(Letter from Kayla - June 29)
Sorry about not writing. I think we both are just lazy when it comes to emailing on our iPods and we don't like borrowing computers. It's 6am right now and I found a free one, so I'm taking advantage!
Okay, so Guatemala. It was great and wasn't as expensive as we thought. I was a little nervous to be in the country, but we were with a trusted guide the whole time which eased my mind. We crossed the border and he took us from there to ziplining (about 1.5 hours away). I loved the ziplines. There were 8 lines I think, and it was incredible to be flying over the dense jungle below. So amazing. We even saw monkeys jumping and flying from tree to tree; they looked pretty funny. Leah and I both got brave enough to flip our bodies upside down, do the zipline superman style with a guide, and then on the last one they bounced us so we just went flying around everywhere. It was really fun. We narrowly missed a torrential downpour (and I mean it when I say torrential. I've never been caught in rain like this) and then drove to Tikal National Park. The guide made me a little nervous when he dropped us off at the trailhead and said it was really important that we stuck together and were back by 6pm. We started on the trail, and it was again just dense jungle. I expected to be able to see some of the structures, but it was about 15 or 20 minutes of walking before we found anything, just because it's so forested. We saw a lot of the buildings -- the Grand Plaza, the Lost World, an area called the Seven Temples, etc. The were all amazing! We climbed to the top of as many as we could, but a lot of them are blocked off. Let me tell you, those stairs couldn't have been made for climbing. Each step was about two feet high; it was a good workout. I'm so intrigued about what each one was used for. What did they used to look like? Who built them? Did people live in them? Sarah and I started talking about how structures were like that in Book of Mormon times, which is really cool. The last one we climbed before scurrying back through the jungle to make it by 6 was the tallest one. There were a lot of stairs, but the climb was so worth it. The view was unlike anything I've ever seen before. We were above the jungle and could see out miles and miles, but all we could see was the lush green and a few of the other pyramids peeking out over the top. It was amazing.
Mama Kay, our cook lady friend, has been making us delicious food every day but not making it here with us. She's make us Johnny cakes, refried beans, weird salad that I like (just cucumbers, shredded carrot, and raisins), a strange lentil pasta that goes over rice, etc. Delicious.
We've been advertising a lot for my writing class. The parents seem way more enthusiastic than the kids, so I'm not sure what that means. I'm excited about it (the first one is tomorrow!) but I'm sure their will be either 50 kids or no one will show up. I'm a bit nervous too; I think the writing levels I'll get will probably not be as high as I'm expecting. Since I've never taught before, I'm hoping I'll be able to figure out how to adapt. Any suggestions? Today we're going to the orphanage again. I'm excited because we haven't done a lot of manual labor lately.
Tomorrow is halfway, did you know that? We feel like we've been here for longer than 3 weeks and it's sad that it's already going to be on the downhill. Starting next week we're helping with three different children summer camps, and that will keep us busy until the end, and that's a weird thought.
We're planning our bigger vacation, and it sounds like we'll probably leave the last Friday we're here (the 15th?) to go to the islands off the coast and stay Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and then go straight to the airport Wednesday morning. With the summer camp we're helping with on Friday, we'll already be halfway there and it'll be cheaper just to leave from the camp. There's a yoga retreat (yes please) on one of the islands we're going to, so I think we'll stay there one night and do some yoga.
The other night was so crazy -- probably half of the volunteers were sick. Dad, I imagine you would laugh at what happened because it was so ridiculous and really quite funny how it happened. By the evening, there was one girl going to the hospital for kidney stones, 4 or 5 who had stomachaches and were throwing up and having diarrhea, one who was afraid she had malaria and had mosquito bites the size of pancakes (literally), one girl is here who has celiac and has been sick for days (she might just go home early), and two had headcolds. It was terrible that they all were so sick, but when does it happen that EVERYONE comes down sick?? That's the only reason it was funny.
Last Sunday we went to the Spanglish ward (they use a mix, and then sacrament meeting is in English), but we didn't understand much. We might go back again, but it'll be mainly for their air-conditioned chapel, which our sauna-of-an-English ward hasn't gotten yet.
It's been cloudy the last few days, thank goodness, and raining a little. I think we'd all be fine if it rained more though. It really seems to cool things off a few degrees.
