THE WORST PAIN EVER

So in the past few weeks I've had my nice run-ins with stomach issues. Around the second week in Xela, I started to experience some diarrhea, which was pretty fun in itself. Although, I have been extremely careful in terms of what I eat and drink and make sure to wash my hands throughly. I had some rumbles in the jungle. However, I thought that possibly it could have been just adjusting to the diet of Guatemala, which is high amounts of sugar and carbs, something totally opposite of what I typically experience back in the states. After a week of toilet struggles, I started to feel much better and thought it must have just beenthe food here. Then while on an excursion to a AID/TB hospital, I started to feel some extreme urges to go to the bathroom, so I went, but afterwards I started to feel some extreme pain. I sat down on the curb and looked around. I said to everyone I should prolly go home, the pain was so intense. I drank water, and tried to do anything I could to make it stop. I could not even stand up the pain was so intense.
Soon I found myself shaking out of pain and turning a nice pale coloration. I was drinking gatorade at the time and I found myself crushing the bottle to divert my mind from the pain, which was only getting worse. Finally, a my friends Rachel and Jimmy decided to take me in a cab home. While in the cab, I found i was gripping the seat so hard the leather was cracking under pressure as the pain continually worsened. Then rachel and jimmy made an executive decision to take me to the hospital.
Our driver began to run red lights and speed through the tiny streets in an attempt to get me to the hospital as soon as possible. We pulled up and I hoped out of the car and was taken into the emergency room. The hospital was much dirty than that of a standard american hospital, but it seemed as though all the tools they used were sterile. I made sure of that. i was put in an old rickety wheel chair which jimmy found a delight to push me with. I took a nice stool sample and waited an hour for the results. All the while, the pain was steadily increasing to a point where I couldnt take it. It hurt so much, and there was nothing I could do.
Even though the pain was so intense, I couldnt help but think how good of a bad experience this was since I was recieving a first hand experience of the health care system in guatemala, while also experiencing the pain that tons of patients go through in a years span, and even those who succumb to GI disorders.
Back to the experience at hand, so the pain was so intense at one point that i could feel my body needed to produce any kind of relief from the pain. This was the first time I have ever in my life vomited from pain alone. I can safely say it is an experience I would only like to have once. After that momentary lapse in pain, which i believe was primarily mental, like a biting a finger to ingore a shot, the pain returned once more. Finally, my results arrived and the young doctora notified be that I have amoebas and they most likely caused an intense intestinal infection which is why I was experiencing a pain that could only be described as if someone had reached into my body grabbed my intestines and started to crush and twist them.
The young doctora told me she could give me a muscle relaxant that would take away the pain. At that point, I would have gone sky diving to get rid of the pain. Then she told me it was an intravenous shot. Reluctantly, I said yes and the next thing I knew a nurse, who really didnt seem like she knew was she was doing, was sticking a big needles into my left vein. The pain I experienced from the shot was almost as bad as the pain I was experiencing in my stomach. It really felt as though it lasted forever...all i could do was squeeze my hand in relation. Then I could feel the sweetness of the shot as the pain in my intestines subsided. Then i went home to sleep for a very long time.... To this day it is the worst pain I have experienced........it was treated with anti-parasitic and antibiotics.

That was my first encounter, my second resulted in me experiencing 9 diarrhea episodes a day for a week until i went get lab results done, which indicated I had high yeast and an intestinal infection.....I like to call this round two. Which I am currently treating. We'll how it goes.

