Tikal, wowww!

Mike, Ashley, and Scott at Tikal

By Scott Romano

I knew that today was going to be a great day from the moment I stepped out of bed.  Tikal is a magical place that has so much mystery behind it.  Tikal is a hard place to wrap your head around by just looking at the pictures.  You really have to see it to believe it.  There are monkeys all over the place and birds chirping left and right.

Tikal is an amazing place because nobody truly knows how it was built.  There are massive thousand foot tall rock temples that the Mayans built with no modern day machinery.  My favorite part of the day was towards the end when most of the other tourists left and we were able to just sit in peace in the grand plaza.

Our great guides and friends, Luis and Constantino

Looking back on the trip, I cannot believe that two weeks have already passed.  This was an incredible group of students to travel with and I consider myself very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to get close with everyone.  Going to Tikal is a great way to close out the trip and I would not have wanted it any other way.

A group shot in the grand plaza at Tikal

To end the day, we all sat around dinner and kind of reflected on the trip.  I was amazing to hear what everyone’s most impactful moments were and to hear what they enjoyed most about the trip.  For me, Tikal was definitely one of my most favorite parts just due to the whole mystery behind it.  I hope that everybody reading this blog at home has the opportunity to go to Tikal one day and experience it for themselves.

Our First Day in Flores

A tucan

By Julia Hvoslet

Today began with one of my least favorite things – an early wake up call.  My alarm went off at 3:30am and our flight left for Flores at 6:30am.  

I have only ever been on such a small airplane once, and on top of my already outrageous fear of flying, I was thrilled when we landed.  What was not so thrilling, however, was the weather.  I had high expectations for the Northern Guatemalan heat, but we got virtually none of it.  We touched down in Flores to overcast skies and strong winds.  The rain hit and it became so bad that we had to postpone our trip to the animal refuge and sanctuary for two hours.  

By 11am we were on our way; and to perpetuate my anxiety level, fourteen of us traveled across a crocodile-filled lake on a boat made for four people so that we could get to the sanctuary.  I was really excited to visit the sanctuary to be able to see animals I have never seen before.  The animals we included a puma, spider monkeys and a toucan, among several other exotic animals.  What grabbed my attention the most was across the way on another section of the river where the animal refuge was located.  

A crocodile greets Julia...

The refuge, ARCAS, houses dozens of animals that have been trafficked for their meat, skin, and prize money, among other reasons.  The refuge held Scarlet Macow parrots, wild monkeys and the main attraction: a 7 year old jaguar.  As we approached the café of the majestic animal, we were instructed to remain silent, as we could have easily startled the jaguar.  Our tour guide explained that they received the massive cat when it was 4-5 months old, and nearly dehydrated to death.  We also learned that as a part of this animal refuge, 95% of the animals there will be successfully released back into the wild after a certain number of years; however, the jaguar could not be released ever.  It had become too accustomed to humans and never learned how to catch its own prey.   After being given this information, I reflected on a few things.  Humans have ability over animals at times.  Animals and nature also have power over humans.  I also reflected on the power of resiliency.  Albert Schweitzer believed in a culmination and balance of humanity, animals, and nature, and today emphasized the epitome of all three in a cohesive circle of life, which the Mayans also believed in.  It is difficult to comprehend the power of nature at times, but today helped.  I believe that seeing the pyramids in Tikal will further emphasize the vastness and ingenious of humans, animals and nature.

Birthday Surprises and Inspiring Moments

Pablo and David

By Anthony Messina

Today started off with a bang… literally.  My host family set off fire crackers at 6:30 am right outside my room to wish me a happy birthday.  After this short birthday celebration, we went down to the work site to do some work.  We flattened the ground a bit and laid bricks for the retaining wall… at least we tried to.  The workers made these tasks look easy but we quickly found out that it wasn’t.  The Guatemalan workers had to help us out quite a bit with these tasks.  After we laid the bricks, we got to hang out with the kids a little bit, but that’s when something truly special happened.  We met with Pablo.

Last year, David Ives and the delegation from 2012 met Pablo and found out that he suffered from Guillain-Barre syndrome.  With some help from the occupational therapy and physical therapy students traveling with David, Pablo learned some exercises to improve his strength.  This year Pablo is able to walk without crutches.  Because of this disease, Pablo has been out of school for a few years.  But today was a huge step forward for Pablo, both literally and figuratively.  With the help of mostly David, Pablo was reenrolled in school.  Pablo, his sister, and his aunt were all brought to tears with this news.  His life became so much better because of this small change because he will be treated just like all the other kids his age.  As a future teacher, this is something that really touched me because now Pablo has the opportunity to get an education and be just like all the other kids his age.  I believe that each and every child has the right to receive a proper education.

