El Quarto Dia - Tuesday

Neighbor pig

Jack here!

"It's a Colin-y over there!" That's how we started a hilarity-filled game of Taboo tonight, with some Bardian wordplay from Lauren Keane, resident wordsmith.  Our two Habitat leaders/translators are both named Colin, LOL.  [Ed. note: the editor of this blog is not sure of the word "Bardian," but appreciates the sentiment.  The editor is also not sure why two men named Colin receive an "LOL," but perhaps our readers get it.] I could have quickly replied with a string of Arabic curse words, which I learned today from Wiam while on the work site, but I didn't.  Other highlights of the day include:

• I got crushed in a brutal game of mini-soccer against David (one of the son's of the woman's whose house my group worked on)
• I stabbed Davis in the eye with a shovel covered in sand. (He still has one eye.)

• I got arrested by David and Dennis (younger brother) several times.  They have water pistols. 

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• I learned how to start a fight in Arabic...very useful. 
• We completed three "courses" (layers) of cinder blocks on the house and hammered more stupid holes in stupid blocks. [Ed. note:  The editor of this blog appreciates this sentiment as well.  While this bullet point sounds grumpy, no one really complained. We worked hard and with little complaint, but those cinder blocks--especially the special earthquake-proof kind known as U-blocks--were an exercise in patience.  We made 3" x 3" holes in the blocks so they could be threaded onto rebar.  Our tools to do so included a 'chisel' that was rebar with the end pounded into a flat, pointy, chisel-like shape and a hammer.]  

• After work, we explored Salamá a little, getting some strange looks as we walked down the road on the outside of town.  We finished the day with a steak dinner and a competitive game of Taboo. All in all, it was a very fun, but tiring day, and we all slept well. 

El Tercer Dia - First Day of Work

Mollie's Day

Boths groups heading out for their first day of work.

Today, we started our work on the Habitat work sites.  My group is Olivia, Lauren, Pat, Parker, Ms. Chehak, and Colin 2.  The other group is Abby, Wiam, Jack, Daivs, Ms. Yen, and OC (Old Colin).  [Ed note: We had two Habitat leaders, one for each site. The "new Colin" joined us once we got to Salama.] When we arrived at our site, we were told to move cinder blocks.

The state of the house when we arrived.  We love cinder blocks!

An hour and a half later, we were still moving them. 

After we finished, we all did different tasks that the mason told us to do.  Throughout our building, we took water breaks every thirty minutes and continuously practiced our Spanish while talking to the four other builders and the family for whom we were building.

The chicken coop at the back is a women's collective. 

We learned a lot about Ruby and Luis's family, saw the chicken coop that 375 chickens in it, and I even got a mini-tour of Ruby's parents' house.  At around twelve, our lunch was delivered and we were able to relax for a little while.  We finished our long day at three o'clock and we got on the bus to share the day's memories with the other group.  It was a relaxing evening because everyone felt extremely sore, tired, sun burnt from today. The girls were able to lift their heads from their pillows for thirty minutes to go buy some chips from the supermarket next door.  Tonight, we ate an early dinner and then played another intense game of charades--the boys won, but the girls will get them back tomorrow.  Eya! 

El Segundo Dia - Salama

Abby's day!

Salamá street

Today was my birthday, and it was amazing -- although that's skipping ahead to later.  We started the day relatively early to start our five-hour bus ride from Antigua to Salamá.  Although 5 hours sounds like the recipe for a painful journey, the ride was enjoyable, filled with word games, naps, and 1 ice cream stop.


The drive ended at a restaurant right next to the hotel, where we all had a delicious, traditional Guatemalan meal.  The restaurant was complete with a monkey cage, and some of the guys decided it would be smart to smuggle food out from the meal to feed the monkeys.  Although the others fed the monkeys food like tortillas, Jack mistakenly decided to feed one poor, defenseless (and likely diseased) monkey a lime. Although the faces the monkey made after taking bites from the lime were increasingly hilarious, the event left us all questioning Jack's decision-making skills.

We then arrived at the Las Lilys hotel, a very nice place with a huge pool.  After a couple hours of relaxing and card games, we went to the Habitat Welcome in the hotel lobby.  The ceremony was a genuine, inspiring event where we were able to meet the families for whom were building the houses.

After the ceremony, we decided to play a girls versus boys game of charades in order to kills some time and distract Pat from complaint-inducing hunger.  The game was filled with many memorable moments, such as Parker's strange faces, Jack's troublesome counting and Wiam's description of "community." The day concluded with a delicious meal at the hotel and a surprise birthday cake for me!

El Primero Dia - Antigua

Hi, Wiam here!

The morning started off slowly with everyone rolling in slowly and half awake, we made our way through the check in point, while Ms:Yen and I had to have special treatment because of our passports. But, Ms. Yen was taken away and we didn't see her until we boarded our flight to Miami. We began to get really excited about Guatemala and made our way. We were greeted with a slight heat wave at the airport and made our way to the customs check. Everyone went through in about 30 seconds, while I was stopped and had to answer 101 questions about why I didn't have a green card!
After a long bus ride, we arrived at Antigua and our journey began. After arriving at the hotel, we were taken around the area with the Habitat tour guide, Collin. The area is beautiful and rich with culture as the locals wore their traditional dress and tried to sell us their handmade goods. We walked up to the top of a mountain to see the Cerro De la Cruz, which is an overview point of the whole city. Later, we walked through the local market as it began to downpour. The girls bargained and a few of us got some nice traditional gifts, while the boys, refused to purchase anything over 70 quetzales, including Pat who didn't see the need to purchase closed-toe shoes! Now we are off to Salamá and the real adventure begins today!

Our Habitat leader, Colin, with Ms. Yen.  He is awesome!

This Saturday, May 19th, nine Bullis seniors and two intrepid Bullis teachers will leave for Guatemala. We will arrive in Antigua and then travel to Salamá, where we will participate in five days building on a Habitat for Humanity site. We have experienced builders and international travelers in our group: Jack, Davis, Parker, Pat, and Lauren all traveled to Cambodia last year and Wiam came to Bullis with a built-in international sensibility.  In addition to our service work, we will have the opportunity to visit a natural reserve and local sites, including Mayan ruins. Señora Yen has organized the trip, so we know it will run like clockwork!

To prepare for this trip, students have attended a cultural presentation by Bryan Whitford and read two books: I, Rigoberta Menchu and Silence on the Mountain.  Olivia, at least, has read the books.  Students will put their classroom Spanish to work in an authentic setting--we'll rely on Jack and Mollie, even though we'll have a translator.  I won't deny that my miming skills are pretty sharp.  Needless to say, we are all extremely excited. Vamos, Bullis!
Hasta luego,
Señora Chehak