Thursday was a good day at work. It was nice to cut out a day early after an interesting week. The orphanage was actually going to be fumigated and they were clearing all of the children out of the orphanage for a couple of days. Apparently there has been a lot of sickness (including lice) going around and they haven't been able to get rid of it so they finally are doing something about it. The local schools normally have a week off right this month, but because of other circumstances and talk of the swine flu the schools closed early, so the kids are out for a couple weeks. That affects some of the volunteers who are placed in schools or are in medical placements that work with children in health education. I'm not quite sure what they are going to do for this last week.
Thursday was chaos at work because the family was leaving. They brought in more candy and toys and the workers had a hard time cleaning up all the wrappers. I couldn't tell if the workers were happy or sad that the other volunteers were leaving. There had been difficulty in getting the kids to bed and eating their food and all of the workers looked tired.
It was kind of a free for all at the orphanage because the schools shut down and so the kids that normally go to school were hanging around the orphanage. The boys and girls were split up and watching videos in different sections of the upstairs. We got to take the little ones out to play while the older kids were watching the video. When I was heading down stairs with Marita I stopped to talk with one of the other volunteers about the trip to Tikal. She was telling me some other helpful tips about the trip. Belkis came over and told me that Marita and I look alike. It was pretty cute. I'm not sure I see the resemblence though. Haha.
I got into another conversation with another volunteer about the school system that was set up in the orphanage about what the kids would really need to be able to effectively teach and prepare these kids for something different or better, and most importantly life after the home. It's a lot easier to point out things that are wrong or that should be changed, but I think that it's very worth sitting down and thinking about what realistically could be changed and provided for these kids. I do think that there is a great opportunity to teach the kids there, but they don't have enough hands, textbooks, or a curriculum/plan for these kids of what they want them to learn. In fact I don't know that they expect a lot of them to learn anything. I was in the classroom the other day and talking to Sarah and she said that it would be better if one of the boys just played because he didn't understand anything about numbers. It was really sad. I asked the little boy Jonny if he wanted to work on his numbers, and he didn't, and with that he kept on playing and hiding in the corner, and he will continue to do that until someone expects something different of him. Those were the highlights of work on Thursday.
After lunch I quickly finished packing ans we got dropped off at the bus station at 2:15. The bus pulled out of Xela at 2:30 and we got to Guatemala City around 7:30. We had packed peanut butter and bread and fruit and granola bars, so we had a picnic of sorts in the bus terminal as we waited for our next bus to leave at 9:15. It was a coach bus, but the seats in front of Hannah and I were pushed all the way back so I could barely move. My legs felt very clostraphobic because there wasn't much room to go anywhere. I can't tell if I actually slept on the overnight part of the trip, but I was rested enough. The coach bus stopped at the side of the road and the 7 of us had to get out to get on another smaller shuttle that took us to Flores where our hostel was. Being woken abruptly at 6:30 without having a full night's sleep was a little rough and we were all a little groggy and unsure of this seemingly random switch in buses. They did drop us off at our hostel (Los Amigos) without extra charge (which there shouldn't have been) and we set up a time for them to pick us up to drive us to Tikal. The hostel cost 30 Q for the one night we were there. We stayed in a dormitory with bunk beds. It was a cool atmosphere, filled with hikers and backpackers, many of them on their way to Belize or Mexico. We left our stuff and got on the bus to Tikal. It cost 70 Q per person roundtrip. It was supposed to be a private bus, but we picked up strangers along the way and dropped them off at points along our hour and a half drive.
Once we got to Tikal, we debated getting a guide or not. The girls (Chloe, Hannah, and I) decided it would be worth the extra cost to have someon walk us through and tell us things as we saw them. The boys bought a map and went their own way. We were able to meet up in the Gran Plaza at the end after we had eaten our packed lunches. I'm really glad we got a guide and that we split up. Seven people is a lot of people to coordinate especially in a hot place that requires a lot of walking and has attractions that people wanted to spend differing amounts of time on!
