This weekend...

On Friday night, there was a group of us that went to a cafe, Cafe 2,000. They have movies playing throughout the day and we went to watch one that night. So Friday night wasn't that exciting.

However, yesterday, there was a little more excitement. There was a group of us who went up to "La Cruz." Basically, you climb this hill and then when you get to the top, you can look down and see the entire city. "La Cruz" in english means the cross. The reason it's called this is because there's a giant cross on the top of the hill.

This is the infamous picture that everyone takes from this spot on the hill. The cross, the volcano, Agua and part of the city.

Our group overlooking the city. It was a good time.
Being a little artistic....

This is our group who went up the hill together
Oh you know, just the city I'm living in for the next 3 months

Then last night I went to a bonfire with my leader's youth group from her church. Everything was in Spanish, except for one song that they sang in english for us...
So I'm not entirely sure what was all said, but I enjoyed myself and had a good time.

Today, I went to that same church that the youth group was from. The service was 2 1/2 hours long...and all in Spanish, which is basically my life story now ;)
Almost all the church's here have long services. And then we went out to eat for basically $3, which was for 3 tacos and a water. It was amazing!! And then tonight we're eating pizza, which I don't remember the last time I ate that, so I'm excited for it!

Anyway, that's been my weekend. I've been without a roommate this past weekend because she and a couple other girls from my group went back to the beach this weekend...my guess is that they'll come back nice and sun burnt.

And tomorrow, Monday, starts our 3rd week of language school. It's so crazy how this time has gone by so fast. I can't believe that we've been here for almost a month. It's crazy how time here is a little bit slower and it's not a big deal to be late, but yet the time has seemed to fly by and I'm not sure where it has all gone. Nonetheless, God has been blessing my time here thus far. The only thing that I would like to change now is the fact that I haven't really formed any friendships with the Guatemalans here. So if any of you have any suggestions as to how I should go about this, let me know ;)

Anyway, other than this, I think that's all I have for you all right now...
Oh and keep on reading down this page because this is the second post I've made of the day.

Love and miss you all!!!

Another post referring to the past

So I don't know if any of you remember me posting this, but I'm going to post a little information about it again...

The garbage dump in Guatemala. This was back from the first week that we arrived in Guatemala. This sight changed the way that I see garbage and the people here in Guatemala.

We first went to the national cemetary and were able to see all the graves there, which are a bit different from the states. These graves were above ground...that was interesting to see.


The graves on the right side of this picture are the graves that the people without a lot of money rent. Once they can't afford to rent them anymore, the body and coffin are taken out and a spot for another person is opened.
This is an example of the graves that the people with more money are able to rent or buy in the national cemetary. As you can see, there is quite a contrast from this grave to the others in a row.

Then we walked for about another 10 or 15 minutes and came to the place where the garbage dump comes close to the cemetary. Now here is an interesting question, which came first, the garbage dump or the cemetary? Either way the implications of this are strange...

There were just mounds of garbage for miles. Not only was there garbage, but there were also bulldozers, trucks, and people in this dump. This is difficult for me to grasp, even though I saw it first hand. Scavenging through the dump to find things is some people's jobs. They look for cardboard, plastic, tin, basically anything that's recyclable. This is how they make their money and no, it's not a lot of money. It's usually, if I remember correctly, about 2 or 3 quetzales a day, which in American money is about 15 cents. I think, my brain isn't functioning right now, so I don't think the conversion is right. Anyway, the point is, that it's not a lot of money and the people usually have to feed their family with that. Granted everything here is a lot cheaper. For example, today I ate lunch in a restaurant for 14 quetzales, which is about $2 in American money. But still, this is not enough to feed their family.

However there is some positive results to this garbage dump. First, children, yes children, used to work in the garbage dump. However, this was eliminated some years ago because there were a lot of children being killed. The people who operate the machines in the dump are paid to move and bury the garbage and not watch out for people. So as a result, a lot of children were being killed by these trucks because they would get in the way. Thus the reason for children not being allowed in the dump to help their parents.

Another positive aspect is that there are organizations that are assisting families by providing money, food, school, and sometimes even jobs for the parents. This is helpful because the families are maintaining a better way of life. I mean, what kind of life is it to say that your job is working in a garbage dump. We went to visit one of these organizations, Potter's House, which helps support the 10,500 people that work in the dump. They have a school for the children and also assist the parents with medical care and jobs. This is a non-profit organization that is slowly, but tremendously influencing and changing the dump for the better.

