Life at 8,000 feet.

So we ended up being stuck at the mudslide for approximately 4-5 hours (no one actually has a clock or watch, so we´re not totally sure).  Yes, 4-5 hours of sitting at a traffic jam.  When we had arrived, by the way, the mudslide had occurred 40 minutes prior-- and still, nothing was being done to correct the situation.  The local who is traveling with us (Nury) has a son who works for the U.S. Embassy.  So she made a quick phone call (to the embassy) and within minutes, there was a backhoe there to clean up the mess (incidentally, the only piece of machinery that ever showed up to clean up this massive mountain disaster).  So, while this lone backhoe was working to clean up the gigantic pile of the mountain that was now laying in the road (pictures to follow once I return home), I was able to wander around the area with others from my team. 

We met up with this girl, Abby, who is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala.  I´m still not sure if it was a good or bad thing that I spent so much time talking to her-- it made me want to go home, sell all my things, and join the Peace Corps.  For those of you who don´t know: prior to me getting my current job at Pfizer, I was about 85% done with my application to the Peace Corps (a lengthy application, by the way)... so needless to say, I was overly interested in absolutely everything Abby had to say about every aspect of her life in the Peace Corps.  Poor girl was bombarded with questions from me.  But she was a good sport and answered all the questions cheerfully. 

So some of us talked with Abby, some talked with the locals, some shopped, some napped, and some took some amazing photos (yeah, that would be me... with my camera permanently strapped around my  neck) of the breathtaking mountainous Guatemalan landscape.  Around 2:30, the mudslide was cleared enough for us to get back on the road and finish our looooong journey (we had only completed about 2 hours of the trip; we still had at least 3 more to go-- once we got past the mudslide, that is).  So a quick breakdown: we left at 7 AM, stopped around 9:30 for the mudslide, waited about 5 hours, and got back on the road about 2:30 PM.  We finally arrived in San Marcos (after a quick stop in Quetzaltenango (AKA Xela) at Burger King for a late lunch-- yes, a very cultural experience, I know... and again, the only vegan option: a salad and fries) around 5 or 6 PM.  So yes, almost a 12-hr drive.  Very cool.  But like I said in my last post, it helps to be traveling with a bunch of people who are pretty relaxed when it comes to dealing with the unexpected.  And this crazy mountain phenomenon was definitely unexpected.  No one was hurt (thank God), and nothing was damaged. 

When we arrived in San Marcos, we went straight to the church where we´ll be working-- La Iglesia Luterana del Buen Samaritano (Good Samaritan Lutheran Church)-- and set up our eyeglass clinic.  Set-up went pretty smoothly, considering our very cramped and dimly-lit conditions.  After set-up, we sat down with the locals for some long-awaited good food.  The carnivores in the group were given a chicken-stuffed beef dish, with baked potatoes and a salad.  Vegan Melanie was given baked potatoes and a salad.  Not too shabby.  Doesn´t sound Guatemalan? It´s not.  But it was home-cooked and tasty.  We talked for a bit with the locals, and then headed back to our hotel for a quick meeting/ devotion and then off to bed. 

This morning I awoke at 7 AM and went to take a shower.  And **sound the trumpets** it was a HOT SHOWER... again, always a gamble with that.  I went with Allie (my roommate) down to breakfast, where we were served oatmeal, fresh pineapple, corn flakes, and BEANS.  By the way... beans are my all-time favorite food ever.  Perhaps that´s why a vegan diet suits me so well.  Anyway, I was overjoyed to be given beans for my first meal-- a great start to the day.  Not to mention that, also staying at our hotel is one of the major soccer teams in Guatemala-- so our view during breakfast (approx. 20 athletic young Guatemalan men) wasn´t too shabby... The other young gals and I were definitely in our glory :)

After breakfast, we went to church at 10 AM (a service almost completely in Spanish, save the translations during the sermon) and I´m proud to report that I understood everything during the service... I´m amazed at how easily my Spanish is coming back to me.  AFter the service, we immediately started seeing people in the eyeglass clinic.  I was in charge of the station at which we test our patients to determine their prescription for seeing distances.  I´ve been on one trip (2008) where we´ve conducted a similar eyeglass clinic, and today was by far one of the most challenging days I´ve ever experienced.  First of all, a vast majority of the people we saw today were deaf children.  Now, that wasn´t SO difficult for me (many of them can read lips) but I felt sorry for my non-Spanish-speaking teammates who were testing the vision, speaking to the Spanish translator, who was speaking to the sign language translator, who then conveyed the message to the deaf child.  What a train of communication.  Though it may seem like a nightmare, the clinic went surprisingly well.  It can be somewhat frustrating (and I definitely experienced it today) when you´re trying to help someone and a) they´re beyond help or b) you´re just not sure how to help them.  But sometimes, simple as it may sound, it helps to just take a step back, take a deep breath, slap on a smile, and try again.

