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!!