Summer Plans!

Here's what's coming up for team teco/teca!

This Week
Wednesday - Beth finishes school; Thursday - we spend the day packing up our apartment; Friday - we spend the day moving into our new apartment; Saturday - more unpacking and also cleaning our old apartment and turning in the keys; Sunday - we pack for our trip to Miami!

Next Week
Beth and I fly out Monday mid-day for a week in Miami with my parents. Originally my parents were going to come visit us in Guatemala, but we scrapped that idea after some recent events in the city. Everything probably would have been fine, but we didn't want them to be nervous about traveling here. My aunt and uncle have once again been kind enough to let us use their apartment for free for the week (this is where Beth and I honeymooned and also went back to the following summer). We are so looking forward to seeing Mom and Dad, being on the beach, drinking Cubanos (espresso with sugar), eating all kinds of good food (from seafood to Thai to Cuban), relaxing around the apartment, reading, playing Scrabble, and more!

July
After Miami we'll return to Guatemala for a few days before leaving once again for our big summer trip. We leave July 1 for an entire month in Western Europe! We'll spend the bulk of our time in Giessen, Germany, with our good friends, Rob and Linden. We've already planned two weekend trips with them: one to Berlin and one to Prague. There will also be day trips here and there to parts of Germany (can't wait to utilize that oh-so efficient German public transportation system!). Our last week of the month Beth and I will travel through Belgium, possibly France, and The Netherlands. We return to Guatemala July 31.

While we're in Germany we will still blog and post photos about our trip in progress, so please check in!

"Fool me — You can't get fooled again."

The title for this post is from Bush's infamous speech where he says,

There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again.

--President George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002

Well, this phrase comes to mind when I think of how James and I have been fooled again! I guess we aren't as smart as our esteemed president not to get fooled again...

As you may (or may not) know, the safety situation reached a critical mass for us last month when two teachers from my school were assaulted up the road. This, combined with CAG parents' assasination, the general rise of crime on the main boulevard we live on and our zone of the city, and other attempted robberies, have led to major anxieties about where we live. Not just Guatemala in general, though that is a big part of it...

Well, our apartment building, while gorgeous, comfortable, and ultra-nice, does not have a guard like other buildings have...we have a handyman who knows the place and people very well, but he is pretty much helpless to stop someone from coming into the building because he has no gun, and no security measures other than to maybe phone us and warn us. This is not good enough for James and me, especially with the way security has been on a downward spiral lately, so we are moving to a new apartment at the end of July.

ANYWAYS, this anxiety/lack of security background had to be said to set the background for this blog post.

The other background to set is that our good friends from school, Matt and Amy (pregnant and engaged!), live next door to us, and our kitchen windows face each other. We can easily see into their apartment, and visa versa. This is usually fun, because we can leave notes, pictures, and wave hello to each other, too! :) But when can it be a problem to look into your neighbor's apartment? ......hmm.......

The first time we were fooled --"shame on us"-- was in December during winter break. We were in our apartment relaxing when I was at the kitchen sink and I noticed that there were scruffy looking guys - definitely not Matt or Amy - rifling through Matt and Amy's things! I knew for a FACT that Matt and Amy were out of the country, and since most of Guatemala was on Christmas vacation, it struck me as the perfect time for burglars to come in and ransack an apartment (remember: we have no guard!).

The man looked up, and I knew that he knew that we were home, and we had seen him. So I immediately panicked, called the doorman (who did not pick up his phone), and I demanded to James that we leave our apartment as soon as possible and then call the police. I didn't even bother putting clothes on; just left in my PJs with the passports. We called our friend and neighbors who lives on the 3rd floor to tell him that someone was robbing the place. Luis (nickname: Wicho - pronounced Wii-cho) is a quite the gun enthusiast, and so he went down to the doorman "Packing with 2 guns, just in case there is action" to check the scene out.

It turned out that no, the place was not being robbed after all. Amy's sister was traveling around Guatemala, and decided to make a surprise stop for a few days to recoup from her travels, and she had brought a few male friends and her boyfriend along too, which is why they looked so disheveled. They weren't ransacking Matt and Amy's things, they were cleaning their own backpacks and souvenirs out! Whew! It was one of the scariest moments in Guate for me because I knew they had seen me, and I thought the 'burglars' would certainly come to kill any witness to their crime! Wicho, James, our doorman, and I all had a good laugh about it afterwards. :)

This Monday we got "fooled again"!

