The Half Marathon from Hell

Welp, I ran it. Not sure it was really a very healthy decision on my part but in hindsight I don't regret it. I went an entire day on Saturday with no water butt so I figured if I could chug two 500mL bottles of pedialyte then I could somehow rehydrate from a week's worth of stomach flu. Well, obviously that didn't happen.

The little demons in my intestines struck me again late in the evening on Saturday as we were heading to dinner. I had to lock myself in a little hostel bathroom for awhile and then clinched tight as I power-walked back to the hotel for some imodium relief. I decided just to lie down for the remainder of the evening and argue with myself about whether or not it was worth it to run since I had gotten all the way there, paid all that money (ha! Races here are under $20, no matter the distance), and had plenty of friends there for support. I fell asleep with visions of myself laying in a pool and soaking up all the water like a sponge. Unfortunately, this mental imagery served me no luck.

On race day, I woke up with no stomach aches and decided to give it a go. We walked to the start line, I cranked up my music, and we ran. The first 10K was great. In fact, if I could have kept up that pace I would have been well under my best time. However, at around kilometer 13 with temperatures ranging from 92-95 degrees, the water stations had completely run dry. For about 4 kilometers (but what felt like 10), there was literally no water. People were complaining all around me and their voices all started to run together as I think, for the first time in my life, I started to feel the effects of dehydration. I couldn't keep my mind focused on running, which is like the easiest thing on earth to do. All I could think about was not falling over, not running into anyone, and how much further I had to go before I could be finished with this terrible, stubborn idea of mine.

Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, the clouds parted and a beautiful woman in a red dress rushed to my side. She was holding a bottle of cherry pedialyte and comforting words of how many more kilometers I had left. Disoriented, I opened the bottle, threw the cap on the ground, and chugged about a third of it. Normally, artificial cherry flavoring is one of my least favorite things on earth but that day I had never tasted anything more delicious. The mixture of salts and sugars in the drink for babies with diarrhea gave me exactly what I needed to come back to reality and finish the race. It also cleared my vision and revealed that the beautiful woman in the red dress was my loving roommate, Aubrey. Somehow, that girl always knows how to appear out of thin air just when I need her.

I was able to run the rest of the race, though with quite a heavy amount of reluctance as the race was poorly marked and spectators were crowding the streets to the point of making the runners run in a single file line. I found Juan Pablo about 2 kilometeres from the finish and we encouraged one another to cross the line. We ate our apples and bananas at the finish line, chugged some powerade (powerade sponsored the race and the only powerade I saw the entire time was a 250mL bottle at the finish... thanks guys), and walked very slowly back to our hotel. After a delicious kids pizza from a nearby restaurant, we bought our bus tickets and returned home. Luckily, I had planned to take a personal day from school the following day and I don't think it could have come at a better time. I spent the day stretching, sleeping, writing my report cards, and packing up my room a bit.

What did I learn from this ridiculous Guatemalan adventure?
          1. Running 13 miles with the stomach flu leads to more discomfort than sitting at home with the stomach flu.
          2. It takes several days to truly rehydrate yourself after losing 6 pounds in 3 days of sickness
          3. Pedialyte really is a miracle substance
          4. Running the same race next year will feel like revenge on my body... and I'm really looking forward to it.
          5. I really, really like my friends.

This school week has already flown by as we took our MAP tests, skyped my dear friend Teresa's third grade class in Nebraska, and began our fourth quarter exams. After Friday, we will only have ten days of school left. Dear god. I'm still not sure how to feel as I am looking forward to this summer break more than any others because of the events I have planned but I just don't feel like my time should be up with my kids. There's so many things I still want to teach them, so many questions that will go unanswered. I'm thankful that I have enjoyed this year so much and learned more than in all the years I attended school, but I can't help but think about all the things I could have done differently. Being a first year teacher is terrifying because I feel like I experimented with everything all year and if I had known what to do in the first place, perhaps more learning would have occurred. I know we all have to start somewhere but dang, its scary.