Anthony's Birthday Celebration

After we met with Pablo, we had a small goodbye ceremony that was held on my behalf at my host family’s house.  Little did I know that this was all a hoax when Constantino showed up with a cake singing “Feliz Cumpleaños”.  After we ate cake, we went to the school where the actual ceremony was held.  A group of students sang two songs to us and then we left to go to the Biltmore in Guatemala City.

Children from the school at our goodbye ceremony

At the hotel, we had a meeting with Rigoberta Menchú.  We had the opportunity to ask her questions and get a small look into the life of a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.  One thing that she talked about that really caught my attention was that she wanted the people to vote based on their views as opposed to accepting bribes from candidates.  This was interesting because it shows how people are selfish and only care about personal gain.  Meeting with Rigoberta was a really interesting part of the day.  Learning about how she came from nothing and because a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate gives us all the ability to be the best we can be.  

The 2013 Guatemala Delegation with Rigoberta Menchu

After this meeting, we had dinner at a Peruvian restaurant which was delicious.  Overall, today was one of my favorite days of this trip.  I am glad I had the opportunity to spend my birthday like this.

Our Second Day of Work in Joyas de las Flores

Yessenia helps to dig the foundation for the pavilion.

By Yessenia Argudo

Today was our second day of work at Joyas de las Flores.  We are trying to make a pavilion aka “galera” for the school.  The children of the school will then be able to have assemblies without having to stand in the scorching sun. 

Yesterday when we arrived, hundreds of children had to stand in the heat while the ceremony to greet was taking place.  With the gallera created, the kids of las Joyas de las Flores will soon be able to enjoy greeting Quinnipiac students even more than before.

A view of the pavilion.

We worked all day today from 8am to 5pm.  Even though we made lots of progress, I was able to appreciate how much easier construction projects are in America.  The digging took us many hours and it was a combination of 2 days of work.  If we were in America, it would take us probably 2 hours because we would have power tools to help.  However, here in Guatemala, it takes them more time to enjoy the benefits of their work.  As crazy as this sounds though, I think they will appreciate it more because it is a collective effort from their community.

Finally, I had lots of fun with the family from this home stay.  We spent all night singing to each other.  They would sing in Spanish for us and we would sing in English for them.  It didn’t matter what language we spoke, music was a universal language for us.

Our Second Host Family Stay Begins Near San Juan Sacatepéquez...

The children welcome the QU Guatemala delegation to Joyas de las Flores

By Lindsey Mazzone

After our adventure-filled weekend of a boat ride across “El Lago Atitlán” and sight-seeing in Antigua, we headed to our second set of host families near San Juan Sacatepéquez.  We all got a great night’s sleep, so we were all extremely ready and excited to go, although we were sad to leave the “Hobbit Hotel” (Albergues Tecpan), as it was where we spent our first night in Guatemala.

A two-hour bus ride later, and we were in the village of Joyas de las Flores being greeted by what seemed to be a thousand children.  They cheered for us all individually while making funny faces and saluting us at the welcoming ceremony.  We were then split up to meet our host families.

Lunch at Ana's House

Mariana, Sarah, Dana and I were very happy to find out we were all living together… along with the 12 children in our family.  After 8 hours of being with the family, we still weren’t sure which children live with us because there were always so many in the house.  We all had lunch together, prepared by Ana, one of the mothers.  We tried to fuel up as much as possible to prepare for our work-filled afternoon.  

David Ives with Ana, one of our host mothers in Joya de las Flores

Our project for our time in the village of Joyas de las Flores is to build retaining walls for the community’s meeting pavilion.   In order to do this, we dug the foundation during our first day of work.  What would have taken one hour in the United States with the equipment we have there, took 2.5 hours to dig 30 cm on one side of the pavilion.   We used shovels and pic-axes and a lot of muscle.  The soil was very rocky and full of tree roots, which made the work extremely difficult.  A ton of children gathered around us, offering to help and asking how to say certain words in English.  We worked very hard and then went home for dinner.

Lindsey gives Mike a shoulder rub after shoveling the foundation for the project.

At home, the children were poking their heads through the curtains and door, watching us like we were animals at the zoo, so we performed the “Gringo Show.”  This consisted of us posing for ten seconds like mannequins, and then changing poses.  They might have thought we were crazy, but we definitely gave them something to stare at.

Everyone reconvened for a huge basketball game after dinner.  It was a great way to spend our first night!  We all headed in early to get some rest for our second day of work.