Three...

Yes, it turns out there is a plateau after all, but plateaus are not such a bad thing. This past week has not been nearly as eventful as the previous two but still there are plenty of stories to share. Monday after the lunch hour we had another “cooking class.” More less it was a history of chocolate since the discovery of the coco bean to today. We heated the chocolate down through a double boil process and then poured the chocolate into molds to cool in the freezer after mixing in just a bit of mint or almond extract. It turns out this doesn’t take a whole lot of skill or technique. I think we all had more fun just eating the chocolate. I would guess that half of our prepared chocolate never made it into the molds but went directly from finger our spoon to our stomachs.

Wednesday we had a group trip to Hogar Temporal Quetzaltenango, the orphanage here in Xela. They gave us a guided tour and told us all about the operations of the orphanage. We didn’t really get an opportunity to interact with any of the kids but the purpose of the visit more or less was to help us to get to know and understand the workings of the orphanage and for some students it was a chance to be exposed to the organization they want to volunteer with.

The whole week moved along at a leisurely pace. Steph and I walked around town quite a bit just chatting and running random errands. We visited for quite a while with Justin from Quetzaltrekkers. An organization we will be getting more involved with for personal excursions. A brief description of Quetzal Trekkers:
For over 12 years, Quetzaltrekkers has been a volunteer run organization offering exciting and challenging excursions through the spectacular highlands of Guatemala. Quetzaltrekkers was created as the fundraising branch of Escuela de la Calle (EDELAC) a Xela based organization that provides important education, social, and medical programs for Xela’s children in need. One hundred percent of the profits gained by Quetzaltrekkers goes to this “Street School.”
You will be hearing much more about the adventures they offer as they float into the picture.

We bought ingredients for Steph to make chocolate chip cookies. It was an interesting endeavor because once we arrived at País (the smaller mall with a grocery store, the larger is called Hiper País) we had to try to find all the necessary ingredients. First of all everything is in Spanish, given. But then it is important to realize that they don’t really do any baking down here and if flour is used it is nearly always a corn flour. Chocolate chips are non-existent other than an extremely expensive import of Hersey’s, and there is basically no way to tell if you are buying baking power, baking soda, or if the little white pouch has anything to do with baking. It turns out that white sugar and brown sugar are just as hard to distinguish because neither variety really exists. The closest we could get to either was some sort of mixture of them both. The results have yet to be determined. I believe the test will go into effect later this week.

I was finally able to track down my package of Malaria meds four days later than expected as the half English half Spanish conversations never seemed to lead to the wild goose chase that I needed to endure to receive the box. (Don’t worry I don’t have Malaria…just a precautionary measure I neglected to think of before leaving the states.)

Nearly the whole week in class we focused on preparing for our first exam which consisted of a collage, a composition, and a presentation relating to either education or family in Guatemala. I choose to research and present on education, but more specifically the difference between public and private schools. I interviewed a few different people (the director/principal of a public school and the higher-up in the Department of Educational Development) and compiled lots of information. I learned a lot and gave a decent performance on my exam.

The weekend offered a peaceful retreat. Four of us (Steph, Maria, Katy, and I) went to the beach in Champerico on Saturday. It was a three hour journey to the west, moving from one form of transportation to another, but it was very much worth the effort. We were able to enjoy the hot sun (Xela was supposed to be cold all day), black sand beach, big crashing waves, and a day away from the big-city buzz. Maybe one of the best things about the day was that all of this was accomplished for under $10 a person for a day at the beach. Sunday was just as pleasant if not more. Steph and I climbed up El Baúl for the second time. Before we went however we bought ourselves some colored chalk and brought along our climbing shoes. At the top we spent the morning and early afternoon bouldering on a expansive retaining wall. I am thinking that it probably offers similar climbing to the wall at SJU if not more variety. There is definitely varying surfaces and rock placement that makes bouldering great. Plus it happens to be a perfect height to top out at and not worry about needing ropes or struggling with a down climb. We used to our colored chalk to create a few different routes and each time we plan and making up something new. We climbed and relaxed in the sun with a view of the entire city and surrounding mountains. It was like a dream. Steph’s mom had packed her three big sandwiches so we shared them for a picnic lunch along with the sugar water (aka orange juice) and cookies (crackers with sugar) that my mother had packed me. It was wonderful and we can’t wait to go back. It will likely become a Saturday or Sunday routine. We came down and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon at a café before we got ready at our houses for church at the cathedral near central park. All in all, it was a top notch weekend.