Feliz Navidad!

Sorry for my lack of updates! My motivation has gone out the window!
Instead of boring you with every mundane thing i have done in the past month, I´ll just post some pictures!

The christmas tree in San Mateo, there was a little ceremony when they lit it and I met the mayor! He reminded me of Bill Richardson..

My sister´s kitten Minino, I´m slightly obsessed.

We made pecan pie at our YAV retreat!

Some relatives of my host dad make typico clothing, and my mom had this bag made for me!

Dancer at the Baktun celebration! I might marry him.

Me as an angel in our church Christmas play...I was magnificant if I do say so myself!

Christmas poches! SO AMAZING!

Well that´s enough of an update, my parents will be here tomorrow so I must prepare! Yo estoy feliz como un lombriz! That means happy as a worm. Worms here must be happier than worms in New Mexico.

Cual Gran Es El

I was not planning on updating the blog as I have done absolutely nothing interesting in the past week and a half, but my father Atticus ever so politely reminded me that I should. 

These are the events of consequence that I have accomplished in the past week and a half:
I popped into the hospital for a bit (guatemalan hospitals, while very clean and nice, are quite boring! there was not even a radio in the room)
I helped with vacation bible school at my church (actually i think i did more standing around than helping, but i´m sure my presence was a gift :). )
I knitted a scarf (its purple and blue and kind of ugly, but i wear it all the time anyways)
I started reading five books and have finished approximately...zero 

However, I did have a minor breakthrough this morning as I finally figured out how to shut the water in the pila off! For those of you who don´t know, probably all of you, this is a pila:



This is not my pila, but I borrowed the picture off google..hope nobody minds! Our pila is a bit old and the faucet is broken, so we turn it off using a combination of a plastic bag and a hair tie. My mom calls it ¨modern¨hahah! But today I finally figured out how to turn it off myself. I was so proud! Also, we do laundry in the pila. Which means I postpone doing laundry for as long as possible. 

..Well i think that´s enough for now. I was going to leave you with a picture of my family´s cat, Mininoe (or some variation of that spelling), but I forgot my camera cord. Have a good week!

New beginnings

I have had an eventful past couple of weeks!

I usually use my journal to write my blogs but I forgot it so I will just have to wing it..

I went to my first Guatemalan wedding! A couple from my church got married and my parents were their godparents. The wedding lasted...five hours! It was a lot of fun though and it was good to see everybody so happy. 

Family photo after the wedding

I had never met the couple before..but my mom made me be in the pictures anyways!

After the wedding my brother gave me a guitar lesson. I mentioned once to my mom that I wanted to learn and my brother offered to give me lessons without me even asking. My family is truly amazing.

As most of you already know, we had a major earthquake here. I was at school when it happened so I gathered my little children to me and huddled under the door. Two people in San Mateo died and many more died in San Marcos. My house is okay, there is just a large crack all the way down the hallway. 

The other YAVs, Marcia, and I had our November retreat at a coffee finca (plantation). It was so amazing! We got to pick coffee with the workers, and I actually really enjoyed it. Most Guatemalans can´t afford to buy coffee from Guatemala (we always drink instant coffee) and it makes me so sad. It´s like a New Mexican who can´t afford green chile because it´s all exported.

I honestly did not know coffee was red..the process is quite interesting!

We all went on a hike and explored the finca, we climbed up a cliff using only tree roots, it was awesome!

We had another earthquake, it wasnt as strong as the first one but still did some damage in San Mateo. The large crack in my hallway has grown but the house is still standing!

My host mom celebrated her 50th birthday while I was gone at the retreat. Being the amazing person that she is, she saved me birthday cake. I am going to live with her forever!

Today was the graduation for the kids at Ceipa. I was so proud of my little students! Well actually they are big students as most of them are at least 15, but I am about two feet taller than them. These kids only graduated sixth grade, but that is such an accomplishment for them. These kids have to decide daily whether they will work to support their family or go to school. That is not a decision a child should ever have to make. 

my two favorite non graduating boys, they still have a year left

After graduation!

I´m sure more things happened..but my memory is still failing me. Oh well!

Tamalitos and cookies

I have not really had access to a computer lately, so I apologize for not updating!

I made chocolate chip cookies for my family last weekend, and for some reason they were as flat as a pancake. Like almost see-through. My mom thought I ¨tortilliad¨them. Perhaps it was because I didn´t have measuring cups and eyeballed everything..oops.

I gave my first english lesson! Those poor children... Half the time they ask me what a word is in english but I don´t know what the word in spanish is so I just make something up...

My family does not celebrate Dias de los Muertos, so Annie came over and we went to the cemetary by ourselves.  

