Catching up.

The 17^th:

Started off by waking up at 5am and waiting to be picked up for 6:00am, but the pickup didn’t end up being until 6:30 or so, and we left a note saying goodbye to our family along with our keys and we were off to meet up with the other group, we left San Cristobal around 7:30am. We were off on our full day of travel to the jungle. After about 2 hours we stopped for breakfast at a gorgeous restaurant on a hilltop with a really amazing view (the whole ride had amazing scenery), we then continued on our way stopping for lunch at some point and seeing our first (and almost only) jungle related animal, there were two green parrots in the tree at the restaurant! After lunch we kept on our way and finally arrived to the “campsite” area where we were staying around 7:00pm. We went off to our cabins (mine was shared with 5 others, so 3 bunk beds) and we had a view of the river/lagoon thing at the bottom of a hill, two hammocks and some dock chairs. We were exhausted and hit the hay pretty quickly, not before some of us had a shower (we were lucky enough to have two public ones to use and two toilets) so the hot water was amazing after a 12 hour drive. Some people saw a scorpion in the washroom but I missed it, thank god. The temperature at night was better then expected I had a sheet and a light blanket on while I slept. Through the night I woke up to the distant sounds of howler monkeys, which I thoroughly enjoyed compared to the traffic I would hear in our family stays. Overall the first night was really good and I slept pretty well considering it was a fairly open concept cabin and I could see through the walls and had to sleep in a bug net!

The 18^th:

We got up for breakfast and then were on our way on the 1.5hour drive to the boat that would take us an hour on the river that separates Guatemala and Mexico to a place called Yaxchilan, a site of ruins. We spent some time hiking up to the ruins and exploring them, but it is something that is very short lived because you lose interest quite quickly. We were there for 3 hours, played some cards after we were finished exploring and then we went on the 1hr long boat ride back to where we left from. We then went to a place near the campsite that has a small waterfall and a lagoon/river we went swimming in. While we were there, it began to rain, and hard. (go figure, in the rainforest there is rain, even when its not the rainy season, aha.) Our power was out for the night so a couple hours were spent sitting in blackness on the deck of our cabin. We then decided to go to bed, where a problem arose. One bunkmate (who was sleeping above me) found a spider in her bed. Not some small spider, a big gross terrifying spider. So we went through an ordeal to get it out, tuck the bed net in, she decided to move beds (totally understandable) and then as I was checking mine I looked at the outside of the bug net and saw a spider twice the size with 3x the body size with a pregnant sack on its body. Which caused a huge panic and needless to say, it created a really paranoid group of people, which resulted in me waking up many times through the night with a flashlight looking at my bed and around it to make sure the net was tucked in and nothing was in bed with me. And that was my first non enjoyment moment of the jungle.

The 19^th:

We woke up for breakfast and got ready to go on our jungle hike, only half of the group was doing this and the other half was doing bonampek (that we would be doing the next day). We met the guide and drove 5 mins up the road to the entrance; and were on our way. The first 10 mins of the trail were easy, then it progressively got more demanding and difficult. After an hour or so we arrived at the waterfall that we would be swimming at once we were finished the hike, but we were moving on to look at more ruins first, and this is where the hiking got hard. Because of the ticks and such in the jungle, we were told to wear pants on our hike, which means it was even hotter then usual and more difficult to hike. I had a really rough time with the walk and even today my legs are sore. In my opinion the ruins weren’t even worth it however once it was over the swim was. We exfoliated with a clay that the mayans use on their skin and it was incredible. We all felt so good after, and I will upload pictures once I’m home. The swimming was amazing, the water is fabulous here. We hiked back and finally were finished (in total we did around 4 hours of hiking.) and then we went to eat lunch where I had amazing French fries.

On the 20^th:

It was our day to go to Bonampek (im sure thats spelt wrong) but it was to look at ruins (and if you’re wondering, yes I’m sick of them by now) We did however only want to spend an hour and a half there, so we went and looked around and then left to come back to go swimming in a beautiful area off of the campsite and we spent most of that time making underwater videos. Like I had said before the swimming here has been amazing, all the water is so clear and fresh feeling. After we swam we had the rest of the day to ourselves, most of which was spent sitting in the sun which was a nice break from all the stuff we’ve been doing to keep busy lately. So we relaxed all day and then spent our last night hanging out on the porch and going to bed fairly early, again.