We got to climb up 4 pyramids as well as climb on the other parts in the Gran Plaza. Most of what we saw was restored, but you could see the back side of the restored parts and how things looked before restoration. It was amazing to think of 80,000-1000,000 living in this area and what a typical day with bustling people would have looked like. The view from the tops of the pyramids was absolutely amazing. We got to see a cellar that was still hollowed out and we got to climb inside. The difference in temperature was amazing! We saw spider monkeys, howler monkeys, a tarantula, different birds, and some other weird animal similar to raccoons. The pictures don't do the place justice, as usual, but they're a neat remembrance, and it's amazing how small we are compared to the pyramids!
The back of one of the pyramids that wasn't restored.
Looking out from Pyramid IV. The view was amazing, especially of the couple other pyramids poking through the trees. When the Pyramids were actually being used the trees were all cleared out...I can't quite imagine what that must have looked like! 
Climbing up the vines of one of the trees. The guide suggested this excellent picture spot!(Chloe, Hannah, Me)
Climbing out of the cellar. There were about 5 different rooms linked to this one entrance. It was a good thing I had my flashlight in my bag, or we probably wouldn't have gotten to go in. The guide went down first to make sure there wasn't anything in there, and another group walked past and they didn't get to climb down...we were lucky!
A room at the top of one of the pyramids we climbed. This was one of the pyramids that we got to climb the stone steps instead of a set of ladder like stairs on the side.
Another pyramid...I can't remember the name/number.
One of the views of the Gran Plaza. The Gran Plaza was by far the most impressive because of the amount of structures in a smaller space. They had other carvings and faces in the rocks which were also amazing to see because I think they are the originals.(I have pictures of those too!)
Looking across the field of the Gran Plaza. The building in the background is on almost all of the Tikal postcards.
On our way out we stopped to get our picture taken. This is 6 of the 7 of us that went...the other one (Jason) is taking the picture. We had fun, and I'm so glad that 7 of us went, because originally it was just going to be me and Hannah.(Guillaume, Me, Justin, Chloe, Kevin, Hannah)
The heat was almost unbearable and overpowering, and definitely different than Xela. We we would take a cold shower which would feel wonderful but as soon as I got out, I started sweating again. It felt so nice tot take a hot shower when we got back to Xela this afternoon! The bugs weren't too bad, at least not as bad as I thought they were going to be.
We stayed on the Island of Flores. It was an extremely small town that looked a lot bigger on the map. It definitely catered to tourists and because of the economy and because it was the off season, there seemed to be very little going on. Our hostel was really neat with a swing inside and hammocks to read in. The food was amazing, and so we ate there last night before heading back on the bus. We found a couple of other good restaurants/coffee shops, with excellent views of the surrounding lake. We tried to find a place to swim in the lake, but it we never ended up finding a good spot. Two of the guys we went with wanted to stay in a hotel, so we were actually able to use the pool there which was extremely nice. We walked around the deserted and unfinished streets. It was a beautiful but weird little town, but it was nice to spend a lazy saturday there.
We got back on the bus at 9:15 pm in front of the Gran Hotel. We were a little skeptical that the tour bus was actually going to come to Flores and pick us up, but it came. We picked up people from different points along the way again. We got into Guatemala City at 5:00 am and waited around until our second bus left at 8:00 am. We finally got back to Xela in the afternoon after a total of 28 hours on 4 different buses, plus some layover time! I enjoyed a nap and a hot shower before Hannah and I went to XelaPan, the most declicious bakery down the street. It's a chain in Xela, but it has amazing fresh breads and desserts for extremely cheap and delicious hot chocolate.
I'm definitely ready for bed and ready for my last week at work! I can't believe how fast it has gone. I'm sure I'll think of other detials tomorrow, but I think I made a good dent in the events of the weekend!
I'm so thankful for this opportunity to serve in Guatemala, and the friendships that I have made. I'm thankful for the safety that I have had in travels and with my possessions. I'm thankful for the ways I have been challenged and the conversations I have had with people. I'm thankful for the reminder how big of a world we live in.
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