_ So it’s official, the unthinkable has happened.  Amy totally got malaria.  We know, it’s ridiculous.  Our last week at language school, Amy came down with a high fever and chills that turned into body tremors.  Our host mom, who has been absolutely amazing, insisted that Amy should go see her doctor.  Amy definitely was reluctant, thinking it was probably just some quick bug and she’d be fine in the morning.  But, when Mama talks, you gotta listen, so we all made our way to the doc.  The doctor asked where we were about 15 days ago.  Hm….let us think.  We were on a day trip to a nearby town called Nueva Almanecer, which happened to be located in the state of San Marcos, which is relatively close to Mexico.  When we were there, we noticed a few mosquitos, even though it’s the dry season, and put on bug repellent.  However, one little lady (only females bite), made her way up Amy’s pants to an unprotected area of skin.  It seems one little bite was just enough!  So the doctor said, “Yo creo que tu tienes malaria.”  Eek!  She called a lab tech right over, took a blood sample and within 20 minutes, we had a “positivo” diagnosis.  Holy crap.  AND what’s better, is that the strain Amy has is common in Chiapus, Mexico, which we actually had malaria meds for, but we left them in New Mexico because we weren’t going to Mexico anymore.  Guess we were close enough!  So, Rob had to go all over town trying to find the medication that Amy needed.  He and our host mom were absolutely incredible and truly helped save my life!   What made matters worse, was that I think my body was freaking out over the malaria,  so some other fun bugs sneaked in.  I also was diagnosed with strep throat and an ear infection.  Talk about an adventure!  So, I know that many of you are probably very worried upon hearing this, but I want to assure you that I have received the best care possible and am feeling pretty much back to normal.  I am one lucky lady to have a hubby like Rob to take care of me! 

So, our last week of Spanish classes was not as productive as the first three, for obvious reasons, but we were very thankful that we stayed in Xela the extra week and Amy feel ill while we were there.  It would have been quite a challenge to receive the appropriate care while traveling around, not to mention that we would have been less likely to go to a doctor. 

Some people have suggested that I may have gotten malaria in India, and it just has remained dormant until now.  I guess we will never know, however, the strain in India typically is chlorophil resistant, in which case, the medication Amy has been taking would not have worked, and she wouldn’t have gotten better.  We think that she did get it here, but we’ll never know for sure!

With Amy on the mend, we left Xela and headed out to Flores in the northern part of the state in order to visit the Mayan ruins of Tikal.  We found this really hippy hostel in Flores and settled right in.  The town is very small and quiet, right on the water with a tropical feel.  This was actually the perfect place to chill for a while.  Rob got a bout of food poisoning right when we arrived, so we both spent about two days just laying around the hostel, mending our broken bodies.  Which was fine, because it was raining most of the day. We now feel healed, relaxed, and ready for the next adventure - Tikal.  This place is one of the most amazing sites we’ve ever seen.  Check out the pictures!

After a few days in Flores, we headed back to Guatemala City, then to the Xela area for one more week of Spanish school.  This time, we’re at their campus in a nearby mountain town.  It was a much different experience than our first language school.  We got a little taste of the rural life.  Unfortunately, we can’t believe it, but our Guatemala time has run out.  As always, it was never enough time, but I definitely think we’ll be back.  Now, onto our last big adventure – Peru!

_ So here’s a few pics from our trip to the Fuentes Georginas hot springs and the Chicabal lagoon with our friends from school, courtesy of Paula.  She’s an amazing photographer!

Also, here’s some pics from our official graduation from Spanish school.  We got certificates and everything!  Man, did we learn a lot!  Not just the language, but also so much about Guatemala’s history, economy, politics…learning what we have as really opened our eyes.  Unfortunately, with this new information, we realized just how complicated the situation in Guatemala is, and not just them, but the issues that all countries face in regards to governing people, deciding what is fair and unfair for the people, creating relationships with other nations, balancing government and business, and globalizing.  It seems all the systems are flawed and the solutions aren’t simple, because the causes are so convoluted. 

In any case, it always seems to come down to education.  Knowledge is the key.  Keep learning and hearing both sides of the story.  The more you think someone is incorrect, the more you should learn about their perspective.  It’s a good challenge!

For example, it’s interesting to learn a few details about the armed conflict (1960 – 1996) in Guatemala and The United States’ role in it.  It’s easier to understand now why people want to protest things like free-trade, globalization, and The School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.  We realized how embarrassingly little we knew (and still don’t know) about recent world history, especially considering the massive role our own country has played in shaping dozens of countries around the world.

