Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Greetings from Guatemala. Today was our first full day here and the first activity of the day was exchanging our money for quetzals. After that we met the other group staying at semilla with us. we learned a little guatamalan history from Hector and even CJ said he learned something today. After lunch we drove to the guatamalan city cemetary to see how people from different countries moved to Guatemala at different times in history and how their lives and culture was affected. the cemetary was like nothing any of us had seen before. There were people waiting around, hanging out and just talking with family members in the cemetary.
We split up into 5 groups to find our assigned crypts and promptly got lost. CJ got really lost and was bitten by a dog with rabies. At this point in time you're probably thinking what the heck is going on down there, but you must understand that it is really fun here and CJ wasn't bitten. After that we walked through the cemetary to the landfill. We saw how the garbage system works in guatamala (or how it really doesn't work). People put their trash in the garbage which is taken to the landfil and then workers go through the trash to find things that can be recycled. There were millions of vultures overhead waiting to eat some garbage. The landfil had a horrible stench and garbage and dust blew from the landfil into the cemetary, it was an unforgettable experience (and we have pictures). Katie took way too many pictures and got too close to the edge of the cliff, and because of all the rain lately, the ground was really soft and broke off but Katie caught a branch before she fell to her death in the landfil. Our guide reached over as we formed a human chain to save Katie. She was unscathed (minus the broken arm but that's beside the point). After our long afternoon in the cemetary and landfil (in case you had any doubts Katie didn't really fall off the cliff) we returned to casa emaus (where we are staying). We had rest time and watched tv in Spanish and some of us took a trip to the supermarket to buy candy and drinks. Dinner was delicious and it was dark here before 7 pm. I am sitting here at the dinner table with cj's iPod touch listening to johns crazy stories of his youth. Everyones tired and ready to go to bed but john's on a roll. We're having a blast and learning a lot. We have a busy day tomorrow of sightseeing so I should probably wrap this up. I do believe Lili is the designated blogger for tomorrow, so if you're a fan of her writing, be sure to check back for more updates tomorrow at about this time. Thanks for sending us here and praying for us, and most of all thank you for taking (or wasting) your time to read this blog. ~kate (obviously it's me and my terrible humor).