Volcanoes, School Clean-up and My Great-Great Uncle.

We started our work up in Vuelta Grande last week, but I didn't think you would want me to write about it in the last blog because then it'd just get boring, or more boring. Right now our main project is to fix up two classrooms before school starts in January. The classrooms belong to two teachers named Telma and Maribel who recently graduated from a teacher training program. They were participants of our Young Dreamer program and the first girls in their village to graduate ever. We've been painting their classrooms for the past two weeks and now it's a bright environment where the kids will be happy going to school. I know just painting some classrooms doesn't seem like much but it really makes a difference for the kids. Imagine walking in a class where the paint is peeling off and even parts of the wall are falling off, or walking in a class that's bright green with cool murals. Which one would you prefer? Which one would you like to learn in? I also patched up some holes in the roof because when it rained water was leaking through. The other project is a girls empowerment program. Every Tuesday the girls from Vuelta Grande and El Hato meet up with the volunteer girls for a workshop and meeting. The girls are going to be learning leadership skills, discussing young women's issues, and planning community service projects (which us boys will participate in too.) I don't know too much about it but I know that it's a very important project where these girls will learn to be stronger and to stand up for themselves. We've already done double the amount of work that we could have done in the week that we usually come for the short trips, and I can't even imagine what we can do in three months.

On Saturday we hiked up a volcano! This one, Pacaya, wasn't the volcano that had just erupted, but it was active. It was a volcano closer to the capital so like an hour and a half drive from where we were staying. You can't see it from Antigua. When we got there my dad bought a hiking stick and we immediately started hiking up the mountain. The hike took a little more than an hour but our guide was stopping to show us things and teach us about plants. When we got to a peak of the volcano, we stopped to have lunch. The view from the volcano was amazing. You could see Guatemala City on one side, mountains on another, a big lake called Amatitlan and you could also see three volcanoes, Fuego, Agua and Acatenango. The wind was so strong up there that it sometimes stung your legs. If I would have taken my hand off my hat it would have flown off never to be seen again, by us at least. We had lunch sitting on a bunch of dry lava from the eruption in 2014. After lunch we had an awesome surprise. We got to roast marshmallows underground because the lava was still so hot and close to the surface! Another big check on my bucket list! This reminded me that I'm lucky to have this trip, to do so many cool things. Who'd ever imagine that I would roast marshmallows in a crack on a volcano? Not me that's for sure. The way back down I spent my time looking for rocks and I actually found some quartz that, because of the eruption, came up from the ground. I had an awesome time at the volcano and once again I got that cool sensation like I was one with nature.

We had moved into a house already in a town called San Luis Pueblo Nuevo, 20 minutes from Antigua, but due to an unfortunate event we had to move out. While we were looking for a new house we stayed in the house of my great-great uncle and great-great aunt. Every time we come we always visit them and this time we can visit them a lot more than once. I also have cousins there. Well, second cousins and third cousins and fourth cousins, we even have a sixth cousin. We played a lot with the kids and I liked it because we hadn’t played with cousins for more than three months. My great-great aunt is super nice and always wants us to be happy and healthy. She always cooks for us no matter what we say and she makes our beds, she does a ton and it’s really sweet. My great-great uncle is also super nice, but he’s also pretty funny. It was really cool hanging out with people who are distantly related to us. One time he was cleaning beans, separating the bad ones from the good ones and I came and helped him. I was having trouble because when I was sorting them I kept dropping them and he just laughed and showed me how to do it better. It was cool, and it felt a little amazing to me, I was sitting next to my great-great uncle cleaning beans, I don’t know if any of you have great-great uncles but you probably haven’t cleaned beans with him, so it was pretty special. I really liked hanging out with my family and I’m kind of glad that we had to leave our house since we could stay at their house for a few days.