March 19: Day 5

Hi Everyone,

We had another good day in Guatemala. We started off with the usual breakfast at Fernando's, and loaded the bus on time to get to San Miguel Duenas.

Today was hot, and we started work right away. At the "Das Chavos" work site, we spent most of the morning chiseling blocks and making re bar, while our builders continued to add to the walls. At the "Dirt Bags" site, concrete was made, blocks were hauled and some time was spent with local kids.

We went back to the same family home for lunch and had a very Canadian meal of pasta and bread, with watermelon for dessert. It was delicious again.

After lunch, Erin, Sarah and Danielle went back to the Open Windows Foundation while the rest of us went back to the work site. The Dirt Bags are eager to see a finished project by Friday. At the learning center, the girls taught the kids how to finger knit. They absolutely loved it!

At 3:00, Arjun, Rob and Robyn stayed at their work site while the rest of us went back to the Finca compound to hand out the care packages we made. Some of the items that were in them were soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, yarn and little candies. Initially, there were only about 15 kids in the compound and we were able to hand out packages to everyone, but word spread quickly and suddenly about 20 others showed up. We had no more packages, and it is heartbreaking to deny these kids things we take for granted back home. Many of them have dry coughs, and runny noses and walk around in broken shoes and clothes that are too small.

We then went to a large field and started up a game of soccer with the Finca kids. It was disorganized, but their skill level was incredible. Seven year old boys were heading the ball and slide tackling, giving Shelby and Cole a run for their money.

We headed back to Antigua at 4 and were able to go to a few shops and enjoy the remaining daylight before a later dinner at Sabarico. It was in a lovely rain forest setting, and we enjoyed yet another good meal.

Talk to you tomorrow!

The Guat Crew
DWC Participants & Sahali High School Students
Guatemala: March 2014

March 18: Cuarto Día

Today was another lovely day here in Guatemala. We started off the day with a delicious breakfast at Fernando's, the usual. Then it was off to San Miguel Duenos to begin a hard day of work. This year we have two sites we are working at. Keegan, Cole, Jalees, Erin, Rachel and Shelby/"Das Chavos" are are working at the first site for a mother with three children. Arjun, Robert, Aidan, Sarah, and Robyn/"Dirt Bags" are working at the second site for a family of four.

At the work site, there were many different jobs that had to be completed. Some of us started off with the backbreaking lifting of cinder blocks along with shoveling and sifting of dirt to make cement. We also created support for the walls from metal bars and wire. This takes an extreme amount of patience, partially due to the tools being dull and well used. We all became comfortable and confident after our first experience yesterday.

After breaking for another delicious lunch made by a family in the village, we spent the afternoon playing with the children and touring around the poorer regions. Most kids were extremely shy at first, but once they found out we had candy and toys they warmed up to us.

Before the end of our work day we walked as a group to the Finca Compound. This is an area where over 400 families move in and out of throughout the year. The children pick tobacco or coffee during the day and are unable to go to school. When we entered the compound, the children were hesitant towards us and did not understand why we were there. The conditions were very poor and most children did not have shoes or clean faces. Mary, one of our leaders, bought a big bag of candy to hand out to the kids. When we did, the kids swarmed hiding candies they had already gotten deep in their pockets. After getting them to calm down and telling them to share, they enjoyed what we had given them.

Tomorrow we will be heading back to the sites for another day of hard work, but for the time being we will enjoy the rest of our evening out on the terrace!

Adios por ahora!

The Guat Crew
DWC Participants & Sahali High School Students
San Miguel Duenas, Guatemala: March 2014

March 17: Day Three

Hola amigos,

So today happened. It was a good day, many laughs were shared along with great memories.

Our bus left bright and early, and we headed out to the Open Windows Foundation, the learning center. We met our DWC connection Theresa and Patrick, a Swiss man who has been volunteering with the organization. We were given a tour of the Children's Centre right away, then we were divided up into two groups and headed to our work sites where we will be building houses for the next week.  Before we started the work, we were taken to both of the work sites and given a background story on the families that we were building the house for. One woman had been saving up for eight years to purchase a small plot of land.

After a few hours of vigorous work, we were treated to lunch in the home of a local family. It was delicious, and we all had a big appetite. Then we were back to the grind, and worked again until 4:00. We mixed cement, carried a lot of bricks, and made re-bar, among other jobs.

Tonight we went out for dinner in Antigua with Mary, and luckily the menu was in English too so we knew what we were ordering! We enjoyed a nice, warm walk back to the hotel (it's definitely not winter here :-) ) and headed up to the terrace to end the night.

