First 2 Months....

I can’t believe I’ve been in Guatemala for 2 months now. The time has FLOWN by, with the exception of the past week. For the first 7 weeks, I was living in Xela (Quetzaltenango) and taking Spanish classes at Centro Maya de Idiomas. During that time, I lived with a host family that I LOVED. The parents were in their 20’s and had three great kids who were 7, 3, and 7 months. I also had an amazing time traveling around and getting to know the other three girls who are here working as Young Adult Volunteers (Leslie, Lora, and Sarah).
Two weeks ago, Lora and Leslie moved to their communities, and Sarah and I moved last week to ours (we each live in different places in the country). I knew the first week would be hard, and it definitely didn’t let me down! I live with a couple who is in their 60’s and a girl who is 18 who cooks and cleans for them. There are two houses in our compound, and the other one belongs to the preacher and his family. In between our houses is the church. It’s a little outdoor church that only has walls on one side and it’s simplicity is wonderful (not to mention much cooler).
My house is very easily comparable to a cabin and my day to day existence is similar to that of summer camp- without the fun games and friends though (haha hopefully that will come in time). The temperature in my room averages 82 degrees, but the shower, in contrast, is so cold it takes my breath away! And then there are the many creatures that share our house, including the mosquitoes that were eating me alive for the first few nights. I’m happy to report that I got a bug net for my bed though, which hopefully will prevent me from getting malaria. It also makes me feel a little more secure from the 6 inch spiders, lizards, crickets, etc.
The language barrier has been killing me this past week. It’s really hard to talk to my family. Sometimes I think they are making up their own form of Spanish to confuse me. The worst is when they don’t use the primary or even secondary meanings of verbs, but choose to use the 5th instead. It’s been really interesting, although I think we’ve had some breakthroughs in communication in the past few days. My host mom accidentally shot me in the face with juice from an orange she was eating the other night and we FINALLY had something to laugh about together! We have a cook/cleaning girl who is 18 (it’s really common in Guatemala) and we have finally started to be friends, too, which is great!
My favorite thing about my new house is the HUGE hammock in my living room. It’s at least 15 feet long and it’s got a cord so that you can swing yourself. People fight to sleep in it at night. It’s crazy and one time I saw FOUR people sleep there together.
My other passion here in Guatemala is the public transportation. My favorite is standing in the back of a pickup truck going 60 miles an hour down the road. But a close second are the micro-busses, which are 12 passenger vans that usually carry between 15-25 people. At the fair, we counted 30 people getting out of one micro-bus- an amazing accomplishment I must say! The 3rd greatest form of transportation are the camionettas- busses that are usually run down yellow school busses from the states. The Guatemalans pack equally impressive numbers of people in these. On my way back from Xela this weekend I saw a record FIVE people in one seat!!
………..This weekend, I’m supposed to start two programs at the church. This is a huge surprise since I didn’t think I would really be “working” until I start teaching school in January. But the church has decided that on Saturdays, I’ll be working with the youth, and on Sundays, I’ll be working with the little kids. I can handle little kids, but I’m a little nervous about working with the youth with my limited Spanish. Luckily, there are only about six of them in the whole church and I think I’ve met them all…. Another program I’m supposed to start in December will involve teaching English to the congregation. Again, that should be interesting since I’ve never really taught anyone to do anything before.
Well, this is a pretty good overview of what’s been going on down here in Guatemala for now. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to the internet more often and update again soon!