Well, I'm sure I'll have some fun end of the year stories to tell in the upcoming weeks and hopefully I won't let myself get swamped to the point of not sharing them. Three weeks until summer officially begins; cheers to that :)

Sick and Personal Day

Well, today I stayed home from school sick for the first time ever. Yesterday, I woke up at about 4:15 in the morning with the immediate urge to use the bathroom. Needless to say, I spent the rest of my morning in that bathroom until I caught the 6:10 bus to school. After taking numerous medications to stop the constant need to use the bathroom (if you know me, you know that it is taking all my strength to not give you more details about these bathroom experiences. Here in Guatemala, we call it @$$ water if that gives you enough of a visual) I was able to put on a happy face and teach. Wednesdays are the days that my students only go to Spanish for one 30 minute period so I needed to stay composed more than most days. Luckily, we recently studied the digestive system so my students were very understanding when I told them I would need to go to the bathroom throughout the day (to which they replied, "You have diarrhea!"). Unfortunately, the diarrhea led to fever and the fever led to vomiting and by 8pm last night I wanted nothing more than to just lie down and die (drama queen!).

Luckily for me I have an incredibly body-conscious mother and a super compassionate roommate. My mom kept me informed throughout the day of what to eat and what not to eat, what medicines to take, and how much fluids I needed to consume. Aubrey made me tea, filled my water bottle, made some noodles, and rubbed my back while I cried on the bathroom floor. I slept the fever off today but the water butt hasn't stopped. Normally, I wouldn't be too concerned except for the fact that I am supposed to be running a half marathon on Sunday. I guess all I can do at this point is try to get better and see how I feel come race time.

What have I concluded from this bodily discomfort?
     1. Its okay to miss school sometimes. Risking getting sicker or, even worse, getting the kids sick, is no way to grow as a teacher. Luckily my boss was incredibly supportive and my coworkers helped with my kids all day while I rested at home.
     2. Guatemala, though beautiful and full of amazing people, has gotten me sick more in the last year than in the last 10 years of my life. The contaminated water, the polluted air, the poorly handled food-- my body just can't adjust. I heard recently that for every year you live in Guatemala (or a country similar in cleanliness (or lack there of)), you lose two years off your life expectancy. Hopefully the experiences I have here will make those four years at the end of my life unimportant.
     3. Though loneliness can creep up on me at the most random of times while living abroad, its really lucky I work at Inter. The people there are just so legit. My boss offered to teach my class so I could lay down in he nurses office yesterday, Leslie printed out my students' homework and language arts activity this morning, many friends texted me from school to see how I was feeling, and Aubrey played mother to me for two days now. Plus, the sweet, "I hope that you feel better, Mees Ana!" comments from my kids actually did make me feel better.

Hopefully I can get a full night's rest and be back to normal in the morning. I think I am going to the race which is in Cobán, Guatemala (about a 4 hour drive) no matter what and just decide the morning of if I feel like I can run the whole 21K without creating a trail of butt bile while I run (sorry, I really tried to keep it clean this entry). I'll keep you all updated and hope in the meantime you stay healthy and happy.

Funny Things Said by Small People, again...

Student: "Miss Hannah, what does lole mean?"

"Hm, I'm not sure that's a word. Can you say it in a sentence?"

Student: "I don't know what it means! My friend said me, 'lole' one time."

"Well when was your friend saying this to you?"

Student: "After I tell him a yoke! (joke)"

"OOOOOOOOOH! Do you mean, LOL? Hahaha! LOL are the first letters of the phrase 'laugh out loud,' like what you do when something is really funny."

Student: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I get it now."

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"SILENCE! You must do as I say!" (said by my tutee, directed at the students playing violins and distracting him from his work, in a creepy, quiet voice)

Me: "Whoa, calm down dude. You sound like Voldemort!"

"Voldemort! You should not say his name! You know, Voldemort his dad was name Voldemort. And his dad Voldemort, and his Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldemort, and the HIS dad was name Salchicha*, and then his dad name was Voldemort again. Its crazy!"

*Salchicha, in Spanish, means... sausage. Hilarious.

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"Okay who remembers the name of the form of government we have here in Guatemala and in the United States?"

Class: ...silence...

"Remember it has three branches? And it starts with the letter D?"

Student: "DISGUSTING!"

"Hm, well, not quite but good guess. De mock rah see!"

Class: "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

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After studying abundance and scarcity in economics, I had my students for homework make a list of 5 things in their house that were scarce and five things that were abundant. This was a list I received from one of the little guys...

Items that are ABUNDANT:
1. Rice
2. Toilet Paper
3. Clothes
4. Pencils
5. Love <--- WOW. Just, wow :)

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That's all for this edition of "Funny Things Said by Small People" but stay tuned. As the school year is coming to an end (tear), I will be trying to hold on to all these sweet moments and writing them down more frequently.