A bit of background for this false alarm: Our apartment in sandwiched between two other apartments: Matt and Amy on one side, in the building, and across the street out of the other side of our place lives an infamous guilty-of-genocide ex-General and Guatemala leader's family. He-who-shall-not-be-named. So, we are constantly looked out of the other side of our apartment at the goings-on of clandestine meetings, bodyguard watching, and creating our own stories of what goes on behind those closed doors...

Monday while James and I were making dinner, we noticed that a hand had partially pulled back the blinds at Matt and Amy's place. We assumed they were wanting to tell us something or were looking at us, so James waved hello. Almost immediately, the hand dropped the blind and went away. No one waved back, which we found suspicious...so a few moments later, the hand is back pulling the blinds, and we wave again. Again, no response. By now, I was already panicking, because a) the hand skin looked dark, not like Matt or Amy's b) no one was waving back c) we called the doorman and he said no one else should have been in their apartment d) Matt and Amy were not picking up their phone e) the hand pulling the blinds back never showed a face, and seemed like the person was trying to hide.

Matt was fun enough to reenact the scene for the blog.

In a 15-20 second time span, I had two theories devised.

Theory 1: Burglars. Matt and Amy weren't home, and someone had broken in, and were checking to see if we had seen them.

Theory 2: Assassins. Someone was using Matt and Amy's place to check across the street where the ex-general's family was, and they were going to use the place for a Book Depository Style killing. Either way, we knew they had spotted us, and I had again entered panic mode.

But because we were wrong about burglars in December (and slightly embarrassed to have caused such a fuss), this time I kept my voice a bit calmer on the phone to Wicho when I explained the situation. He and the doorman promptly came up packing 'heat' (Wicho gave the doorman a gun too, just in case!), and they were quiet as mice checking the situation out from our kitchen. Meanwhile, I did start to panic! In case there was a shootout, I did not want to be there for it, so I basically made James leave with me immediately so they could use our apartment for whatever. I have to give James kudos for remaining super calm in both of these situations.

As we were in the elevator headed to leave the building, Wicho and the doorman went to Matt and Amy's and knocked....imagine Wicho knocking with one hand, loaded and poised gun in the other hand...Amy is 6 months pregnant....

And Matt opened the door! It was him the whole time! His hand just looked dark (hairy, I guess?) and he did not see us waving at him because he was too busy trying to discern if the tortilla lady across the street (yes, next door to the ex-general's family) was still making tortillas at that time. Crisis averted! Again, we were more than happy that there weren't any burglars there and of course we were able to laugh about it afterward, but at the time I was so scared!

But these incidents merely reinforce why I'm glad we are moving apartments. I wouldn't feel so bad knowing that someone is checking IDs and there is an armed guard at the building 24/7, which our current apartment lacks. We move next week, and we are both so excited! I'm sure our doorman and Wicho both think we are the most paranoid gringos around.

Farewell Dinner & BBQ with Friends

Last Friday the majority of staff at Beth's school gathered for a farewell dinner now that the school year is drawing to a close. While a number of us are staying for another year or more, a large percentage are leaving to pursue careers in other exciting parts of the world. It was great to all be gathered together outside of school.

We had the upstairs to ourselves at the Portal del Angel steak house. This restaurant is perched high up above the city along the highway that leads to El Salvador, providing an expansive view of the sprawling city.

After the tasty dinner and dessert, we enjoyed watching a photo slideshow featuring nearly everyone in attendance enjoying an array of activities Guatemala has to offer. After that, the floor was opened up for some fun--roasting fun. While not a lot of people chose to stand before everyone and roast one of their friends, the few who did provided lots to laugh about. And my clever wife easily got the most laughs with her incredibly funny poem, which roasted everyone in our cohort who came last August. It was so funny, and I was really proud of her comedy skills.

After dinner we decided to take the decor for a ride.

***

Saturday morning Beth left with a group of girls to the nearby spa to hang out and celebrate Amy's upcoming baby. She and Matt (our neighbors, by the way) are engaged and will be moving back to Portland at the end of the month. We'll be sad to see them leave as we've really enjoyed being neighbors with them.

