Una Tarde En La Casa

These school kids were so excited to see us

View of Volcan de Agua from Santa Maria de Jesus

View from the top of the cemetery

Estoy resfriada...in other words I have a cold.  For my first two weeks here I have been suffering from "allergies," and finally they got the best of me late last week.  I put allergies in "" because I'm not exactly sure to what I am allergic, but it's for sure there is something new here bothering me.  All last week my teacher was sick with a cold and cough, but today when I arrived sick she thought it was because it rained on Saturday.  I didn't want to make her feel bad that I probably got sick from her because I completely understand that if she doesn't work, she doesn't get paid.  This morning I could hardly focus, but I did notice it has become much easier for me to speak Spanish and to speak Spanish correctly!  I am remembering to correct mistakes that I frequently made in the past, which does make me happy.  Because I felt so terrible and it was difficult for me to focus, I quickly accepted the invitation to take a small field trip to Santa Maria de Jesus, which is a town very close to Antigua.  For Q3.50 each way, I along with 2 other students and their teachers took a bus to Santa Maria de Jesus.  It's a small village at the base of Volcan de Agua (Water Volcano), which I hope to climb this weekend with some of my fellow students.  This village is somewhat dirty, and is made up of 95% indigenous people.  There is trash everywhere, and they put their water holding tank (not sure of the exact word in Spanish nor in English) in the cemetery.  The cemetery is located on a large hill, and the water tank is located at the top of the hill, so it has to flow all the way down the hill through the bodies to get to the people.  My teachers were explaining to us why this is such a bad idea, and even for the new students, not much translation was needed.  Santa Maria de Jesus does have one more thing to note!  Very close to this town is Central America's only winery!  It's called Chateau Defay, and you can bet that it won't be too long before I pay them visit.  It was started by an American couple a few years ago, and you can read more about them here: http://www.fincadefay.com/

Inside a church at Santa Maria de Jesus

Prepared Food For Sale at Santa Maria de Jesus

It's tough to notice, but this is a picture of their water tank from the top of the cemetery

Zapote

There was also a small market, where I did find some zapotes!  I bought 2 zapotes, some raddishes, a pineapple, and some black cherries for a total price of Q18 ($2.25).  I wrote about zapotes before, which remind me of a sweet pumpkin flavor.  I had one for lunch just so I could cut it up and show you all what it looks like! Que rico!!!  After enjoying my zapote, I took the advice of many teachers and made some hot tea with lots of lime juice and honey. Everyone seemed to have their own "cure" for me, many of which contained different types of liquors. These sounded too much like the ideas we had in college where if you have a cold, you're supposed to drink enough so nothing else could live in your body except your own soul.  I don't remember this working all that well, so the lime juice and honey won!

As I write this, many more subjects come to mind.  In the next couple of chapters I will write about Antigua, more on the school system here, the upcoming presidential election, my first Guatemalan birthday party, some of my classmates, "flashing" my iPhone, and much much more.  Hasta luego!