22 Weeks and Counting....

Things here have been pretty great lately! I’ve been blessed with 3 little brothers to liven up my house, and it’s turned out better than I ever would have expected! My host mom’s daughter, who is 30, has moved into the house that adjoins ours with her kids, Yobani 8, Agustin 4, and Cesar 2. I thought this would mean many more messes and much more noise, and it certainly does, but it’s been a blessing in disguise. Yobani and Agustin just started school at the colegio where I work, and so they get up, have breakfast, and walk to and from school with me every day. They also come with me to the field and watch me run every night to make sure I don’t get kidnapped, although I think Agustin really just likes looking for bugs with his flashlight. The youngest, Cesar, who is about to turn 2 has a bad habit of biting, hitting people with a belt, and pulling my hair and face VERY hard, but as long as I keep my distance, he’s pretty great, too. He’s taught me important lessons about the functionality, or lack thereof, of cloth diapers, and that kids start drinking coffee here when they are less than a year old. No wonder everyone is so short!! So I’m really excited to have these kids around and a little extra activity has been a nice change. The kisses before bed certainly don’t hurt either. I’m becoming convinced that I might actually want some kids of my own someday!

Well, school has started officially and that’s been quite an adventure. I’ve been observing classes for the past 2 weeks, and today I had a meeting to give the director, my boss, and the head of the board my thoughts. I’m excited to start teaching here and am excited also about my lesson plans, but I have to admit, the school is even crazier than I expected. The ¨rules¨ here are much, much different than in the States. Kids control the classrooms much more, and that is really hard for me to handle, especially in limited Spanish. I am not accustomed first of all to teaching in general, but I’m certainly not used to kids walking out of the room whenever they feel like it, fighting like crazy and even hitting me, and basically declaring time for recess whenever they feel it’s necessary. That plus about 8 trips to the bathroom for each student every day are enough to make me nuts! But I guess these are things I’m gonna have to work with, although hopefully with the help and support of the director and other teachers in the school. And don’t get my wrong, most of the students are great and they are all SO excited about learning English and computers, so I really am looking forward to it….. But please pray that I am not left alone with the first grade class ever again, or else I might take the next flight home!!

On Saturday the 20th, I visited La Selva (the jungle) with my host mom and a contingent from our church. We had to travel in the back of a pick-up for over an hour, climb down a trail, cross a river on a footbridge, and climb up a big hill to get there. So just arriving was an adventure, and for me, those are the best trips! But THEN, I realized we were there to attend the 15th birthday party of a girl in the local church (and my church helped to start their church), which is basically like a wedding! The girl wore a pink wedding-style dress and had an attendant who was like a bridesmaid, got a mountain of presents, 2 rings, and had a huge feast with a few hundred people. It was nuts! Everyone gets party favors too, so it ends up being a really expensive thing for the families and makes me wonder why this tradition continues. The girl cried like crazy and obviously I have missed some of the significance, but I think basically she is considered a woman now, and it was interesting none-the-less. I just hope she will hold off on getting married or having children for a few years, as that is a MAJOR problem here. I wish they would wait and celebrate the 20th birthday this way instead of the 15th, so that maybe people wouldn’t get this idea in their heads that it’s time to have kids when you really still are a kid. BUT obviously my opinion is contradictory to what is happening in the culture, so…. just some food for thought….

I spent the past 5 days with the other YAVS. We went to a finca near Coatepeque and hung out for a few days, catching up on what’s happened in the past 6 weeks, discussing the books we read this month for work, and learning about personality types. It was probably the simplest retreat we’ve had, but I’ve learned to really appreciate just being together and enjoying my quiet time. We watched some movies on my computer, cut each others hair, and took an awesome hike to a waterfall, also, so it was a great weekend. We ended by going to Xela Saturday for lunch at Café Babylon, and you´d be surprised how much one can enjoy hummus, a good salad, and a beer. Oh, the small things in life!

Well, I’m pretty excited about everything coming up in the next 2 months, and pretty excited that I’m really feeling at home here. I’m planning on getting involved in a health committee in my presbytery who travels around holding events to inform people about hygiene and other preventative health measures. I’m pretty excited about it because there are a lot of interesting people on the committee, including some people around my age, and it also means I’ll get to see some of the other churches in the Presbytery. I also can’t wait for my b-day. The other YAVs are all gonna come to my house and we’re gonna make dinner for my host-family. What makes that even more exciting is that Margot finally moved her furniture in yesterday and WE HAVE AN OVEN!! I’m foreseeing many cookies and cakes in the near future!

Alright well this is about as good as an update as I have for now, but I´ll try to write something more thought provoking soon! Hope all is well in the world (haha) or at least in your world! And remember, one thing doesn’t make a man.