Hola!

So far, Xela is great! Although the city itself is a little dirty, the surrounding views are unbelievable, with volcanoes and mountains that go past cloud cover. The people are all very welcoming and my host family is very patient with my slow elementary Spanish.

My host mom, Señora Patricia is a very nice woman. From what I can tell, she spends her days cooking and cleaning for the many people who live in the house. This evening I asked her, in my rudimentary Spanish, what her favorite household activity was. She said cooking. She cooks very well! Sunday night we had a carrot and tomato mixture with rice and tortillas. Others had chicken in addition. For breakfast on Monday (today), we had what they call “Mush.” It is basically a very liquid cream of wheat, almost like warm milk, but sweet. You add cornflakes and bananas. It was a strange taste, something I think will definitely grow on me. For lunch, we had a salad of potatoes and zucchini on a bed of lettuce with some tortillas. Others had pork with it. There was also a fruit that I cannot remember the name of, but it tasted a lot like a peach. For dinner, we had eggs and black beans with a tomato sauce and tortillas. The food has good flavor but is very simple. From what I gather, Guatemalans eat based on availability and practicality… what can feed a large amount of people for a small cost. The portions are also not very large. I’m glad I brought some trail mix for snacks!

Señor David is my host father. I have not talked to him as much, but he is nice. Señora Patricia and Señor David have 3 daughters. One of them is named Yaki and lives close to us. Her daughter, Josi, is often at the house. She is fun to be around and likes to play “hot potato” or “papa caliente.” Today we tossed the ball around and played some basketball. I met another daughter in passing yesterday, but I cannot remember her name. The third daughter is at school in Guatemala, but not Xela. I cannot remember exactly where.

There are also other students living in the house. Like I mentioned, I am living with Marissa, another girl from Somos Hermanos. She is much more advanced in her Spanish than I. Often, she will help me by breaking sentences down. I can usually understand conversations, but I have a difficult time responding. She helps me with that as well. We made an agreement that we will do our best to only speak Spanish to each other. We are also told that Señora Patricia will scold us if we speak too much English. Steven is another student living in the house that is part of the Somos Hermanos 6 week summer program, so he only has 2 weeks left in Guatemala. He just finished his first year of Med school at Tulane. It is helpful to have him around because he can explain customs in the house and helps us understand what is going on if we are confused. Another student, Michael, is from another city in Guatemala but is studying here in Xela. I have not really had much contact with him. I met him for the first time at lunch today.

Naturally, I was the first awake this morning. I struggled through conversation with Señora Patricia using my Spanish/English dictionary. I showed her my photos, which was a great icebreaker because it is easy to make comments about family and hair, outfits, relations, etc. Like I said before, she is so patient with my speaking and helps me figure out words whenever she can.

On Monday, we had a 2 hour orientation that began at 9am. We got a lot of information about safety and health and manners. It was very helpful. We also received all of our study materials. We have a binder full of readings for each week that discuss Guatemalan culture, history, etc. Each week we discuss the articles. The earlier articles are also in English, thank goodness!

After orientation we had a quick snack of enchiladas, which were nothing like American enchiladas. It was basically a crispy tortilla with a spread of refried beans and some queso on top. It was good, but not what I was expecting when they said enchiladas! After our snack, we were given entrance exams to test our Spanish abilities. It consisted of 75 sentences with blanks and you had to fill in the correct verb, correctly conjugated. It was very difficult and my high school Spanish was not very helpful (Voy, Vas, Va, Vamos, Van is about all I remember concerning verb conjugation)! I am excited though, because it means I have a lot to learn. Already, I feel like I am beginning to think in Spanish. It is a great help to be totally immersed. You can’t get away with not speaking!

After the exam, Marissa and I went home for lunch. The distance between the school and my house is not far… about the distance of a city block. The rain began around 2PM and it hasn’t stopped since. So much rain! We had a walking tour of Zona 1 at 2:30, and the streets were extremely flooded. My waterproofed shoes, although comfy, didn’t really do the trick. My feet were totally soaked! However, my new raincoat was perfect.

Our walking tour brought us to EntreMundos, the place where we will be organizing our volunteer projects during week 10-16. We also walked to Parque Central, or the central park of Zona 1 (the city is divided into many different Zonas. Tomorrow, we will tour Zona 3). We visited a cemetery and an “Iglesia Amarillo”, aka yellow church. We stopped by a grocery store where I purchased shampoo and conditioner and the special wash that we need to use to disinfect fruits and vegetables. After, our guides left us free to wander the city. Because it was pouring, it wasn’t so much fun. We found a place called café Luna that was recommended to us by Kate, our program leader. A bunch of us sat there and enjoyed hot chocolate and chocolate café (aka café mocha). It was so rich but very delicious, and the perfect activity for the cold rainy afternoon. The café was decorated with a lot of old art and random items. Sadly, I forgot my camera, but I am sure I will go back some time in the near future, and I will be sure to take pictures.

I am actually typing this Monday night (but posting on Tuesday) in my room in a word document because it takes a long time to write down all my thoughts and I want to be as thorough as possible. So far I don’t seem to have the time to do it at the school. Tomorrow (Tuesday) I am meeting a group of people to go running at 6:30am. We are told that people who go running often do it early in the morning because the streets are not as crowded yet, and it doesn’t rain in the morning. It will be interesting to see how I do with the altitude, but I am excited to run in a climate that is not 100 degrees! There are a surprising number of people in this group who like to run and be very active, which is exciting. We are talking about planning trips to go hiking and rock climbing (and something called “the cave of death”) etc. on free weekends.

Tomorrow I will also meet my teacher and begin my Spanish lessons. I am very excited to begin! There is so much Spanish I want to learn but I have no idea where to begin, and I know the teachers are well practiced in teaching and will be very helpful.

I hope this gives you a good idea of what I have been up to for the past couple of days. Right now, the days seem sort of long because there is so much information to absorb. But, I am enjoying it all. I don’t think it has registered that I will be here for a whole 6 months though.

**The first photo attached is the street I live on. Our front door is right underneath the Crush sign. My host family owns una tienda. Every time someone comes to purchase something a bell rings. It is constant from 6:30 am to 8PM!

**The second photo is the hallway between the main part of the house and my room. It is basically an uncovered patio in the middle of the house. They don’t have heat or air conditioning, so it doesn’t matter that the house is completely open to outside air (although the no heat makes for chilly nights, especially for this Floridian. Last night, I slept in pants and a long sleeve shirt with a wool sweater and wool socks, covered by my down sleeping bag and about 5 blankets!). It is very pretty though, and the sound of the constant rain is soothing when I am dry in my room.

**The third photo is the front of the Spanish school.

I hope all is well with everyone en los Estados Unidos. I miss and love you all!