Saturday, May 29, 2010

Rain, rain go away.



Here's whats happening in Guatemala:

A tropical depression, that I will be referring to as "Shit Storm" has hit Guatemala. First the volcano erupted and now we're set to get hit by some nasty tropcal rain for at least the next 10 days. Peace Corps has us on lockdown on our sites and I really need to g
o to Coban to buy some cinnamon toast crunch. The airport is currently closed and if Tony can't make it down next week because of volcanic ash on the runway I'm leaving...when the airport reopens that is.



Maybe the Mayans were right, 2012 is coming. (actually my guatemalan friends were joking about this at lunch yesterday).


UPDATE: Sat afternoon

So it got a little bit too wet and I'm now unofficially on lock down until at least Tuesday in Tactic at my friend Kate's house with Jareau and Kelsey. Scrabble and Trivia Pursuit for the next three days. Also, the airport is scheduled to be closed until at least thursday so they can remove the volcanic ash-turned-cement from all the water from the tropical storm. Tony and I are frantically trying to figure out what to do so that he can still get down here.

UPDATE: Monday evening

So Agatha, the first tropical storm of the season hit Guatemala on Saturday mid-morning and wiped out a huge part of the country. Over a hundred people are confirmed dead with dozens more missing, and over a hundred thousand people are displaced. The President issued a state of emergency but the airports still closed so help is slow to arrive. Bridges are washed out and landslides have cut off some of the major roads leaving people and PCVs in some villages isolated without power or clean water. We didn't get hit too hard up here, but the school is cancelled nation wide for at least a week. More updates to follow.



Monday, May 24, 2010

Tubing






So, a few weeks ago I was walking down the street towards the bus stop to head to work. I saw a bunch of people waiting for the buses and was not anxious to join them for a cramped spot on one of the few buses going towards my school. A bus comes, all the guatemalans get excited because it looks pretty empty, but it doesnt stop. Instead, someone leans out the window and yells my name. Turns out that a group of the tourism volunteers were coming up for a trip to the tubing site near my house. I ditched work, jumped in the van with them and spent the afternoon hanging out in the caves of Candelaria Campo Santo with the new eco vols and a few of our alta veterans.