Guate("My kids"), Days59-62

Friday was another day of school and homework, but I got to go play games with the teens in the transition house at night.  We had fun playing games, watching movies, and eating cookies and quenepas!

Saturday was visiting day at the home, so some of the family members of the kids came in the afternoon and a family from church also came to visit.  They visit once a month and bring goodie bags for all the kids and a special supper:)  I spent the evening with the girls in their house.  We make a new version of bagel pizzas and played leap frog!

On Sunday I got to go to church and see all of the families and friends that I know from my December/January trip.

Monday and Tuesday have been really fun days!  I went to Santiago (on Lake Atitlan- look it up it is BEAUTIFUL!)  I went there to visit an orphanage that has about 25 kids.  They run it like a family, so there is a couple as house parents and it just happens that they take care of a ton of kids.  They do all their own cooking and cleaning, so it is just like a HUGE family.  I really liked the set up and it was something really different than the other homes that l have been in.  (I forgot to add that they have 9 babies!!!)
The most exciting event was mopping the floor at 1am.  The directors and I had stayed up LATE talking, so we were in the living room and heard water running.  We did not have any water in the afternoon, so it appears that when the kids tried to wash dishes after supper they turned on the water, nothing came out, and they did NOT turn off the faucet!  So, the kitchen sink overflowed and the entire kitchen and dining room were flooded.  So we used brooms and mops and swept the water outside.  After that we decided it was time to go to bed.

It was also a really fun and uneventful adventure getting there and back.  On Monday morning I left at 7 with the kids.  The kids went to school and I went to the plaza to wait for the chicken bus.  It was a 2 hour and 20 minute ride to the town of Panajachel.  From there I took a tuk-tuk to the boat dock- what a rip off!  They charged me Q5 (or about 70cents) for a 2 minute ride- in Guatemala this is expensive the bus trip cost about $4 total.  Then I took the boat to the town of Santiago.  The boat could have been another rip off, but I was prepared for this one.  If you are Guatemalan and dressed in the indigenous Mayan cloting you pay Q15($2) (If you are guatemalan and dressed in american clothing they can charge you more).  If you are a tourist you pay Q25($4), but they will try to have you pay more if they think you are a gullible tourist/American .  Well, thankfully the directors of the orphanage had warned me that I should not pay more than Q25 and I knew the locals paid less so when the boat driver told me 30 I told him 20.  He asked me what I was doing and I told him I was a volunteer in the orphanage and he gave me the ride for 20!!!!!  Once I arrived in Santiago the family came to pick me up and they brought me to the orphanage where I stayed the night.

Coming back to Parramos:  I left the orphanage around 9:30am and the boat left a little after 11- this time the driver wanted to charge me Q30 and I told him 20, he said 25 but I told him I would not pay that-I was serious- so he let me on for 20!)  We got to Panajachel around 11:45 and I decided to walk to the bus stop because I did not want to pay the Q5 for the tuk-tuk since it was such a short ride.  By 12:30 I had paid the Q2 to use the bathroom (it is not free here), gotten some snacks to eat on the bus, gotten on the bus, and the bus started on it's way.  I arrived in Chimaltenango around 3:00.  I had to transfer busses, so I followed all the other Americans and got on a bus for Antigua (I thought that all the busses from Chimaltenango to Antigua would go through my town of Parramos).  The bus started to pull away and I thought, Parramos is not this way, it is behind us and to the right.  I quickly asked the driver if he was going to Parramos and he said NO!  So I just jumped right off the bus!  Then I went around the corner and got on the correct bus:)  I got to Parramos around 3:30 and I started to walk home and while I was walking one of the boys came and met me.  So I got home at 4 in the afternoon.

I have had 2 long days of traveling but it has been wonderful to meet new people and get to see more of Guatemala!  And it prepares me for my day of traveling back to PR (in a little over 1 week:)