Dia de la Madre

Did you know that Mother's Day in Guatemala always falls on May 10th? That means this year it was on a Tuesday and instead of giving us only Tuesday off, they decided to give the mothers of our students a real treat by having their kids home from school for a four day weekend. Though I'm certain many mothers were pleased to have their little ones making them breakfast in bed and showering them in homemade "coupons" that they made in 3A, I'm not sure that anyone enjoyed the 4-day weekend as much as the teachers did.

Heading into the break, there were a number of opportunities for travel that were options for the long weekend. First choice was to go to El Salvador with Tom to the best surfing beach in Central America. I had a ton of fun there last time we went but after having a heart-to-heart with myself, I realized it would be better to go somewhere that I have yet to see. Another option was to go see my dear friend, Amy, who is currently teaching at an international school in Honduras. Though Guatemala and Honduras are neighbors on a map, the capital cities are actually about a 12 hour bus ride apart. So by the time I got there, we would hang out in her capital city, I would get to see her awesome teaching for only one day, then I would be on a bus back to Guate. The last option was to go to Belize with three other coworkers. It sounded like the perfect plan until we realized that Belize, though also connected to Guatemala, is a 13 hour trip. 

Being a Mayan Princess

So, Makenzie and I almost literally closed our eyes, pointed to a spot on the map, and set sail. We ended up in Copan, Honduras; a city a mere 12km from the boarder of Guatemala but worlds apart in culture. First, the town was just plain awesome. Totally safe to walk around (even at night), plenty of restaurants to try, and close to hundreds of things to do outdoors. We explored ancient Mayan Ruins, walked through a rescued bird sanctuary (I know, I know, I can hardly believe it myself!), explored the city by foot and tuk-tuk, and scaled a canyon via river and a number of other ridiculous things. We met some interesting folks along the way as well, including our anti-American (yet Honduran exploiting) tour guide, a couple from the Netherlands who had no idea it was unsafe for them to stand on a busy street corner with three bags of luggage at their feet (we ended up giving them a ride to their hostal; sweetest people ever!), and a hotel owner who told me my Spanish was good (sure knows how to flatter a girl, even if he was exaggerating).

During our waterfall tour, there were parts of the hike where we had to lasso a rope around a log and belay ourselves down a cravas, crawl through a 2.5 deep hole on your stomachs with rushing water and rocks all around us, and of course jump off numerous cliffs and get talked into performing a number of dives for the local kids playing in the water.

Mak D jumping off waterfalls and stuff

Hannah. So close to birds right now. Hannah.

Though the waterfall tour was super intense, it was not nearly as terrifying as the bird sanctuary. I tend to pride myself in not having many fears and willingly taking risks which is why the random fear of birds I have is so incredibly irrational. Though I believe it stemmed from both the Alfred Hitchcock movie, "The Birds" and the fact that my little brother use to torment me as a kid by letting his pet birds fly around the house when my mom was gone, it still doesn't excuse the fact that at age 23 I am still absolutely terrified when birds are flying anywhere within a 20ft radius of my body. With Makenzie's encouragement (and reminder that the birds were in cages (though I do NOT believe birds should ever be caged; they scare me but they are pretty dang cool they because can fly. Cage=no flight)), we were able to walk around and see a number of rescued birds from around the world with me only running in fear from the cages twice.

Where the sacrificial ball games were played... eek!

The Mayan Ruinas were some of the most interesting artifacts I have ever seen in all my travels. The immense size of the structures were enough to make us tired walking around them so thinking about how a civilization was able to hand-carve and build these structures was nothing short of mind-blowing. It was really surreal to think about how different life was for the people who lived in those communities, especially because so much of what we think we know is actually still pretty uncertain. Makenzie has been to another ruins site in Northern Guatemala that is apparently much larger than this one and has since motivated me to make a trek up there to compare the two.

In all, our Mother's Day weekend was spent exploring and discussing the amazingness of life. Though I was unable to call my own mother on the day we celebrate in the U.S., it was lucky that Mother's Day fell on Tuesday in Guatemala so I could call her when we got home. Cheers to all the moms out there.

From My Mom

Wow! Where do I begin in my attempt to recreate this wonderful experience visiting Hannah here in Guatemala.  It has been an amazing 16 days of fun,  adventure, travel, cultural learning, and... exhaustion!