(Letter from Leah June 22)
Glad you got on the site, hope you like it. We worked on it today and it was so cool, the most fun and rewarding project I've done so far. We showed up at the site around eight not really knowing what project we would be doing so he gave us two choices of the highest priority projects; either to build a road or one of the housing structures. We ended up doing the dome house, it's a smaller version of what's on the website. Its going to be used for housing adult couples just over a day or two, kind of like their own hotel I guess. Each of the domes is built on a floating foundation made out of used tires, the purpose is to avoid any flooding and also protection from earthquake damage. Each dome will last about 300 years, cool huh? So all we did today was lay tires and pack them so tight with this dirt/clay/sand stuff. It took about three wheelbarrows full of the dirt for each tire. I have insane blisters on my hands from packing the dirt. We'll have to show you pictures because it's so cool. Sounds like things are going good there, mom and Cady have been emailing. Cady dedicated an entire email to describe her mosquito bite on her butt. Is Levi ever home?? Sounds like he's absent from everything and that porter and Cady are becoming inseparable.
(Letter from Leah - June 19)
Hey dad, check out this website if you have time, barzakhfalah.com. It's the orphanage I told you about that is completely self sustaining. It's incredible! I took better pictures of it than the ones they have on the website because the home/dome was finished when we went. I'll have to tell you all about it when we get home because it's way too much to type out on an iPod but you'd love it. It's so down to earth and so smart.
(Letter from Kayla - June 19)
I think we've officially made it into rainy season here; we got caught in a torrential downpour on the 20 minute walk back from church. It's nice because it cools everything off. I can't believe how much water it is though.
Went to some Mayan pyramids yesterday (got rained on once we had climbed to the top) which was really cool. Took lots of pictures. We even saw monkeys sitting around in the treetops.
I'm working on starting on my own project- writing classes. I've been just trying to observe and see what the people need and how I can incorporate my skills, and that's what I've come up with. I'm really excited about it! I think writing skills are so useful for everyone, and I want to do something with journal and news writing as well. What do you think? Any ideas of how I can organize what I teach or what I should focus on? Ideally I'd love to do two separate weekly classes; one for adults and one for high school age. I have writing down the bones here with me and I want to use that as the foundation.
(Letter from Leah - June 28)Things are good here, I really miss home though. I always thought I was pretty independent and would be totally fine away from home and I think I am but I just really miss it.
Guatemala was so much fun. We had about fifteen in our group and toward the end of the day every single one of us was so annoyed with at least one other person. Dad would have hated the stress. Besides that it was fun though. We did go zip lining and it was awesome. Did you do it in Mexico? Or Hawaii? I never felt like we were in danger at any time on the trip but I felt like I was on guard the whole time and I felt so relaxed when we finally walked across to Belize again, I really do feel safe here. Which is funny because I definitely did not at the beginning! I guess it's just getting used to things. Tikal was beautiful and so incredible. Our camera died, sad. But we are planning on stealing our friends pictures of things we didn't get.
The first two Sunday's we went to the English branch in Santa Elena, the town right next to us, which is over a mile walk. It's just in a little house and so humbling. Last Sunday we went to the Spanish branch that is actually a church building and closer to our house and we really liked it. Sunday school and relief society are mostly in Spanish but there's a translator and sacrament is in English.
The rainy season has been so wonderful but I wish it would rain more. It's cloudy a lot but still so incredibly hot all the time. If it rains it's usually only at night around seven or eight. Except on the weekends for some reason, it rained the whole time we zip lined and while we were at Tikal and during church but it did feel so nice.
I should probably get to sleep though so more to come later. I wanted to skype tomorrow since it's cady's birthday but my skype doesn't work anymore for some reason so we'll have to see if we can use someones computer and do gchat. Tomorrow is half way! Love you
(Letter from Leah- June 23)
My hands are good, i popped them but they just opened up on a tiny little spot on the edge so after i got all the stuff out they just fell back down to my skin so they werent open or anything. i put band-aids on and they were fine today. im a little jealous of the hail. a lot jealous. kayla got burned yesterday so she didn't go to the orphanage today but it was hotter than it was yesterday. i put sunblock on twice and have yet to get burned. I'm getting some nice tan lines though. And my hair is also starting to turn bright platinum, who knew? actually i just had an epiphany. i might have the medicine here with me. for some reason i just thought of a deja vu-ish moment when i seem to picture something like kayla telling me the Tylenol bottle was on my bed and me being worried because i had already said goodbye to my bedroom and wasn't going to go back down. but then i think i did go down to get them. so maybe i do have them. and maybe i'm losing my mind. and i don't know. but i'm going to go check. tomorrow we're leaving early in the morning to go help at a scout camp and it should be fun. we'll be setting up obstacle courses and that kind of thing for them. then Saturday we're off to Tikal! i'm excited. has it been rainy and cloudy lately or is it nice? todd said the other day was like 80s?? that's pretty good for there. i'm a little jealous of that too. and so jealous of the BC pool. i cant wait to go swimming there! its weird that we've been here for two weeks. it seems like so long ago when you dropped us off at the airport but it also seems like the time has gone by pretty fast, lots faster than i thought it would. some of the other girls told me that the first two weeks go by slow but after that they fly by so fast. we'll see if that's true for me. we're off to go to the store to buy some stuff for dinner and meals for the next few days. talk to you later-o, love you-o
(Leah - June 22)
Ps I got really bad blisters on my hands and fingers today from shoveling and I'm doing it again tomorrow so should I pop the blisters and put band aids on them?
