New Guatemalan Experience

Last night was a big night here in Guatemala. The month of December I've heard is just crazy about fireworks. I was asking the kids at school what some of their Christmas traditions are and they all mentioned they stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve, not only to open gifts, but more importantly to see all of the fireworks that go off starting at midnight. I guess this explains why they stay up until midnight to open gifts since the children will all be awoken by fireworks anyway, if they tried to put them to bed!! Well, the second Saturday of every December, Pollo Campero (their equivalent of KFC) puts on a huge fireworks show. A few friends that are still here (we finished school on Friday, so a lot of teachers already left) and I went bowling yesterday afternoon and then over to another teacher's house to watch the huge fireworks show. I do have to admit, even though these are like the fourth fireworks show I've seen in two weeks, these fireworks were pretty awesome. It was a good show. And long too. Then our friend who was a rental car drove Stephanie and I home. We hit this huge line of traffic at like 9:00 pm and we were like oh this is weird. Then we saw some police lights up ahead and were wondering what had happened. When we got up there, I had a first here in Guatemala. I saw a dead body lying in the road. Yes folks, I did. Apparantly it's not too uncommon to see bodies after a crime or accident scene but so far I had been guarded from that scene. I have no idea what had happened, if it was a car accident or if he was trying to cross the street and didn't make it but I saw a body covered with a blanket, but I could see the feet sticking out. It was really creepy. I have to say that I hope this is a scene I don't see very often in the future. It was not pretty. Anyway, that was my new Guatemalan experience. Let's hope the next first is a little better first!

Oh, PS: I am done teaching for 2008 as Friday was our last day and I am headed to the US on Tuesday. I am so very excited to see friends and family!!!!! Wooo hooooo. I will also be posting soon about Costa Rica and Thanksgiving!!! It was a blast and I have so many pictures to show!