Overview of My time in Guatemala!!

So my travels in Guatemala started off with just under a week in Guatemala City.
Here I volunteered for a few days and visited some of the partner programs that we work with in Guatemala City, such as elderly homes, a soup kitchen and clinics.



This was the chapel we re-painted before


and the courtyard


Coming soon - the after pictures!

I then spent Friday night in Antigua.


At a very posh hotel


It was then on to Panjachal and to visit Lake Atitlan - the most beautiful lake in the world.






Then on Sunday Morning we went to Chichicastenengo, to visit one of the largest markets in Central America





It was then a 4 hour bus ride to Quezaltenango.


I stayed there for 2 nights at our program there, visited a few placements and some areas of interest that the volunteers visit and it was a 6 hour bus ride back to Guatemala City to fly home on the Wednesday!

Guatemala!

So I arrived in Guatemala City on Saturday, the whole experience was so different from my Brazil program. Obviously the main difference was this was staff travel, I knew the organization and knew pretty much what to expect. With Brazil I was so nervous when I had my expectations talk and nearly cried and decided not to go.

With this I trip I had hardly any time to prepare because I had been so busy with work and really had not thought about it much.

When I had picked up my bag and gone through immigration, I walked through the doors and there were hundreds of people with their faces pressed up against the glass looking for people. Again I was not nervous or worried, I saw the CCS sign and it took about another 15 minutes for me to make my way through the crows to it!!

There are 9 of us in the house and they are all lovely and we are getting on really well.



The placement I am at it a home where there are a couple of mother and daughters, a mother and a son, a writer and a painter that lives there, as they have no where else to stay. We are painting the chapel and the courtyard and also doing crafts with them.



So just a quick update really to let you know I am safe and well!

Thanksgiving

So yesterday was Thanksgiving, the day where Americans eat as much as turkey as possible in one sitting.
I was was just thankful that it meant I got 2 days off work!!!
I went over to Bonnie's parent house and had a traditional thanksgiving with her family.

Being a vegetarian I had tofruky



It's tastes the same as quorn really.

The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday. This is is supposed to symbolise the start of the Christmas shopping season and be the busiest shopping day of the year.

So I woke up pretty early this moring and thought I would check out what the deal was.

So at 6.30am this morning I was shopping at Herald Square. This is where all of the main shops are like Macy's etc. H and M was manic but Old Navy wasn't too bad

So by 8.30am this morning I was back in my apartment with several new outfits!!!

Green Party!

In honor or our newly decorated green lounge, we decided to throw a green party.
Everyone had to wear green, bring green drinks ad green food!

And amazingly everyone cooperated!!

Green Friends!




Green Family Christmas Card style photo!




Green food!

Ye Olde Medieval Faire

Me and some Knights




A Knight!

Oktoberfest!

My first time driving on the other side of the car


Me driving with my eyes clothes - it was my first time driving in about 4 years!


German men in leinenhose dancing!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

So work has been super busy and will remain so until around November time.
Last week I went to Toronto in Canada for the day to train a company who will be partnering with CCS.

Met Dan at the airport has he arrived in the same terminal as me on the way back from Canada - how well planned was that!

Thursday was our T2 event consisting of a BBQ.

Friday got the Amtrack to Boston, which was about 4 hours on the train to train the office in Boston. Dan got the China town bus (a very cheap and slightly crazy bus that was 3 hours late) to Boston where we had the poshest hotel room for free.


The super posh Hotel!

Me in the Christian Science Plaza

Got the crazy bus back on Saturday - only 40 minutes late this time. Met up with some of the girls and took Dan out for a typical NYC night out, consisting of lots of drinks, multiple bars and some karaoke.


Sunday, we went for brunch and mooched around, went to the park,(where we saw a small child on huge stilts just sauntering around?!), Soho and little Italy.

Dan left on Monday and I worked practically every hour possible for the rest of the week.

Wednesday, went out for dinner with my roomates - the first time since well before summer - how can I live with 2 people yet only see them 3 or 4 times week??

Had a meeting at NYU with a potential Spring break group on Thursday and met Alexa for dinner Thursday night and went to this bar that was full of very drunk students, which was extremely amusing - was I ever like that??