We took a short break for lunch (salad and beans again for me... that´s beans 2x so far today) and continued to see more people in the clinic.  We stopped around 4 PM, and we went back to our hotel.  We lounged around for a bit-- I had some cerveza and did some crossword puzzles (with some help from my teammates... a sure team-building activity, haha).  We went shopping at a store just down the road from our hotel (did I mention it´s like 50 degrees here?-- people needed to buy some long pants/ long-sleeved shirts, because everyone packed for 90-degree weather) and came back to lounge around a bit before heading down to the hotel restaurant for supper (for the carnivores, milanesa: a dish very similar to wiener schnitzel, for all you Germans out there), scalloped potatoes, soup, and salad... for me, BEANS (that´s three meals of beans in one day), soup, and salad).  AFter supper, we had a meeting/ devotion, then off to bed.  Now I´m in the hotel lobby, shivering as I´m blogging.  Never really thought I´d be this chilly in Guatemala-- the past few times I´ve been here, I´ve been on the Caribbean coast, and it was easily 95 degrees every day.  But we´re here in San Marcos, in the mountains (8000 feet above sea level-- something I´ve never experienced before, but I don´t notice much difference, though others have had some issues with heartbeats/ breathing/ fatigue/ etc).  I´m definitely making good use of the one sweatshirt I brought, as well as the two pairs of long pants and three scarves that I brought. 

All in all, it´s been a wonderful experience so far.  I´m excited to continue the clinic tomorrow.  Serving as a vision tester/ translator seems to be a good fit for me.  Life at 8,000 feet is the good life.

On Our Way

We arrived safely in Guatemala City yesterday around noon, compliments of Delta Airlines :)  We didn't have too many problems making our way through customs... Each team member has his/ her own luggage, as well as a green army bag full of supplies (construction supplies/ eyeglass clinic supplies).  All our supply bags were searched, the value of the "donated goods" was determined, and they considered taxing us for these goods, but we were lucky enough to make it out of there without being taxed.  Good thing.

So we took a bus (like I've said, it's always a gamble with our transportation-- but this was a really nice bus: reclining seats, working windows, proper ventilation... and A/C isn't even necessary, because the weather is perfect) from Guatemala City (the capital) to Antigua (the former capital).  Antigua is one of my most favorite cities EVER.  It's very quaint and unique.  Walking through the city, you can see and hear tourists from all over the world-- it's definitely a popular place for backpackers, young and old.  There are cute little shops, bakeries, cafes, and restaurants (all different colors, and BRIGHT colors too) up and down the cobblestone streets.  The streets are lined with vendors and musicians.  Very artsy, very fun.  The city is nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains, three of which are volcanoes (and one is an active volcano).  Every so often, if you look to the west, you can see Volcan de Fuego (Fire Volcano) spewing humo (smoke), and sometimes you can even feel the tremors from the eruptions.  Pretty amazing.

Yesterday, after having traveled for a number of hours, we decided to take a day of rest, which we spent in a guesthouse located on the outskirts of Antigua.  This house (at which Nury, our leader, resides) is located inside an old coffee plantation.  This place?  Nearly paradise.   Quiet, peaceful, completely surrounded by natural beauty.  It's amazing.  We walked up on the roof of one of the haciendas (where the plantation workers live) and got a spectacular view of the plantation-- buildings, coffee plants, rivers, workers milling around, and volcanoes on every side.  Quite simply breathtaking.  All our team members were noticeable awed by our surroundings here.  Antigua is all I need.  Old city?  Check.  Cobblestone streets? Check.  Artsy stores?  Check.  The best coffee in the world?  Double check.  I can deal with this.  And I don't even have enought ime to discuss the friendly people that live here. An example: we went to dinner last night at Pollo Campero (a "classy KFC," as my dear friend Stephanie so affectionately refers to it).  Thank goodness for my Spanish skills.  I was able to serve as a translator for the 21 other gringos with me, who couldn't decide what to order.  And I give a lot of credit to young Leonel, our 17-year-old server who sat there with a smile plastered on his face (probably a nervous smile), patiently waiting for each gringo to decide whether he/she wanted traditional or extra-crispy chicken.  All in all, dinner went well.  The vegan option?  Salad and French fries (and I looked on as my compadres ordered yummy-smelling chicken dinners, chicken sandwiches, and ice cream... but I was perfectly content). 