(Letter from Kayla - June 21)
Sounds like you guys had a fun night planned! Leah was drooling over the list of food you brought. She's missing her American snacks, although I think she's acquiring a taste for real, delicious food (i.e. avocados, mangos, pineapple, and bananas). It's a little weird that she likes them all so much.
Today we mostly had meetings, not so much hands-on stuff. We're helping with a LOT of different projects -- English lessons, orphanage construction, the chicken/rabbit coop thing, and lots of other things. My writing classes are taking off, the plans at least. We talked to the librarian at the local library today and she was really excited about it. We're planning to do classes twice a week for both grades 9-10 and 11-12. I think it'll be great, all of us that are working on it are excited. We're thinking we'll focus on a few different fun aspects of writing -- poems, writing songs, journal writing, news writing. We have to go talk to the schools tomorrow or the next day because school is out on Friday.
Tonight we had an AMAZING dinner. Sister Kay, a Belizian woman who works closely with HELP as the cook, came over and taught us how to make tortillas and black-bottomed banana pie. We ate the hot tortillas with avocados and her homemade refried beans, and it was so delicious. We put bananas, chocolate syrup, and peanut butter on a few of them. THAT was good. I'm still so full. I need to get recipes from her so I could maybe try to make them at home.
Tomorrow is our two week mark, which means one third through. Weird, huh? We're going to help build stuff at an orphanage that's being built, the one that's supposed to be self-sufficient eventually.
Mango season just ended and rainy season has officially started, so (don't tell Levi...) but we might not come back with tans as cool as we thought. I haven't been able to even wear my Chacos since I got those dang blisters! I'm waiting for them to heal, but since then Leah and I have just switched shoes. I wear the Keens and she wears the Chacos. It has worked out nicely.
(Letter from Leah - June 21)
Today was kind of a lazy day because there are quite a few projects but they're all just starting so it's all just boring planning meetings. Tomorrow we're going early in the morning to work at an orphanage that is amazing,
barzakhfalah.com I think. I gave dad that web address but I don't know if he checked it out. They don't have updated pictures on the site so the ones we got from the other day are much better, you guys would think it's so cool. All self reliant and self sustaining. There are also quite a few summer camps for the kids coming up and we're pretty involved in those so that'll keep us busy. Kayla and our friend Emily are starting writing and art classes which will be pretty fun, we just have to do the annoying work of advertising everywhere but it will be good. Those are the main projects we're involved in so far, hopefully that's a good enough update. Love you!
(Letter from Kayla - June 13)
We have mostly been trying out a few diff projects to see what we want to do. Today we did adobe stoves for some poor people in a little village. It's really hard work but rewarding. We were working with this lime stuff and I was wearing my chacos which I'm still breaking in and the lime stuff rubbed and irritated my feet and sort of burned blisters into each foot. And a lot of them. Ow.
Later I got to interview this woman who owns a cute cake shop and now all I've been thinking is how excited I am to start my ownnnnn.
Sorry we haven't been doing much w pics. We've just been feeling things out before we risk taking the cameras anywhere. Plus everyone is weird about sharing computers. I don't feel so good so I'll go and talk to you soon.
Love you.
(Letter from Kayla - June 12)
We went to the English ward today. A branch of about 80 members held
in a tiny house. The "chapel" is an extension of the bldg and looks
and feels like a sauna. Wood walls and flooring, fans on the walls,
and about 85 degrees. It was fun to be a part of their little
congregation- everyone is so friendly, even the kids. A lot of them
would walk past us grinning, others were brave enough to say hi or ask
our names. I don't think American kids are generally that friendly...