I left the city mid-morning along with our friends Jack and Jen to pick up Beth and then head over to Antigua for the afternoon. We had loose plans of doing some shopping and eating, returning before dark. Also joining us for the ride was Campbell and his dog, Tyler. They were meeting up with Campbell's girlfriend, Sarah, at the spa as well and were also planning on heading to Antigua. Once together we started to caravan over to Antigua but were quickly halted by the rain.

Due to the recent tropical storm, we have had near continuous rain since late last week (it's raining right now as I type this). We were only about 10 minutes or so on our way before we reached a point in the road that was flooded over and definitely not worth attempting to pass through. Thankfully we quickly found a spot to double back and abandoned our plans for Antigua.

Our alternate activity for the day ended up being a blast. Jack, Jen, Sarah, Campbell, Beth, and I, along with two others, Chris and Charlotte, met up at Sarah and Campbell's for an afternoon BBQ. We were all enjoying each other's company so much, and we got wrapped up in games of Trivial Pursuit and Catch Phrase, that we didn't leave till some time after 11, nearly seven hours later.

Sarah and Campbell's covered garage was the perfect spot to get out of the rain and still BBQ. (From left: Campbell, Jack, Chris, Sarah, Charlotte)

Charlotte did an excellent job managing the grill and giving the 'What 'choo lookin' at" look.

Time to eat!

Though we don't look very excited here, we were fairly rambunctious throughout the day, especially when the girls rallied back and thought they were going to win Trivial Pursuit (but they didn't!).

Sarah and Tyler snuggled up at the end of the night.

Making Floors with Vida Joven: Service Project #2

On Sunday, May 18, Beth and I along with another group of teachers from school teamed up with Brady Greene of the Christian organization Vida Joven (Young Life) to do some more work in another impoverished area of the city. This time we worked in Zone 3, right next to the massive and infamous garbage dump. (Side note: we just watched a documentary about Guatemalans who live and work in this dump called Recycled Life...check it out.) Actually, this particular neighborhood was formerly the dump, but it had been cleared a while back and now there are homes/shanties here. Some have concrete floors and many do not. We were there to help build concrete floors for two families.

The day before our group arrived, the two families cleared out their possessions from their small abode and, with the assistance of some Vida Joven workers, prepared the dirt floor for concrete by leveling it. When we arrived, we split up into two teams and jumped right into the arduous work. To begin, we had to haul three wheel barrels full of sand and two of gravel from outside the neighborhood to the home in order to mix it with the concrete and water. We did this for every bag of concrete, and I believe we used five bags. All the mixing was done by shovel and was definitely hard labor! My back was killing me by the end of the day... At first we had a local man show/assist us in mixing the first bag; then we did the rest ourselves. We got better and quicker the next few times, though by the end we were slowing down quite a bit. After the concrete was mixed, we'd load up buckets (that weighed close to 100lbs. with the mix), and bring them into the home to pour on the floor and begin spreading it out by trowel.

After a couple hours we took a break and were treated to some tostadas (fried corn tortilla, guacamole, onion, and a powdery cheese like Parmesan) and bottled water by some of the local women. It was really sweet of them to make. While we ate we had a chance to chat with them and interact with the kids. Afterwards we did a little more work then headed back over to the other site to have lunch with the other group.

After lunch we returned to the home and worked another few hours to complete the floor. I'd guess it was 8' x 12' or so in size. It was seriously tough work, but it felt so good to provide something so basic yet so needed for a family. When you consider how muddy their floor must get during the rainy season, and how perpetually dirty their home is, this new floor must really give them more comfort and security.

Once again it felt great to get our hands dirty, connect with locals and see up close how the majority of people live in this country, and work to give them something to be proud of and improve their surroundings.

Bee Honey!

I don't know about you, but I prefer honey from bees, as opposed to other honey-producing creatures. And so do Guatemalans, as you can see from this clearly labeled bottle (miel de abeja = honey from bee, or bee honey).


Our Spanish teacher, Patricia, first told us about this funny redundancy. She always provides interesting insight to particular words and phrases Guatemalans use as she grew up in Spain and speaks Español de España (another redundancy?).

Bringing It Back in Black

Last week4 talented teachers and I produced an exceptional (if I do say so myself) Teacher Talent Show (TTS) performance extraordinaire!

Our group was self-titled Bringing It Back in Black, and we basically did a dance medley to some of our favorite crowd-pleasing songs. It was nothing short of spectacular. The outfits. The choreography. The Talent.

