Too Much to Say, Too Little Time

OK, so keeping up with the blog is a bit more difficult than expected. The internet cafe doesn´t have the best hours, and I´m rarely at home so this post will be many adventures combined into one post.

We finished language school last week; it was good, but not nearly enough. We also learned quite a bit about Guatemalan culture and geography in language school. We visited a pueblo/village called San Antonio to learn firsthand about the culture. The first picture is of my two classmates Melissa and Ted getting married in a traditional Mayan-Guatemalan ceremony in traditional dress. The woman is using incense to get rid of the evil spirits for the marriage. Then there is the picture of another woman teaching me how to make a tortilla in a typical kitchen.

After we finished language school on Friday Melissa and I took a little trip with our Guatemalan brother Adam; he is neither Guatemalan, nor my brother, but that´s what I call him. He´s another volunteer we hang out with a lot. We went to Monterrico Beach on Friday, which has black sand from the volcanic rock (the country has lots of volcanoes). The third picture above is us on the porch of our hotel there. You´ll notice the thatched roof on it...more like camp than a hotel. Anyway, Friday night it started pouring rain while we were in the swimming pool, so we got out and ran to our room only to find that it was pouring rain inside there too! Also the power went out which led to showers in the rain on the porch! Then our adventures took us to Lake Atitlan which is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We were only there briefly. Then on Sunday we went to the Chichicastenango market which is supposedly the best in Guatemala. It was a fun day of haggling (thanks for all the training, Dad) and buying all sorts of things. Anyway, we got back Sunday exhausted because of our journeys and vowed to relax a bit more next weekend, but honestly it was a blast!

Yesterday I started volunteering in the Project, and I LOVE it! I had a little trouble my first morning because I was with the oldest kids and my Spanish wasn´t good enough to help with homework or really know what was going on. I quickly got demoted to a fourth grade class where the teacher Miriam was so grateful to have me there, and I can speak 4th grade Spanish much better. I love my classes; I have one group of kids in the morning and one in the afternoon with 44 in all. Please pray for relationships with my little friends and with their teacher. I think it´s going to be an amazing three weeks with them. I will take my camera to school soon and send pics of my class when I get a chance.

OK, I´ve got to run to dinner before my host mom serves it all to the other 8 people in my house. I´ll post again when I can...love to all!!