Teenagers and ice

This week, we have a group of 24 teenagers staying over for 5 days. They are coming to Xela for a Theatre competition on the theme of the Human Rights. We were supposed to have 39, but finally it's not too bad that we have less people... because they are really noisy, as teenagers are!

Every night we have around 34 people people staying, so it's really busy! It is a big change from last week when we had very few people. They are all leaving on Sunday, will be happy to be able to sleep again!!

Yesterday, we had a ice storm in Xela. It only lasted 30 minutes but it was really impressive, with water coming into the hostel. We have problems with the roof which is very old... check the pictures here

[June 21st]

A few days at the Beach

On Monday, we left Xela with Roisin, direction Chiquistepeque. Where is it? On the Pacific coast, far from the civilisation. So it's normal you have never heard from it... so we took a bus to Cuyotenango where we had an hour to wait for the bus which will bring us to our destination. We met Anna, the owner of the project we were going to.

The project is named Hamacas y Pescado (hamac and fish). Anna is 42 years old and is French. Living in Guatemala for 4 years, she created this project with her husband who is Guatemaltec. They opened a library for the kids of the village and every afternoon they come to read and play games.

Chiquistepeque is a small village of 300 people, living in houses made in wood. They live of fishing and agriculture. We had hour lunch and dinner with a local family, which was really interesting. They have only one child because the mother always wanted to study but she got pregnant at 18 years old and so she wants to give the opportunity to her daughter to study.

The weather was really hot and lots of mosquitos, our poor body suffered! But it was nice just to relax and walk on the beach. We were staying in a wooden caban without electricty but with running water and cold shower.

Check the pictures here!

Now I'm back to Xela and back to work. We have a website, check Black Cat website. Next week we're having a group of 39 students coming on Tuesday until Sunday morning. So the hostel is going to be full! Then I have a reservation for a group of 12 people in July and an other group of 10 people in August. So will get really busy!

[June 12th]

Single life here I am!!

We have broke up with Mynor this weekend, so here I am single again! Suddenly so many possibilities are offered to me. I'm starting to think to change country, see a bit more of the world!!! Argentina... Nicaragua... Perou... But not before 3 or 4 months, need to save money first. And I want to get a bit more experience working in tourism. ah well, we'll keep you posted of my next move...

I have been working 7 days in a row and I can't wait to get a day off tomorrow. Just chill out and do a bit of exercise. Next Monday, we're going to the beach with Roisin for 3 days. Will be fun!!!

[June 7th]

I want to save the world....

I have lived in Guatemala enough time to know what is the day to day life for people here. And what is the hard reality. Last week, I had an interesting conversation with some friends about the role of the NGO and the volunteers in Guatemala. A friend told me about a conversation he had with young American girls just arriving to Xela and who had this idea in their head of saving the poor women of a situation of exploitation. But the reality is different, there are hundred and hundred NGO in Guatemala but the problem of most of them is that they want to do things with an American or European thinking. Which mean trying to change the culture or habits of the people. Which is not good. I went a few weeks ago to a conference about Human Rights and all the participants who were Guatemalan said the same, people need education. Especially in the villages where the level of education is very low, especially for the girls.

One of my friend worked for an ONG who is educating mayan women in village and one day they asked them a very simple question: what make you happy at the end of day? They answered that the kids are fed and happy, the house clean and the husband has his dinner ready. That resume all...

On Monday we had a day without rain, so we weny hiking to a small volcano named La Muela, close to Xela with Arisa. See the pictures!