A big Thank you!
Thanks to all of you who donated to the school in Chinique, Quiche, Guatemala. In January I visited the school bringing with me a huge suitcase full of spanish language book and a stack of money. I stayed with Betty the school principal and was warmly welcomed into her home. I wish you could meet Betty and that you could have been there to have tortillas and beans in her kitchen with her listening to her talk about her students and her work with a deep passion. She works so hard running the school and teaching older students in the evenings! She was so grateful for the donations and overwhelmed at the generousity.
The donations you all gave will in part be used to buy more books for the school and in part to pay some of the school fees for students who would otherwise not be able to attend school. A chance at education is the greatest gift we can ever give!
January is summer holidays in Guatemala and it's when the coffee harvest happens so many students were off working with their families to bring the coffee in. January is like September, the beginning of the school year in Guatemala. While school fees are very small in our world of money, the app. $50 yearly fee is prohibitive to most families who often have to choose which one of their children will attend since they can afford to send only one child to school. What a hard choice. Thanks to you and your generous support not only will the students at the school have some amazing books to read for pleasure, but some of them will be able to attend school who wouldn't have had the chance. I'll be back to visit the school in July again, and Betty will give me photos and progress reports for the students you helped to sponsor, i'll post more information then.
Thanks again for opening your hearts and responding to my little project. Your gifts have made a huge difference to individual children and to a simple country school in Guatemala. It's through these small person to person connections that real change can happen in our countries and in our hearts! Thanks for being a part of this kind of change.

I'd particularly like to thank the youth group at Shaughnessy Heights United Church who put on an amazing bottle auction and dessert evening fundraiser, raising over $1000 in one night for the project! You are amazing!


The School for Grades 6-8
Doris and Rinna (my travelling friend) at the entrance to town.

Happy Betty with books and donations....

Here are a few videos, the first is during the Fiesta of Jesus de Esquipulas, a traditional Mayan dance of the conquistators, interesting costumes and simple marimba playing in the back. This dance has been done since the time of the Spanish arrival in Guatemala. It goes way back.

The second video is on market day in Chichicastenango. Amazing colours, people and mayan ritual happening on the front stairs of the San Tomas Church on the square.

I'm adjusting slowly to life in Canada again. Miss the warmth, the people i met, and the home i have found in Guatemala after so many visits. to be continued....

A place i could write alot of poems....

This is the view from San Marcos la laguna on lago de Atitlan. A friend told me to go to San Marcos for peace and tranquility: amazing.

I took a shuttle water taxi from panachel on the lake to san marcos and found total paradise. A small hostel on the lakeshore, a great room, $10 a night including breakfast. No a roads in the village around the town just pathways through the jungle and then you come upon a sign pizza this way, you follow a path and find in the midst of banana plants and bougenbilla a small pàtio with a wood oven and two women making pizza....or the sign leads to a place for massage or a small store etc. i swam in the lake and walked for about 5 hours exploring everything. It´s fun to meet fellow travellers, people are open and warm, sharing stories and tables and tips along the way.

Just took the boat back to panachel and today i head back to antigua for 2 more nights, then home early on monday. sad to leave. feels like i have been gone a long time.

this travel has changed me well, as i hope most travel does.

love from the lake ringed with volcanoes.

the boat to san marcos la laguna

6 more days....

Well, i decided to extend my ticket and am here for another short week. I just didn't want to come home! So i'm departing officially on Feb. 2 for the cold north. Today is gorgeous! I finished off my 7 days of language school and although i speak a horrible halting searching for words kind of spanish i know about 100 percent more than i did when i started. I can understand most conversation or at least the general idea of it and can write fairly well, it's the talking that is muy deficil (very difficult). I had a great last class with my teacher, we really connected well, she was excellent. I gave her a card i'd written in spanish and a beautiful scarf from the market, i could tell she really liked it. They don't make alot of money, big surprise so i think she appreciated the gesture. If you need to learn spanish, go see Maria at Centro Linguistica Maya in Antigua.
So i decided that with class over there wasnt' really a reason to stay in antigua. Antigua is like the disney land of guatemala, lots of tourists, services, people, police and cleanliness. Not the real guatemala at all. So i took a shuttle to Panachel, which is the second most touristy place in guatemala but beautiful on the shores of lake atitlan. I felt like a backpacker again, walking through the town checking out a few of the hotels. I found a great one at the end of the road, right on the lake with view of volcano, lovely gardens and the best (HOT) shower i have ever had in guatemala. All this for 200Q, about $28. I wandered and had a yummy dinner and went to bed early, oh the room also has american television! crazy.
This am i've been walking in the hills behind the town seeing small communities and taking it all in. Tired now. Will head back to the hotel for siesta. :) Hopefully will take in the market in solola tomorrow and then perhaps head back to Antigua for a final few days. Life is good here.
I hear North America has been hit with a major cold snap. Good Morning America was on this am. Where am I?
It has been interesting to reflect on how much guatemala has changed in the 12 years i have been coming here. Our first trip here: no email, no phone calls home. It was a huge deal to make that happen. The food was basic and the experience much more difficult. Now there are at least 15 internet places in this town alone, every kind of service in the tourist centres that you can imagine including Reiki treatments, yoga classes and shuttle services to any part of guatemala you'd like to go to. I think i prefer the first way of being here. You wouldn't be getting this blog page from me anyhow.
Be well all of you and drop me a line. It's nice to hear from people while i'm away.
dor

the market in chichicastenango

Some photos from my adventure in chichicastenango in the chiche of guatemala. Front stairs of the church where mayan rituals are taking place. children as vendors selling vegetables from the countryside.

the cemetary in chichi, unusal coloured tombs.

the view from the roof terrace of my language school in antigua.

a few pictures

I managed to borrow a woman's computer at the school for a few minutes and downloaded a few photos for the blog. This was my view from the car we rented to drive to Chinique. A typical view of a rural town, this is Quetzaltenango, a major crossroad for travellers. All these people would be waiting for the chicken bus to travel to various places in Guatemala.Mi Familia en Guatemala. These are the people i stayed with while in the capital. Rinna, our friend from Canada who invited me in the first place, her mother, her sister Milka (who lives in Columbia) and Ivan her nephew who was our most excellent driver. This picture is outside Betty's house in Chinique, the day after the fiesta. Mama was so happy to be travelling! La Merced Catedral in Antigua Gautemala. Old colonial church, fully restored, muy bonita.

A market stall along the Pan American Highway selling the most amazing carrots i have ever seen.

Rinna and I at the entrance to the Village of Chinique in the Chiche.

Boy lighting a candle during the fiesta to Jesus de Esquipulas (the black christ of esquipulas). The church was full of candles until late at night.

The Church in Chinique on a beautiful fiesta morning.

The spanish is going well, i am amazed at what i am learning. Seriously considering extending the ticket to stay longer. We'll see. I'll keep you posted. Keep warm in the cold north my friends!

Buenas Tardes

Life is good here. I've already learned alot and can have basic conversations! The verb structures and rules in Spanish are crazy and hard to learn but i'm going slowly. My teacher Maria is amazing, it's fun to watch her be excited for my progress. She's taught english for 25 years at the school. Me gusta mi maestro en espanol.
I've been meeting interesting people and spending time with some of them out of class, staying up too late, etc. Angitua is gorgeous, lots to explore. The town is today overrun with a cruise ship full of people, crazy to see them walking around town with their badges taking pictures of all the mayans, it actually makes me ill to watch. They have no idea of where they are and the stories of this place. I feel such priviledge to know as much as i do and to be connected in a very different way.
Still trying to borrow or find a downloading cord for the camera, we'll see.
A week to go....

doris