Saturday, March 10, 2007

never want to read agian

After we came back from tactic we had a short day to recover, and then we jumped straight into school again. Professor Ruth Anaya flew down from Trinity Western and taught us Anthropology 101 and cross cultural studies 302 in a ridiculous two weeks. We had three classes a day starting at 9 in the morning and usually ending at 9:30 at night, with time in between for an inane amount of reading, studying, homework and not much else.
On the 3rd, we had a field trip type thing to different place in Guatemala City. We first went to visit the slums that had grown around and in the Garbage dump. I felt awkward just going to visit without bringing any help, or even to visit anyone. After the slums we went to the Guatemalan Palace, their parliament buildings. The contrast from cornstalk homes to a palace with gold, marble and stained glass made us feel a little weird- but I think that was the point. After our first lunch at a Wendy’s in a few months we went to the Museum and art gallery. The museum was really cool. There were two thousand year old Mayan sacrificial alters and stone idols just lying around in the open. Could have spent a few days in there.
Then last Friday we went to a game farm a few hours from the campus. It was a self driven safari type thing for most of it – including all the lions, giraffes, hippos and all that- and a zoo for the monkeys and smaller animals. Its nothing like the zoos back home. Here I could lean out of the car and be within grabbing distance of the lions, Monkeys were just hanging around the picnic areas – all thanks to the lack of those animal rights groups.

I really enjoyed the classes, and I learned a lot, but im grateful for some time off now. It was a lot of late nights studying and reading, but now we have the weekend to sleep, and for those of us who are sick, to recover.










1 comment:

Israel Journey 2011 said...

John, what great pics! I do so much want to visit you! I hope it will work out somehow. Talk to you soon. Love, Mom