3 weeks out of his comfort zone... and he reached the summit!
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| Kyle on top of Volcán Pacaya with Senoras, Guatemala, June 21, 2013 |
LINKS FOR VIDEOS
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Adiós Guatemala!
After 24 days of sharing with family, friends and students, I can say that this vacation with a purpose was full of fun, hard work, learning, laughing and amazing moments! The only thing I regreat is that I had to leave and I couldn't stay longer! I loved every moment of this visit and I am grateful for every single experience I lived from June 1st until the 25th!
GRACIAS a todos!
Saturday, June 22, 2013
French truffles best with pure Guatemalan cacao
Señoras get a chance to practice their French in Antigua
Who would have thought that here we would be in Antigua
Guatemala practicing our French, with a French Chef who was teaching us how to
make “ganache” for our hand-made French truffles with pure Guatemalan cacao? .JPG)
Yes, las
Señoras put on aprons and got their hands dirty. We learned from French Chef
Claire Isabelle about truffles presentation and theory, how to prepare flavored
ganache, to temper chocolate and to prepare chocolate coats. We each created
and decorated 6 truffles, and also made six “fill” chocolates.
Indeed, Antigua is a cosmopolitan international city with restaurants and chefs from all over the planet. Just the night before, we dined at a French restaurant owned by an internationally acclaimed French chef, Jean Francois. We enjoyed French onion soup and steak with Béarnaise sauce, and we could have not finished the evening at this amazing terrace overlooking the ruins with a very unique “avocado” crème-brulee and chocolate mousse. Ooh lala! Tres bien!
Friday, June 21, 2013
Important Quotations of the Last 24 Hours
1. "Architecture is easier than food." -- Stephen Stivers
3. "Señora, Where is my lava rock?" -- Jack Scoot
2. "Is there Wi-Fi here, Señora? I can't get a signal!" -- Sidak Grewal
"In more ways than one!" -- Señora Enseñat
3. "Señora, Where is my lava rock?" -- Jack Scoot
"It's right here, Jack" -- Señora Sharlin
"Don't steal it!!" -- Jack Scoot
"I am not going to steal it... I picked it up for you." -- Señora Sharlin
"Oh, yeah. That was dumb..." -- Jack Scoot
Stay tuned! More to come on the plane ride home!
Kyle
A walk in the clouds -Up to Volcano Pacaya
"This is so cool, so awesome, señora! Can we stay longer?" - Collegiate students
Today's adventure took us an hour outside of Antigua to begin our trek on foot up the active volcano Pacaya. Equipped with our walking sticks, the 2 senoras made the rather steep, and at times slippery ascent with the rest of crew up ahead with the guides. Glimpses of the volcano's crater would appear as clouds drifted by and through us. Nothing can compare.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
"The Freaking Chair Moved!" -- Señora Sharlin
"The spirits are [angry] at Stephen!"
Today marked our second to last day in Antigua and our debriefing session as we shared memories and discussed our presentations. We talked about what we have learned from these experiences and about the water crisis as a whole. An interesting question raised by Chris was, "if you could choose one photo to represent your time here in Guatemala and to tell your story, what would it be?" The responses varied from the smiling faces of the children to the ziplines. Each told a deeper meaning -- showing eagerness for foreign visitors and willingness to step out of our comfort zones.
As our business with Ecofiltro:one drew to a close, our work on our presentations began. We started our rough drafts by answering the eight essential questions that must be in our final project. Here are the questions:
1. Why did you come on this trip?
2. Why did you choose _____ as your topic?
3. What did you learn about Antigua/Guatemala?
4. What are three things that you found memorable and why?
5. What was a difficulty for you on this trip and why?
6. What did you learn about yourself?
7. Include at least one anecdote.
8. What impact do you think you made on the people you encountered?
In the afternoon during our language classes, we attended two churches in order to see some early colonial architecture and see the differences between the current and antiquated Antigua buildings. The locations visited were the Catedral and San Francisco. Each offered a unique part of the history, from underground chapels and catacombs to massive courtyard fountains.
We returned in time for the break where we were able to eat pizza and relax for our last class at the language school. Many went to the market in order to shop around and learn outside of the classroom. Now, about the title. As the Señoras, Stephen, and I were talking about the blog and the importance of embracing a challenge, a strange noise occurred from a chair outside on the walkway or in the dining room. No cellphone or person was near the chair, but the distinct sound of the chair scooting across the floor could be heard. Who knows? Señora Sharlin famously gave us the title. Nonetheless, we are excited to begin our last day here in Guatemala tomorrow as we climb the Volcán Pacaya bright and early! See you tomorrow!
