Hola!  It has been so many days since we have updated this blog.  We set aside time Sunday afternoon but when we returned from our weekend trip the city of Xela was completely out of power!  It is common for the city to lose power from heavy rain.  Over the weekend we went to IRTRA (similar to Disney World) and we visited some Mayan Ruins.  It was amazing!  There were wild peacocks everywhere! Yesterday we visited Fuentes Georginas which are hot springs in the cloud forest here.  Today we volunteered at a local high school.  The students were working on forms of "to be" (I am , she is, we are).  It was fun to help them with their work. 

Thursday 23/06/11

Hola!  We have been very busy the last few days.  This week we volunteered at La Pedrera again, made chocolate, and participated in a Mayan Ceremony.  Tomorrow we are climbing Volcan Chicabal!

 Chocolate making maestra "Josefina"

 Mrs. Lorenz's finished product.

 Miss Cullen's finished product!

 All of our chocolate bars. 

 The start of the our Mayan Ceremonia.

 Objects used in the ceremony has importance to the Mayan Culture. 

 Maricruz y Alejandra jugando "Roca, Papel, Tijeras!"

 Jugando

The view from our Casa!

Making Tortillas en la escuela

Today we made chocolate for Chocolate Caliente!

 Making pulseras (bracelets) at school!

 Lago de Atitlan

 Miss Wood, Miss Pogulis, Miss Cullen, and Mrs. Lorenz on the boat ride to San Santiago

 El Hotel en Panajachel

Open-air market in Chichicastenango

Pulseras! 

 Un Pavo! 

Trabajando con los niños de La Perdrera

(Working with the kids from La Perdrera)

 

La Perdrera

 Jugando con un paracaídas

(Playing with the parachute) 

Chicos en La Perdrera

El Cementerio

We had a great first day of school! We woke up a las seis de la manana.  Our host madre prepared panqueques for breakfast!  They were served with mango and papya! Que delicioso!  School starts a las ocho de la  manana.  It takes us 10 minutes to walk to school.  We have wonderful teachers!  This afternoon we went to Trama Textiles, a weaving store.  Mayan women taught us a lot about weaving traditional dress. 

The view from our house!  Las montanas son bonitas!

                                                      We had a weaving class this afternoon.

                           Miss Cullen y yo en el parque central.  Parque Central is cinco minutos from our house.



Adios!!!

Our Adventure Begins!

Well we have finally arrived in Xela! We were scheduled to arrive yesterday afternoon, but our flight out of Chicago was cancelled because of an engine problem. After waiting in the customer service line for nearly 5 hours, we were told we wouldn´t be able to fly out until Monday morning. We were very disappointed...until we recieved warm chocolate cookies at the hotel!

When we arrived in Xela (pronounced Shayla) this afternoon, our Madre de Casa cooked us a delicious dinner of tortillas de papa y verduras cocinadas (cooked vegatables), we went for a quick walk. We are at our escuela right now (Casa Xelaju) using the internet. ¡Estamos emocionadas para descansar esta noche!

¡Hasta mañana!