Diary.

Wednesday  29/08  Flew from Copenhagen over London to Miami. Stayed over at a hotel.

Thursday 30/08  From Miami to Guatemala city. Received by Carrie our coordinator and Oscar our driver. Went to Antigua to stay for one night at a Hotel.

Friday 31/08. Drove to Xela (4 hours). Checked in at a hotel. In the evening we went to a graduation dinner for the previous students at the school.

Saturday 01/09  Excursion with public transport to Conceptión Chiriquichapa. We visited an old  Maya holy ground where people during the civil war were executed. Visited a school for midwives where they still use old Indian methods with herbs. The midwives are also used as health care nurses. They were under supervision of a physician.

Sunday 02/09. Political rallies at Plaza Central. President election in a week. Marimba orchestra with Maya women’s dance. Moved from the hotel first to the school. Later on we were picked up by our families. I went to stay with Iris Escobar  Callejon A 7B – 25   Zona 3  (7761 5485).

Monday 03/09 Presentations during the morning. The school started in the afternoon. My real teacher Ana came first on Tuesday. Class from 2 – 7 pm.

Wednesday 05/09 In the morning  hike to Vahos natural steam bath.

Thursday 06/09 Trip to Zunil with chicken bus. Visiting San Simon Temple, the church and a women’s collective weaving and selling their production.

Friday 07/09 Our own graduation. Our group performed a danish song, partly translated into Spanish.

Saturday 08/09 Whole day trip to Takalic Abaj Maya ruins down in the lowland where it was very hot.

Sunday 09/09 Transfer to the Mountain school in the neighbourhood of Colomba. In the evening introduction to the new school by Tim, the local leader.

Monday 10/09. Starting the school with my new teacher Abby. The school is situated in a small village Fatima and the nearest city is Colomba half an hour away (on the back of a pick-up). We live in the school, but we eat all meals at families in the village. I am eating at Piedad, who are married to Alfredo and have the daughter Adelaida with two small children Eveline and Liliana.

Wednesday 12/09. Community evening. All the children at the local school in Fatima was invited to make woodwork with sticks from ice lollies and glue. We were invited to help the children.

Thursday 13/09. We arranged an excursion with Oscar to a crater lake in the neighbourhood. Climbing up with Oscars car proved to be very dramatic. The dust road were wet and slippery and the car were close to slide backwards. We had to block the wheels with stones. In the end we had the car towed by a 4wd pickup. The wire broke twice, but in the end we came up.

We had to walk from the parking lot  to the edge of the crater (1 hr). From there there were steps  down to the lake. There was a nice beach, but it was forbidden to take a bath. The lake is sacred to the Mayas. We walked the path around the lake.

Saturday 15/09. Whole day trip with Oscar to Tilapa at the border of the pacific ocean. It was very hot, and the beach was dangerous with strong undercurrents. Ketty had difficulties, but was saved by one of the lifeguards. Later on after a magnificent dinner we sailed along the canal and made two stops in the mangrove.

Sunday 16/09. Departure from the Mountain School and Piedad. Oscar drove us to Granados, and from there we went by pick-up to the coffee plantation Nueva Alianza. We met a New Zealand American couple living on the plantation, who should take care of the danish group.

Monday 17/09. Under the supervision of Osvaldo, the plantation administrator we sorted coffee beans in a couple of hours.

Tuesday 18/09. We collected macadamie nuts in a couple of hours supervised by one of the plantation workers.

Wednesday 19/09. We picked coffee in three hours under the supervision of the same worker. After this morning I felt that I had been working. Every day in the afternoon it rained, and we could not work outdoors.

Thursday 20/09. We were helping in the school. In the library we were reading books for each other from children’s books. Later we moved to the class room where we under the supervision of the teacher distributed our gifts, books and flags.

Friday 21/09. We were sent out to pick garbage from the road. The children from the school were helping us. Most of the garbage was plastic. We should have picked behind the houses, where there was much more than on the road.

Sunday 23/09. Left Nueva Alianza the same way on the back of a pick-up. The American NZ couple left together with us. In Granados we met Oscar who drove us to Panajachel. We had dinner at a restaurant with view over the lake to the twin volcanoes Toliman and Atitlan.

Monday 24/09. We hired a boat and sailed across the lake to Santiago. Stayed for a couple of hours in the city and returned to Panajachel this time sailing slowly along the coastline. We visited a natural reserve in the outskirts of Panajachel. Late in the day we returned to Antigua to the same hotel.

Tuesday 25/09. I was guiding the group around Antigua visiting Santa Clara Convent with the beautiful ruin garden. Later we saw the San Francisco church with Hermano Pedros tomb. We should have visited the Capuchino monastery but they asked 30Q again and we decided it was too expensive. The farewell dinner was in the evening.

Wednesday 26/09. Pia and I went back to Denmark. The rest of the group went to Tikal first and then to Cuba. Return