Kyle
Today marked our second to last day in Antigua and our debriefing session as we shared memories and discussed our presentations. We talked about what we have learned from these experiences and about the water crisis as a whole. An interesting question raised by Chris was, "if you could choose one photo to represent your time here in Guatemala and to tell your story, what would it be?" The responses varied from the smiling faces of the children to the ziplines. Each told a deeper meaning -- showing eagerness for foreign visitors and willingness to step out of our comfort zones.
As our business with Ecofiltro:one drew to a close, our work on our presentations began. We started our rough drafts by answering the eight essential questions that must be in our final project. Here are the questions:
1. Why did you come on this trip?
2. Why did you choose _____ as your topic?
3. What did you learn about Antigua/Guatemala?
4. What are three things that you found memorable and why?
5. What was a difficulty for you on this trip and why?
6. What did you learn about yourself?
7. Include at least one anecdote.
8. What impact do you think you made on the people you encountered?
In the afternoon during our language classes, we attended two churches in order to see some early colonial architecture and see the differences between the current and antiquated Antigua buildings. The locations visited were the Catedral and San Francisco. Each offered a unique part of the history, from underground chapels and catacombs to massive courtyard fountains.
We returned in time for the break where we were able to eat pizza and relax for our last class at the language school. Many went to the market in order to shop around and learn outside of the classroom. Now, about the title. As the Señoras, Stephen, and I were talking about the blog and the importance of embracing a challenge, a strange noise occurred from a chair outside on the walkway or in the dining room. No cellphone or person was near the chair, but the distinct sound of the chair scooting across the floor could be heard. Who knows? Señora Sharlin famously gave us the title. Nonetheless, we are excited to begin our last day here in Guatemala tomorrow as we climb the Volcán Pacaya bright and early! See you tomorrow!
Kyle
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
The Final Presentation
Today marked our final of four presentations to various communities in need of potable water. We hiked about 20-30 minutes outside of Antigua to a village called "La Guardiania" to present to two groups -- one in elementary school and one in middle school. The journey up was a bit interesting, as Amy and Natania rescued a small puppy last night and tried hard to find it a home. They eventually were able to find a kind family to take it in. Upon arrival to the school, the children greeted us with smiles and "holas" to show their excitement to have new visitors. The first group came out and the children sat down on the concrete and began to chat amongst themselves until Lencho immediately captivated their attention. Soon, my group was up and we began to present. The first run went well, but some parts were a slight bit long. Nonetheless we quickly learned from this and corrected ourselves for the second group shortly after. In the end, it was a very good culmination to our hard work.
Soon after the presentations, the children were excited to play a game of football (soccer) with us in the large field across the road from the school. The children even have jerseys to represent their school and team! It turned out be a very intense game, as the Señoras assumed the role of the coaches and shouted directions from the sidelines. In the end, our team got destroyed with a final score of 5-1. We thanked them for a good game and began to walk back to Antigua.
In the afternoon, we went with our tutors to the local Jade Museum to learn about the different kinds of jade present in Guatemala, as well as the refining techniques. We learned that a statue of an owl made of green jade takes about three days to make and costs about $400! We were then able to look around the shop and see the high prices for the jade, as well as understand understand our own Mayan Zodiac signs. Some of us are fish, some are jaguars, some are sharks, etc. We soon left and headed for the chocolate museum.
Upon return from the jade museum, Ross, Even, Max, and I attended a chocolate making class at "Choco Museo" in order to help with our presentations of the Guatemalan food. When we arrived, we were greeted by Pablo, an enthusiastic Guatemalan who taught us the history of chocolate, as well as the processes of fermenting, roasting, shelling, grinding, and refining the beans. In the end, we were able to taste three different chocolate drinks -- a cocoa shell tea; a Mayan drink with paprika, water, and other spices, which turned out to be very spicy and bitter; and a Spanish version with milk, sugar, anise seed and black pepper. We made our own chocolates as well with a variety of ingredients, including coconut, macadamia, oreos, salt, and others.
Overall, today has been a great experience, both in our final presentations and in the jade museum. We were able to learn about the history of jade in the Mayan culture and experience the entire refining process of the chocolate bean. Tomorrow, we look forward to regrouping at the house in Chris's neighborhood in order to debrief one last time about our presentations and our work in the communities, as well as to begin our first rough draft of our presentations.
Kyle
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