Today:

We left the jungle, we packed up the last of our stuff and hopped into the bus and drove first to a place called Agua Azul (Blue water) and we went swimming, I don’t have pictures but everyone else will but if you google it, you can see where we were. Then we had lunch and were off to our next destination Misol-ha (that you can also look at google images and see where we swam.) we were only there for a short time and then we came to the hotel. Today wasn’t very eventful just travel and swimming but it was a nice mixture, not exhausting like all the other days we’ve gone through.

Tomorrow we’re going to the Palenque ruins, and then driving back to San Cristobal for the night, and the 23^rd is my travel day where we’re off bright and early to the airports. I will have internet tomorrow night so I will be able to update one more time before I’m home but until then, live long and prosper.

LOL

And they're off!

Today is our last day in our family stay in San Cristobal De Las Casas. And for what its worth, i'm thrilled to be leaving. I don't think i have fully described the conditions as i didn't want anyone to worry. Anyways, our family doesn't speak to us, they answer the odd question and ask if we're eating meals but thats about the extent of it. They leave the house at night around 10:30-11:30pm to go sleep at their place and don't return until between 6:30-7:00am. Our room is very close to the street so the noise is always extensive. The food has been chicken and rice just about every day since we got here and we've been ill since moving in. It seems to be very much a business transaction for them to have us stay here and they don't really want anything to do with us. So the homestay was a positive experience for everyone except us, which has been really unfortunate. So we're the only pair who is thrilled to be leaving, But everyone back home no need to worry, after seeing the doctor and now we'll be leaving the house things can only go up from here.


Tomorrow at 6am we depart to the Lacondon Jungle, the only rainforest left in North America. We will be staying in cabins with bunk beds, doing things like visiting ancient ruins, boating on the border of guatemala and mexico, hiking, swimming and of course, relaxing. We won't have internet there (obviously) so from tomorrow until the 20th or so, but i will keep track of what we do and post a blog once we come back to the hotel in Palenque on the night of the 21st. If i can't get internet there i will for sure have it on the 22nd, and then the morning of the 23rd we begin our full day of travel home! :D
I hope all is well with everyone and i can't wait to come back to canada! 

Oh i forgot to mention that today we were invited to a village in Chamula for a community lunch, it was really interesting and i will elaborate on it at home more. I am feeling better today and i was able to get my prescription filled so i will be taking that tonight again and hoping to be ALL BETTER in the morning for our 9 hour bus ride, blechk. 

love. <3  

Monday Monday

Monday we continued with our Natate projects, so up the stairs we went again to do some more digging. After it was quittin' time i went to pick up my laundry, came home to chat/email/shower and then in the afternoon we were going to meet at the treehouse for a de-brief. It was fairly productive for the most part and we got lots out of the way. Only 2 days until we leave for the jungle!! i'm so excited, it really is going to be an awesome adventure.

Today i am visiting the doctor to hopefully get something for my constant upset stomach, i will update on the result of that after. As a result of that i won't be going to my project today (oh darn) but hopefully will be attending the evaluations this afternoon. Tomorrow is our debrief of san cristobal and then thursday we meet at 6AM TO LEAVE FOR THE JUNGLE. (it's an 8 hour drive or more, blechk.)

Also an early heads up, i won't have internet in the jungle, (obviously) so from the night of the 16th-at least the 19th i won't be updating but i will write and then post them all when i get back to internet! :)

The last few days

Friday: We went with our Natate Groups again but we were helping to set up for an event, we were carring paintings to the most gorgeous hotel i've ever seen, and then arranging some flowers for an exhibit they were holding. All in all we didn't do much that day, we were off at 1 o'clock and then a little while later we toured the market and went to a bead store (i'm going to start making earrings) and then that was about it.