Each teacher in the group "starred" in a song, and we all rounded it out with the N'Sync finale of Bye Bye Bye. In order of appearance, our group awed the audience with the following songs:

I Will Survive : Kari "Yes, this is my high school prom dress" Johnson

Thriller: Beth "Zombie Claws" Mildren

Mickey: Stephanie "So fine you blow my mind" Willocks

Ain't Goin' Down: Kelly "Where's that Gallo hat?" Seagraves

U Can't Touch This: Audrey "Break It Down" Paar

Bye Bye Bye: All Talented "N'Pink" Group Members

We must've stolen the show, because our act also made the school's homepage! Por supuesto.

Outta the city and up to Earth Lodge!

Last Friday afternoon Beth and I left from school shortly after 3 and caravaned with some friends to our weekend get-away spot, Earth Lodge. Everyone was in need of some time away from the City, and this place was just the spot. Located outside of Antigua, it was a mere hour and 15 minutes or so away.

After passing through Antigua, we were supposed to take a road that led out of the town and would turn into a dirt path and then dead end; from there, we would park and hike a short distance to the lodge. Well, we must have taken the wrong road out of Antigua initially, as we did end up on a dirt road, but it wasn't the dirt road. In fact, we got some funny looks from passer byers as our caravan navigated the narrow, bumpy, dirt-filled, and sometimes-hard-to-drive-through 'road.' Thankfully we made it up the steep hill and reconnected with the road we initially should have been on that would then take us to the right dirt road.

This next dirt road also required some concentrated driving as it was also steep, narrow, and bumpy, and the dirt was so fine and thick, that any rain fall would surely turn it into an impassable path (unless you had four-wheel drive). Needless to say, I was praying for no rain the whole weekend so we wouldn't have any trouble getting out. Thankfully it never did more than briefly sprinkle, though clouds certainly loomed the majority of the time.

Finally we arrived at the end of the road. Everyone made a few multi-point turns to get their car parked with the limited space allotted. Then we unloaded our gear and set off for Earth Lodge. We had been previously warned that it was a bit of hike to get there, but I think we were all still surprised by the time and effort it took. Thankfully, the location more than made up as the view and vantage point of Earth Lodge is unmatched. The place sits up high on a hillside looking out over Antigua and faces three volcanoes.

The main lodge is small but warm and inviting, with the kitchen in the back churning out some very tasty meals. At any point you may help yourself to drinks or snacks (like "cookies as big as your head," Beth said); you just have to mark what you take on your tab. We've been to other places that also used this tab honor system, and I love it because it adds to the sense of relaxed informality--like you're part of the family. At night, there is just one communal dinner served, though you do have options of meat choices. This is also fun as it gets everyone together at one time and provides an opportunity to meet new people also staying there.


Earth Lodge has cabins, a tree house, a dorm, and campground spread over a large terraced hillside. Beth and I stayed in a cabin which was a simple elevated room that had two double beds and a desk and chair.

The view was fantastic, and right below our room was maybe the greatest rope swing I've ever been on. Not only does it swing out high above the ground, the view from where you are swinging really makes you feel like you're soaring.




Outside the dining area/lodge is an open space with chairs, tables, and hammocks and where we spent most of our time together. Down the hill from that is another open area that can be used for camping, but we also used it for yoga and Frisbee.

On Saturday morning Beth and I, along with Kristin and her two children, Jackson and Channing, went on a short hike through the neighboring farm land for some up close looks at how the locals work these incredibly steep hills, as well as some spectacular vistas of the area.



Saturday night the Earth Lodge workers organized a game of Scrabble. Each board cost Q10 ($1.30) and you could play up to five at a time. The winner took home Q170 and a portion of the proceeds went to a school nearby. The first game was for all the prize money, with subsequent games for a free drink. Beth lucked out and won the prize money, so we had some credit added to our tab! It was a fun pre-dinner activity. After dinner, we broke out Trivial Pursuit and Beth and I teamed up against a couple girls from Holland and a couple who live in Mexico doing Peace Corps work. It looked like we were going to win it, but we kept getting hung up on the sports category (which we normally don't even play when it's just us two) and ultimately lost to the Peace Corps duo.

There were 15 of us total, and I think everyone had a fun time at Earth Lodge. For being such a low-key and relaxing spot, there was plenty to do and enjoy. And with it being so close to where we live, I think we'll go back frequently.