AN ADVENTURE OF MY CHILDHOOD

There are some interesting adventures in my childhood, but when I was 6 years old I went to Cancun and the Riviera Maya with my parents and it was the greatest adventure a can remember now.    We went with my parents brother and sister and it was the first time I felt like a big kid and not the baby of the family. 
When my mom told me we were going to Cancun I remember we was very happy because we love to visit new places.  When we arrived to Cancun Airport it was very hot, all people were talking about the different places to visit there and the beautiful of the beach. 
We waited for a transportation that took us to our hotel and it was very big, it has a lot of restaurants and two  theaters  where they had activities for kids and adults, and that was the best part, because with my brother we went to the shows, to the restaurants and to a lot of activities by ourselves, it was the first time I could decide what to do, what time to go to sleep, what to eat, it was a lot of fun.  I found in internet some facts I want to share with all people about Cancun, because it is really a very nice place, the people there is real nice and the sand is white, very clean and the water of the sea is delicious. 
Tips about Cancun Mexico: “www.sunofcancun.com”
Cancun Mexico and the Riviera Maya are located in one of the most unique and exciting tourism areas of the world bordering the Caribbean Sea. Cancun Mexico itself is a great resort city with a vibrating night life. But Cancun Mexico also has many exciting shopping areas and everything else one would need to enjoy a relaxing holidays or vacations.
The surroundings of Cancun Mexico are mainly untouched nature, including jungles, many impressing archeological sites with Maya Pyramids, and all kinds of interesting animals and plants.
And of course there is the Mexican Caribbean Sea. The water at the beaches of the Caribbean’s Sea is among the best and clearest anywhere. So its great for scuba diving and snorkeling. Especially a bit south of Cancun, there is the Great Maya Reef system, along the Riviera Maya.
The Riviera Maya coastline of the far eastern Yucatan peninsula is a living museum to Mexico's cultural and natural heritage. There are virtually hundreds of miles of sugar white beaches, and every now and then a small or medium size, quaint village to stop by.
When we were visiting Cancun we went to visit some places not so far from the hotel.
We went to Cozumel, it was like one hour from the hotel, when we arrived there they told us to get in a big boat, and they took us to the sea, where we could swim with dolphins, this dolphin swim is one of the happiest adventure of my life. If I have the opportunity to repeat it , I will  do it.  I  recommend it because the dolphins are very friendly and we can  share with them the incredible waters of the Caribbean sea that is the home for a lot of dolphins.
It was  amazing when I went  into the water and felt the delicate skin of the dolphins  and  the incredible sensation of feeling and touching them, this was really an unforgettable experience in my life, I have a photo in my room of that day.
Another day we went to Isla Mujeres, and we also visited the Xcaret park, this is another very nice place, I had the opportunity to make snorkel with a lot of fish.  They gave us food to feed them from our hands, then, there we some underground rivers but I was to little to go in there, but I saw the pictures and it is beautiful.
That time we stayed in Cancun one week, but it was my greatest adventure because I had the opportunity to make very different activities and visit such a beautiful place.

The weather

I really like to talk about the weather because it is something that makes all the days different. Here in Guatemala we have only to seasons, the dry season and the raining season. I prefer the dry season because we do not have to worry about the rain or about the humidity. We call the dry season summer, and it is when we like to go to the beach. On March or April, we celebrate Eastern, and it is in summer. We have a long holiday and always go to the beach with my family. This is one of the reasons why I prefer the dry season. Another favorite season for me is Christmas, and it is also in the dry season. Our dry season starts on October and it finishes on April or May. In the dry season we can make a lot of activities outside, we can go to play football, baseball or any sport.

The raining seasons starts usually on May, I really do not like this season because I have a lot a allergies related to the humidity of the raining days. On raining season there are a lot of flowers and the pollen causes me allergies too. Maybe that the reason why I do not like this season, because the weather really affects my life style, I have to take antihistaminic to avoid the allergies and sometimes it makes me a little sleepy.

I would like to visit other places where they have the four seasons, I really love the fall, I think it is beautiful because the trees change colors and they look different. This fall my parents are planning a trip to Canada and I really am happy about it because I think this season is special.

I have never seen the snow, I only have seen it on pictures, I would like to visit a place where I could play with the snow and experience this weather. My brother is studying in Canada and he told me that it looks beautiful but it is too cold. He also told me that the first time that he saw that it was snowing he was very excited about it, he wanted to go outside to play with it but after a month of having snow all days he was tired of it. It was too cold and he was wishing for the sun of Guatemala.

Guatemala it is called the country of the eternal spring, because it has flowers all time of the year, we can use almost the same kind of clothes during winter or summer, we use the same colors for both seasons, sometimes we use more colors for summers but it is not as people in other countries that have to worry about different clothes for different weather. For winter they have to use special jackets, boots and a lot of sweaters, and for summer they use very light clothing.

I think that sometimes the weather affects the way we feel, I think that people are happier in a sunny day, and when it is cloudy people likes to stay home instead of going outside.

I have read lately that the weather is changing around the world. They say that the summer is going to get warmer and the winter is going to be colder, they say that the level of the water in oceans is going to change, I hope it does not affect people living on the coast here in Guatemala because last year they had a lot of problems with floods.

Last year I listened to the news about problems caused by the weather around the world, like countries with big storms of snow or hurricanes or too much raining, and actually in United States they are having problems with the temperature because it is too hot. They are in summer right now but it appears that the temperature is hotter that other years. It appear that in Argentina, they have winter now, and it is colder than usual. These are examples of the changes of the weather.

I hope that we do not have too extreme changes in the weather of our country Guatemala, because we are used to have wonderful weather, sometimes we need to use a light jacket of sweater but it is never too cold or too hot to go outside. We all like to make activities outdoors, and our weather let us to realize this activities all around the year.