Saturday: We did a project with Natate as a whole group. We took two combis out of town to a village called Teopisca and then we took two open backed trucks up the mountain (most fun i've had the whole trip, by far.) of course i wanted to sit on the edge again, up to a property waaay up the mountain. The scenery was gorgeous, the land was nothing short of stunning and what they're doing there was amazing. They're basically a group of volunteers from all around the world (people come and go) and they live off the land, they have worm compost bins, a greenhouse, outdoor gardens, a dry toilet, and they made the house themselves. They sleep on cots inside of tents in the house, they use rain water as their water (accept they will bring jugs of drinking water up from time to time) and they for the most part only use their ingredients or local ingredients. The whole thing was amazing, after the tour and explanation of the place we were able to choose from 3 jobs to do. 1, make adobe bricks for the try toilet. 2, plant a garden. 3, build a chicken coop. I chose the adobe, with full awareness i would be covered in mud once i was done. The process consists of using the mud and mixing in pine needles and then putting in sand of the dried mud we were using to turn it into a thick clay. And how do we mix it? with our bare feet.

So the learning experience was pretty amazing, the people we've met through Natate has been really fabulous and i'm really glad we got to do this day, it has been my favourite so far.

Today is a free day and after having to walk down the mountain instead of take trucks, my legs are killing me thanks to my Reetone shoes, so i plan on being lazy for lots of the day. We do however have to go out for meals but until then i may blog and read and sit around.

4 days until we leave san cristobal and go to the jungle, 10 days until i leave for home! :D

5 million

My uncle posted a blog asking the question, "What would you do if you had $5 million? And I don’t mean “what do you want; as in, what would you buy”, what I mean is: what do you desire to do—that you aren’t doing now—that you would be doing if you had $5 million? And if you can answer this question, then ask yourself: is this all that’s holding me back from doing what I desire most? Is the fear of not having enough money the one thing that is keeping me from doing what I desire?" 

Which got me to thinking, often i would answer this question with traveling, helping family, buying a house, etc. but within that, i would really like to have work be an optional thing in my life. Not to have to go to work everyday, but to be able to find something i love to do and do it, without worry of money, without settling for a job that i'm unhappy with. To be able to stay home, be a mom, make my jewelry, focus on more photography, be able to appreciate the time i've got on my hands each day, instead of it flying by because i'm distracted with unhappiness. So what would i do if i had 5 million dollars? i would buy a house with rooms for a library, josh's editing suite and somewhere to make my jewelry, and keep the rest aside for whenever we need it. 


I don't want to live life saying "i wish i did that when i was younger." I want to cross everything off my bucket list.


I highly recommend reading his blog.
http://ejlister.blogspot.com/

Yesterday i took a sick day, which was definitely a good thing to be able to take the time and rest and process and everything. So there wasn't anything to fill in on, this morning however i woke up and we are starting a volunteer project with an organization called Natate, we split into 3 groups and i'm with the group working on gardening and then eventually building a small shelter. Today we were digging to plant raspberry bushes and to put in posts for a fence for them to grow on. We will be doing this tomorrow as well, and Monday and Tuesday. The catch? The project is on the extremely large and excessive stairs i had posted earlier...So we have to climb these each day!

We only work from 9am-1pm so after that its free time. Saturday we will be doing a project all together for just the one day. We leave for the jungle in one week, and leave for home in 13 days!

Oh and a little tidbit of information, people keep their dogs on their roof, to prevent roof jumping, also, where else are they going to put them?

Down Slope.

We're on our 15th day in mexico, 14th in San Cristobal.
This is the point in the trip where we're supposed to hit the down slope, and i'm hitting it hard.  The noise, the exhaust smell, the frustration with our family, the constant stomach aches and bathroom trips, the body aches, the heat, the cold, the food, the language barrier, just about everything is hitting me hard that i'm not happy with here. I don't mean to make the whole trip sound awful but its just everytime i have a good day, i have 3 bad ones. This trip is an amazing opportunity yadda yadda yadda, i miss my bed, our food, my apartment, josh, my slippers, my shower, EVERYTHING.Now there are things i can do to get out of this slope, and if my stomach keeps this up, i'm going to resort to staying home and trying to get better tomorrow and missing a day.

