Day One and More

So far our trip is off to a great start! In the past two days we have had the chance to get settled into our house and start working with Common Hope. Yesterday, we spent most of the morning sleeping, which was much needed after such a long day of traveling. We ventured out into the town and bought breakfast and coffee at what is sure to be our new favorite spot, Café Barista. Our whole group then decided to explore the outdoor market a few blocks from our house, which turned out to be a very interesting experience. The market was a mix of traditional Guatemalan fabrics, pirated DVDs, cheap cosmetic products, and an assortment of cords and chargers with no indication of a corresponding electronic device. The boys in our group enjoyed bargaining for cowboy hats and tank tops with the symbol of a Guatemalan beer emblazoned on the front. At one point we were exiting a small stall when we noticed two individuals walking around with puppies for sale.  Of course we all stopped to pet and hold them, unware of our surroundings.  After we returned the puppies to the vendors, Caroline noticed a large slash in the side of her cross-body purse.

Luckily, nothing had fallen out or been stolen, but this was definitely a wake-up call. We realized that by just being loud Americans, we draw more attention to ourselves than we realize. It's impossible to say whether the incident occurred while we were distracted by the puppies, or at any other point during our time in the market, but from now on we are going to be much more aware of our surroundings. 

This morning we woke up at 6:00 am to get breakfast from the Bagel Barn, a cute coffee shop with delicious bagels and breakfast sandwiches, before being picked up and taken to the Common Hope main site to help hand out school supplies to families with kids going back to school. In Guatemala, the school year ends in early October and returns in January.  For a little bit of background, Common Hope is a non-profit organization that works with Guatemalan families to improve healthcare, education, and housing.  Families that are part of the Common Hope organization receive free healthcare at the Common Hope clinic and school supplies at the beginning of each school year that the students then take with them to the public schools they attend. The employees at Common Hope put together individual bags of supplies for each child, which we helped distribute this morning.  

It was a great time to begin practicing our Spanish and get to know the organization that we will be working with for the month.  After we finished there, we were picked up again to make a grocery shopping trip to Walmart in Guatemala City, about an hour away from Antigua. Before we left, we stopped at a Central American-based fast food joint called Pollo Campero. It is similar to a KFC, but because we had a hard time reading the menu we asked our driver for advice.  Even with his help we were surprised by our order: what we thought were going to be chicken nuggets, actually turned out to be barbeque chicken wings! 

They were delicious, but definitely not what we were expecting.  After finishing our meal, we made the trip to Walmart to stock up on food - it will be interesting to find out who can cook in the house! Check back tomorrow to hear about our second day of work!