The Best of Times...The Worst of Times

Well. There's a little Dickens for you as a title... but it pretty accurately sums up my weekend. You all read (I'm sure!) about my adventure up the volcano, but don't be fooled...I did not have just one adventure this weekend...but one every day!

On Saturday, despite the fact that I was pretty sore, I woke up and met up with some of the other teachers and drove to Antigua, which is a city outside Guatemala City, to go to a museum about coffee (Which Guatemala is famous for) and the history of Guatemala music. My inner nerd (I know...maybe not so inner sometimes...) came out and I was loving life learning all this stuff. For instance...did you know that the Marimba is the national instrument of Guatemala? Or that one coffee tree really only makes about a pound of coffee? Fun Facts...I know. But after the museums... we had lunch and then went to a market. After all that, I came back and ate dinner, played scrabble and cruised the internet...classic.

Sunday, which I don't know if you are aware of this or not...is the Day of the Dead...which in Guatemala, is a huge stinking deal. So. This is bascially what they do. They eat this food called fiambre, which is basically like tons of pickled stuff all thrown together. Then they head out to the grave yard to hang out with the tomb stones of their deceased loved ones and fly kites...because since it's the day of the dead...their relatives are as close to earth as they will ever be...therefore by flying kites...they can get really close. Granted this is probably not the continued belief of many Guatemalans...but its the root of the idea none the less. So. Where does my life come into all of this you might ask? Well. I went with a group from C.A.G. (Christian Academy of Guatema, where I'm student teaching) in the back of a truck (an experience in itself...) to one of the most popular places where they fly kites. Just another FYI...the kite flying has turned into a much bigger deal that it once was. There are now sponsored kites that they make (and these things are HUGE like probably 2 stories high sometimes), and they usually have a super political or religious message on them. But they're absolutely beautiful...and I cannot fathom how many hours goes into each kite. So we went and watched them fly kites and we looked at all the huge kites. It was really sweet and it was neat to be witnessing something that is obviously so important to their culture.

That was Sunday. You may be asking yourself..."Wait, I thought this was titled, The Best of Times, The Worst of Times...these all seem pretty best to me!?" Well. Here comes the worst. Sunday night...after I apparently drank or ate something fishy...I got very sick. It was not fun. I do not reccomend it. I could not even go to school yesterday. It was pretty terrible. BUT. I feel fine today...apparently their water poisoning only lasts 24 hours...which is awesome becasue I wouldn't have lasted much longer...and I went back to school and all is well.

Love and Miss You All (unless i don't).

Peace, Love and Stinking Huge Kites,
Claire

Shout out to Melissa Coffey: I'm glad you got skype. It makes our seperation easier...but not much, because I still miss you a ton!