100th Post

It should be to no ones surprise, that I am writing the 100th post on our blog. I write these all the time, and hopefully one day Danielle will begin to help with this Blog. But without further ado, here is what has been happening in Xela.

Danielle has posted two new albums on our shutterfly account so feel free to check that out. One is of Halloween and the other was from Spirit Week in the Middle School. For holloween I was a gym teacher, and Danielle was a Black Bear. The Halloween party was hosted by our principal and all of the teachers were there. It was a good time. Danielle really enjoyed the week at school it included, Bad Hair Day, Crazy Hat Day, Pajama Day, Twin Day, and Mismatch Day. The kids had a great time with it and Danielle was a participant each day aswell.

Yesterday I went with some friends to a town called Todos Santos (All Saints) and took part in their celebration for the Day of the Dead holiday. This was one of the most hillarious things that happens in all of Guatemala, and you almost have to see it to beleive it. I will try to do it justice with my explanation of what happens. The whole town lines this dirt path that is probably a total of like 300 yards. There are about 10 horses that get saddled up to run. I am not sure of the exact rules, but what happens is there are men that are very intoxicated and they ride as long as they can without falling off. A few of my friends decided to pay he man at the gate so that they could ride as well. One of them is a really white guy that is about 6 foot 3 280 pounds. I was watching for him to come, and all I heard was laughing from all of the indigenous people as he came down the road. The rest of the day kids kept walking past while laughing and pointing. This is not all that Todos Santos had to offer us.

Our Guatemalan friend drove his SUV and we parked on a side street like everyone else, but it just so happens that a bus wanted to go down the street but it was not wide enough. Instead of the bus going in reverse (novel idea) the people from town decided that they should just pick it up so there were 20 Guatemalans lifting this vehicle off to a different place. We walked up just after it happened and the mayor of the town was trying to get the cops to give us a ticket. Only by God's will there happened to be the only honest police officer in all of Guatemala in this spot. he diffused the situation and explained that if they gave us a ticket they would have to ticket everyone in the town. He explained to the mayor that we could have been anywhere else and that we were doing him a favor by showing up and spending money in his town. Makes sense right? We decided that that was enough fun for one day so we piled in the recently displaced vehicle and were on our way back to Xela with a car full of stories.

Well that is all for now, and we will keep you posted on anything else that happens!