Guatemala is treating us well. We'll let you know how day 4 goes tomorrow!

Buenos Noches

The Guat Crew
DWC Participants & Sahali High School Students
Guatemala: March 2014

March 16: Day Dos LOL (translation: Day 2 jajaja)

Hi everyone! We are all sitting in the boys "penthouse" right now writing the blog post.

Today was another busy day here in Antigua. We started off with breakfast at Fernando's pretty early. Then we loaded onto the bus to head to the Pacaya Volcano... except it was the wrong bus heading to the airport. Luckily we got off and made our way to our actual destination. We drove through many little cities and saw a lot of garbage and crazy driving. A few of us got pretty car sick as the road was super twisty.

As soon as we got to the volcano we were swarmed by many little boys trying to rent us their walking sticks. We all rented one and made our journey up the volcano with the help of our tour guide Checha. He was an awesome tour guide and took us on an advanced route through poison ivy and many bushes. There were sections along the hike with pretty viewpoints and people trying to sell us food. We all got to try orange slices with salt because "when in Rome...". They were actually very good and fueled us for the rest of our journey.

On one of our pit stops we spotted a "little Tarzan" climbing a tree. Hooper felt the need to show off as well and quickly followed, along with Aidan and Robyn.

After the tree climb we continued on our way at a steady pace. We had some hiking buddies- a few friendly stray dogs. They were so cute and we shared our lunch with them. When we reached the volcanic ash we could definitely feel the warmth under our feet and roasted some marshmallows that we bought from the vendors (thanks Laurie, but Keegan forgot them at our hotel). We also saw some lava and a lot of steam.

After our long hike on the volcano we went to a pool. Mrs. Simpson told us it wasn't going to be that nice but we were pleasantly surprised. It was gorgeous! There were various pools and several levels- it looked like a castle!

We made our way back to the hotel for 4 o'clock. We had a bit of downtime then walked outside our hotel to watch a bit of the Roman Catholic Procession. It was very different from anything we have ever experienced.

Pizza was for dinner tonight and now we are resting from our long day. Our first day in San Miguel Duenas tomorrow to start our volunteer work.

Until tomorrow! :-)

The Guat Crew
DWC Participants & Sahali High School Students
Guatemala: March 2014

March 15: The Sahali team arrives in Guatemala!

Hello parents and friends! Sorry for the delay in posts.. we had some technical difficulty. But we are here and safe so nothing to worry about. :)

Yesterday was easy and all the flights were good. Rachel, Danielle and I (Jalees) saw Harry Connick Jr in the Dallas airport! Unfortunately, he was in a rush and didn't want a picture. We flew into Guatemala City with a beautiful view of the sunset.

As soon as we got off the plane, we noticed many differences from Canada. The airport was very humid and there weren't many lights on. It was a very interesting drive from the airport to Antigua. The streets were crazy! People were all over the street, in the backs of trucks and crowding corners. It was about an hour drive to Antigua, but we didn't mind because there was so much to look at. We got to our hotel at about nine, and were greeted with sandwiches and soup. The hotel owners are so nice and friendly to us here! Our hotel has a patio on the roof and we all spent the rest of the night up there together. It was pretty easy to get to sleep due to our long day of travels.

Today, most of our group was woken up by church bells and roosters - except for the few heavy sleepers in the group. We spent the morning on the rooftop admiring the beautiful view of Antigua. We could see volcanoes and the colorful houses surrounding the hotel. We ate breakfast Fernando's restaurant right next to the hotel. It was delicious and we had so many options to choose from. Some people had omelettes, or crepes and all the boys had Tipico which was black beans, scrambled eggs and fried plantain. We all drank Guatemalan coffee as well. It was great and got us energized for an exciting day.

We spent the morning in the city, checking everything out. We went to the market first and saw more shops than we could count. There were a lot of people trying to sell us trinkets. "No Gracious" is by far the most common saying so far. We went to the town square and saw the beautiful buildings and fountains. Rob, Arjun and all the girls decided to get hair wraps. Then we went to lunch in a cute little restaurant. Lunch was delicious and then we headed to a chocolate shop. Mrs Simpson signed us up for a chocolate making workshop and our teacher, Pablo was very animated. He taught us the history of chocolate and we got to make our own chocolate and chocolate drinks.

After chocolate making we had some free time to explore Antigua. The market was even more crowded in the evening. We came back to Fernando's restaurant for empanadas and chocolate cake for dessert. Cole ate almost everyone's leftovers. After dinner we went back to the town square to listen to some jazz music. The music was great and some of us got to practice our salsa dance moves. Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to get some rest.

