus in front of people's homes (literal shines, with candles and flowers and photos like you'd find at a shooting scene back in the US). Every Friday they have a parade through the streets where people take turns doing their penance: helping to carry a 7,000lb statue of Jesus through the streets. And then comes Holy Week. This is like the World Cup of religious events; people come from all over the world to watch the religious celebrations. The population of Antigua jumps from about 36,000 to over 150,000. Along with the normal American and German tourists, tons of folks from neighboring countries flood in, too.

All these people visiting lead to three big things happening: first of all, it's a HUGE flood of money for Guatemala. Rooms are booked solid in Antigua and tourists usually book up all the rooms in neighboring towns as well, small towns that usually don't get the benefit of much tourism. Obviously, a great thing. The second big occurrence is a huge wave of extra jobs during this time of year. Hundreds of vendors were in Antigua today selling everything from iced tea to yo-yos. Families take full advantage of the influx of tourists; it's common to see kids as young as nine or ten walking around trying to sell their families merchandise (even younger kids work as shoe shiners). Another great way that money is reaching people here. And then the third change. This week isn't just a good week for families, it's also a spectacular week for thieves. The crime rate in Antigua sky rockets during Holy Week. A common trick here is to watch someone put away their cellphone/camera/wallet in their backpacks, then walk behind them and slice right through their backpack, grabbing the item without them ever knowing anything happened. Another trick (which happened to my friend last week) is to distract someone with pleas of buying merchandise. It's not uncommon here for folks with jewelry/fabric/candy to walk right into a restaurant and ask you to buy from them. They rarely take no for an answer, so you have to eventually start ignoring them until they give up and walk away. Well apparently thieves took advantage of this little ploy, walked into a cafe and tried to get my friends to buy their goods. While my friends buried their noses in their books and started ignoring them, one of the people grabbed her wallet out of her purse. It wasn't discovered until it was time to pay the bill much later. So that being said, while this is a great time of the year to visit, you need to be on guard at all times.

Vendors galore!

It felt like a theme park when I got to Antigua today. Vendors walked up and down the streets with cotton candy and peanuts, people snapped photos every few feet and I heard about as much English as I did Spanish (though in Antigua that's not really note worthy). I immediately sought refuge from the crowds and ran to a cafe. On my way there I passed the beginnings of some alfombras (carpets). One of the most beautiful parts of the parades are carpets that the townspeople make. The carpets serve two purposes: the first is to level out the cobblestone roads (it's hard enough to walk on them, once you have a 7,000 lb statue on your shoulders, it's downright deadly). Sawdust is placed on the cobblestones to even it out. Once it's completely even, dyed sawdust is placed on top in a decorative design as a tribute to Jesus. I was surprised that they were just beginning to build these with the parade only a few hours away, but then I found out that they PURPOSELY wait for the last minute, that way the alfombra looks it's very best for when the parade starts. It's kind of sad that these awesome pieces of art are going to get destroyed in a few hours, but it serves as a reminder that beauty is temporary.

The parade started with Roman guards reading out the charges against Jesus

Some men dressed up like Romans

The Roman guards walk through with other men to be crucified.

(Side note, men of all ages were taking part in this. I saw everyone from babies to about 85 years old. It was really cool)

Next, men come with those little incense pots (which are SUPER popular here) and smoke up the whole street. It was really cool seeing the huge smoke clouds and hearing the drums in the background, gave it a really powerful feel.

There are two main statues for this parade. I call them statues, but really they're platforms with figures on top. The first one is of Jesus carrying the cross. After Good Friday, this will be replaced by a statue of Jesus on the cross, and again replaced at night with a statue of Jesus' body after it had been lowered off the cross. This platform is carried by men. Each church has it's own day to do the parade, and their church members are the ones in charge of carrying the enormous platform. Because of the enormous weight, people have to switch in and out during the parade to keep anyone from getting too exhausted. Deciding where/when people switch in is very precise; all people carrying the platform at any given time must have the same shoulder height or else some people will be forced to carry the brunt of the weight. The men wear purple robes up until Good Friday, after which they'll switch to black. Right now the entire city is purple; purple flags fly from houses and purple flowers are everywhere. It's truly gorgeous to see. Anyway, here are the dudes.

Following the Jesus statue are two small statues (carried by just four people each) of St. John and Mary Magdalene. Don't ask me who's who; they both look completely gender neutral to me.

And then Mother Mary get's a float. This one is smaller than Jesus' but still considerably large. The women carry this float and are usually dressed in black with black veils. The ones holding the platform here seem to not be adhering to that norm, so maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

Check out the crowd!

And here's what happens when the parade passes through. These dudes walk behind with shovels and make big piles of all the beautiful sawdust. The street sweeper takes care of the rest, and three minutes after the parade passes through, you would never know anything happened.

The parade was an amazing, amazing experience. The same as when I was involved in La Posada and La Viacrucis, you get caught up in the emotion of everything and you can really feel the immense amount of religious dedication and love that these folks have. Today was a great experience and definitely one of those great times when I felt absolutely 100% right in choosing to spend this year here.

Adorable kids being adorable

I have to give NPH credit for keeping the kids pretty busy here; they do hours upon hours of chores before and after school, then during the evenings and weekends there's almost always some kind of activity going on. Usually I tend to avoid the activities; I feel like I get more than enough time with the kids and an afternoon in the hammock with a book is hard to give up. Today's activity sounded to cute to miss though, so I hauled my ass up the stairs to watch the kids perform traditional Guatemalan dances.

Here's everyone waiting to pile into the cafeteria

First the older kids went. Here's Alexander leading the Salsa (salsa is huge here, Antigua has Salsa schools all over the place for tourists.)

Emerson was excited by my camera. He was really funny, every time a new act came out he pointed at my camera until I took a picture. I told him he should be a talent agent when he gets older because he made it seem like every group was the greatest thing ever.

Alvaro was more curious than excited, there are about thirty pictures exactly like this on my camera now.

Finally I made him pose

Here's our youngest kid ready for his number! His role is a farmer so he has a little moustache, so cute!!

I want to eat Jordy's face!! He's so damn cute!

And here's my little man Brayan in the middle

And here are the girls dressed up in traditional Mayan garb. I see girls dressed like this every day but its still adorable

Here's a video of their performance. It's a bit boring in the beginning (sorry kids) but it gets slightly more interesting as it goes on. Basically it's about the men going out into the fields during the day to help provide for their families.



It was a fun little performance and the kids seemed to be really proud of themselves. And lucky for me, I still had time to get some relaxing done afterwards :D