From Hostel to Home...Life in Guate

merry early christmas benjamin

he's so happy that his mom and i decided to get him a guitar for christmas/birthday:) (thanks pam, he absolutely LOVES it)

i've been a little jealous of fellow coworkers talking about going home for the holidays. i wish i was heading home for christmas, and i miss my family like crazy! BUT, i mean really? can i complain about adventuring up to belize with ben and friends? not so much. i'm really excited for our trip around the cayes and then down through tikal, flores and hopefully new years in rio dulce. some people save for years to take vacations like these, so i've got much to look forward to. we decorated one of our fake houseplants with christmas decor, and we have a small village of candy from student gifts at work. life is pretty darn swell here in guate today.

much love,

and family...i miss you terribly! i still wish i was coming home and can't wait to see you again.

who visits the pillow at night?

one exciting thing about working with first graders is that their teeth fall out! i honestly adore seeing their faces when it actually happens, and making the experience exciting rather than scary. i love it. today i was told by the little ones that a magic rat comes to their house and leaves Q's under their pillow. this magic rat's name is raton perez and i think he's adorable.

p.s., i'm going to be teaching kindergarten math next semester and i'm really excited!

la quema del diablo

there are fireworks blasting outside from every which way! december 7...burning of the devil, a new tradition that i'll admit i was a bit freighted of at first, but now that i'm safe in my awesome apartment, it's actually pretty awesome. 

 Burn the Devil, Make Way for Mary
"The tradition of burning the devil began in colonial times. In anticipation of the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the patron of Guatemala City, those who could afford it adorned the fronts of their houses with lanterns. Eventually, the poor who could not afford such lanterns began gathering their garbage and would burn all of the year's rubbish in front of their houses. Over time it was formalized and in addition to individual piles of garbage, communities started to burn The Devil to clear the way for Mary's feast.

The idea is to burn all of the bad from the previous year and to start anew from the ashes. In cities throughout the country The Devil is burned at the stroke of six. In Ciudad Vieja, the first former capital of the country, a devil three stories tall is constructed and burned in the city square.

Other Latin American countries share similar traditions. Colombia has Años Nuevos. These are life–sized dummies made to represent one's sinful self of the previous year. Often they are portrayed with bulging sex organs, a white nose (for those who struggled with cocaine during the year) and with bottles of liquor in their hands. When the year rolls over, they are doused in gasoline, and the old self brilliantly burns away to make way for the reformed."

yet another crazy guatemalan tradition that we are here to experience!

much love from guate...

the jungles of panajachel

zip-lining in panajachel was one of our favorite things we've done in guatemala. not only was it in the monkey reserve where we made friends with an adorable monkey, but we were zipping through the jungle with lake atitlan as our view. it was good that we found the courage to suit up, because now we can't wait to do it at every chance we get.

here is a video of me coming in... and here is ben! i'm embarrassed of me yelling out, "brake ben, brake!" because he knew what he was doing and i was paranoid that someone was going to hurt their shoulder on a fast landing. ignore my annoying voice and enjoy ben coming in... much love from guate

photos

i uploaded a few photos from our atitlan trip, you can view them in the album on the left.