The epic Benjamin induced bike ride

Yesterday, Ben( tallest kid in our program) from san Francisco suggested that this morning we go for a bike ride. I was all about it. There were 3 of us in total who went. Ben, Ryan, and myself. The bikes we rented from vrisa were pretty shitty, but they worked and only cost Q40 for a days use. Even though I inspected mine and tried out the brakes, I should have tried them out on a hill ahah because they were terrible. This made the ride in Xela that much more exciting.....
So we set out around 8 am this morning and after some hilarious troubles with directions that led us in a gigantic circle we were off onto a trail that spanned through the mountains. The scenery was spectacular and the air was so nice in comparison to the city...ahhh fresh air haha. The air pollution in Xela is crazy. The roads up through the mtns were pretty tough... or atleast a little harder than I expected and were covered with alot of mud which forced up to step off the bikes and walk...my white shoes are now brown ahah. It was completely worth it though. The trip was great. It was initially supposed to take 3-4 hours round trip....total understatement...We rode into two towns on the outskirts of Xela. The first I forget the name of, but the second was Zunil. In the first town we had to navigate through a gigantic market with our bikes, which was a pretty funny sight since we were the only gringos in the town at the time. We then saw a main attraction of a huge pile of garbage at the bottom of the hill, which made me think what a shame the natural beauty of the area was being trashed.
In Zunill, we checked out the main attraction of a church that was first built in 1529. It is so crazy to see such building since they have stood and been around longer than the entire history of the US.
After checking out Zunil, we rode a little further and came upon hot spring. There we chilled in a sauna for about an hour and they were rediculously hot! It was awesome though and a great experience. After a king's lunch for 8 us dollars we grabbed a bus back to Xela. The overall trip took around 8 hours haha.....5 more hours than we had expected, but totally enjoyed every moment.

Mt. Baul

July 17th
On the outskits of Xela one can find Mt. Baul, it is one of the many peaks that surround this beautiful city. Our school, El Mundo en Espanol, sponsored a little excursion out to the peak of this mountain which really was not all that tough or much of a struggle at all. It was a nice little stroll that had a dead dog on it, which was interesting. Each person in the Somos Hermanos familia went on this nice little hike. The hike could not have taken more than say an hour to reach the top, but it provided some wonderful views of the city. The trip up our guide Jorge, suggested that we take the short cut up, which included an interesting wire rope ( literally I believe it was a telephone wire that had been finished its usefullness and someone thought it would make a great wire to be used to pull people up the side of steep mountain. The wire was very strong but frayed at certain points, needless to say I was happy that I had a tentus shot before I left. Once we made our way to the top we were able to reap the beautiful views of Mtn Baul...simply georgous.

The troubles of changing money in Guate

So I have found that changing money in Guate can be quite annoying because it typically leads to a fun hour long event. One particular little journey I had was at a local bank in which it took almost 2 hours to change my American express travelers checks. While in the bank, I began to hear all of these loud cracking and explosion noises that were coming from outside. I looked at the teller who then looked back at me with an unconcerned facial expression and kept going on about her buisness which by the way was taking so long. Everyone looked like they didnt know what the hell they were doing....that was a bit worrisome. The explosions continued outside, and having been spending the past few weeks learning about the horrors of guatemalan history....i was a tad concerned to say the least.
So there I was taking out a decently large amount of cash and there were explosions outside, all i could think was no way, how in the world the first time i go to change money could this bank be robbed or there be a small uprising or something crazy like that. But considering the guards which were holding automatic rifles did not seem to concerned I just went about my business.
When I arrived home I asked my abuela about what those explosions could possibly be and she told me that it was the day of the nino or of baby jesus. I thuslearned that guatemalans love explosions and blowing things up with large and small poppers which kinda sound like bombs ahah. It was a funny experience to say the least.

Things I wish I would have taken with me

Things I wish I had brought:
• A pack of Precise V5 Rolling ball point extra fine pens
o I love writing with these and there aren’t any to be found in Xela and their pens aren’t that great…it’s a little thing I enjoy
• A Spanish studying guide and review book
o I need more review and practice
• Markings Journals
o I really like the design of these and I think I want to start using them for everything, there are none to be found in Guate
• Notebooks, Index Cards
o Its just a hassel to have to try go buy these things since we have no free time


So if anyone wants to send carepackages haha those things would make me very happy

El MUNDO EN ESPANOL y XELA

The Spanish lessons have been going well, I have had 2 professors so far, my first was a woman named Rosa who taught me a lot of the basics but is very nice. Mauricio on the other hand is hilarious and he was my second professor. We talk about a lot of silly stuff and he’s always making bromas. The Spanish school itself is pretty incredible and has a kitten and used to have a rabbit before Sergio got rid of the bunny. The two were funny together and I thought of them as a milo and otis, just a different Guatemalan version. The two could be seen running and playing together amidst all the students practicing Spanish. Its hilarious. The school is great I have really been enjoying my time there, it is so much information though, in the first two weeks we surpassed the amount of Spanish I learned in a year of high school . I guess that makes sense since it is 4 hours of one on one lessons a day. Above is a picture of the schools learning area.