I also am frustrated because i need a change of scenery, we've been in this city for 2 weeks and i'm finished here, time to move onto somewhere else. Lets hope the stomach aches stop by then though.

Anyways, so today we went to Freeba, a Human Rights organization that is very well known around the world, we got some awesome information from them on the history of Chiapas and the Zapatistas. We had a break for lunch and i went to the market to buy some gifts for people back home and then we were meeting again at 5 for a different task. We met and went to meet an organization, Natate, who does partnerships for jobs with habitat for humanity and other organizations like that for volunteer opportunities. We're working with them for 5 days before we go to the jungle, and i'll update more on that when i have the details but for now i'm going to head to bed and hope i feel better.

miss you all. <3

Rewind

So i haven't blogged much because the last few days have been very minor in things we've been doing so i figured i would wait and put the time in on a free day, but then i forgot until now.

So today was a free day because it was a holiday, so i spent much of the day lounging, got my laundry done, did a tiny bit of portfolio and listened to some music to relax. After boredom kicked in Janet and i went to the market, i got some of my gift buying out of the way and we just wandered around for a while. We came home and then not long after being here Michelle and Caila came by so we all went to a cafe to hang around for a couple hours. Now we're home, i'm about to put on fresh PJ's and go to sleep.

Yesterday we went to a place that is like a provincal park kinda, but crappier. It is in the middle of the military base so it was a bit strange there, but there wasn't much to do. We went into a cave and did that walk, and that only took about 30-40 mins to go in and come back out. Then we sat and soaked up some sun for a while before Michelle and I went for horseback rides. Which sounds great, but the horses are so trained to go on one trail, at one speed, that it wasn't as fun as we thought, but it did make me want to ride more so thats something i hope to pick up more of in the near future. We decided to leave and came back to town and went for lunch, we had split up and 4 of us went to a little place that had fabulous food (and the banana shake things i like!) It was superbowl time and i watched some on my computer, then we went to a bar and saw the halftime show, at 8pm we went to a play called Palenque Rojo, which was quite good. The costumes reminded me of the lion king play.

 Saturday we went to a museum about the Lacondon (wrong spelling) jungle called Na Balom, which was really interesting but many of us were so tired it was hard to enjoy it. A couple of us went out for some food which was a lot of fun.

I think that catches me up, sorry there isn't more detail hopefully i do something detail worthy tomorrow!

catching up

will be done tomorrow as it is a holiday here in Mexico so i can catch up on blogging.

Congratulations to the Packers for a well deserved superbowl win!

Bucket List

Although i had a small ongoing one, i've been thinking of things to add to my bucket list and i actually had the time today to sit down and list them out. I figured i would share it here too.

• Learn to drive a motorcycle
• Go to alaska
• Learn the harmonica, violin, piano and guitar.
• Throw an opening pitch
• Hanglide
• Go Hot Air Ballooning
• learn to wakeboard & surf
• Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro & Go on a safari in the same day.
• Be a mom
• Learn to fly an airplane and a helicopter
• Go to Tahiti
• write and publish a book
• Change someone's life
• Lose 40 LBS.
• Sell my jewlery
• Celebrate a 50th anniversary
• Be fluent in another language
• Complete a marathon
• Go to a Patriots game
• Fly to another continent by myself.
• Visit every football/baseball field in the US
• See the aurora borealis
•  See every ocean
• See & Meet Kid Cudi
• Go to the super bowl, world series and stanley cup
• Be a director of photography on a project.
• Learn to fly fish
• Snowmobile across northern canada.
•  Go to mardi-gras
• Take up pottery
• Donate blood
• Make a documentary
• Own a lemur
• See seals, anteaters, walrus', whales, giraffes and elephants in the wild.
• Have a library in my home

Pursuit of Happiness

"I'ma do just what i want, lookin ahead no turnin' back. If i fall, if i die, know i lived it to the fullest. If i fall, if i die, know i lived and missed some bullets."

