My Summer in Guatemala : Arriving in Solola...Meeting my final Homestay

It was a long day and night yesterday with no time to blog that is why this is coming up a day late. But there is a lot to blog about, not going to lie it is overwhelming me how much I have to report.
We left Antigua and our homes at 8am after I had a breakfast of mango and bananas (they get me) and were off to Solola. We stopped at the post office and I was successfully able to get my package...thanks mom! Then we drove two hours to a dock where we boarded a boat to arrive at San Juan, the place we are living for the next 5 days. The boat ride was about an hour and it was a beautiful and enjoyable ride. We got some great pics!

We're on a boat!

The boys

Nicole Katie and Varun killing it

Two volcanoes behind us

So many pictures

Selfie with the volcano

Such a pretty volcano across the lake!

We went straight to Lema, a weaving store and the home of Rosa, the owner, who cooked us a lunch of Pork, vegetables, and rice. Lema is the first weaving store with natural dyes to open in the area. The past few years other students have helped her transform her store and her products to make a beautiful store. But recently, many other weaving cooperatives have opened and presented a lot of competition for business. We are trying to help Lema bring in more foot traffic.
Also, Rosa is one of the homestay moms. The boys are staying in her house so they basically live in the place where we are going to be working this week.

Some of the bags Rosa has handwoven and is selling in the store

Our lunch....

After lunch we were taken to our new home stays! This time we are each in partners and I am living in the same home as Raylin. We were walked about a block away from Lema to our home. We were greeted by our mom Micaila and the cook who is 17 named Rosa. We were shown our room which we were sharing and was pretty big! We were shown around the house which was comparatively the nicest house I have stayed in yet. There was a hot shower with my first sink since I have been here. There is a large living room with a television, three bedrooms, a kitchen, and our room was not connected to the house but kind of like a guest room.

Raylin and my room!

Such a big room!

As we were settling in and unpacking Rosa came into my room to talk to me and ask if everything was okay. She then told me she has been living in this house because she is an orphan- her dad died and her mom abandoned her at the age of 16 for a man. She has not been going to school because she works for this family and cooks their meals three times a day. But she told me she is really happy right now and feels a part of this family. I told her for the next week we are going to be sisters and she invited me to come dancing at the festival tonight.

The kids got home and we got to meet the whole fam. The family has two kids Quelinda, 8 year old girl, and Francisco, 3 year old boy. Francisco cannot speak any Spanish really at all. He will not go to school until he is 5 and the mom has a lot of trouble helping him learn Spanish. He communicates with his family in their indigenous language but he is going to have a hard time adapting and learning when he eventually goes to school. Quelinda is adorable but was a little shy at first.

Francisco! The only photo I got with his eyes open

Raylin playing with the kids!

Playing with the balloon

So cute!

This week in San Juan is the festival celebrating San Juan baptista. It is the biggest celebration of this town and is for a full week. The day we got there was the biggest day of the festival! So after meeting the kids we went to explore the carnival. It was definitely a scene, packed with people selling all sorts of things! There was even a ferris wheel that Whitney rode but was powered by a man riding a bicycle.

The festival packed with people!

Selling so many interesting food

We hung out in a park for a while

Before going home we went to Nicole and Whitneys home and met her family!

We then returned home for dinner of chicken vegetables and rice which was delicious. Our mom is really great in the fact that at every meal she asks what we want for the next weal and makes sure we are enjoying the food she gives us. We made sure she knew we wanted fruit for breakfast the next day. After dinner we took our sister Quelinda to go dancing! There was a dj blasting music and hundreds of people cramped in a large room dancing under disco lights and half American half Spanish pop music. It was so much fun! We brought Quelinda back and then raged at the party for the night! It was the best welcome to San Juan night we could have asked for.