Coban and Travel weeks

These are photos from the past 2 weeks of my life. We have one week left in Guate and are using it to debrief our whole year together and enjoy the grandious festivities surrounding Semana Santa (Easter week). There will be lots of processions and el fombras.....wait for the pix to understand what those are. This is also my last week to catch up with the fabulous chicas that I mentor. I'm looking forward to some good chats and yummy food. After this we will be returning to Winnipeg for a few days of grad, then staff debrief and then VICTORIA for me! Exciting much? This has been an incredible adventure but I am looking forward to some well needed rest and some "normalness". (these photos are in order from most to least receint)


Becky (a student) and I are having the boat ride of our lives along with the rest of our group. We were getting very wet and sore bum-ish on the ride between Livingston and Porta Barrios. Fun times indeed.

Had the time of my life riding this horse....something Blanco was it's name. I got to go really fast...a gallop perhaps? Evidently i know very little about horses.

Riding in the back of the pickup (cause that's legal in Guate) at speeds that I should not share in case my mom is reading this (hi Mom, I'm being really safe here in Guatemala and I'm taking my vitamins every day :). On our travel week we set up an Amazing Race for the students and we had a tough time staying ahead of them!

The staff team: Patricia, Lina, Lars, and Steve

Site 2 in front of the famous ruins in Tikal, Guatemala. Where's Patty?

My group was doing 3 different service projects in Semesche. Here we are planting forage crops to feed this Mayan family's animals (chickens and rabbits) so that when they eat them they will get more nutrition. These crops also prevent soil errosion and as a result the family doesn't have to spend half a years wage to buy chemical fertilizer. It was really cool to be a part of this project cause this is the stuff that i learned about in my degree....finally there's some practicality! Oh, and we were living in a very traditional community so the girls had to wear skirts....later you'll see my lovely (and by lovely i mean ugly) 50 cent skirt which i will shockingly not be bringing home. boo hoo.

Lina (my co-leader) and I shared a hard wood bed for 3 days. Unfortunately she got bed bugs from the blankets she used. Check out the corn drying! Corn is HUGE in their culture. They eat it every meal in various forms.

Our whole site piled on to this big truck and hung on for dear life down the rough windy road between Semesche and Coban (the major city close to the little village we stayed in).

sitting around the fire with my Mayan host family. no electricity, just candles.

My Mayan host family in the little remote village of Semesche. There's that skirt I was talking about!

The past 2 weeks

I´m coming back to Vic at the end of Apirl. I´m really looking forward to being back home. I´m missing Tim lots and am getting pretty tired eventhough the things that we´re doing are really really cool. Last week we stayed with Mayan families in very minimal housing, with food being cooked over a fire and very cold and rainy conditions. despite this it was a fantastic experience. we were helping in some development projects and really being cared for by the people in Semesche. the family that Lina and I stayed with was incredible.

This week we´ve gone caving with candles (most amazing experience of my life!), floating down rivers in tubes (and through more caves), lots of cliff and bridge jumping into the water, hanging out in Semuc champy which is a beautiful place to swim and hang out in pools of blue water in the jungle, and hanging out at a cool hipy hostel in the bush. today i went horse back riding and it was so fun. I got to gallop which i have never done before! In the past week we have been doing the amazing race with the students as we´re traveling in the north of guate. The students have raced through tikal (famous Mayan ruins in the north of Guate), and cities further north like Poptun. we´ve had kayaking races, bean and torilla eating contests, crazy cheers and mascotts, photo taking challenges, riddles, and running and swimming races. it´s been pretty cool.

After this week we are heading back to Antigua for a debrief week where all the students and leaders are going to share what this year has ment to them. then we´re returning to Winnipeg for some grad stuff.....staff debrief and then home!

I can´t wait to see all of you amazing Victoria folk. you´re pretty awesome. I´ve get some great photos which i will share later!