Week 1 (or first days)

After five weeks at the best guesthouse on the planet (a.k.a. "At Chiara's"), two short trips to the mountains (one for skiing, another featuring a walk on the snow), a quick journey to Ireland for the Old Ones (including a stop in London for Les Mis), an archeological museum for the Little Ones, plenty of pizza, some real ice-cream, lots of cycling (a first for Sam and several kms for Mickey), a swim in thermal water, many friends, too much food, a great experience of Italian school (with numerous sick days) for M&S and in general terms a very good time... we're off again, to our next adventure: working for UPAVIM, a women-based, community-oriented organisation in a poor and very violent area of Guatemala City; Mattia will teach English in the project's primary school, Elena will find the best ways to help in the health field (they've already got a clinic and there's nothing for disability) and with Paper Furniture, Michele&Sam will attend that same school, in first and third.

These first weeks we needed time to settle as a family and to deepen our relationship with the other volunteers, so we apologise for the delay and the consequent grouping of diary entries, but we hope to be able to offer some short Guatemala tales quite often from now on.

Thursday 7th April

4.30am - Leaving Granddad Ezio's house for the airport, one car for adults and bags, one for Granny Chiara and TheBoys.

6.00am - After checking-in the bags (thanks God for sending a couple of neurons into that brainless lady) and having a bit of breakfast (thanks grand-dad!), we give a tearful goodbye to the grandparents. 

7.40am - Venice -> Madrid

10.15am - Madrid Airport

12.25pm - Madrid -> Miami

4.05pm (local time) - Miami Airport: Automatic passport&visa inspection? Useless, as you've got to do it all over again with a security office after a loooong queue; then, rush to the gate, luckily reached in time.

6.05pm - Miami -> Guatemala

6.56pm (local time) - Guatemala Airport: HERE WE ARE!

7.15pm - We manage to carry all luggage outside, but... surprise: nobody is waiting for us outside the airport! However, a quick email reminds them of the correct arrival time, so there's hope.

9.00pm - The tired adults and the boys-sleeping-on-bags are finally picked up by the volunteers.

9.45pm - With Michele excitedly awake and Sam in our arms, helped by the volunteers we drag ourselves and the luggage up to the fourth floor (luckily for us it's only American English, so it's actually the third!) of the UPAVIM's building, that is to our new house: the ROOF, where the volunteers live in community.

10.00pm - Now with even Sam happily awake, we are offered a nice dinner with tostadas (maiz crackers), frijoles (beans) sauce and guacamole, over which our exhausted brains try to catch some names.

10.30pm - 26 hours after our start, we finally hit the bed.

Friday 8th

5.15am - Roosters + traffic + light + jet lag = we're awake!

Morning spent getting our bearings on the roof (apart from our large room, three more rooms with a bunk-bed, a toilet&shower room, a kitchen-dining room and plenty of open-air space, with two tables, cloth-lines and even a sort of garden) and in the building, especially discovering the delicious produce of the ground-floor (first?) bakery.

Mid-morning - first trip outside, with Maddie, volunteer-turned-guide: on the crowded free bus, from La Esperanza (our neighbourhood) to the big bus station with shopping centre where we can get our first necessary supplies (milk & sim card, not working yet...) and explore the market just outside, where we purchase some delicious fruit, including banano morado (an amazing sweet and soft variety with a reddish skin, spotted by Mattia's unfailing and longing eye).

Lunch from the UPAVIM kitchen, where women of the organisation cook food for other women working in the building in all the workshops (crafts, sewing, bakery, soy products) and for the volunteers.

Afternoon in the school, the kids again with Maddie in prepa (preparatory year, before primary) to  spend some time making crafts, namely arcoiris (rainbow), and get their first exposure to Spanish, Mattia with sexto (sixth and last year), not just to meet the students as expected, but to improvise the first lesson, as Carlin (English programme coordinator and sub-teacher while this position wasn't filled) had to take an unplanned trip to Antigua (a nearby town, famous for traditional houses - we'll visit someday) for the organisation. Both first experiences were fine.

Saturday 9th

4.30am - Yes, the jet lag isn't getting any better!

Just like yesterday, the volcanoes to the south and the west are in sight, making it a very good view, quite contrasting with the sea of metal roof, cement walls, junk and rubbish which surrounds us.
All volunteers are away, some on a trip in Guatemala, some to Mexico (bordering on the north) not all only on a visit but maybe some also to get out and back in the country again, so as to be allowed to renew their tourist visa, something we might have to do as well in the future; thus, we've got a quiet day on the roof, to rest and find our feet around here, especially in our room-house.

Sunday 10th

5.00am - If things keep going like this, it's gonna take a while to recover...

9.30am - After breakfast, we decide to follow Carlin's suggestion, so we take the free bus again and then a bigger one (for a very small fee) to the city centre, where we have a nice walk on la sexta, a now pedestrian avenue, first till the Plaza central (or de la Constitución), where we enjoy a nice market, and then on to a park with playground (and big trees providing much needed shade!) where the boys have a great time; all along there's plenty to eat, so we have not only ice-cream for the hot day, but also some traditional food (tamal and elote- sort of maiz pie and cooked cob) and fruit (an excellent peel&cut mix of mango, different melons, papaya and pineapple). All in all a good trip, also for the simple fact of knowing this time we've got places to go and things to do around us.

Settling seems to be progressing fast (as expected, actually), not only as to the room-house, which  the boys have already accepted well, but also for the community living: during the quiet weekend, Sam asked, in a mixture of nostalgia and concern, "Where have all the others gone?".