A fake celebration

Each day here is so different from the last. I love it that I can always expect a new adventure!

In the hospital, I was sooo bored. After I finished feeding the eyeless lady again, I had nothing to do.I helped make a few beds and I actually requested to fold gauze while the world cup was on so I could watch it. Unfortunately the game ended 20 minutes into my folding and a soap opera came on that I couldn't really hear. I started to feel like I was part of a Chinese person because the chair and table were so small and I was doing the same task over and over. I folded that damn gauze for two hours.

Finally when my back started to kill me (I had done pilates the night before with Olivia too), I got up and found my go-to chat gal. She led me all around the hospital telling me things about the different parts and what they were for. I brought my pictures of friends and family and soon I had a crowd gathered around that were obsessed with the pictures of my pets and the size of my brother and dad. That sounds dumb but I am already like a foot and a half taller than these people so someone that is over 6 feet is like Hulk huge.

It's weird at the Women's ward. I always ask to help with tasks and they tell me they don't need it. Virginia said to expect that and to just start helping. I am going to try this for another week after tomorrow and if they are still refusing my help I'm going to ask to switch. It's pretty painful at this point trying so hard to help.

This afternoon we traveled to Antigua for a Mayan wedding. I forgot to mention in the last posts that we are now with two other girls, Brooke and Erin. So the five of us plus Don Luis (driver), Virginia and her daughter ventured to a new city. Once we got there we found it was only a demonstration of the wedding and Eric was the husband, Brooke the wife and Olivia was the mother of the groom. The outfits they made them wear were the traditional clothing of the Mayans. The ritual of the wedding was pretty sweet too because there were many traditions. One of them was the bride had to give bread to the husband and his family and had to weave the mother-in-law a cloak thing. The groom had to have the wedding reception at his place, and if the woman didn't cook for him the night after the wedding she couldn't sleep in the same bed. Talk about incentive... haha.
So we even acted out the reception dancing to Marimba with each other in goofy Mayan attire. Afterwards, we shopped around and made tortillas out back.
That totally reminded me of the field trip we took at Lewis and Clark where we had to go to that farm place and observe how people used to live and churn butter with the people that pretended it was the 1800s. I remember we were strongly encouraged to pet goats and pigs. There weren't any goats and pigs to pet here because mostly the goats were just roaming so we didn't know where they were to pet them. There are so many stray dogs here too its pretty sad. I just want to adopt them all.

The trip back from Antigua was twice as long as it was supposed to be. Our plan was to go out for dinner and drinks but instead we bonded inside of our big creeper van and going to Pollo Companero. OH AND LISTEN! The first Happy Meal made by Mc Donalds was created in Guatemala!! They needed it because the kids couldn't eat all of the big meal and the moms were tired of cutting up the burgers while traveling so they made a smaller meal that was easy to transport. Cool, Right?!

So tomorrow, I go to my placement and then we have a surprise place for the afternoon. Eric and I plan to get our gym memberships and then Olivia and I have a 10 hour bus ride to Tikal! So excited for that. We want to climb the temples, swim in the lake and meet all the cool people at the Amigos hostile. More gringos wooo! I have to get some rest. More on Sunday when I return. So uhh wish me safety! hah. xox Carolyn