Today 2 classmates and i got an amazing opprotunity to shadow with Sergio Castro while he visited a school he was currently building and then we went alongside him to homes of people who needed his medical attention. People were for the most part very welcoming to having us there, which personally was a big surprise in such a delicate situation. We were able to visit a village outside of San Cristobal, close to Montesion. The village was very quite, except for the distant gunfire and what sounded like cannons and bazookas. Sergio explained to us that the military base (that was just down the street), would do training on fridays. There was no danger for us, but it was something that was hard to wrap your head around, in a quiet little village, then these overwhelming booms every few minutes. After doing some measurments and inspection, we left the village to go back to San Cristobal to visit houses for bandage changes. Sergio is really fabulous with all of his patients, he visits 14 a day, once their wounds are healing he may only go every other day to some but he goes every day otherwise. The main reasons people needed his assistance are for burns or ulcers. People often will have seizures and fall into fires causing the burns, or veins rupture in people with diabetes and the white blood cells eat away at the wound and cause it to get worse.

We also had an amazing experience while driving to homes, we were flagged down by the state police, asking for papers on the vehicle and to look in the trunk. So Sergio and the driver get out of the car to show them the trunk (and thats where sergio has his medical equipment) and they explain to the officer what Sergio does and then he begins treating the officer! he had a wound on his hand so what could have been a nervous experience, was a huge amount of learning instead! It was so cool, its really hard to put into words how amazed we were that this was happening right before our eyes!

Our class has had a bit of a "but what can we do?" attitude present, a sense of defeat if you will. After what i had seen today, i have restored faith in the fact that one person can make such a difference. We talk so much about the bad in the world, and its amazing to see a glimpse of good wherever we can get it. The more i'm here the more i'm thankful for my life and the cards i've been dealt, i look forward to the things i will be able to do in my life because it is in fact possible to do a world of good and only be one person.

Off day!

i didn't quite realize just how much i would LOVE having a day off. I've been sitting around in my PJ's doing portfolio, relaxing and listening to some much needed music from home. <3

For the rest of the day i plan on continuing to sit around, and maybe do some reading and possibly more portfolio.

Maybe i'll even take a nap :)

FRIDAY

I will be shadowing Sergio Castro with two fellow students! I am BEYOND thrilled! Once i have the details i will update everyone :)

Afternoon!

Sergio Castro is a brilliant and inspiring man. He took us through the museum showing us traditional dress for different cultures, talked about the languages they speak, their rituals, their beliefs, and everything in between. The contents were nothing short of beautiful and it was amazing to have a day full of people who are so passionate about helping other people. I am too tired to put up pictures tonight and since i have a free day tomorrow i'm going to upload them all then. I may have to have a little freakout about the music place nextdoor soon, they're driving me CRAZY. Anyways, i think thats all i can do for an update since i'm doing pictures tomorrow.

dinner soon, and then sleeeeeeeeeep.

There are still some beautiful people in the world

Which is a pretty good feeling when in the midst of all things around us. Today (so far) we have gone to an organization called La Casa De Las Floras. They're an organization that runs what we would consider kind of a "youth centre." They have a small library and a garden and a play room and an open courtyard, they do many different activites with the children to teach them about community and respect and they discourage violence and instead of expelling children because of violence, they work with them through the root of the violence. That idea is something i really admire, because its the same with relapse, if someone stumbles you help them up, not leave them down. The woman who we were speaking with had so much passion for her work it really gives you faith in humanity again, if only for a while. After we talked about the organization and their principles etc. we were given a tour, and then we sat down with some of the children there (all adolescent boys who shined shoes or sold things) and they asked us questions as we did with them, and it was nice to see their love for the place they were in and the bond they had with the employees. They strongly believe in empowerment which is ultimately the most important part of any organization working with people.