It seems that our biggest goal as members of the human race, regardless of country of birth, religion, or other factors that seem to make people different from one another, is that we should strive to refrain from de-humanizing any other group of people, or making people prove their worthiness to be on this planet, or finding “others” to blame our problems on.  We all talk about “love” and how important it is.  I think we get this in theory, but have a difficult time putting it into practice.  We can choose to either be a person of fear, or a person of love and compassion.  We’ve been reflecting upon what we’ve seen and heard in the countries we’ve visited and how it relates to our own country, and over and over we keep seeing these patterns of one group being blamed for all the problems, which in turn, leads to more problems.  It’s happening now in the US, but we have a range of groups to choose from (illegal immigrants, homosexuals, muslims, etc.).  If we have learned anything from history, it’s that choosing a group to attack always ends up being something we’ll apologize for later (i.e. Native Americans, African Americans, Women, Japanese Americans (during WWII in the US)…). 

I know it’s a little bit heavy, but it’s important stuff to think about.  It’s hard to avoid when it’s staring you in the face.

 After three weeks of Spanish school, we are amazed at how much we have learned, but we’re also realizing how much MORE we need to learn in order to communicate in Spanish.  So, we have decided to extend our studies another week, which means we are shortening our time exploring Guatemala.  In order to still fit in the places on our “must see” list, we took a weekend trip to Lake Atitlan.  My, oh my.  Guatemala has some incredible places!  We stayed in the largest lake city, Panajachel and took boat rides across the lake to visit the other towns.  It was definitely worth the effort getting there!

We decided to be adventurous and take a “chicken bus” to Panajachel.  Chicken buses are actually old American school buses and somehow arrived in Guatemala and have been colorfully decorated.  Each bus has several religious sayings and blasts American pop music.  I keep forgetting to take pictures of them!  I promise I'll get one soon and post it.  These buses have a bad rap for being dangerous and overcrowded.  Dangerous because robbery happens quite frequently, and the driving is a bit insane.  We were flying all over the place, coming really close to other cars and guard rails.  It really gets your heart going!  Who needs roller coasters when you can ride a chicken bus??  All-in-all, we arrived there and back safely with no problems.  We don’t think we’ll risk in on longer treks though!

So what was our favorite thing in Panajachel/Lake Atitlan?  Chocolate - in aluminum foil.  Guatemala is known for its chocolate and it is crazy good.  They made bars with chili pepper (Rob's favorite of course) and cloves.  Yep, cloves.  It was like eating Christmas!!  We are inspired and in love.  Once we settle in Columbus, everyone is invited over for a chocolate party, where everything will be served in aluminum foil.  To make it authentic.

_  We have become good friends with a couple from the UK (Scotland and England).  They bought a Euro Van in California and are driving to Argentina over two years.  They are studying at the school with us.  One weekend we all decided to go to Laguna Chicaba, which is a sacred Mayan place.  It is the crater from a volcano erupting.  It was quite an adventure driving the van up to the park where all the bungalows were.  It was actually pretty miraculous that we made it!  We stayed the night, then hiked to the lagoon in the morning.  Absolutely beautiful.

If anyone is interested in driving the Americas and want to learn about our new friends, check out their blog at www.seventeenbysix

We are absolutely loving our Spanish school.  It’s called PLQ and has a pretty cool approach to teaching Spanish.  We have 5 hours of one-on-one instruction every morning with a 30 minute break half way through.  They serve tea, coffee, and fresh bread, which now we feel like we can’t live without.  We have a new teacher each week, which helps shake things up and introduce us to a new accent and different style of teaching.  The instruction is very conversation-based and they not only introduce you to the material, they practice speaking it with you.  Also, the school’s main mission besides teaching Spanish is to educate people about the history of Guatemala and current events in the country.  We had heard a few things here and there about Guatemala, and specifically, the long-going relationship between the United States and the Guatemala government and military, but we really were in for a surprise when we learned the details.  It’s a very tragic and complicated story that definitely sheds some light on why things are the way they are and by extension, why there are so many Latin Americans have ended up in the states.  Our countries are so interwoven, it’s hard to figure out what a possible solution is to the problems that exist.  For now, I guess the main mission to educate, and hopefully that will be the key that opens the door to a better path for everyone.

The school also organizes many events during the week including trips to local towns, conferences with professionals in the area, and movie showings.  We’ve attended several events so far including watching Frida with Salma Hayek last week.  We went to several towns including Salcaja, where they make some specialized booze called Rompopo and Fruta.  Rompopo is a strange yellowy sweet liquor made from egg yolks, milk, and sugar.  Strange, but oddly delightful.  We also went to San Francisco where they have a huge Mercado and are known for the animal market.  One of our favorites was going to Fuentes Georginas which is a natural hot springs.  Very relaxing after a long week of studying!