Life in Guatemala

We begin our day at 6:30 with a delicious breakfast made by my host mom, Isabel.  This can range from beans and sweet bread to hot dogs and scrabbled eggs.  This is always served with tea, which is a favorite of Liz, my new roommate.  Then its a short hike up to the top of the hill where the school in located.  We start by going up a goat trail behind our house.  This is not a normal trail.  It is mostly filled with trash and there are wild chicken that run around up there.  It's quite interesting to say the least. The trail leads to a paved road that takes us to the school for morning devotions with the kids.  After devotion time we are either planning for an ESL program, which is a pilot program for Global Shore for Pre-Kindergarden, Kindergarden, and Grade 1, or building a house.  Yes folks, I am helping to build a house, which should be completed by the end of the summer.  In the afternoons, we are either running the ESL program (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) or continuing to work on the house.  Everyday from 4-6 we have one-on-one Spanish lessons with a native Guatemalan speaker.  My teacher's name is Haydee (pronounce ay-de) .  She only speaks Spanish so it's pretty much full immersion.  At first I was a little worried that we would not be able to communicate at all but it has worked out really well.  I love her.  She is hilarious.  On Monday nights we have team time and Wednesdays in church.  Those days are pretty jam packed with events.  Saturdays are a little bit more relaxed.  We spend the morning with the Jacobo, eating delicious food and drinking delicious coffee and learning more about God.  The afternoons are fairly slack.  We are helping with a VBS run by a women in the town every Saturday afternoon.  The children here are great and I being able to have this opportunity to grow.  Love you all!

Guate!!!!!!!!! We're here!!!!!!!!!!

So here I am in good 'ole Guatemala.  It is such a different culture here.  I quite enjoy the food difference here. Beans, tortillas, plantains, and spaghetti with salsa (surprisingly delicious).  It's a good thing Liz and I live halfway up the hill so we can work off all these delicious carbs.  We are also really lucky to have a warm shower, also known as a suicide shower.  This name was given to the fact that there is electricity and water in the same general vicinity.  However, I survived my first shower here none-the-less.  the children at the school are really loving and I think I've fallin' in love with them already.  They are the sweetest things ever, words cannot describe it fully.  yeah we've been here for a few days and my body is still trying to get adjusted to all the new sights and sounds and my heart is trying to get used to the poverty here.  More later when I can stay on a singular topic.