First Day at a Guatemala Orphanage


The warm sun shone through the hostel's curtains and onto my face as I woke up reminding me I wasn't in Canada anymore. The night before we had arrived in Rio Dulce at about 10 o'clock after a 5 hour bus ride. My gut tightened with anticipation as I wondered what the first day of volunteering at Casa Guatemala would be like. After packing up and grabbing a quick bite to eat at Hotel Backpackers, the hostel we were staying at, we got into the small motorboat that was going to take us to the orphanage.

Climbing aboard I thought I saw something glinting on the captain's belt. Looking closer I...

Day 2 - Dec 4, 2009
Our second day in Guatemala has been full of memorable moments and great learning experiences... but sometimes the learning experiences are not the ones I want.
Our clean rooms with its baby blue trim woke us up early in the morning thanks to its bright skylights. We needed to get ready because our ride to the bus station was picking us up at 8am. Our driver who had brought us the night before to our hostel was already waiting outside before we had zipped up the last of our backpacks. He patiently waited.

We decided that since we had an hour before the bus was to leave to Rio Dulce, we would make some stops along the way to exchange some money at the bank, eat a $3 breakfast at a McDonald's drive-thru...