Our first week involved a lot ranging from movies to learning about the history of gutemala, which is incredible and something I never was really exposed to. It is interesting the influence and impact the USA had in spiraling the country into a 36 civil war that lead to the massacre and death of hundreds of thousands of Guatemalans. However, it is extremely interesting overall. Being a huge fan of futbol, I soon traveled to the complejo for some good footy. I traveled to the sports complex with ryan and Rachel two other students in my program who are both fun and chill people We immediately found some locals to play with and man were they good. I watched as a family spent 7 minutes heading a pelota to each other without letting it drop. Simply incredible. We played a 3 on 3 game with them and quickly found that altitude totally leaves an effect on our running and breathing abilities. Hilariously, after only a few sprints we were all sucking wind. It was an amazing time. I have found that it is very easy for me to connect with others I can’t speak with by just bringing a soccer ball with me. It is really incredible.


We also did a lot of walking around to get familiarized with the City. We explored zones 1. 2, 3 and there is so much visual stimulation. People left and right are trying to sell things, but they’re typically the same things over and over just sold by different people. There is so much knock off ropa y cosas en general. One of the things that I noticed that I found particularly hilarious, yet frightening is how many shopkeepers have armed men for hire outside their shops. All of which carry shotguns, you can find them almost every other corner and at every bank. The hilarious part of this is that they are at some of the most random stores. My prime example is a pizza hut/ pastry store that had inbetween them was a man holding a shotgun. I like to call Xela the land of Shotguns and Cakes after seeing that, but it isn’t very dangerous at all if one keeps their head about them.
Things sold in Guatemala are quite perplexing as well because there are strange combinations such as this Vodak and Pringles in the same box, we all saw this and were very confused but there are tons of these combos everywhere you go.


The end of the first week we had our first salsa lesson which was really hard. I have never really done structured dancing before, but it is really tough, you have to always be thinking and trying to incorporate the steps together. So least to say the first lesson was stressful and annoying . However the second lesson was amazing and I have been getting much better which has made it much more fun. I love the spins and different moves involved in the dance.

1st day in Xela my new home for the next 6 motnhs

The drive to Xela was an interesting one to say the least, there were at least 10 times where we were required to hop over to the other side of the road because of landsides. The ride was four hours long through the green mountains of Guatemala, with incredible scenery and winding roads the continually went higher and higher. When we pulled into Xela, it is a very beautiful town embedded in mountains and volcanoes of the Guatemalan highlands. We pulled into our school with our bus driver weaving in and out of the narrow streets of Xela. It was reminiscent of the time I spent in Italia and the I could definitely feel the Spanish influence in the city. My first impression was that the city was huge. Xela has 300,000 inhabitants and many zones which kind of substitute for area codes. Entering the town, the streets were bustling with 100s of people just going about their lives, selling random goods such as chickens, and practically anything you can think of.

The first stop of the day was “El mundo en espanol” the Spanish school. Instantly, we were greeted by the head of the house; Gladis. A large woman with an even larger heart. Immediately we were all treated like family. The world cup final was on and we thought that we were going to miss it due to the ride to xela. On the bus we were listening to the broken Spanish over the radio trying to hear what was happening in the game. Luckily, we made it back to the last over time to watch Spain win the world cup. It was great that gladis quickly ushered us to the TV and was so sweet.
El mundo en espanol is the Spanish school in xela I will be learning from for the next 6 months. The school itself is literally the home of Gladis’s family and all the learning takes place in their backyard. As quickly as we arrived at the school, our host families arrived to take us all to our new homes in Xela.
Meeting my new host family was interesting and I have found to have quite a large family, consisting of 2 sisters, 1 brother, mom, grandma, and a father. However they have numerous people arrive throughout the day. First meeting was interesting since I really didn’t know how to speak Spanish at all. I rather attempted to use a few basic words and then point and make funny gestures to get my point across. The family is extremely nice and very loving, they feed me like im a horse haha. It is a bit too much food for me. The family is really great though and are very patient with me and love to laugh. This has made for a great inital living environment.