Friday we had a girly slumber party in New Roc, drank several bottles of wine, including one hat was opened using a screw driver and hammer as the wine opener had broken. Women can be very resourceful! Had a couple of hours sleep in preparation to volunteer at Larchmount beach picking up litter.
Went to work again for about 5 hours and came home, where I am now sitting having a quite night in in the first night for aaaages!

This week hopefully won't be as bad, off to Michigan Thursday night with Brooke to a beer festival and sort of caught up on work so should be feeling slightly less stressed(?!?)

So I apologise for not replying to emails/IM's/Text messages etc but I don't really have time to breathe at the moment!!

Me, Bonnie and Tyler

Me, Bonnie ad Tyler
Originally uploaded by jellams

Me, Alexa and Brooke

Me, Alexa and Brooke
Originally uploaded by jellams

ergh - Tequilla

ergh - Tequilla
Originally uploaded by jellams

blergh!

blergh!
Originally uploaded by jellams

My new friends!

My new friends!
Originally uploaded by jellams

Cass, Brooke and Me

Cass, Brooke and Me
Originally uploaded by jellams

Alber-Crazy!!!

Well, Where do I start...
The past few weeks have been crazy and the next few are just as bad.
So Friday I left work early to go to Albuquerque, wit Brooke to visit I an a friend of hers out there.Some flights were delayed because of some storms but I had my fingers crossed and Ian had is eyes crossed.

The flight was delayed by about an hour and then we finally got on the plane to sit there for a further hour. I was supposed to meet Brooke in Minnesota where I was hoping the planes were also delayed. Brooke just managed to catch it but I missed it.

So arrive in Minnesota at about 10.30pm bearing in mind I was supposed to be in Albuquerque at 11 and it was a 3 hour flight to ABQ.

So got of the plane with my fingers crossed that the personalized re-booking packages got me to ABQ in the next 3 hours. Te next flight was 11.34 AM!!! THE NEXT DAY.

So not knowing whether to cry or kill the flight attendant, I decided to make the most of being in Minnesota.

I got some random tram to where the ground transportation was, at this time no one was around the airport was practically deserted. There were a couple of guys just finishing up at the car rental place.

I told them that I was stuck there for the next 12 hours and did they want to take me for a drink, so half an hour later, I am in some random bar in some suburb in Minnesota with a couple of guys buying me early birthday shots. Unfortunately the bars close there at 2am, so they dropped me back off at the airport about 2.30am and I still had about 8 hours to kill.

By now I had find a 24 hour McDonald's that I could use the $10 voucher I ad been given and made friends with DJ, a mechanic at the airport who was originally from Senegal.

Wandered around a bit more, made friends with a cleaner, played on some slot machines, won $2 on a scratch card, listened to the same 7 adverts play on a loop, tired to sleep.

BY this time now it is abut 6am and the place is starting to get busy. As I though I would be getting in at 11pm and going straight to the bar, may make up was now smeared all over my face. Fortunately Minnesota airport is pretty much like a mall, so at 7am when the Body shop opened, I ran in trying all the face wipes, moisturizers, concealer, face shimmer etc to make my self look slightly presentable!

Finally my plane was ready to board, after being stuck there for 12 hours, I thought I deserved bumping up to 1st class, so I asked. and got bumped up!!

So had drinks in an actual wine glass before we took off, a posh salad on a china plate, chocolate ice cream and all kinds!

So finally made it ABQ 13 hours after I was supposed to!
ABQ is sooooo different from NY, it deserty but foresty




So off to camp in some Indian Reserve





We camped Saturday night,












Then got stuck in flipping Minnesota AGAIN for 3 hours on the way back.
But all in all it was a very sort but fantastic weekend away!

Me, Brooke and Cass with the Brooklyn Bridge in the Background

Me, Brooke and Cass with the Brooklyn Bridge in the Background
Originally uploaded by jellams

Me

Me
Originally uploaded by jellams

Me and Alexa

Me and Alexa
Originally uploaded by jellams

Cass and Me

Cass and Me
Originally uploaded by jellams

Me and Lauren

Me and Lauren
Originally uploaded by jellams

Me, Alexa, Natalie

Me, Alexa, Lauren
Originally uploaded by jellams

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Roof Top Party

Roof Top Party
Originally uploaded by jellams

Volunteer

Volunteer
Originally uploaded by jellams

All the volunteers from the Building Bridges Coaliton Event on Sunday spelt out the word volunteer!!!

