small snippets

The fireworks here are ceaseless! There are constantly reasons to fire them off, from 6:00 a.m. to at least 10:30 p.m. The people here are very accustomed to the sporadic noises of explosions, but it still catches me by surprise. My host family laughs at dinner when I jump, yet after being here for three weeks, it still happens on the regular! 

I don't have firework pictures, but here's a beautiful photo from the mountains!

One day my teacher assigned me the task of asking my host family about the legends of Antigua, of which there are many. Antigua is an old town, full of ghost stories that are believed by many. We sat at the dinner table long after the food was gone, discussing the ancient stories. I heard stories of the Llorona, the crying woman that wanders around the town wailing in pain at the loss of her husband and kids. I’ve now asked three people about this story and everyone has told a different version, some more gruesome than others. Antigua has a rich history and the people here are eager to share it.

I think I have found my next race to train for: a waitress race! In the US, there are all sorts of fun runs such as color runs and mud runs, but our country is definitely missing out on the waiter and waitress runs. Hundreds of waiters and waitresses raced through the streets of Antigua last week with a tray in hand balancing four drinks on top. If any of the drinks tipped over, they were disqualified. They are running the entire race on uneven cobblestone! My teacher and I ditched the books to watch the race last Wednesday morning and I found it to be hilarious. The streets were full of waiters and waitress in uniform, some running precociously, while others walked, careful not to tip their drinks. I need to find myself a tray so I can begin my training each morning! (I didn't get my camera out quick enough to film the waitresses race, so here are some of the waiters.)

I was strongly encouraged to go visit the McDonald’s in Antigua. I really had no interest, as I have spent my entire life avoiding the establishment, but I was assured my experience here would be different. McDonalds is a palace here! It’s full of flowers, internet and ice cream, all things that I highly approve of! There’s a coffee shop as well. My friend and I have added this place into our rotation of study spots and we look forward to more afternoons in the McDonald’s garden.

After a few years of studying early elementary reading and leveling students for books, I was excited when my teacher brought me a book within my own Spanish abilities. Much to my chagrin, I now walk around town carrying my first grade reader, stumbling over words which I don’t understand. I was hoping to get more books, so I walked into the little used book shop nearby. The owner now recognizes me and takes me over to the corner with the children’s books. It reminds me of going to the library in elementary school and having the librarian show me around books I might like. Hopefully I’ll make it to second grade next week.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you at home in the states!

 I'll be extra thankful on Thursday, my first Thanksgiving in school :)

antigua antics

Well, things seem to be settling down and a rhythm is beginning to be established here in Antigua! I’m learning to live life with little internet, which leads to adventures in the city and sleep at an early hour. Usually, I get up each day and go to school for five hours with my teacher, Orquidea. She patiently helps me learn Spanish and keeps me practicing for most all of the five hours. Luckily, I like to talk J After school, I head home for our big meal of the day. I live very close to the school with another Kids Alive missionary, Crystal. My host mom is a fabulous cook and her family always eats with us and helps us practice our Spanish. I spend my afternoons doing homework or going for a walk around town. I even joined a gym here and have found pilates to be just as much of a mental workout following the Spanish directions as a physical one. Our favorite mini hike each week is up a hill to Cerro de la Cruz. It has 333 steps (says the sign, I promise I didn’t count!) and the view is magnificent. I posted some pictures below, but they can’t do justice.

I finally braved my first chicken bus here in Antigua. What’s a chicken bus you say? Oh, it’s only the public bus system here, made up of old American school buses which would never pass inspection. They are brightly decorated and make quite the statement. Even more, they hold over 100 people on the regular and drive about 70 miles per hour on the winding roads. They go up and down mountains, whipping around turns and passing all the other cars. It’s how I always dramatically imagined my bus ride to school as a child. There isn’t anything safe or sane about this type of transportation, but it is necessary if you want to get anywhere outside of Antigua, and so my friends and I found ourselves holding on for our lives. I wouldn’t mind a break before I ride another! (Also pictured below is a Tuc-Tuc… not sure if this little mobile is any safer, but I thought I’d share another common form of transportation here.)