So after dinner we headed back to our coffee-plantation guesthouse and got settled in--but just for the night.  We had a short meeting/ devotion and headed to bed (most were in bed by about 8 PM, as we'd been up since 2:45 AM).  Cold showers all around-- yessssss-- but my oh my, some comfy beds. By far, the best night's sleep I've had in a long time.  A quiet atmosphere, cozy rooms, rain pattering on the tile roof, and a VERY comfy bed.  Put in my iPod, listened to some Mumford & Sons, and fell asleep nearly instantly.  Not too shabby.

Not long-lasting, either.  We had to be up at 5:30 AM for coffee (Guatemalan roast.  best around.) and breakfast (bread, homemade strawberry-blackberry jam, pineapple-kiwi salad, yogurt, and granola) at 6:00 AM, prepared by my new friend Luis, the manager of the guesthouse/ restaurant on the plantation. We left the guesthouse at 7:00 AM, headed for San Marcos (nestled in the Sierra Madre mountains on the western side of the country, about a 5-hr drive).  We're driving down the Pan-American highway, the longest highway in the Western Hemisphere.  Stretches all the way from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina (and for those of you who know me well, you'll recognize that I've been to Tierra del Fuego-- the southernmost city in the world).  Amazing.  So this road winds through these mountains-- look to the left and you'll see a dirt wall (an 85-degree slope of the mountain); look to the right and you'll see the same slope, just looking down instead of up (not for the faint of heart, I assure you).  The roads here are amazing-- and what's more amazing is the fact that we're taking a large tour bus down there.  I'm sitting next to Stephanie (and typing this blog, incidentally, on a netbook on the bus) while we're driving.  We've been noticing mudslides every so often, but we've been lucky in that the mudslides have only obstructed the opposite lanes so far.  We were just commenting on how lucky we are that we can keep driving, and have avoided any obstructions.

Spoke too soon.  Our bus just stopped in a long traffic jam.  Nury, our Guatemalan contact, who's traveling with us, just informed us that there was a mudslide 40 minutes ago, and they expect us to be stopped here for 3 hours.  That's right-- our 5-hour trip was interrupted by a mudslide, for which we'll be stopped about 3 hours, if all goes as planned.  So people are opening windows, taking pictures, reading books, making bracelets, and (my personal favorite) distributing chocolate.  We were just given the go-ahead to get out and walk around.  Can't keep a bunch of gringos on a bus for 3 hours, can you?  Haha.  I'm excited to get out in my FiveFingers and explore the Sierra Madres.  That's the beauty of traveling in a developing country-- you never know what to expect, and should always be prepared for anything.  Lucky for me, I'm pretty low-maintenance and go-with-the-flow.  Ah, but I do love a grand adventure.  I'll let you know how it goes :)

¡Vamonos!

Right now, I'm on the plane on my way to Atlanta from Detroit. From Atlanta, I will be flying (with the 21 others on my team) to Guatemala City. From there, we'll be headed to Antigua, Guatemala-- one of my most favorite cities in the world. We're staying there tonight and then headed to San Marcos (near the western side of the country, in the mountains, just west of Quetzaltenango [another one of my favorite cities] ). In San Marcos, we'll be conducting an eyeglass clinic for the locals, as well as doing some kind of construction. This trip will be my 9th mission trip. I began doing these trips when I was 15 (2002), and have quickly become addicted to them. Over the years, I've traveled to Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mississippi, Latvia, and the Dominican Republic for various types of trips. I get so excited and a bit nervous when I leave for these trips... definitely a good nervous. It's always a gamble, traveling to a third-world country; you never know exactly what to expect upon arrival. Lucky for me, I'm very relaxed when traveling, and I don't mind a wee bit of chaos and disorder-- a trait that has definitely served me well in the past, especially when traveling for these trips. So although I'm on my way to Guatemala (and this will be my 4th trip to the country), I still don't know exactly what to expect. I'm unsure of what the next week has in store for me, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Chaos, confusion? Late starts, early departures? 5-hour bus rides (with no A/C) through the mountains? Lack of plumbing? Lack of water? I love adventures. I've got my Dramamine and my hand sanitizer. Bring it on :)