Hola Amigos! Only 12 days until I fly home. It is hard to believe I have been in Guatemala for 2 months, but on the other hand... it is hard to believe I haven´t been here longer! The last few weeks have been busy with construction on the site and weekend trips to El Salvador and Lake Atitlan. Both trips provided much needed relaxation and sunshine. All is well, I have been a touch under the weather and I realized the other day that not only can I not speak Spanish, but I can´t speak English either. Forgive me when I get home as I have formally adopted choppy Spanglish as my form of verbal communication.
The site is almost finished... bruised, tired, a touch sick to the stomach (we think that maybe we shouldn´t have swam in Lk. Atlitlan and utterly happy... we will be done by Friday for a dedication on Saturday. It is crazy to sit back and look at what we have built. One of our group quotes sums it all up ¨It´s almost like we know what we are doing!¨
So, I hopefully a few pictures actually posted and below is a description of the posted images.
The photo with the cross and the city below if the view of Antigua from a hill above the city. We hiked up there (wisely accompanied by the tourist police) It was a gorgeous day... the view of the city was spectacular!
One photo is a shot of our 1st stop on the chicken bus route. As you can clearly see, this school bus was already full and about to get a great deal fuller as we headed back towards Antigua from Guatemala City. Our ¨gringo bus¨are the volunteers for Camino Segura which are a mix of teachers, social workers, various other volunteers and our UW group.
The next photo demonstrates how red John and my hair can get in the setting sunlight of Lk. Atitlan.
Next, the giant monkey is my lil touch to the site which a creation is two pieces of 3/4 inch all pieces of plywood cut with a jigsaw. The monkey is actually hanging from the second floor of the¨play structure¨. More pics on that one later.
The other pics are me in front of the casita that I helped build and design (notice the hibiscus cut out). I don´t actually like the drill that much, but si levi... it was the only tool around when the TA came around with the camera.
The group shot is us mixing concrete Guatemalan style... which means combining sand, gravel and cement into a pile on the ground and mixing together prior to dumping the mix into small wheel-barells. It is back-breaking work.
The photo of the man chilling on a lounge is our dear professor, Daniel Winterbottom chilling by the pool in El Salvador. He loves tanning. I lecture often about the health benefits of spf 70. My words of wisdom fall on deaf ears with Daniel.
I think that is it for now... this is probably my last post as we are about to get even busier finalizing the site, traveling a bit in Guatemala (and maybe Honduras) and attending dedications, dinners, ¨we are finished parties¨ etc.
See you all soon!!! Cheers! KP
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