Friday was my sister´s graduation and we had no less than half the population of China in our house. We all woke up early and made TONS of food. 

 We made tamalitos, pure maize wrapped in leaves and cooked.

The party after the graduation was really fun, everybody made sure to include me so I didnt feel left out. There is a boy at church that speaks English, and I offered to help him with his english if he helped me with my spanish..he didnt seem too enthused. rude. I´m still working on him though.

There is also this lady at church that is about 402 years old, and is about three feet tall. Even shorter than my grandma! She has half a tooth left and only one eye but she is very cool. She dances during the service when she wants to, she prays outloud when she wants to, she sings whatever song she wants to, regardless of whether the rest of us are singing the same song. She also rocks out when the worship band plays and claps to a beat that only she can here. Everytime I see her she toddles over to say hi to me, I really like her. 

On that note, I must go prepare for another English class today. Hope you all have a good week!

Sun and Sand

This week was..different.

Sunday I woke up at an inhumane hour (4) to go to Champerico for some good ole fashioned baptisms! It was about a three hour bus ride and I had no idea what was going on the entire time, as per usual. The baptisms took place in a swimming pool,which was a new experience for me as I am used to the sprinkling water on a baby method. Then we went to the beach! I love the beach! I drank coconut water out of a coconut while standing on the beach with my sisters..perfection!

I was supposed to teach my first english lesson on Tuesday, but for some reason the school had no water and then class was cancelled. Communication is not quite a high priority so I was the last to know about the cancellation. Oh well! I am learning to be flexible..

Wednesday class was cancelled again, so no english that day either!

Thursday I was supposed to teach math to the little kids in the morning but for some reason the teacher did not show up so..class was cancelled again!

Friday there was finally class, but we went to the zoo instead of learning anything. It was great. 

Today is my two month anniversary of being in the Guate! Time is going by so quickly and I am experiencing so many new things. Just last week I found a chicken heart in my soup! Que rico! 

Also I got ran over by a cart in the market yesterday but I feel it may have been slighly intentional. And we had another earthquake, but as they seem to happen mostly in the nighttime they are kind of soothing. Like those reclining chairs at nail salons that vibrate. 

I brought my camera to the beach to take pictures, but I didn´t actually take any as it was about 500 degrees with 1400 percent humidity and I felt like the witch from Wizard of Oz that melts...

I also believe I am supposed to teach english on Wednesday to all of Ceipa, aka like 200 people. I will let you know how that one goes. 

Nessy

There was no class this week at Ceipa, so I had absolutely nothing to do. Here are more details on my extreme lack of activities.
Monday: I slept in and then helped my mom cook some food. I took a nap. I read some books.
Tuesday: I thought I had a meeting at Ceipa so I went into town. But no, there was no meeting. So typical in the Guate. I basically never have any idea what is going on. I came home, ate, read some books and took a nap.
Wednesday: My family got a chicken. I named her Nessy. She has beady eyes and looks at me like she hates me.
Thursday: Slept in. Ate. Read books. Took a nap.
Friday: Slept. Read books. Went into Xela to buy more books and eat with Kate. Took a nap.

Told you I did nothing all week. In other news, I survived my first earthquake! It happened Sunday really early in the morning. I was half asleep and everything started moving and shaking and I thought somebody either bombed San Mateo or a volcano was erupting. Then we had an earthquake on Monday too. Luckily they were only little ones and no damage was done. 
Nessy went away. I asked my family where she went and my sister said she left. Hmm.
I also took my first shower using a bucket. For some reason the knob for the faucet for the shower disappeared (also typical in the guate) and I had to use a bucket. I kind of liked it! 
Hopefully next week will be more interesting! 
I also have no pictures..as I spent most of my time eating or sleeping. Oops!

Por que El es Digno!

These past couple of weeks have been crazy!! I haven´t had internet access in a while so I will just give a quick recap along with some photos. 
We left San Juan Del Obispo and Antigua and headed to Xela for the weekend. We visited my site and met my family, Kate´s site and met her family, and Annie´s site and family. Everybody´s family is so nice and all the job placements seem really awesome.

We headed to a school in the mountains for a week to get a different experience and practice our Spanish a bit more. Needless to say, it was not quite what I had expected. I expected warm weather and only packed warm weather clothing. It was freezing all the time. And raining. It rained about 10 hours a day. Normally I like rain, but when you only have one pair of shoes and no dry clothes it´s not that great. And then we got sick. I got an ameoba and a bladder infection and Kate got an ameoba and a fungus. But we went to the health clinic and got medicine and we all are good now. I also encountered a new breed of mosquitos, and those little devils are evil! I got about 4 million bites on my legs, and almost two weeks later, they still itch! Don´t worry, I will post a picture of my bites. 

