Casa Guatemala 2007

Hola Todos
This week has been extremely frustrating in many ways, but i am going to talk about the good stuff first. Let me see. First of all i am so happy it is wednesday and i get to come back to the hotel and have a shower and dance and have fun!!! Also I have found my favourite kidlet. Her name is Andrea. She is 6 years old and sooo incredibly sweet. She tucked me into bed the other day. I am also going to start teaching Gym classes wich is going to be awesome. I can´t think of any more good, wich kind of sucks. Now on to the mild rant. Our boss, who we call jeffe (boss in spanish) has been such a moron this week. We are in final steps of building the clinic. We installed ceiling all last week, and this week we have been sanding and varnishing the floor. Stupid Jeffe comes in and is pushing us to finish it by tomorrow for when angie, the director, comes for the kids birthdays. The workers have been working overtime, and doing a crappy job. They sanded the floor last night and it looks like asolute crap. Then jeffe varnished it so sloppily and e cant fix it with a second coat. I dont know maybe I have just been really tired and frustrated, but it is hard when our name is on thsi project and we cant even spend the time to make it look good. Now on to swollen fingers... There isnt much to say other than that i am been using the electric sander, that is probably 20 years old and vibrates like crazy, for 3 days now, and my fingers are so swollen i cannot make a fist. On the other hand I ahve really eally enjoyed getting back into the woodworking side of my life. I think i forgot just how much I loved it. I am also good at it. I have become the power tool queen and can operate some of the tools better than some of the volunteers.Angie who is the director of the orphanage, is coming up to teh childrens village from the head offices in Guatemala City. It is going to be an exciting time for two reasons. One it is a big party to celebrate the birthdays f the kids that month. And two, we get to sit down and talk to her about finances. We are going to create a long term plan as to where all the money we have fundraised is going and all that jazz. It will be a good conversation and will hopefully give us a peace of mind. Hope all is well on the homefront

Carlotta

Soo today is wendesday, otherwise known as hump day due to the radio. An we sure are thankful for it. Wendesday is the day that volunteers get to go into Town for dinner and the to hang out at the Hotel Backpackers for the evening. It is a sweet time and a good way to rejuvinate for the rest of the work week. We came in topday and got to have showers wich was so nice bcause I was covered from head to toe in sawdust. For this week we have been working on finishing the bathrooms (wich we did) and painting them. We also have done alot of ceiling installation, which is really hard work. It is hard enough to bang a billion nails into a wall but into a ceiling is impossible. The guys we work with are freaking hilarious, though i can only understand half of what the say. I had my first little bout of sickness today, which we belive was caused by some sketchily cooked carrots yesterday. I got over it and continued to work for the rest of the day. This weekend coming up is cathrines birthday, so we are going to go away for teh weekend. It will be glorious. I guess you will hear about it when I get back. Anywhoo everyone else is done and we are about to go out for dinner, so I guess I should go. i MISS HOME, BUT AM DOING GREAT

Love Char

Hey everyone

So i have just finished my first work week at Casa Guatemala. It was really awesome, but I have to admit I am a wee bit homesick. I actually considered giving up and coming home way early, but i thought I should stick it out. Anywhoo we have worked for only three days and are utterly exhausted. The first day we only painted but we painted in a small enclosed room for 4 hours. Not only were we painting in the small room, where the paint got to our head and we made silly songs, but we were painting planks of wood that would become the ceiling. It was so incredibly monotonous, but the other girls were with me wich made it bearable. The next day Cat and I got to start putting up the boards and make a small part of the ceiling. It was really hard to hammer the nails upwards, and also we had to hand saw all the peices. Today was my favourite work day. Most of the girls were put on the task of putting in the walls to the bathroom in the medical clinic. We also finally got electricity routed to the clinic so we didnt need to hand saw anymore; thank god! it was really hard work, but time went by really fast. we are working with two really funny guys named Hector and Ermando. there is quite a big language barrier, but they are funny. When we were painting they were working underneath the clinica and we could hear them making fun of us talking andgigling in really high pitched voices. It was hilarious.

As for the Casa, the kids are really cute. There is one girl Diana that came and tucked ME into bed last night because she knew i was tired. She is six years old, but can already speak a little english. The other kids are great also. We are sleeping in the same building as the girls, which kinda sucks becasue they get up at 4 in the morning. It isnt so bad though becasue breakfast is at 6 and we start work by 7. The other hard part at being at the orphanage is that we have some kinds of bugs, we think gnats, that live in out beds with us. They dnt bite, but they hop around all night which gets kinda annoying. Also the electricity goes off at 8:30 so everything after that is by candelight... ARGH. But other than that it is great. There are monkeys that live around the orphanage, which sound like rabid dogs, it was kinda scary the first night. We saw some today and one peed on kaya! It was funny.

Another thing i have found quite odd is how much Casa G reminds me of Keats. The kids line up for breakfast every meal and are let in, and the whole place is run kind of like a summer camp. There is a little tienda that is like the mariners in, and the kids live in bunk beds and have one volunteer that works with them. The whole atmosphere of the place is much like keats.

I have also managed not to get sick yet...YAY

Miss home lots,
Char