I arrived on a Friday night, bleary-eyed from traveling hours with my contacts in and sitting in the middle seat of both flights, first from Seattle and then a connecting flight from Houston.  I was sure that the haze outside of the cab window was simply my contacts getting dry! NOT. Guatemala City is very polluted but I didn't really know that until a week later because early the next morning we headed out for the beach on the Pacific Ocean.  The "we" that I am referring to is Hannah, Hannah's roommate Aubrey, and Aubrey's parents, Randy and Cary. 

We spent 3 nights at the beach, sleeping in thatched-roofed huts, eating Guatemalan food,  swimming in the ocean and playing in the pool.  The outdoor showers were beautiful, and yes they were surrounded by walls!  I was very interested in how the plumbing worked - bamboo pipes disguising the PVC piping, rain water catchments, etc.  The mosquito netting was a plus, especially once we realized what sleeping without one did to dorm mate/roommate Diane!!

We love Paredon!

It was on to Lake Atitlan on day three.  OMG, the most beautiful lake - 1000 feet deep and surrounded by volcanoes. We rented a gorgeous house for very little money.  FYI always light the pilot light when using a gas oven; explosion heard around the lake!!   We boated to the villages around the lake where we got some Guatemalan goodies and saw previews for the Semana Santa processions. It was there that we did a little cliff jumping off of 10 meters!  Lousy form but what the heck! 

Cliff jump victory dance!

With our buddy, Darwin

The house with the flammable oven

After four nights there it was on to Antigua and the Earth Lodge for another couple of days.  The Semana Santa processions were absolutely amazing. Elaborate "carpets" of colored sawdust and stenciled shapes of colorful sand.  The processions are throughout the Holy Week (Semana Santa) and represent the Last Supper and Crucifixion. We then had lunch at a restaurant owned by the mother of one of Hannah's students.  She later invited us to dinner at her house in Guatemala City (which was lovely!). Later we trekked up and down from the Earth Lodge (which uses proceeds to support a local village school) to Antigua in the back of a pickup truck!  The curvy, eroded roadway was a bit hairy!

"Carpet" this time made with plants

Antigua was once the capital of Guatemala but it had experienced too many earthquakes.  I didn't feel any while we were there but a slight volcanic eruption could be seen! I really, really enjoyed walking around the beautiful city, taking in the sights and the diverse culture.

Group shot at the Earthlodge

We headed back to Guatemala City on Easter Sunday.  Hannah had Monday off so we hung out at her apartment. Tuesday found us heading to her school at 6:10 am via school bus.  Her students were very excited to meet their teacher's mother.  I was very excited too!! They gathered around me to ask me questions such as, "who is your favorite soccer team" and "what is your favorite color", etc.  I was also asked if I liked to ride my bike. That question pertained to the scars on my knees! 

Miss I Lean

At lunch, I was asked if I painted my eyes blue (eye lids) - yikes!! That had to do with the prominent blood vessel above my left eye! Dang that thin Scandinavian skin. I went to school every day with Hannah and the kids were amazing.  But so was their teacher!  I want to be a 3rd-grader in Miss Hannah's class! Hannah has those kids eager to learn every moment of the day.  On Friday they got to learn about diarrhea from me, the GI nurse. I was asked some very good questions!  Hopefully, they will try to maintain good hand hygiene!   I was sad to say good-bye to them on Friday, but a couple of the kids told me that I was their favorite guest (sorry about that Mike!) I really hope to go back to see them next year.

Saturday, Hannah and I toured the real, unpolluted part of Guatemala City with her friend Juan Pablo.  He gave us history of the beautiful city and the country of Guatemala as we walked. Saturday evening we headed up to Pacaya.  You could still feel the heat from the 2010 eruption.  Roasting marshmallows over the ground was unreal!

At the Train Station Museum

A top Volcan Pacaya on a cloudy evening

Got home in time to get packed.  I was very sad to say "good-bye" to Hannah.  I kept thinking about how proud her father would have been - her sense of adventure and willingness to take risks are his legacy! Thank you Hannah for a trip of a lifetime!

Food for Thought

"Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

-Martin Luther King Jr.

