Day 2

Mark and I enjoyed exploring the city today while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive after all of the flight cancellations. After we enjoyed a great Guatemalan coffee at the hotel while researching more about the extraction of the former vice president we began our walk to Oakland Mall. I am familiar with this 20 minute walk from the gated community where we stay, along a busy high-way like street, to the enormous and extravagant Oakland Mall. After charging our phone, purchasing some minutes and gawking at the surplus of elegant shops (I’m talking every designer brand you can think of, a carousel, water bumper cars, fountains, dog pastry shops and gourmet cupcakes) we grabbed a cab to Zone 1 to explore downtown, or El Centro. Our cab driver, Luis, was extremely conversational and told us more about his views about what is currently going on in the country.  He doesn’t believe in the government at all as predicted that a lot of time will pass before a woman candidate is even considered as a viable candidate. I asked him if he thought viable candidates existed at all. He laughed at me responding, not the way our country is working now. Each one is corrupt, that’s just the way it is. Luis dropped us off, recommending that grab a Gallo to cool down.

While we were walking around el parque central and looking at the Palace and the Church it was hard to imagine the thousands of people that had gathered to protest only 2 days earlier. 

The palace today

2 Days Earlier

The plaza was quiet and, besides the news truck parked waiting for potential action, there were no apparent traces of the scandal.  Despite the quiet downtown it is clear that the scandal has sparked a movement. The hashtag #RenunciaYaFase2 has been trending and  it was interesting to look at different newspaper to obtain all  available details of the scandal. 

This graffiti was found near the palace. It reads "masacre," "Genocida", "Roxana" and "Renunciada"

Some of the newspapers found in the city today

We explored the rest of the area including the large marketplace for the next couple hours and then headed back to Oakland to use their wifi. The sharp contrast from the marketplace and Oakland was on both my and Mark’s minds while we planned for tomorrow’s day at the hospital and worked to stay updated with the rest of the team that would be arriving that evening.

The rest of our members have had a long day of traveling and, unfortunately, faced more delays. We are awaiting their arrival at 10PM this evening and are excited to start our work at Roosevelt tomorrow.