I am the bottom part of the first E - red top, black trousers!!!

Us doing our stuff

Us doing our stuff
Originally uploaded by jellams

Michaela, Vanessa, Georgie, Me

Michaela, Vanessa, Georgie, Me
Originally uploaded by jellams

One year Anniversary!

Well, Everything has been a bit crazy, I got back from the UK about a week ago and have not stopped since.

I can't believe it's been a year since I first came over. I literally flew back on the the exact same day that I first came over a year ago.

It was so nice to know that as I stepped off the plane I had a place to go to, a bank account to get some dollars out of, a US phone to let my US friends know I was back.
The past year as gone so quickly and I can't believe how well everything just dropped into place. Granted it took about 6 months to sort my visa out, 2 months to get my social security number. But I managed to find a pretty decent apartment with extremely cheap compared to the rest of Manhattan rent. I have got 2-in-1 new positions that are brand new so I can really shape it how want. I have fantastic friends over here who are always there for me. Life is good!

There is still much that I haven't done though and my new aim since coming back from the UK is to make the most of my time here - who knows where I will go next!

So getting back in the American way of life I went to my 1st baseball game. It was really good fun. We had nosebleed seats, in that we were about 15 rows from the highest point. We could practically see the writing on the planes that flew over. The atmposhere was sooo funny. It was the Mets( A NYC team) against the Reds (form Ohio). Any Reds in our section really got abused hurled at them - not very sportsman like at all!

On Sunday I made it out of the city to Philadelphia PA. It was the launch of the Building Bridges Coalition.

The Building Bridges Coalition, a project of the Brookings Institution’s Initiative on International Volunteering and Service, is a consortium of leading international volunteer organizations, universities and colleges, corporations, and government agencies working collaboratively to double the number of international volunteers serving abroad by 2010.

Check out the website at It was a really good afternoon. Extremely hot but it really reiterated why I am doing this job. The work that I do is about 90% a desk job so sometimes you lose site of why you are there.

We had a fantastic story of Adil our Morocco Country Director. One of the placements we have in Morocco is in a juvenile Detention centre. One of the inmates was involved in a Terrorist suicide bombing in Casablanca and his target was Americans. Most of our volunteers are Americans so this guy would not talk look or take part in any of the activities that the volunteers arranged. This guy hated Americans. Slowly he began taking part in English lessons, music lessons and began talking the volunteer. When the volunteer left, the guy - who previously tried to blow himself up because he hated Americans that much hugged him and said he would miss him! That is what we are about. CCS is about fostering cultural understanding and educating and empowering people to better their lives and situations. You often lose site of the fantastic work we do, the lives we change and it's always good to be reminded of this.

We do change lives, we change the lives of the communities we work with, we change the lives of our volunteers - even I am proof of that - I moved half way across the world to work for them. Even though CCS is doing so muc there is still so much more to do and that is why I was proud to be at the Launch of the Brookings Initiative, because of everyone makes the effort to volunteer domestically or internationally things can really happen.

Ther was an amazing speaker at the launch, His speech was fantastic. It was something about if you do things for yourself and selfishly, when you die, it all dies with you. But if you volunteer and help other people, when you die this lives on and is immortal. You shouldn't measure your life and success by the size of your paycheck but by the impact you have on other peoples lives.

So that's my sermon over!

Building Bridges Coalition Launch

Building Bridges Coalition Launch
Originally uploaded by jellams

The Liberty Bell

The Liberty Bell
Originally uploaded by jellams

Shea Stadium - Home of the Mets

Shea Stadium - Home of the Mets
Originally uploaded by jellams

Shea Stadium - Home of the Mets

Shea Stadium - Home of the Mets
Originally uploaded by jellams

Shea Stadium - Home of the Mets

Shea Stadium - Home of the Mets
Originally uploaded by jellams