I-Lean

Recently I read up on the updates that Blogger has released for the 2011 year. Somewhere in my reading, I found some tips for how to keep readers reading. It mentioned to make your posts short, funny and full of pictures. So I am going to try to tell you about the less detailed, hysterical events that happened throughout the time with my mom and then when the internet decides to cooperate I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story. My mom got here two weeks ago today and we have since been swimming in the Pacific Ocean, boating in Lake Atitlan, strolling through the streets of Antigua, and playing in 3A. Here are a few highlights from the Semana Santa vacation:

1. The Beach: Aubrey, her parents, my mom and myself took a shuttle to Antigua, then another one to the beach, got there and took some pretty incredible naps. Aubrey found a dead crab, Tom roasted cashews over an open fire, my mom hurt her knee while playing in the waves, and we were all sung to sleep with the sounds of torrential rain. Tom's friends from home, Diane and Tyler, were visiting and they were certainly delightful people. We tried our best to convince Diane to accompany us to the lake but alas, she needed to continue her travels with her husband.

Family!

The view from our dock

2. The Lake: We rented a house at the lake and it turned out to be a wonderful idea. Despite the small oven explosion (who has ovens with pilot lights anymore?), a few instances of scorpions in the house, and a couple nights of downpour, we all thoroughly enjoyed our time at the lake. We went to a village called San Marcos and met a 12-year-old named Darwin who led us to a 10m platform in the middle of the rock surrounding the lake and Darwin, Aubrey's dad, my mom and myself all jumped off. That was probably the coolest part of the trip, besides when we nearly burnt the house down.

Riding in the back of pickup trucks of course

My mom jumping off stuff

3. Antigua: After all the talk we heard about the processions in Antigua, we were pretty much all chomping at the bit to see them with our own eyes. They did not disappoint. There were thousands of people that lined the streets of Antigua to see hundreds of faithful followers carry the 40 foot processions throughout the city, all while walking on "carpets" made of painted sawdust. It was unreal. The somberness of the scenes that walked by made even the busiest of cities seem quieter than a hybrid car. Watching the processions took up most of our Antigua time but we still managed to go for a hike, take a trip to the market, eat at some amazing restaurants, and spend some quality time at the Earthlodge (a gold star to our parents for enjoying (or at least pretending to enjoy!) walking through the woods to get to a cabin with three beds and no outdoor lighting).

Alfombra de aserrín

Earthlodge view 

4. School: Miss Eileen was a hit. Are you surprised? Of course not. She taught a lesson about digestion and how to keep your system running smoothly (sparked by this question from a kiddo, "Why do I sometimes have diarrhea?"), read magazines about puppies with a bunch of giggly girls, helped students figure out how to put data into graph form, helped me organize the binder of copies I had stupidly left unorganized all school year, and brought my students a ton of new and exciting books to read. It was super nice to have her with me at school and it was also super weird. My mom had never seen me teach before so I thought I would have been a little nervous but luckily she seemed to like what was going on in my classroom and helped boost my confidence with some kind words. A mother of one of my students even came to school on Friday to bring a cake and gifts to wish my mom farewell. She told us that her son came home everyday last week telling his parents new things about Miss Eileen. "Mom, she is so smart! She help me with all the answers!" and "Mom, Miss Eileen reads all the time! She reads more than any person I ever see!" ;)

Q & A

"Rock Chalk Jayhawks!"

5. Last day: Today was my mom's last day in Guatemala and we made sure we filled it to the extreme. My dear friend Juan Pablo kindly offered to take my mom on a tour of Guatemala City since so many visitors have such a negative view of the capital. We went to the old train station museum, walked around the Central Plaza in the central zone in the city, went to the first all-vegetarian restaurant in all of Guatemala, and saw some local artist's exhibits. After a quick trip to the Guatemalan version of "Bed, Bath and Beyond" to get me a new bedspread, we went home, changed our clothes, packed a bag, and went to climb Volcan Pacaya with two friends from school, Mike and Andrea. Pacaya, if you recall, was the volcano that erupted last spring. It was quite the adventure walking on ash-like ground, roasting marshmallows over an open flame, and trying to shoo away the stray dogs that followed us all the way up probably because they also wanted a volcano-roasted marshmallow. We got home before 9, packed a bit, watched an episode of House, and went to sleep.

Awkward photo at the old train station museum

Just hanging out on a Volcano, nbd

Miss Eileen is on her way back to the good ol' USA as I type and though I am feeling incredibly lonely and missing her dearly, I am so thankful she took the time to explore Guatemala (oh, and come visit me too, I guess). I was so impressed with her willingness to try new things, her flexibility when things didn't go according to plan, and her new found love for a new region of the world. I wish we could have done more things but I am certain she will come back next year, we just need to figure out when. My mom is writing her own take on her experience here and when it is complete I will publish it too. It may have some of the same events but I am looking forward to seeing her perspective.


Thanks, Mom... for everything.