This weekend I visited the Kids Alive children’s home, Oasis, here in Guatemala. I went for an incredible celebration of a Quinceañera for ten girls! They wore beautiful gowns and had a really special day. I arrived to help set up and get the girls ready (imagine people trusting me to paint their nails!) at 7:30 in the morning. As the day went on, I was able to hear some of the stories of the girls and how things work at the Oasis. I had expectations that the home would be similar to the one in the Dominican Republic, but was really shocked by the drastic differences. This is a home only for girls, most of whom have been sexually abused in their past. The juxtaposition of watching a joyful celebration and sitting next to my friend holding a baby whose dad and grandfather were one in the same really threw me for a loop. There was also a twelve year old mother holding her baby near by. How could the world be so cruel and so beautiful at the same time? It was an emotional day, but great to see God at work here in the Guatemala. The home is a safe place for the girls and the work Kids Alive does there is transformational.

All in all, life here in Guatemala is good! My Spanish has gotten better in these short two weeks and I’m surrounded by a good network of people. I look forward to school every day and am so excited to be learning for a specific purpose! I’m thankful for the ways so many have encouraged and supported me in getting to this point.

This is the orange tree outside my room! Some mornings we have fresh orange juice!

Shout out to CIT friends going to Cape Town!!

gringa in guatemala!

On Monday afternoon I set out to do two errands: exchange money and get a cell phone. Sounds easy enough? Two days later and about six hours of walking around town, I have only successfully exchanged money. My limited Spanish and knowledge of the town has allowed me to wander into 3 banks, all of which exchange US money at different hours of the day (and sometimes close randomly due to a holiday two days prior). When I did find a bank that would change money when I got there, it took over an hour of waiting in line. I've come to accept that what would have been a couple of hours of errands in the states, even without a car, is three afternoons worth here. My limited Spanish is humbling in town and I’m sure I was cause for a few laughs. Hopefully tomorrow will be my lucky day for buying a cellphone!

I've been putting off using the shower, but in consideration for my Spanish teacher with whom I spend five hours a day, I set that as my morning goal. I woke up at six in hopes that no one would hear me go outside to the bathhouse to figure out how the darn contraption works. I was in luck. The showers are electric here and have a whole bunch of electrical wires sticking out of the shower head, which I was instructed not to touch. I’m well aware that my days of hot showers are over, but what happened next was a surprise. The little hose coming out of the shower head (its purpose I’m not sure…) fell off complete and water sprayed around the entire bathroom. It was cold, but posed a larger problem of how to fix the shower without touching the shower head. I’m a problem solver, but not an electrician, and definitely not capable of much at such an early hour. After turning the water off, soap in hair, I was able to finagle the tube in place. The rest was a blur.
Shower 1 Anna 0. I should be clean for another 4 days, right?

Last night there was a 5.3 earthquake that shook Antigua! It was my first experience with earthquakes, and startled me quite a bit. My host family was really kind to explain what I needed to do. There are three volcanoes surrounding Antigua and one is active. I posted a picture of the volcano "Fuego" smoking from my run this morning! It is next to the volcano "Acatenango." The second picture is of the volcano "Agua." I hope to climb this one in the future as it is inactive!

Lastly, I was most surprised by the weather here. No one told it that I was coming and that it must be warm! I did my research and found out that summer is beginning here in Guatemala. What I failed to notice was that summer here means it’s sunny every day, but the coldest months of the year! It’s in the low fifties every night and there is no heat or insulation. It’s like camping (no dad, not the 3 star hotel kind…). So every night I put on my thickest socks, the one blue fleece I brought and hope for the best! It warms up in the afternoon, but I’m sure going to be happy for the Dominican heat!