a little late...

So I am taking the time to write in my blog because I have plenty of time due to the sickness that has hit me. I got sick last night and can’t seem to shake it today. I missed out on ministry sites and class because I am sick. I didn’t realize how hard it is to speak in Spanish when you have a headache…my host mom has been taking care of me, and asking me what I need and it takes me a few seconds to process what it is she’s saying and how to respond.
This last weekend was the best time I have ever had in my whole life. I don’t think there is anything else that we’ll do while here that will top last weekend. We took a 8 hour road trip to this place called semuc Shampey. It is a natural park here that lies between mountains. The park consists of mountains, hiking trails, fresh water pools, waterfalls, and caves. We hiked up a part of the mountain to a lookout spot where we could see the fresh water pools from above. Though the hike was “muy dificil”, it was totally worth it, I have not seen anything more beautiful in my lifetime. From the mountain we could see the freshwater pools and waterfalls moving in-between mountains. We stood up there for a while and took pictures then we went down the mountain to swim in the pools. The pools were amazing; you could see everything in the water, including the tiny little fish that bit some of us. We swam in there for a while, and used one little waterfall as a water slide. After the water pools we went to this huge swing, where we swung into the water. I was sooo excited when I went I ended up landing on my side, but it was amazing!
After the swing we all went to get candles and made our way into the cave. We were in there for an hour and a half. Inside of the caves there were waterfalls and big pools of water. In some parts there wasn’t any water, but in others there was water that was so deep that you couldn’t touch the bottom. One of my favorite parts inside the cave was climbing up a waterfall, it was amazingly fun! At one point we got to a place in the cave where our guide had us blow out our candles and told us to be completely quiet. It was the weirdest thing to be in pitch darkness only hearing the sound of water flowing. After a minute or two, someone started singing the doxology and we all joined in. After this, we made our way out of the caves and tubed down the river back to our truck. We all piled into the back of this flatbed truck and made our way back to our hotel. The ride was also amazing! We rode through mountains and as we did so, I sat on the edge of the truck and just took in everything that I saw. The rainforest covered mountains were an amazing sight. The whole trip was absolutely amazing and filled with new experiences… I wouldn’t trade this weekend for anything!

A tad bit of everything

So I have made it through one half on the first term in language school. This accomplishment comes with a mixture of feelings...ne being, Yay that means I get to go home soon..HA. Another,extreme exhaustion. Another, frustration. Another, uncertainity. Another, satisfaction. Another, ecitement. Another, so thankful for this experience. now, how can one have all these feelings at once? I don't know. I need to work through all this with someone, but the problem is I can't. I mean I know I can, but nobody knows me well enough to know what I mean. I know I can pray, but sometimes you just need that person who knows. Oh well...I understand that I have hit the "panic" stage of adjustment...but apparently it is followed by acceptance..haha

Aside from that everything is going so well! I love our group and we're slowly/ not so slowly getting to know one another well. I am staying in a house with my roomie, Terra and two boys from Korea. The two boys are here to learn English, and speak only a little bit of Spanish, so meals are spent translating. One Korean kid will speak to Korean to the other, he will either tell us what the other one said in Spanish or english. If it's english, I have to translate that into spanish for our host family...it is sooo funny, and enjoyable.

The city that we're staying in is so pretty! you can see the volcanos from any spot in the city. I have the pleasure of doing my school on the roof where I have a view of three volcanos! It is quite a lovely thing to be a part of. I have visited this amazingly lovely hotel about 5 times now.. it is honestly the loveliest place I have seen. I went to mass there the yesterday, and it was one of the most unreal feelings ever. I would try to explain how lovely it is, but it wouldn't work, so i'll just let you imagine.

I think that is all that I feel like writing for the moment.

a jumbling of days

2-2-10

Today was a really long day..we walked for about four hours. My job here is to help to Aaron, one of the site leaders, give out loans. We also check on people who have loans, and people who need loans. So, today we walked through the streets to check on the few women who had/wanted loans. It is an interesting job, and you get to see the different lives the people lead, but trying to understand Spanish from a native speaker is very difficult and gets to be a little tiring. After walking for four hours, I was able to take a nap. This is the first nap that I have taken since arriving here in Guatemala. For those of you who know me well know that not being able to nap killed, and I thoroughly enjoyed my nap! After my nap I got in the van and left for class in Antigua. Antigua is about a 30 min drive from Magdalena. Antigua is soooo beautiful! The beauty is beyond explanation. I keep taking photos with the hope that I can capture the beauty, but I can’t and that is very frustrating.

