ahhhhh….I have the words to describe…but not the cash to pay for the post. (25 Cents a minute on the lovely island of Roatan, Honduras!)
…but scheduled for arrival in the States on December 18th, where upon a less money hungry connection will greet my eager fingers.
Check out the new pictures for now….
< Costa Rica & The Bay Islands, Honduras
We´re all wipin´ the sweat from our brows over here…
> Ex-Dictator Rios Montt Loses in Guatemala Vote
….after 80% of the country put in its vote, my host family huddles around the television and awaits the result…
My fingers and mind cross at the idea that there actually exists a chance that the same man who carried out the “scorched earth” counterinsurgency campaign 20 years ago, and is essentially the mastermind of an attempted genocide of the indigenous population of Guatemala, is actually running 3rd place in the presidential election — for which we will learn the results tonight.
My house “parents” showed me their blackened thumbs that identify them as having already put in the one vote they are each allowed.
In a race where 30 people have already been murdered in relation to the presidential election (and in connection to the suspiciously un-connectable, Rios Montt) — I wonder whose hands should actually be painted.
Time to re-join the huddle.
Ah. Nothing like some new words to add to my memorized mental dictionary! Want to hear some of the latest additions? How about; conjuntivitis, fainting, vomiting, dog bite, rabies, strep throat, fever, infection, injections and antibiotics? And I did not get these words leafing through the Lonely Planet “Medical Issues” section. I learned them straight from the doctor´s mouth! In the 3rd world, a semester full of students is a semester full of sickness! Yea ha! It´s all part of the fun of Course. After all, your term in Central America wouldn’t be complete without at least one tale of parasite or dog bite.
As for me, I´m a bottle of purified water compared to these guys. Guess I´ve already put in my time with the nasties seeing as I already have Amoebas, Ghiaradia, Staff infections and monkey bites on my dance card. Anyway… playing “mom” has left me with not a minute to think for myself, let alone write. But the experience is rich, and the soils of stories are being fertilized. While the sun takes to the seeds, the pics will have to suffice.
Meet my new homestay “mom” Martha…
> St. Andres, Peten Guatemala Pics
I´m completely overwhelmed with the Antigua relapse. The sights, smells and sounds send me and a thousand happy memories spinning.
And look what else is spinning….
For of course, the FIRST thing (as anyone would guess) I do with my students is take them to a salsa lesson….
Outside at this moment the sky is flashing magic, the volcanoes are barking thunder, and the raindrops are making mad dashes for the ocean. Life is brilliant. Time to find myself a hammock and soak in it.
sol
Quote from the sol archives when I left Guatemala in January of 2002;
“And what exactly am I leaving? Best friends that I’ll probably, truthfully, never see again, intimacy with places and people that I have watched constantly change…and know will go on changing after I leave; tastes of foods that I can’t find in any restaurant or kitchen outside of Guatemala; sounds and smells that just don’t exist in the United States; the faces of the dozens of small children who continue their struggle in the city dump whilst I am warm, clean, fed and snug at home. I am leaving memories that really only exist in THIS Guatemalan reality. And this reality is SO very different from anything I have ever known. So how should I expect anyone to understand when they have not experienced it? How can I explain the smell of a tortillera? Or the taste of unripe mango with salt, lime & chili? Or describe the high in getting lost in the dips, turns and spins of salsa? Or describe the pain in my heart in response to the expression of my favorite child in the project when I told him that I was leaving…and didn’t know if I’d ever be back?”
Quote from today;
“Well unripe mango, tortilleras, salsa spins and pig piles under street kids…HERE I COME *back*!”
For we all know what a posted map means. 
By the way, here’s a link to some of the old Central America Trip Tales if you missed them the first time.
And of course the pictures that go with the stories:
And now, I’m just jumpin’ out of my pants excited to make & take some more! And the plan looks a little like this…
LEAPnow Central America (CAM) Fall Semester 2003 Itinerary
Sept. 25: Depart for Guatemala and Antigua
Sept. 28: Fly to Flores
Sept. 29 – Oct. 3: Week #1 classes in Eco-Escuela
Oct. 4-5: Weekend Excursions to Tikal
Oct. 6-10: Week #2 classes in Eco-Escuela
Oct. 11-13: Finca Ixobel
Oct. 14-15: Travel to Xela (a.k.a. Quetzaltenango) and western Guatemala
Oct. 16-18: Quetzaltrekkers hike to lake Atitlan
Oct. 20-25: Build House with Habitat for Humanity in San Juan La Laguna
Oct. 26: Travel to San Marcos La Laguna
Oct. 27- Nov. 8: Classes at Las Piramides
Nov. 9: Visit Chichicastenango market and travel to Xela
Nov. 10-14: Week #1 classes/Volunteer work at Casa Xelaju
Nov. 15-16: Weekend excursion to Aguas Calientes
Nov. 17-21: Week #2 classes/Volunteer work at Casa Xelaju
Nov. 23: Fly to San Jose, Costa Rica
Nov. 25 – Dec. 3: ANAI work with sea turtles on Nicoya peninsula (Pacific coast)
Dec. 4-8: Monteverde National Forest
Dec. 10: Fly to Roatan, Honduras for Scubadiving
Dec. 16: Fly back to United States
(I’m one of the trip leaders, which is a 24/7/12 job, but as I did last fall for the S. Pacific Semester, I’m sure I’ll find time to blog updates!)
Okay. My plane to SF leaves in a few hours. I’ve got a bag to pack!
cheers!
sol
The SPAIN PhotoAlbum is now open…
And the Club Med Dominican Republic photos are also all finally uploaded!
(Update from Sevilla *!* coming soon…)
Ah! The nervous energy of an adventure forthcoming. Wakes me up at four a.m. and sits me on the beach awaiting sunrises like the one this morning…
Working practically 24 hours a day, every day for the last six months has exhausted me. It was “good” work, but consuming work — for anything I do, I relentlessly pour my entire self into. And I am tired! Or I WAS tired. Even sol can get stuck in a rut. I realize this only now, when the end is in sight, and I can feel the exceptional lust for life, like the sun, rising out of me again.
Time. Time to collect on what I’ve been working for. Time to be alone. Time to bask in my freedom again. Time to read. Time to watch. Time to travel. Time to breath. Time to slow down. Time to live every minute for myself again. (And time to blog again!) The next five months are mine. And it’s time to fly.
And speaking of flying…I made my first catch on the flying trapeze this weekend! Check it out…
  
  
  
(If you’re wondering what the heck I was doing on the flying trapeze, you’ll have to wait. For the “Living Club Med” essay is one of those that can only composed outside of the compound, when reality can finally be discerned from this Dominican Disneyland.)
 
 
  
  