Update

Hello everyone. Its been a week and a half so I'll give you an update on my trip.

After the tour ended I stayed in Antigua and studying spanish for a week. It was fun and I would like to have a month of nothing but spanish everyday. I love Antigua, but once everyone left, I did feel a little limited on what I could do. There only so many streets to walk down and I couldn't be out by myself after 7 or 8. I loved my teacher though and I plan on taking more lessons with her in the future. Its amazing how quickly it leaves you though.

I have been in Tecpan for the last week volunteering with project somos. The houses are coming along so quickly! All the volunteers and the project founders area great. I've really enjoyed getting to know everyone! I've been doing a little of everything. Carpentry help, glass work, gardening stuff. All of it has been so fun. The workers are great and its awesome getting my daily dog fix both on the land and in the volunteer house. The dogs are so sweet here! And of course there was the soccer game. For those of you who are familiar with the field, it is now twice as big!!! You don't realize your at 7500ft until you try running. But I had a great time. The field reminds me of apex. (apex is a ski hill in bc that holds hockey tournaments every year. The ice is really bad and it can be pretty hard to skate on) The field here is uneven, fully of obstacles like hills, rocks and dirt piles. I think it evens the playing field quite a bit, just like apex! At least this time it works in my favor!!!! lol The volunteer house is very much like living with your family Everyone gets there turn on lunch, dinners and clean up. The town here is small but at least there is a great coffee shop run by such a friendly family. The kids are so cute. They are really trying to learn english so they like to show off their sentences some times. I love going there some times in the evening and next week Im going to start playing board games with them. Now if only I can teach them that we canadians need our coffee before 3pm!!

I miss my little man so much. Dad, I hope you are taking good care of him!! Tell him I love him and give him a good ear scratch from me!! Heather and Greg's dogs are a wonderful temporary replacement for me though. Tika is a corgi shephard x who is as sharp as a tack! I like to brag about how smart cosmo is, but I think Tika may take him in this department. Jenga is the street dog they rescued and Bindi is one of her pups. Bindi looks sooooo much like cosmo when he was a puppy! Though Bindi has a bit of a diva attitude. I think she thinks she owns the place! Jenga has taken some time to warm up to me though we have made HUGE strides the last few days. Unfortunately dogs aren't respected or treated well here so she is a little apprehensive around new people. She's been hanging around me a lot more and even lets me pet her now. This morning I was pretty convinced she contemplated even playing with me, but changed her mind at the last second. I think Bindi and I are going to be a little bonded by the time I leave which will suck, because then I'll just be missing a dog when Im home too! :(

My weekend will be spent studying spanish and drinking lattes while watching my patriots KICK SOME GIANT BUTT!!! 10 seasons as a starter, 5 super bowl appearances, 3 wins! One more is being added tomorrow!!

I really do truly love this place and I get asked regularly by locals why. "They say Canada is the best place in the world." It's hard to explain, particularly without the ability to articulate, however this country is something special. Everyone I have ever talked to comes back saying it was amazing. Im not sure there are even words in English I could use to truly let you understand. It is a diverse, beautiful country where culture runs deep. They have held on to 23 (?) mayan dialects and many of the mayans speak spanish as a second language. In every community, you see the women wearing vibrate colours on their traditional mayan clothing and even the occasional man. Each community has their own designs and colors that set them apart. Even though it hard to look at the positives of another culture coming in and overtaking, the spanish architecture is beautiful. The colours on the streets of antigua is spectacular. And of course the people. They are so warm and friendly, and it doesn't seem to matter where you go, some will always smile and say hello. It's amazing how good a simple little smile can feel. Even on the job site, as we work in the shed by the road, people walking by never hesitate to make eye contact and wave, often accompanied by a "buenos.. diaz/tardes". The children here are beautiful! Their HUGE gentle brown eyes, perfect smiles and innocent laughter will melt your heart!! Its absolutely adorable to see a little 4 or 5 year girl dressed up in traditional mayan clothes looking identical to her mother as they walk down the street!

The markets here are definitely a sight! Booths and people everywhere and dogs hoping they finally getting an opportunity to eat. Fruit, clothes, dishes, you name it, its here. After they are done, they throw all their garbage into the streets and the dogs have about an hour to feast. I once saw a mound of garbage about 3 ft high with apx 15 dogs gorging themselves. Thursday I saw the cutest small little black dog running with a massive bag of who knows what. There was no stopping this guy! He looked like he'd just won the lottery! After everyone has taken down their stands, it seems as though the garbage just disappears. It literally takes about an hour and the streets are empty again, no sign of the garbage, and its business as usual.

As I write this, I just had a little break through with Jenga. She nosed my face for the first time and let me pet her with two hands. I'm winning her over!!!

I had a truly latin american experience yesterday, though I can't share because my mother reads this. She'd kill me!! But I had to do it once and it was a blast!! I understand why Cosmo loves it so much!

Well, here is my trip for the last couple weeks