I already told you a bit about my family for home-stay, but I'll elaborate a bit more. There's a total of five in the family that are regularly in this house, although there are also others (boyfriends, girlfriends, visitors, etc.) that come and go. There's the lady of the house, Odilia, who makes food for and cares for us and the students next door. On top of all that, Odilia is also a teacher at the school, so she is a very busy lady!
Adolfo is the man of the house. He also helps clean and cook, besides doing his job of selling avocados door to door now that they're in season. He's usually the one that sits with us to eat while Odilia is out. He always likes to spur on Spanish conversation by asking us questions like ¿Qué hiciste hoy en la escuela? or ¿Cómo fue tu día?
Then there are the "children": Hector, Paty, and Saira. All of them have a "special someone" that comes and goes. Hector is the one probably the closest to my age--him and I have lots of fun conversations. I taught him how to solve my Rubik's cube one night. You should have seen his face when he finally could do it on his own!
We have a lot of fun together even though we're usually not all in the house at once, except maybe on weekends. They make it a point to include students as if they were a member of the family.
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| One weekend, I went with some of the family to a local fiesta to see some dances. Left to right: Paty, Paty's boyfriend, me, Hector |
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| Group discussion/practice time. This time, we each had a piece of paper with a theme. The "moderator" asked each of us several questions about the theme that we had to answer with our opinion. These types of activities are my favorite! |
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| Michael, from Switzerland, along with his teacher. |
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| Snack time! After the first two hours of school, we take a pausa to stretch our legs a bit, talk, and enjoy some snack courtesy of a little tienda and a small amount of quetzales (Guatemalan currency). |
There are also the activities that the teachers do with the students, such as field trips. There are organized activities at least once a week which students can participate in, if they so choose. So far I've seen the ruins of San Francisco, a church/monastery that was partially destroyed in an earthquake, a cathedral, a coffee farm, a museum about the Mayans, a jade museum, and a nice view of Antigua from a place called Cerro de la Cruz. The teachers usually go along and explain to their students the history and culture of each place (in Spanish of course), so it's more of a hands-on Spanish class.
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| Coffee spread out to dry in the hot, Guatemalan sun. |
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| You can't just walk by the coffee, you have to touch it! |
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| Some Mayan musical instruments displayed on the wall of the museum. |
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| A view of Antigua from Cerro de la Cruz. The volcano directly ahead is called Volcán de Agua. Its top is almost always obscured by clouds. |
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| An active Catholic cathedral called Iglesia la Merced. |
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| Also Iglesia la Merced. Shown here is an argument. Silvia, my teacher on the left that is pointing, explained that the illustrations were ears of corn, but the rest of us were sure that they were grapes. |
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| The inside of Iglesia la Merced. |
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| The ruins of San Francisco. Before the earthquake it had been a huge cathedral, and a place where the monks and nuns ate and slept. Very interesting to think about the people that might have lived here. |
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| More ruins, with the town of Antigua in the background. |
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| A papaya tree growing by the ruins, with some not yet ripe papayas clinging to the trunk. |
So you might have guessed by now, with all these things happening, I might be a bit busy. You could say so... There's never a lack of things to do, that's for sure! Every day after school, I go to my room to study and relax a bit. It seems no matter how much I practice, there's always more to learn! But that's how I like it.
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| Finding an isolated spot to study can be difficult, but here I managed to find one. |
About the only time I can really relax is on weekends. Saturday and Sunday I don't have classes, so I take it a bit easier, although I still study some. I usually save my sightseeing excursions for the weekend, because it's a bit easier to manage. Just last weekend, I went with a group to hike up a 4,000 meter high volcano, called Acatenango. That was an experience I'll never forget! I'll share that experience in another blog post, though, because it's kind of a long story.
I also have plans to visit Tikal, an ancient Mayan village now in ruins. At Tikal, there are many Mayan temples and pyramids that you can climb up and from which you can see for miles. My time here in Guatemala is fast running out, but I'm sure glad I came. It will be an experience I'll never forget!
Well, that's about it for this installment! I hope you enjoyed and thanks as always for your prayers and support! Please continue praying for me. In spite of all the fun I'm having, it's not all enjoyment. Probably the biggest struggle for me has been consistently having to be outside my comfort zone. At home, everyone around me believed the same things I did. I never had to explain why I don't drink, why I don't smoke, why I pray, or why I cling to such strange beliefs. Here in Guatemala, in the midst of all sorts of people, it's very different.
That said, I also know it's really good for me to be out of my comfort zone, even though it's not easy. I have to think about exactly what I believe and why. My prayer is that what I say (or don't), and more importantly, how I live, will be a witness and testimony to others.
Before I go, here are some prayer requests:
- Pray for me that I could live out my convictions and not be ashamed to share what I believe and why. Pray that my life could be a witness to others.
- Pray for my language learning. Pray that I learn all I can.
- Continue to pray for CICS and those in charge as they organize everything for a new year.
- Pray for the deaf in El Salvador, that they could continue to learn to communicate as well as learn more about God. Pray that we staff could teach them well.
