The Beginning: January 3rd & 4th

Hola y bienvienidos a Guatemala! (Hello and welcome to Guatemala!)
Today is January 6th 2009. I have now been in Guatemala for 3 days! Every day here is an adventure, there is rarely a dull moment. The trip from the states went well, I flew from Minneapolis to Houston and from Houston to Guatemala City. The first flight was about 3 hours and the second was about 2 hours. It was fun flying into Houston because we met up with three of our group members who are from Colorado. There are 23 of us in total, all who attend St. Ben’s/St. John’s. We had about half of the group when we flew from Houston to Guatemala City. The flights went well, I slept almost the whole time on both flights. Once we arrived in the airport of Guatemala City we went through customs and then found our luggage. Then we all went outside and Brian, the director of our program, was waiting for us. Once we had everyone in the group we loaded up our coach bus and began the five hour long bus ride to Xela, where we will all be residing for 4 months. The bus ride was probably one of the scariest things so far. Since we didn’t arrive in Xela until a little after 8pm, it was dark and everyone on the bus was anxiously awaiting to meet their family. We kept going up and up into the mountains. I was apprehensive because I knew that once we arrived in Xela, particularly at Celas Maya, our language school we would all go our separate ways. We kept going up and up into the mountains. Once we finally arrived we loaded our luggage into a smaller bus/van and then walked a couple of blocks to Celas Maya. There all of our families were anxiously awaiting our arrival. All we had time to do was send our parents a quick email telling them that we arrived and then we were off with our families! I was one of the last ones out of the internet café, which is located in the school, because the computers were super slow since we were all trying to use them at the same time.

My host mom Sonia is SO adorable. She is like my grandma and my mom here. Her son Victor and Victor’s son Roberto picked me up from the school. They loaded my luggage into their car, which also made me nervous because I thought that that meant that my house was far away from the school (but it really isn't too far away). I also thought that Victor and Roberto would live with us but they don’t. Its just me and Sonia, which originally I was more nervous about, but now I am seeing its benefits more and more. My house is small but cute. There is a living room right when you come in the door, and then you turn the corner and there is a long hallway, the first door on the right is my room and then the next is Sonia’s room. The bathroom is right across the hall from both of us, and then further down the hall is the little kitchen (pictures are soon to come). Sonia and I ate dinner together after I arrived and I did my best to start up a conversation with her. My Spanish is….not good, but then again it’s not horrible. After dinner I unpacked a bit and went to bed. My room is nice it has a nightstand, bed, desk, and a nice sized closet for my clothes.

On Sunday I woke up and took a shower. I have yet to shower in the afternoon, but I’m thinking that might be a better time. When I showered in the morning there is only a trickle of hot water. It is really cold in the morning and at night here. Way colder than I originally imagined. So I had a warm shower, but with very little hot water and then I got out and the atmosphere is freezing! I was actually cold in the shower too because there is so little pressure, but one can’t complain too much. After my shower Sonia walked me to Celas Maya for orientation. I took notes along the way so I wouldn’t get lost on my way home. I live about seven or eight minutes (by foot) from school, which unfortunately seems like a long walk, especially in comparison to other students in my group. After meeting at school we walked a short distance to a hotel for brunch. The food there was really good, gourmet style with eggs, fruit, bread, beans, fresh juice, pretty much the works. The director of Celas Maya whose name is Josua and our director Brian both talked about things like safety, places to go, things to do, the school, health, etc. After breakfast we took a small tour of Xela, but the Xela that is around us because it is a huge city, the second largest in Guatemala. It was fun to see Central Park and some of the stores that Josua talked about in his speech. After we were done with the small tour, everyone went home for lunch. Our families are required to provide us with 3 meals a day. I like the food thus far, there is a variety of things I have eaten….potatoes, rice, beans, chicken, different hot dishes, platanos or plantains, beef, soup, MUCHO! After lunch some of us met up and went to one of the local grocery stores called La Dispensa to get some Queztales from the ATM. The currency here is about 7.8 Q to the American dollar. Then we just walked around the city a little bit. I had to be home by 515 because Sonia asked me to go to church with her. Church started at 6pm but it was super packed, so we left at 530pm. Mass was similar to that of a Catholic mass, I liked it. We then came back and had dinner with a friend of Sonia’s named Freddy. Since I had already had a couple of meals with just me and Sonia, it was nice to have someone else at the table. Freddy is 25 and he is studying medicine to become a doctor. He has a girlfriend named Maria who is coming to live with Sonia and I in February! Freddy is really really nice, kinda felt like a big brother to me the moment I met him. He also knows a little bit of English so that’s nice as well, he is just a funny nice guy. Maria was born here but moved to Canada when she was 5, then returned to Guatemala when she was 18. Then at some point she returned to Canada, but she has lived with Sonia before, for a long period of time. Maria is studying medicine to become a doctor as well! Anyways she is in Canada now and is coming to stay with us in mid February.