Bloody bites!!

Now for a recap of this week:
Sunday: I moved in with my host family! They are sooo amazing and so nice and all my host siblings are wonderful and I absolutely love all of them. We go to church in the afternoons in my village so that was different. The pastor introduced me to the entire church and then had me say a few words in front of everybody. I was so flustered that I couldn´t even speak in English let alone in Spanish. Luckily some lady translated for me so that was a relief. 

Monday-Friday:
I started my job! The school is absolute chaos. I broke up three fights in one day and kids just run around screaming all the time. I really like it though and most of the kids are super adorable. There is one little eight year old boy that has about four teeth and is the size of a five year old. He is the most precious child ever and does not seem to mind that we cannot communicate. I work in the mornings and the afternoons so I am gone all day. I am so exhausted when I get home! My mom is super amazing and lets me pick what I want for dinner. I usually just eat fruit. I am so happy with my family though!
The internet connection I have right now is really terrible, but expect a blog update next Saturday!

My lovely room!

Pizza with Kate and Annie!

Nachos as big as your head

This week was very busy!

Monday: Spanish school and then...I can´t remember but I´m sure it was cool. Oh i remember now, I just did laundry. Not that cool.  

Tuesday: We traveled to the Guate City in the morning con Marcia to visit CEDEPCA. CEDEPCA was such an amazing organization! Everybody was sooo nice and it was so interesting to learn about all the work they do. They do a lot of work with women and have women´s rights classes and they do a lot of education work with visiting groups. I can´t wait to work with them in the future.Spanish school in the afternoon. 

Wednesday: Spanish school in the morning and then Annie, Kate and I went on an adventure. We visited the most amazing school ever called the Arms of Jesus. It´s a school in a little town for really poor children and the school offers a lot of free services to them. They have free basic healthcare, dental services, free hair cuts and the school also teaches children how to use computers and sew. The administrators of the school were SO amazingly nice and grateful that we even came to visit. It was like the happiest place on earth. We walked into a classroom of five year olds and every single kid ran up to us and gave us all hugs. I don´t know if you have ever been swarmed by happy five year olds, but I absolutely loved it. Then we went to a school called Patajos ( i probably have the name wrong) but it is a school for street kids. The school teaches the kids breakdancing and painting and it was also amazing. I met a lovely ten year old boy named Samuel who put his hand on my leg and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I think I am going to marry him. Just kidding!

Thursday: Spanish school in the morning... and then the women´s co-op! It was called Corazon de Mujeres (i think) and it was formed by women who were affected by the violence and civil war. One of the women told us her story about the violence and it was so sad but it was good to hear it. They all sew beautiful crafts and the money goes to send their children to school so they will have better futures. I bought a beautiful scarf and it is so soft! 

Friday: Spanish school...and then sabbath time with Marcia. We talked about the enneogram (spelled it wrong) which is a personality type test thing. I did not fit any of the personality types, clearly I do not have a personality. We ate nachos as big as our head, picture to follow. They were good but I definitely ate too much. You know you over did it when six hours and one kickboxing class later, you are still full. I saw a boxing gym in Antigua so if I could find one in Xela, I would be the happiest YAV ever.

In other news, the ratio of Spanish I can understand is now larger than the ratio of Spanish I do not understand. Yay! I read the newspaper every day in school and tell my teacher about it, she is always very excited. There is a drink here called arroz con leche, it´s warm milk with sweet rice and it is so good! I always tell my teacher about it and she made me some on Friday and brought it to school with her! People in the Guate have such big hearts.

Sorry for such a long post, I was so busy! I´m sure I´m still forgetting stuff but my memory seems to be failing me these days..the joys of getting old!

Oh! Arms of Jesus website, go look and sponsor a child, they need our help! armsofjesus.org

Also, sorry for my bad spelling, it´s become very hard for me to spell in English since I speak Spanish all the time. 

Volcanoes Volcanoes

Mosquite bites on ankle bones and kneecaps are as unpleasant as they sound. 

Monday: The other YAVS and I met with Marcia and a man who works with CEDEPCA after language school. He talked about some of the problems in Guatemala. While what he said was very interesting, I have since forgotten all of it.

Tuesday: I had a moment of silence and then went to language school. I was very cranky due to 40,000 mosquito bites and lack of sleep. I painted my nails glittery as my self care.

Wednesday: Annie and I attempted to attend a Bachata dance class. However, I was cranky again and the teacher was incredibly creepy so we left early. I went to an event with my host family put on by the school my two sisters attend. It was for independence day and involved a lot of Spànish that I did not understand and a lot of drums. 

