Casa Gee and the Rest with Wee...

Hey there hi there ho there folks... hold on tight for an incredibly informative uninformative tale of our journey told by Liz Stott as Madi has begged me to catch you all up on our adventures up til now.
I arrived in Guatemala on February 9th and made my way to Rio Dulce where Madi was already volunteering the following day. I was so glad to see her since I had been travelling alone in Guatemala for the first time the day before. The very next day I joined Madi at the orphanage and got a big taste of what I´d be doing for the next month. Wow. I was so overwhelmed. The kids could be very sweet or a handful right from the start. My lack of Spanish was a real kicker too. Kids catch on quick and can easily take advantage of that disadvantage. I wondered how I was gonna do this with so little ability to communicate and really regretted coming with no knowledge of the language. (Madi´s Spanish is quite good if you didn´t know yet, she´s very modest about it though. I´d be screwed if I didn´t have her with me)
My first weekend was really tough with adjusting and missing home. Madi was quite concerned for awhile I think cause I was a real downer. When Monday came however, I decided it was time for an attitude change and that things would be better from now on. Madi and I prayed together that morning and I immediately felt some peace. From then on things were different and great! The changes that take place at that place with the kids and with yourself are awesome!
While Madi was working with Hilmer during the school days, I was assigned more odds and ends jobs. My first week I taught library classes with another volunteer who spoke almost no Spanish as well. That was almost a joke but great in the long run. Some kids gave me a really hard time at first but with standing my ground, the next day they were my best friend basically. Tough love I guess.
Casa Guatemala is a bit of a blur for Madi and I. It went by way too fast and was much too short a time to be with those awesome kids. I can´t speak for Madi but I know the changes I experienced were incredible and I give the credit to God. I started out wondering how I was going to last a month there and ended wishing I had more time. I started out with an attitude that these kids were crazy and were gonna tear me apart but ended loving them and missing them more than I could have imagined. They are truly awesome kids once you get to know them. The sad thing is that Madi and I were just starting to get to know some of the kids and only just meeting some when are time there was quickly coming to an end. You wonder how I could get to know kids with no Spanish do you? Well I did manage to pick up somewhat of vocabulary while I was there even if it´s only good with kids and you´d be surprised how far a smile and a game of basketball or jump rope can go. I definitely was constantly wishing I knew Spanish though so I could truly talk to these kids and be funny and show my personality but even without all that my experience there was amazing and I definitely acquired some favorites out of the kids. (Again, Madi is great with the kids and is basically just as funny in Spanish as she is in English. She could make those kids laugh, so jealous!) Madi and I also taught gym classes while we were there and did some tutoring with young kids and other odds and ends. Our last week there we just spent as much time as we could with the kids and soaked up every last bit of that place that we could.
Sorry guys this is taking longer than I thought... All in all we love those kids to death and were really sad to leave them and we miss them and that place. It was like leaving home again. As Madi said before the volunteers there are truly amazing and we have so much respect for them. They are basically full time parents to 30 kids at a time. Wow that´s more than most of us will ever do.
Since leaving Casa G, we have been on the move! We have almost seen all of Guatemala at this point plus Belize. The major sites anyway... From Rio Dulce we literally skipped(yippee) over to Caye Caulker, Belize and spent a few days relaxing and soaking up A LOT of sun. We also did some snorkeling which was AMAZING. It´s so beautiful there.
Missing Guatemala, we headed back to Flores which is a beautiful little island town right near Tikal, which was next on our to do list. Waking up at 4 am we headed off on a tour to spend the morning with the Mayan ruins of Tikal. (For more intelligent and informative info you´re probably better asking Madi) All I know is that it was incredible! So beautiful! The place is massive with huge temples and ruins that you can climb. The park spans over many kilometres and there is so much to see. Our guide also informed us that when built, there were no trees between these ruins which are now overgrown! We were surrounded by jungle! 85 percent of the ruins are still overgrown as well, covered by dirt and trees. It was breathtaking in the morning surround my mist. The view from the highest temple was also amazing. I highly recommend a trip to Guatemala guys. It is a gorgeous gorgeous country.
From there we bused down to Lanquin which is located near Semuc Champey, which I believe is a national park with breathtaking pools of water. I know that doesn´t sound like much but the place is unbelievable. So beautiful. We took a tour which included jumping off of various high and scary things, a cave tour, and the pools. The cave tour is like nothing we´d ever done before. Our group was large so the one hour tour took two and was a quite an experience. Everyone was given a candle and you all enter the pitch black cave following your guide with nothing but your timy candle. At times you walk, wade, even swim(still holding your candle!) deeper and deeper into the cave. It´s quite beautiful all lit by candle. As the tour went on you climb, jump, slip and slide your way through. The water was cold and with only stubs of candle left we were all quite glad to see the light of day again. So cool. (no pun intended)
Now we are in Antigua, which is a very beautiful little city. We´ve been to the market and were overwhelmed with beautiful Guatemalan fabrics and jewelry. Next we plan on going to Lake Atitlan and fly out to Peru on March 26.
I have fallen in love with Guatemala and will be very sad to go but we are both very excited to see what awaits us in Peru.
Please keep praying for Madi and her incredible journey here, if you feel guilty, I guess you can include me too. We are truly blessed and are having an awesome time! Thanks for putting up with me, I´ll make sure to get Madi back on this thing for next time!

Liz Stott