All Settled In

So I just want to start off by saying I definitely have not had a drink with fish and eggs in it…. It just goes to show how bad my Spanish was when I got here. “Incamperinas” is a drink kind of like carnation instant breakfast and basically it’s just fortified milk so I’m not sure where I got fish and eggs out of that description J I asked Susie and the family if there was some sort of drink with fish in it and they just laughed at me and thought I was nuts!  I find myself confused like that a lot of the time but it’s all part of the learning process!

I can’t believe I’ve been here over three weeks! Time is flying by! My Spanish is getting pretty good so that makes it easier to join in conversations and talk more fluidly with people. I’m starting to feel at home in Susie’s house… I can go into the kitchen and get food if I’m hungry without it being awkward, and she just treats me like another daughter which is great! I go running around Parramos a few times a week and random people in town or at the market will be like hey I saw you running the other day! So people are starting to get to know me and talk to me because they see me out and about all the time. Almost every day I stop by this couple’s bread store (Panadería) and get 2 tostados (sugar cookies) after lunch…. As soon as I walk in they recognize me and without me even asking they get my tostados for me and we chat or I try some of their other delicious pan dulces that they have. These kinds of relationships are really important to have because people get to know you and then they watch out for you so that makes me feel pretty safe when I’m out around town. Plus it’s just another way to practice and gain confidence in my Spanish. 

One famous quote that’s been sticking in my head is “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.” (Elbert Hubbard) This pops into my head every time I’m hesitant to speak because I’m afraid I’ll say something wrong or because I don’t quite have the vocab yet but then I think that if I’m afraid of making a mistake then I’m never going to learn, and I’m never going to become fluent in Spanish. So I’ve been trying to take advantage of every moment where I have the opportunity to talk to someone new or engage in conversation with my host family…. It’s definitely hard because sometimes the entire family is staring at me or I have no idea what they’re saying but they help me so much with my Spanish and correct me when I say things wrong and that’s the only way to learn and most of the time we get a good laugh out of it!

Last week we visited a volunteer in a town called Patzicia. I was able to see where she lived and we went to 2 of the schools she worked in. It was awesome to see the kind of things that I’ll be doing in a few months! The kids were so excited to have gringo visitors, and they made a huge welcome sign just for us! From now on, every Wednesday we will be going out with a volunteer to their sites to tag along, help teach some lessons, and basically just see what a day in the life of a volunteer is like so I am super pumped about that! I get really excited seeing the schools and the kids and learning songs that they use to teach the kids…. I can’t wait to get to my site and start working on projects! One school did a really neat project…. Their school was constructed with tin and pretty much falling down, so volunteers collected plastic garbage in plastic bottles until the bottles were rock hard filled with trash, and they used the bottles as the infrastructure for the school to make the walls. How cool is that!? There are so many cool projects you can do like that just to help someone have a safe place to learn…. I’ve already started researching, and I can’t wait to get started J I am absolutely loving life in Guatemala and can’t wait to see what God has in store for me next!