Tomorrow we are climbing the Pacaya volcano. It will be another long and exciting day! We will write another post tomorrow to keep you all updated

The Guat Crew
DWC Participants & Sahali High School Students
Guatemala: March 2014

P.S. If you haven't checked out our TV interview on CFJC, you can find it here on DWC's Youtube page.

May 10: Week One Complete

Week one completed of our work here in San Miguel Duenas. We have learned many interesting things while working with our assistants (the guys who know what they are doing and actually we assist them…) Nariz and Eddie. They teach us and put up with our learning, and definitely let us know if we are doing something wrong! The family is also getting used to having us around. The two grandchildren are finally warming up to all of the strangers in their home and are loving having us around to play with (during short work breaks of course). It’s so nice to actually get to know the people whose lives you are touching and having this hands on experience with them is great.

In Guatemala May 10th is Mothers Day - Dia de las madres. It is taken very seriously and we saw many flowers everywhere we went as well as a few cars that had been covered with an entire pad of sticky notes each one with a message of love! It is also an important day to remember any mothers who have passed away. Not too far from our work site is the mausoleum of San Miguel . We walked through it with Teresa and saw everyone paying tribute to their loved ones. Definitely can’t forget to call home for Canadian mothers day in two days!

Friday afternoon we decided on having a bike tour around smaller places outside of Antigua including a macadamia nut farm and a famous textile and weaving village. Riding through the streets of Antigua was very interesting… and very bumpy! The cobblestone roads made for a lot more work and the many speed bumps kept us alert. We rode out almost as far as our 20 minute drive to Duenas and stopped in at the macadamia nut farm… but not before we had already had one broken chain, one gear malfunction and one very impressive and painful looking flip over the handlebars. Everyone was alright though so after our new knowledge of macadamias (and a few macadamia oil facials!) we continued our bike ride to the village of San Antonio Aguas Calientes. (But not before a run in with poison ivy and an arm…also turned out alright after the initial painful reaction, luckily we're all taking turns with our mishaps so not one person is having all the bad luck.)This city is known for its weavers, local Mayan women weave traditional patterns using a backstrap loom. Essentially it was a two story market with demonstrations of weaving. It was filled with amazing crafts though. These women spend so much time on each item they make and they are truly beautiful – the women and their creations!

Our bike ride had a few ups and downs and we ended up being out in San Antonio Aguas Calientes at a later hour than planned. That combined with the fact that there was a large uphill portion of the bike ride back to Antigua had us questioning our guide for alternatives. So we decided on adding another typical Guatemalan event to our day and we got on the Chicken Bus! These are school buses here used as public transportation between towns but they are more than just school buses… they are each individually named and with extra chrome and paint and anything you can imagine they are each pieces of art in their own rite. We had the driver add our bikes to the load onto of the bus and all climbed aboard to end our bike ride… with a bus ride uphill!

Next to see what adventures await us on our trip to Lago Atitlan this weekend!

Danielle Anderson
Student Team Leader
Guatemala, 2013

May 7: Learning Through Open Windows

We arrived in Guatemala Saturday night and found our ride waiting at the airport for us. It was a pretty exciting sight to see the DWC sign our driver held up and realize that our adventure was finally about to begin ! We checked into our hotel and managed to get a few hours of sleep before our early morning departure to climb Volcano Acetenango. It was a bit more of an undertaking than we had anticipated… in total we spent 11 hours on the volcano and definitely had a very good team building experience.

Monday morning we put on our new DWC shirts and headed out to San Miguel Dueñas to meet Teresa and see her amazing work with Open Windows. We toured Open Windows and had a chance to walk around the town with Teresa and see where we would be working for the next two weeks. In the afternoon we returned to Open Windows and went to the library where the children read to us. It was a really great way to interact with them although we didn’t necessarily understand everything –many hand gestures were used!

Tuesday morning the shuttle picked us up right on time after another incredible breakfast (complete with yummy Guatemalan coffee of course!) at Fernando’s Café. We arrived at Open Windows and got ready for our 10 minute walk to the work site. Our job is to build a room in a family’s home out of cinder blocks. None of the eight of us have any sort of experience with building but we all learned everything from our Guatemalan locals to get the project underway.

Cutting wire, putting holes in the cinder blocks, mixing cement, and twisting metal and creating re bar supports were some of the many new things we are learning. Each of us has our own expertise after day one and actually had a lot of fun!

Danielle Anderson
DWC Student Team Leader
May 2013, Guatemala