Guatemala Trip - Day Five

Friday, February 8th --

(Please excuse the many typos. Much of this was written on a very small, and touchy keyboard, while we were driving on very bumpy roads. I'll clean it up later.)

I slept much better last night. Perhaps it is because I got to bed at an earlier hour. It might be that we're so tired that we can't help but fall asleep when our heads hit the pillow. Thankfully, we also didn't have quite as early of a morning - 7:30 for the van, instead of 6:20 like yesterday.

We started off with a delicious breakfast of french toast and fresh pineapple, then we were off to the school. The guys and the ladies (except for Jenny, who was teaching) got to observe classes. I sat in on the end of the morning routine (calendar and prayer time) and Bible time with the 2nd graders. They were talking about wisdom, and practiced several scenarious in groups to decide the wisest course of action or advice to give.

Then I got to see the 4th grade class. They were working on division with money. After the teacher had given the exmple problem, she put up 3 problem in the board, and each student worked the problems at his/her own desk on little white boards. It was fun to get to look over their shoulders and help out when they got off track.

After math time, the Spanish teacher came in. Apparenlty they all study Spanish spelling and grammar, as well as English spelling and grammar.
I only observed for about 10 minutes, during which the tacher would say a word, and then students would write it on their white obards, then divide it into syllables. They were a typically distrdistracted group - with lots of talking, fidgeting, side conversations, and lots of giggles over the fact that hidden inside one of the words they were spelling was a 'dirty' word.

Next I caught the tail end of a the kindergarten teacher reading a book and discussiong how we're all different with her class. Then they lined up and walked outside for recess. Whilewaiting for the teacher, they were showing off different things they could do - race around the playground, skip, and a perfect demonstration of how a dog goes to teh bathroom. That one got a lot of attention - and several students had to either see the demonstration, do their own demonstration, or discuss the ways that boy dogs and girl dogs go to the bathroom differently. Kids are kids no matter where you go. :)

I really enjoyed talking with the first grade teacher. She and her husband both teach at the school, and they're expecting their first child in August. It was fun to get to hear her perspective, and share some mommy advice. After I spoke with her, I went back to the Kindergarten class and got to read two books to the kiddos. They were adorable! One book was about snow and winter, so I told them that it snowed where I live. Some had been to the United States and seen snow, and thy told me they liked snow balls, snow angels, and Frosty the snowman. (I evengot sung to a little for the last one.) When I was finished , they all thanked me, and gave me the most wonderful hugs. I couldn't think of a better way to finsih our time at the school.

Next we hopped into tehe van for a beautiful but harrowing drive up the mountain to the hot springs. We just thought the other roads were bad! Sheer rock cliffs on one side, straight drop offs on the other, and full of windy curves. It wouldn't be so bad if it was just us, but there were tons of trucks (all Toyotas - that's all they seem to have here) loaded with produce and people going to the market. On the drive we got to see the farms and farmers in action. It was breathtaking to be so high up in the mountains and see so much.

We arrived at the hot springs after about 45 minutes or so. It's actually a park that you pay a fee to get into. I don't know how much it cost, since David paid, but it would be worth it no matter what the fee. We were, literally, above the clouds in a rainforest. We parked the van and walked up a gorgeously maintained path with beautiful flowers all around until we arrived at the hot springs themselves. There were many different pools in the park - including one near the entrance. however, where we were there were 3 pools, surrounding a bathroom facility and a small restaurant. The pools had been repaired after an earthquake that destroyed them several years ago. They were all made of cut stone, hand laid, and were filled with water piped in directly from the mountain. The smallest was just under bath temperature. The next was like a warm bath, and the last one was quite warm. It was directly underneath the rock face of the mountain, and the water trickled directly off the rock into the pool. When you walked all the way over to the wall, it was very hot. In fact, if you put your hand under the water trickling in, it almost burned you. However, the pools were just what we needed for our sore muscles, and the surrounding scenery was phenomenal.

After the springs, we drove back down the mountain, stopping in a shop where they sell hand-blown glass. I wanted to take everything home with me, it was all so beautiful. We got to the hotel and had about 45 minutes of down time before heading back to David and Mirsa's for a supper of fried chicken, coleslaw, and homemade guacamole (made 2 different ways). After supper one of our members went to teach at the Bible college. We headed there so we could see it, and then spent an hour or so in the town's main park downtown. We headed upstairs to the patio of a restaurant  where we sipped the most delicious hot chocolate I've ever had and looked out over the downtown.

Now we're back at the hotel, trying to figure out how to get everything back into our suitcases. We're planning on leaving a lot of stuff here as a donation to the shelters. I hope it will be a blessing. I'm excited to get home to see our kids, but it will also be very hard to leave this place.  I can honestly say that neither one of us will ever be the same again after this trip, and that a part of our hearts will always belong to Guatemala.