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!