Trip to Peten!
Carlo's brother lives in and owns an event center and restaurant in Peten which is a state 5 hours north of Zacapa. Nora didn't have to work for a week so they decided to take a trip there and Cassie and I got to tag along! While there, we got to visit Tikal the park where the Mayan ruins are which was incredible! The park is HUGE so we spent most of the day there and I was exhausted by the end of it. My legs hurt for like 4 days afterwards from all the walking so I think that's a pretty good sign I should probably start working out when I get back to school. We climbed 4 of the ruins and one of them was super high, even over the trees, so the view was beautiful with the clouds settling over the ruins. Being that I'm not the biggest fan of heights, I did my best to ignore the fact that I was a million feet in the air and the ledge had no barrier on it. The ruins are spread out all throughout the park and have rainforest separating them so while in the park, we saw toucans, coatis which are like a weird racoonish animal with a long tail, and spider monkeys in the trees which I was pretty pumped about. Oh and we saw a tarantula while in peten which i was not quite as excited about.
The next day we got to go to Petencito which is a little zoo that has animals native to Guatemala in it. To get there we got to ride in a lancha, a typical guatemalan boat across the lake. The rest of our trip was spent hanging out with their family, relaxing by a pool in hammocks, and eating delicious food. Not too shabby for a mission trip! I also ate tepezcuintle. Look it up, its a nasty little rat looking thing. Im pretty proud of myself for eating it though and it was actually pretty tasty.
Teaching English
Last week we helped our friend Nancy, a 22 year old english teacher, with her english classes in a high school nearby. She has three classes and her students are really sweet and welcomed us with gifts they had made for us. They're also a blast. We played some english games with them which got pretty intense and competitive. At the end, I felt like a celebrity because they all wanted their pictures with us on their cameras, not that they are anything to treasure considering I was sweating gallons and was not looking in tip-top shape. We also played some fun games that Nancy taught us, for example tie a string to the bottom of a balloon and light it on fire then pass it between your students while they try to say a word that starts with another letter in english. I'm not sure this will fly in my future classroom at home but it was definitely exciting!
We've gotten pretty close with Nancy and it's really nice to have a friend from here that's my age. After class she invited us to go to some natural pools with her and her students. We spent a few hours swimming, hanging out with students, and eating pizza.
Mari's Family
On Friday night, we spent the night at Mari's house, a woman we met at church who has a family that needs to practice english. We ate dinner with the fam, then played games with the sons. Scattergories in spanish is quite a challenge. The next day they took us to the river which had waterfalls. Cassie is a little explorer woman and wanted to climb through all of the rocks down the river so of course I had to join her. It was super nice of them to invite us to spend time with them, hopefully they got some english practice out of it!
El Maguey
We have also gotten to tag along with Carla, the english teacher and CALMS worker, to a VBS that she does each week in the village that she grew up in. Carla is amazing and someone that I really admire. She has a selfless heart and such a gift for working with children. The kids in her village are full of energy and a lot of fun. At the beginning of each class they sing a bunch of praise songs which is my favorite part. They all belt them out and give it all they got with the motions. Then Carla reads a story from the bible, asks them questions about it, and then they make some kind of project. It's great to watch such passion for God coming from such tiny, innocent, faces.
San Pablo
Since Sunday we have been working in the village of San Pablo with a group that is here from Wisconsin. They are running a medical clinic all day, building a house, and also doing a VBS in the afternoon. I have been helping at the clinic, holding as many babies as possible, translating the basic words I can, taking weights, taking pictures and printing them for families, and helping out wherever possible. There is such a big need there and on Monday 91 people came through the clinic! It's been a really great experience since I've never done anything like this before. At the clinic yesterday I met a 5 year old little girl named Maoli who nearly instantly became my little shadow. She's the most adorable child ever and giggles about everything, not to mention she's super expressive and sassy. She stuck around the clinic all day and became a helper delivering pictures to people in the waiting room after I printed them. I talked to her mom for awhile and met her brother and little sister who is about 2. They were there because her little sister has a horrible rash which we were later informed could possibly be scabies. This is after I've been holding her all day so I'm praying and trusting God to take care of me! Today we had 75 kids show up to VBS and it was a bit controlled chaos but really ran pretty smoothly. I can't get over the amount of precious kids that are here, it will never get old.
Life here has been busy but so good! I had been asking God to show me exactly where He wants me, providing a sense of direction for us while we're here and boy, has He come through! I never really know what's going on and as soon as I think I have a good idea of my plans for the day or week, something completely changes and I'm once again left in the dark. But not really, this uncertainty and flexibility has allowed me to clearly see EXACTLY what God wants me to be doing day by day and I truly feel like He is holding my hand throughout this whole experience. Though I may not always see huge miraculous moments, I see glimpses of God here every single day. He is surrounding me, I just need to open my eyes and look. It has been through the the joy of a child, the beauty of clouds settling over the mountains, the generosity and love of those around me, and the encouragement and support I receive from Cassie and those at home. I am so thankful for my time here and pray that God teaches me a lot through this.
Please continue to keep Cassie and I in your prayers. Pray for health and safety of the group that we are working with this week and those that they will be serving in the community. Also pray for safe travels as we go with a group to spend a week in La Avanzada starting Thursday and that we are able to point others to Christ.
WOW! It's awesome to see all of the opportunities that God is opening up for you. You are experiencing so many new things and meeting so many people! Love you!!
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