Today I have to write about somebody I know, a person who has given mi a good example to follow. I have been thinking a lot about this, I think there are a lot of persons I admire, but there is one person I met some years ago that I think is a good example to follow. His name is Dr. Ricardo Asturias Valenzuela. He is the medical director of the Sociedad Protectora del Niño, He is like 90 years old, He has been the medical director of this place for more than 60 years. He started working there, as a volunteer, when he just graduated from medical school. He has been dedicating almost ol of his life to this place. Sociedad Protectora del Niño facilitates the work of mothers who work to build a better present and a future.

In 1920, it was a dream, which became a reality that will make it easier for many women workers.
These are the nurseries of the Sociedad Protectora del niño, an organization which to date reaches more than 3,500 children daily. Given special care, food, education and medical care to contribute to their physical, mental and emotional.

The Sociedad Protectora del niño is a private, social, educational, nonprofit, or religious and apolitical, which essentially seeks cooperation and assistance to poor families in the care, protection, education and welfare of children.

The child shall enjoy special protection and opportunities and provide service at, all protected by law and by other means, to enable him to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially in a healthy and normal, and in conditions of freedom and dignity. To enact legislation to this end, the key consideration is the child's best interest.

Also, it offers social care for families, early stimulation for all the kids who receive the services, pre-school education, tutoring, physiological guidance, parental school, nutrition programs, health program.

I admire Dr. Asturias Valenzuela because even today he works there day after day and works very hard to keep this place open. I know a lot about the Sociedad Protectora del Niño because my mom goes once a week to make social work there. She has told me about all the effort they have to do to get money to maintain these kids. They are always thinking of new ways to maintain this place open. Sometimes I had visited one of the houses they have where they take care of these kids, all the kids are happy to be there, they are treated with love and they take good care of them. Dr. Asturias thinks that this kids are the future of Guatemala, and we have to give our kids good values and principles in order to get good citizens. He fights for the rights of these kids, because for them is very difficult to get the money to keep these houses open.

Dr. Asturias, as other people there, works in Sociedad Protectora del Niño as a volunteer, and he had dedicated more than 60 years to these kids. I admire what he does there, and I know that they are doing a great job, because they are helping to take care of the kid whose parents can not pay a private institution and they have to go to their jobs and they do not have where to live their kids.

They take care of kids from 20 days old to 7 years old. They have different groups according their age, they have doctors, teachers, physiologist, dentist, etc. they give the kids the best and they does not have to pay for this service.

To get the money to keep this places open, they receive donations, they make once a year a dinner to get funds, they make two raffles a year and they make a lot of different activities to continue giving this service.

If somebody is interested in helping this organization, I write the link here of their page in the internet, where we can learn more about it. The link is http://www.spn.org.gt/index.php.

It is important that organizations like this continue working and people like Dr. Ricardo Asturias continue giving his time to help others.

FACUNDO CABRAL

Three days ago I did not know who Facundo Cabral was.  On Saturday morning I listened to my parents talking about his death.  I saw on television what happened to him.  At first I was very angry that things like this could happen in our country, then I was sad for this crime.  

After watching television I went to my computer and in google I tried  to find news about Facundo Cabral, what I found out made me even more sad.  I learned that he was a person who liked  to talk about peace, about the rights of the people and about the mistake of using violence.  He was a happy person and liked to write and talk about life.   I learned that he learned to write when he was nine year old,  his  family was very poor and he had to work very hard to become what he was at the end of his life.  He  was the youngest of three children, he was raised by his mother after his father deserted the family. He had to travel to Buenos Aires when he was still a child, he was arrested when he was still a kid a and he was locked up in a reformatory, he managed to escape and became a a  christian person thanks to a Jesuit priest.

He worked a series of  jobs, including street cleaning and farm laborer. He always liked the music and in his free time he learned how to play the guitar, he started singing in street and restaurants, and he liked to write his own lyrics, however, his outspoken lyrics,  caused  controversy. He moved to Mar the Plata where he got a job as a singer in a hotel but he was labeled a protest singer, when he was in his twenties , he was forced to leave Argentina  and seek exile in Mexico.

In 1966, the United Nations Department of Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO) declared him a "worldwide messenger of peace." Cabral overcame numerous obstacles in his climb toward international fame.

He remained a world citizen, however, performing in more than 150 countries. Returning to Argentina in 1984, Cabral performed a series of concerts in Buenos Aires' Luna Park that attracted as many as 6,000 people each night. Three years later, he performed at Buenos Aires' football stadium for an audience of more than 50,000 people. Cabral toured with Alberto Cortes in May 1994.

He met so many important people like Mother Teresa and Jorge Luis Borges. He performed in over 165 countries in eight different languages.

His wife and one year-old daughter were killed in a plane crash in 1978. He was nearly blind and crippled, and was a cancer survivor as well.

After reading about him I had to admire him.  I admire his vision of the world, I admire his determination to become a better person each day, he was an optimistic. He was a survivor,  I thing all of us are going to remember him as he was, a person who loved life.

I will try to follow his example, because he became a great man and at the beginning of his life he did not have any opportunities, he worked very hard to became  the person he was, he made mistakes but he learned from them. He had to face a lot of problems all of his life but he always wrote about the good thing in our world.  I thing he was a person who deserved to be called a worldwide messenger of peace. 

I am sad because he did not deserve to die the way he did, nobody deserves that,  I hope that they find the persons who did this and send them to jail. They do not deserve to be free after this crime.  Facundo Cabral deserves justice.

As I wrote at the beginning of this paragraph, three days ago I did not know who Facundo Cabral was, now he is a person that I admire.  I wish I had read his biography when he was alive.