This morning was nothing short of interesting for everyone. The role of the Military in Mexico, specifically in Chiapas, is that of intimidation. They want to show the people that they are there, so they haven't been very present since Ruiz's funeral, but today while walking to our class "home base" i saw some military men standing outside of the door, luckily i realized i didn't have my passport so i calmy turned around and went home to get it (just a precaution), they didn't stop me when i came back but a few classmates did have to go through different checkpoints on their way (very safely i might add.) Although this may sound scary to everyone back home, the Military isn't interested in us, they are making their prescence known and if anything the last thing they want is to get media attention for harming a foreigner. It is something i'm not sure that one gets used to, i mean its still strange to walk beside a cop downtown toronto, even though you've done nothing wrong. I thought of omitting this so mom wouldn't know until i came home, but it is an important part of the culture shock i thought should be focused on. There are many controvercies surrounding the mexican military but we have been advised how to safely approach any possible situation, but as i said before, there is a very small chance they even care about us because we're not of any threat because we're light skinned and in a tourist area. We have discussed extensively what to do and what not to do and i think we're all prepared to do these things safely.

On a different note, yesterday in the afternoon we went to see "Save the Children." They presented a power point to us explaining their organization and their work. They work in San Cristobal De Las Casas in 11 different schools with children, in the last 36 years they have worked in 15 states (In Mexixo.) They run educaiton programs through the schools, they work individually and in groups to promote respect and education and educate children (and their families) on basic human rights. They work often with children from displaced families from issues surrounding 1994 to displacement because of religious reasons (which we have seen an incredible amount of here). They are specifically working against violence, promoting gender equality, and obviously focusing on human rights. They talk about survival, protection and participation, they focus on identity, emotions, cooperation etc. They also work on values, love, sharing, intuition, freedom and humility. Many children who are involved also work, whether it be shining shoes or selling in the market or cooking or even working in the fields, the focus of STC is to lessen the child's work load or diminsh it all together. 543 children that they work with are workers, 865 are not. Although these seem like small numbers, remember this is only 11 schools in such a large area. (14 is the legal working age, many of these kids are below that, which violates labor laws) Children who are working have a higher percentage of skin issues, eye problems, fevers, headaches and coughs vs non working children. STC goes in without a plan, and they base their approach around the children's needs and they find out which approaches would benefit the children and which ones wouldn't. They do many art therapy workshops, they provide scholarships for children they know are workers (to try and get them out of working) and on top of that, they also work with the parents to educate them on children's rights, anti violence awareness etc. And they use the same approach with the parents as they do with the kids. They work with kids in grade 3-6 if it is a large school, if its a smaller school they work with grades 1-6. They focus on that age because thats around the time they often will leave school in order to begin working, and they're highly vulnerable at that age range. 73-75% of these children are Indigenous vs Mestiso.

In Dec. 2010 a law was passed that is directed at Migrant Children, the government realizes that there is issues facing kids getting into school because they require a birth certificate. The law now states that you no longer need a birth certificate to enroll in school, this applies all the way up to highschool.

Now they sound fabulous, and the small amount of children they are helping is really a good thing, but they don't focus on street children in any way, and they only are present in 11 schools. (one of which is a residential school down the street from my house) So their help is very limited, it is a very "pidgeon-holed" form of help, compared to La Casas e Las Floras, who accepts anyone under the age of 18 (i'm not sure about anyone over that age?).

I'm also going to point out that this browser doesn't have spell check so i apologize for any errors within the abundance of writing i've been doing. I don't want to read over it too many times because i like it to be a first impression opinion kind of approach.

This afternoon we're going to meet an amazing man i have been thrilled to get the chance to meet (my one objective for this trip was to meet him and possibly see him do work). His name is Sergio Castro, and locals often call him "the saint of Chiapas," he was a veterinatian but has now come to Chiapas and does medical work (most often with burn victims). He does so without pain medication and although he isn't what we would call "doctor qualified" he does amazing work, and he also does it free of charge and he works on the donations of people to buy the medical equipment he needs. Many people who cannot pay him reward him with ingidenous clothes or objects that they make, so he has a museum of all of these things on display, so we get to go see that but along that, we're allowed to come watch him in the clinic!!! (my DREAM) so i'm overly excited for this and i really can't wait to tell everyone all about it! here is a video made about him to give you more insight :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZIUIg3bWac

i will update later tonight, love and miss you all! 15 days until we leave for the jungle! <3