Thursday: Kate, Rachel y I had Spanish school for eight hours. My teacher and I played games and ate candy. After school, my four year old host sister and I bonded over our love for baby bunny. He was hiding from us so we spent a long time attempting to get him to come out of his hiding spot. Then she made me play a game with her involving running around in circles on the roof on a tarp. It was a bit strange. Kate came over at night and we watched the volcano, Volcán de Fuego, erupt from the roof. It was so crazy to see lava pouring down the side of the mountain.

Friday: We hiked an active volcano in the morning instead of going to school. Our guide put sticks over a lava hole and they caught fire. We roasted marshmallows over the lava fire. It was awesome.

Saturday: Independence day in the Guate! Kate, Annie y yo woke up super early to take a bus into Antigua to watch the parade. It also involved a lot of Spanish I didn´t understand and more drumming. People in the Guate sure do like their drums. 

My sister feeding baby bunny.

I think this is the erupting volcano. I could be wrong though and it could be the dormant one. Not sure!

Standing on the lava!

I will survive!

This was such a good week!
I had to move host families on Monday as my other host family got a little strange..but my new host family is so great! I watch telenovelas with my host sister and she helps me with my homework. And they have 8 rabbits, and one baby bunny that I am slightly obsessed with. On Monday night, my sister and I watched the volcano near Antigua have a mini eruption, we could actually see the lava going down the mountain! It was so cool!
Language school is going great, my teacher is so funny! Yesterday I was telling her about the telenovela that I have become obsessed with, and she fell out of her chair because she was leaning forward to hear me!
Annie, Rachel, Kate and I have made friends with three girls that make tortillas and they taught us how to make them, not as easy as it looks!
I have aquired about four thousand mosquite bites..lovely!!
I took a salsa class with the other kids from language school on Wednesday. The teacher was a typico Latino salsa man..kind of creepy! He had long hair slicked back and his shirt unbuttoned and he kept winking at Annie.. but the dancing part was kind of fun!
Also my feet have never smelled as bad as they do here...so great...
I learned how to handwash my clothes in a pila , it´s like a stone wash bin tub thing. My mom hung my clean laundry up on the roof to dry, including my underwear. It is still up there as I keep forgetting to take it down before it rains. Oh well! Being in the Guate has definitely made me more flexible!

Now for some pictures!

This is the view from this cross on a mountain by Antigua

Furry fruit!

Chocobananos

Rellenitos

Kate plunging the broken toilet

Cow!

Guate Guate Guate

Hola!! I have survived my first week in the Guate. We stayed at a hotel for the first couple of nights, and that was really nice. The water in Antigua went out so we had some plumbing...issues. I will post pictures later as soon as we figure out how to use the internet cafe computer.
I met my first host family, they are super nice. I will be staying with them for four weeks I think. We have serious communication issues so they just laugh at me when they ask me questions and I stare at them in return...Hopefully language school will help that!
Knock on wood, nobody has gotten sick yet. We have been eating lots of prunes to aid in digestive health, good self care!
All the food here has been good, minus a few unidentifiable vegetables..
I will post pictures later and give more details then...now it is time for us to eat cake!
hasta luego!

Placement Site!

My placement site has been chosen and I cannot be more excited! I will be working with an organization called Ceipa, which works through CEDEPCA-Centro Evangelico de Estudios Pastorales en Centro America. Of course, I have no idea what most of that means, but I will find out soon enough!


My location will be Quetzaltenango, aka Xela. It's about four hours west of Guatemala City and the second largest city in the country. Each weekday I will work at Ceipa with their elementary education program. They have small schools for children who have to work and have missed years of school and are now too old for their grade in public education. I will be in the classroom supporting the teacher and spending one-on-one time with the students tutoring and mentoring them. 


The climate in Xela is cool all year round, which is perfect, because we all know I complain about New Mexico summers all the time! The population of Xela is a combination of ladinos (people who don't identify themselves as Mayan) and Maya Quiche people. My housing situation is not confirmed yet, but I will most likely be living in a Mayan community just outside Xela. 


I will start off with five weeks of language school in Antigua. My Spanish skills are nonexistent, so I am hoping language school can fix that!


Y'all can expect an update once I get more information!

Hey y'all! Feel free to read this and laugh at me as I attempt to adjust to life living in Guatemala! 
I will be leaving August 20 for orientation in New York, so I still have about two months to prepare myself. I'll find out my placement in July so check back then to find out what I'll be doing in Guatemala :)
I'm still working on fundraising, so if anybody feels the need to donate to me, do so here: http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/yav/support-yavs/




Just click on my name and go!


Thanks!