Estoy Aqui!

Hola from Guatemala! So, writing in this thing is going to take a little more effort that I thought. Here’s a little snipit of what’s going on so far.

My week in Chicago was really busy but nice. We had a lot of seminars on safety and globalization, among other heavy world issues, Bible studies, worship, and get-to-know-you time. All of the YAV participating in the program this year were there so it was fun to get to know the other volunteers that will be living all over the world. Chicago is a really neat city.

Ok, so now for the fun stuff! Guatemala! The other volunteers and I (there are 4 of us, Ali, Audrey, Samantha, and Sarah) left Chicago at 3am and arrived in Guatemala city at 12pm. It was raining so it took us seven hours to drive from Guatemala to Quetzaltenango, which is also known as Xela. We spent the frist couple of days with our coordinator, Marcia, her adorable baby, Joshua, and a missionary couple from NC, David and Jeannene, getting to know each other and the city. Wednesday we went out for my birthday dinner in an Indian restaurant. Marcia, David and Jeannene brought cake and presents and we had a really good time.

Thursday we started Spanish classes. We have private instructors which is really cool and I think my Spanish is going to be pretty spectacular by the time I move to my placement site in October. My teacher also is going to teach me some words in Kanhabal (the Mayan language in my placement town). Did I mention that we’re the only students in the school? It’s pretty sweet. We ate the rest of my birthday cake and the teachers made me take a bite and smushed my face in it- apparently that’s customary for the birthday girl. I, also, moved in with my first host family. It’s a mom and dad, 3 daughters, and a granddaughter. They are really energetic and say I’m part of the family already. It’s a nice house, about a two second walk from the school, and my “mom” is a good cook and wants to teach me all of her Guatemalan recipes. It was nice to unpack after weeks of living out of a suitcase.

So, everything is so-far-so good on the Guatemala home front. It’s been really rainy the past couple of days but Guatemala is a really pretty country. Xela is a cute city and I’m excited to get to know it better and spend more time with everyone before I go to my town. Which, by the way, it’s called Yajabcu Signup, my host family has 10 kids, the mother doesn’t speak Spanish, and I’ll be teaching workshops on basic health and hygeine, AIDS, and first aid to women who also don’t speak Spanish so I’ll have to find a translator. I’m going to be working with David a lot, too, translating for mission groups that come from the US. That’s all the info I’ve got as of now, I’m pretty excited.

We’re going on a field trip to some hot springs tomorrow and going to visit Audrey’s church on Sunday. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to spend the year with and I love having to speak Spanish all the time. I have a fun-filled night of journal writing and reading ahead of me so that’s all for now. I'll post pictures soon. Over and out.