The car ride back to Magdalena was interesting. I sat in the front with one of the missionaries here…he asked me a few questions which led me to talk about some of the things that led me to go to school in MN. One of those reasons being the relationship that I developed with my sisters. So that conversation was very interesting..turns out that he is a social worker.. which would explain why the conversation went in the direction that it did as fast as it did. Anyway, that is another story for another time.

When we returned, we went to dinner. We eat dinner every day in a café down the street. We had great conversation..one involving shooting televisions…muhahaha.

Both Terra and I returned home thinking that we were going to go straight to bed, but we were invited into the kitchen by our host mom, so we accepted. We talked for so long, and I enjoyed it so much! Los padres de la casa are so adorable! And when la madre laughs, it’s the cutest thing ever! I enjoy it so much! I am going to miss them when we leave. We talked about some of the silliest things, but I only know how to talk about the little things in life…SOOO I did my best to make it interesting..haha I think it worked. I told the mom de mi casa that she needed to throw a huge birthday party for herself and that she needs to fill her piñata with money. When I said that, el padre de mi casa asked if we put money in the piñatas back home.

3-2-10

Today when I arrived at my ministry site, I was told that we would be vaccinating chickens. I was very excited to do so! We had to vaccinate 70 at our first house. We vaccinate them by putting droplets in their eyes. Ryan, Aaron, and I picked up the chicks and put drops in their eyes, but our other group member, Josh, would. He apparently is afraid of baby chicks. Well, by the end he was forced to participate, and all I could do was laugh while I watched him pick up the chicks. He face was so full of fear and disgust..you know the type of face you would have if you stumbled upon a snake eating a baby calf? Well, that face belonged to Josh today. Just when I thought the day had reached its high point, Aaron asked Josh to put the chickens back in the cage by the handful. Watching Josh do this was the highlight of my year; the faces that he made caused me to laugh harder than the Bangkok joke.. needless to say this laughter was totally inappropriate, which is probably why I couldn’t stop. Next, we went to a house that had bigger chicks..needless to say this exchange was even more amusing! We vaccinated more than 100 chicks today. I found the whole ordeal completely entertaining, but I think I was the only one who did. Oh yeah, josh ended the day bay saying “I could only kill an animal for survival purposes.” I burst into even more laughter after he said this. I wish you could have heard the tone of his voice when he said this. (the more I am around Spanish, the worse my English gets..please forgive me if some of these phrases don’t make sense..haha)

4/2/10

So after my last entry yesterday it hit me…yes, my wanting to be around people who know me best hit me, and I got annoyed. I wanted to talk to someone who knows what I mean without having to go into great detail. Oh well…I got over it, and went to bed. Ohhh and by the way I am allergic to chickens.

Today we went around the city helping people with some of the things they need. One of those things included carrying huge buckets of water. The buckets were the size of those huge paint buckets that contractors use. A part of my job here is to give mini loans to people who need them to help them build their businesses. Today, we visited a woman who took out a loan a while ago, but was unable to make the payments because one of her twins became ill and needed medicine. The mission that I am working with gave the woman some chicken to sell so that she would be able to get back on her feet. This was such a blessing to see; she started crying and kept thanking God for his gift. I know people say that small gifts go a long way, but you never really believe it until you witness it in front of your eyes. In the states 20 chicks would mean nothing to many of us, but here it’s the beginning of something new and wonderful for many people. It’s good for me to see.

I will post more as soon as I have time :)

from sunday til now

So, I have been internetless since sunday. I will try to update you on what I have been up to since sunday... I don't really want to fill you in with al the details, but I will do my best to give details. On sunday we went all over Guatemala city, as well as going to a cemetary, local dump, and the local mall. The mall is nicer than any I have seen in the US, and the prices are the same. It's crazy to see that they are the same because they don't make much money here, and for many, feeding the family is a struggle.

