Global Investigator Trip 2: Return To Guatemala

When we last left off our heroine, Grace, was flying away from Guatemala with her coffee beans in hand never to return. Little did she know fate would bring her back to San Juan la Laguna on her Gap Year adventure. This is... Global Investigator Trip 2: Return To Guatemala

Okay, that's a bit dramatic but it's not a bad title for a jam-packed, action-filled sequel.

Here's the low down: I came to Guatemala and San Juan la Laguna for my Junior year Global Investigator Trip. For a number of reasons, it was not the best trip and I promised myself that of all the places in the world I would never EVER go back.

While looking at Gap Year Programs I specifically avoided all and any trips that went to Guatemala. The original TBB plan looked a little more like this: Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, DC. A little ways into the summer I got an email saying that Bolivia had been switched to Guatemala and more specifically to San Juan la Laguna.

So here we are three days in to our month-long stay and I am happy to say that so far coming back has been a good idea. Yesterday was Dia de Todos Los Santos and today is Dia de Los Disfuntos so we haven't started work. So far my new roommate, Ellie, and I have relaxed in coffee shops, spent time weaving with our new family of father, Diego, mother, Filomena, 17-year-old daughter, Viviana, and 16-year-old, Jessica, visited the cemetery, and had a whole group seminar on sustainable agriculture.

When we do start work we'll be placed into 4 or 5 groups and rotate among the farms: corn, coffee, avocado, horticulture, and natural cotton dyes. In my next post I'll let you know how the work is going. I imagine it'll be hard, but ultimately worth it.

Lastly, shoutout to my amazing parents who just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Harry Potter and The Gap Year Girl

Let's start with books. I love books. Always have. Except that school, first of all, took up all my time so that I never had time to read for fun, and secondly, to be honest drained a little of my love for them. Thinking Beyond Borders is one of the more academic heavy Gap Year programs. I love learning and I love school so I 've  enjoyed our twice-weekly seminars that call for discussions and debates on what constitutes productive education, how policy affects sustainable agriculture and consumption, and of course the question t hat 's been driving our exploration for two months: what is development? However, all this heavy reading about the Mayan Genocide, extreme poverty, banana republics, and government coups at times can be, well, to say the least, difficult and saddening material. I 've found myself with more time on my hands than I ever had in high school. So, with all that time I 've decided to fill it up with what I love: reading. To be perfectly
Read more

Life On A Hilltop

"Hey Kelly, this is Chris. By the way, Grace is dying." Here are some things you should know: 1. I have been suseptible to massive nosebleeds since I was a child. 2. Ecuador is hot, dry, and at a high altitude. 3. Madison and I´s homestay is at the very top of a very long and very steep hill (but honestly it feels like a mountain during each hike). It´s about a 20 minute walk from the center of town/the school where I work. Before the nosebleed story, let me tell you about our homestay family and life on the hilltop. Madison and I live with mother Zoila, father Rafael (though he´s an engineer and works all day so we rarely see him), 16-year-old daughter Paula, 11-year-old daughter Luz Clarita, and 1-year-old grandson Nicholas. We honestly couldn´t have been placed with a better family. We call each other sisters, they teach us to dance, we help with homework, together we clean the kitchen, feed the guinea pigs, ducks, and giant pigs (believe me when I say giant. I´m
Read more

Hello from Ecuador!

It was another normal dinner in the Mindo forest, or rainforest to be exact, and it was pasta... again. Don't get me wrong, I love pasta plus there were some freshly brewed cups of Hierba Luisa a lemongrass-like tea. I was sitting across from one of the Thinking Beyond Borders Program Leaders, Kelly, mentally preparing myself for the River of Life presentation I would have to give in half an hour and twirling my spaghetti when a giant tarantula fell into it. I flew backwards out of my seat and onto the dirt below. This isn't a typical day in Ecuador though there are lots of bugs and, accordingly, lots of bug bites. My time here so far has been absolutely incredible. Though it's only been 12 days I've learned so much more about world injustices, economic thought processes, and the Spanish language. Not to mention I feel like I've known these 3 program leaders, 11 girls, and 5 boys for at least 2 months . We're currently in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, bef
Read more