We have been eating Fruit for Bfast, and it's to die for. Levi, you
would pry eat it All up, just like when you were a toddler. Its so
cheap! We got a pineapple, mango, and 3 bananas yesterday for a few
dollars and it lasted us for today too. For lunch we've been feasting
on a loaf of crumbly bread and peanut butter by the spoonful. Leah has
always hated peanut butter you know, but she can't seem to get enough
of it here. Pry b/c we are so used to having snacks and food at our
finger tips, so now that our choices are extremely limited, we're
scarfing down what we get. A few of the girls invited us to run with them in the am, but of course Leah doesn't want to and even I have minimal motivation for something that's going
to make me even MORE hot and sweaty than I already am. We'll see.
Yesterday we went cave tubing with a few from the group, and we had so
much fun. At the last cave there were cliffs (maybe 15 feet) that we
jumped off into this clear blue water. It was SO awesome. I even ate a
live termite b/c our director had a handful and said they taste like
minty carrots-which sounds terrible to me-but I wanted to do it so I
did. I swallowed it pretty fast and didn't taste much but now I can say
I've eaten a live termite. They're nasty looking.
How did the temple trip go? Did Levi make it through the cafeteria?
Tell him to go watch documentary about how disgusting buffets are and
then maybe he won't be so disappointed. Speaking of temple trips, they
announced one here to the Guatemala temple, and I thought that would be
rad, but it's a few days long and I forgot my recommend.
(Letters from Leah - June 12)
Lately we've been having peanut butter on slices of bread. Me and Kayla bought a loaf and a jar of pb two days ago and just finished it all off, we eat it like crazy because that's the only food we have at the house so we eat three of four slices at lunch then eat it for snacks haha. Then they either take us out every night or a lady cooks for us for dinner. When they take us out they pay for our meals, up to seven dollars, so we really haven't been spending too much on meals because most is under the seven they pay for and the bread and pb is cheap and so is fruit. I think we spent a little over five dollars each for all three meals yesterday plus our meals today. Nice huh?
Today has been cloudy which is so nice because the temp has dropped a little bit...even though it still feels around 85 at the very least. It's a nice change. We went cave tubing on Saturday and it was so fun! We jumped off some rocks in one of the caves and dad would have loved it. After one of the times I jumped in and was getting out I kicked a rock and cut my toe. Awesome. But it wasn't too bad. Sounds like Cady and porter have found plenty to do, she emails us just about everyday haha how was levis test?
(First letter from Leah - June 10)
It's going good, it's still insanely hot and humid...kinda miserable. But it's been fun. Today we helped advertise for a workshop that one of the girls is doing. It's through this place called Mary Open Doors which is a shelter for battered women so the workshop is about microcredit and how they could get going to start a business blah blah blah. We'll send more when we have more time on Sunday or something. Love you.
Leah
(Letter from Kayla - June 10)
Did you head from Leah? She seems like she's doing better than I expected. We haven't really been apart, I think we both just feel safer and in our comfort zones when we're together. I think we are actually in the same time zone. It's so confusing but I think we figured out that Belize doesn't do daylight savings so we are the same time! So weird. I got tan lines from my chacos today, apparently one day is all it takes. And there was a cockroach on the bathroom window today. And a lizard lives on the wall in our room. And all the taps have a h & c handle, but only cold comes out but that's fine b/c we're sweating out of our eyeballs. And there is only warm purified water, kind of ironic that we can't drink the shower water even though it's colder. Lots of shacks and dumpy places around but it's surprisingly clean - remember the Dominican Republic, Dad? It's way cleaner here. I wonder why? Breakfast fruit is amazing. We put a dollar in and there is more fruit than we can handle. The pineapples and mango are so dang gooood. Okay I'm pretty tired so I'll talk to you all soon!
(The first note from Kayla, June 9)
Hi mom,
We got here okay and are trying to settle in. The heat and humidity
are killing us-we drink bottle after bottle and never even have to pee
b/c we sweat it all out. Today we went and helped with construction of
an orphanage, but with all these paid strong men we felt like our
contribution was hardly anything. They mentioned something to us about
a project making a documentary about kids from broken families
involving suicide. She offered the suggestion to me b/c I'm in
communications, and both Leah and I are interested. But it will be
difficult w/o a computer...im on the iPod right now. Ok, well we're
going to dinner soon but i love you And thank you for the text
yesterday. I never had a chance to txt back but I wanted you to know I
got it. Love you and tell everyone hi and we love them:)
Kayla