After our small trips, we packed our bags and left for Magdalena. 45 mins later we arrived in the homes of our host families. Magdalena is in the mountains, so taking a bus up there was a tad bid freaky! at one point the drives had to back the bus up the mounain. The roads here are soo skinny, so this was very impressive! Every host family was waiting at the top, and watched as our bus backed up the mountain.


Our family lives in a very humble home. The bathroom and shower is outside...and we can NOT flush the TP. I love the family that we (Terra and I) are living with, but I must admit that I am jealous that no kids live with us. Every other student here lives with at least one nino.

As I stated before, Terra is my roommate..I enjoy her very much! She has no filter when it comes to bodily functions, and I enjoy this mucho! it's funny esp when we are all having some weird changes... I have yet to experience those. Yesterday she was very sick, was barfing, and other things.. WELL the toilet wouldn't flush, and I stumbled upon this. At first I thought..."ohhh Terra puked...after that, I began dry heaving. haha and had to leave the bathroom. It was quite funny.

We are busy all day..so much so that I went to bed at 8:30. Today my group members and I walked up and down the mountains from 8:30......Whoops I must go. The bus is leaving

hoy en Guatemala

today has been an interesting day! we started out with breakfast then went to class. After class we dorve through Guatemalen traffic to the downtown area of Guatmala city...we ate at a very lovely eatery. Then we went to the national palace and a museum. Despues, we played a tad bit of a game to help us explore the city. The assignment for our group was to go to one of the nearby churches to find what happend on a specific date. When we arrived at the Church we were met by a very nice man who told us all about the event that happend oct 3rd 1988...he was so excited that he invited us through a locked door in the basement of the Church. At first I was okay and thought that my 3 group members would be fine...that thought lasted until the door locked behind us. When the door locked, I got very nervous. I got even more nervous when I saw that he a bag with some object rolled into it in his hand....with this realization, I quickly turned unto my mother and imagined all the horrible things that could possibly happen to me in this room. Needless to say all ended well. Actually, we found out that that room is only opened once a year and people line up just to go in, so we were very lucky to be let in!

After our tour we went to the grocery store and I bought tons of snacks...all I can think of is eating! everywhere I go i want to eat.. so I was very excited to fill up on munchies! The fact that i'm here has yet to sink in. I walk around the city admiring the different culture, but I don't think it has really hit me yet.

Every time I post something I think of what else I meant to write...i'm sure i'll do that after I post this one! Anyway, goodnight!

Long trip here

I made it here after a loong journey! it´s hard to believe that I started this day at home...it feels like it´s been forver since i have been in Stillwater. Since I have failed to talk to all of you since last night, I will fill you in with the details of today/last night. I spent last night with my fave people...I stayed up late, even though I had to be up at 2, because I knew that if I went to bed, I would miss out on my last moments with my lovely family. But, I finally went to bed and managed to peel myself out of it 2 hours later. From there I ran around the house, made sure i had everything, then left. On my way to the airport I got pulled over for.....having my brights on. The officers that pulled my over reminded me why I loathe officers. I made it to the airport shortly after then took of for Texas. The flight to Texas wasn´t too bad, but I did get antsy after a while...In fact. due to my lack of sleep, I felt the extreme urge to punch someone, BUT I refrained! haha...We arrived in Texas and remained there for SOO long...I don´t know how long exactly, but I do know that we ended up arriving to Guate 2.5 hours late. Getting here was amazing! it is so different than anywhere I have ever been. The car ride to where I am currently staying was AWESOME! they drive like mad people! there are no lines, people merge and honk whenever they feel, AND as I found out while reaching my hand out the window to take a pic, the motor cycles ride wherever possible..this includes the tiniest spaces between cars, busses, and vans. I swear I was almost killed by these bikers multiple times!! ha well my internet time is running out! (btw I know my spelling/grammar sucks, but it´s hard to type on this comp! it has different keys!!)
HAsta Luego!!

And now I pack my bags

So, I have just completely moved out of my dorm, and I didn't cry like I expected to, but I was really sad. I am now at home sorting through piles of things so that I can start the process of choosing which 50 pounds of my life I would like to bring with me on this adventure. A task I do not enjoy....anyway, I hope to post on a regular basis..hopefully reading it will be worth your time!