So even though the story of the dump is negative, there is still positive aspects to it because of the changes that are taking place.
Anyway, that's a little more indepth on what we saw at the dump.

I don't think I'll ever forget this experience and my heart goes out to the people whose job is working in the dump. It's hard because I want to be able to do something for these people, but it's hard because there's nothing that will make a substantial difference. Or at least for now, there's nothing I can do to make a substantial difference, but pray for these people who define their life through trash...

I realized that I forgot to write about how we went to a Convent one day that is now a museum. So above is a picture of the front of the convent and below is a picture of the center of the convent and the top of it were dormitorios that the young women stayed in while they were at the Convent. A lot of these girls were brought to the Convent by their parents because the girls were being disobedient or were involved in a relationship that the parents did not approve of. The catch was, once these girls were put into the convent, they had to spend the remainder of their lives in the convent. They were never to see a man in the rest of their lives, even the hand of a male. They had pretty strict rules and regulations in this Convent.
A lot of the girls' time was spent in prayer. Below is a large circle in which the head nun would stand in the middle of and then pray. This circle is unique because if you stand in just the right spot, the entire circle echoes and it has a strange effect, so even if the girls did not want to pray, they heard the nun praying all day, which is when the girls would eventually give in and say their prayers so the nun would stop. Also, there are little doorways and those were also some of the rooms that the girls lived in.


The remainder of these pictures are just me trying to be "artistic" haha.
It was just amazing to see and hear what some of the things that these girls had to do to be considered following the rules. One theory that some poeple had was if the girls were especially not listening, they would tie their hands to these chains and then a drop of water would drip from the ceiling until either one of two things happened: they died from their skull breaking open or they gave in and said they would honor the rules from then on. I didn't take a picture of this spot but the other theory of this spot was a place where the girls would go to pray. Two very different theories, but either are possible and who knows the real truth especially at this time of life.

Well, that's just a little about the tour we had in this Convent and some of the history behind it. When I remember more stuff, I might update this post.

Love you and miss you all!!!

Back from the beach....

So on Saturday morning we drove to the Pacific Coast, specifically San Jose. It was really warm and humid, but it was amazing. It was nice to have a break from speaking Spanish and homework.

When we left, we accidentally forgot 2 people, but they still met up with us...that was interesting.

It's about a 2 or 2 1/2 hour drive to the coast, so not horrible. We stayed in an "all-inclusive resort" so we didn't have to worry about food or anything. Let's just say that I definelty ate way too much food ;) We spent most of the afternoon, or what we had left, on the beach in the black sand. It was amazing. Then we went to dinner, which was really nice and they had a ton of food, basically anything you could think of. Then at 8:30 we had worship with our group. After that a couple other girls and I went to a "light show" which was basically where they had black lights on people who were dressed up in clothes and lip-synced to different songs. It was a lot of fun. After that I went to bed and then got up at 5:30 in the morning to go see the sunrise on the beach. That was amazing and I'm really glad that I woke up for it.

The rest of the day we spent on the beach or by the pool. We left at about 3 and got back at about 5. I guess it wasn't super exciting, but it was just nice to relax and not have to worry about anything like homework or speaking in Spanish.

Also, here are a couple websites that have info about G-Term on that you might want to check out:
http://cas.bethel.edu/dept/mw-languages/guatemala/gterm-update
<http://cas.bethel.edu/dept/mw-languages/guatemala/gterm-update>
http://cas.bethel.edu/dept/mw-languages/guatemala/gterm-prayer

Love and miss you all!!!!

I forgot something

If anyone wants to send me some mail, my address is as follows:

Megan Kuenzel
c/o Fernando Saravia
Apartado postal # 155
El Correo Antigua, Guatemala 03001
Guatemala, C.A.

I feel like I may have posted this before, but if I haven't, now you all have my address.
And if you don't want to send mail, but rather an e-mail, that can go to megan-kuenzel@bethel.edu

El Fin de Semana

Ahhh, nothing like the weekend. I just made it through my first week of language classes, which I wasn't sure if it was possible. This week has definitely been a challenge with class in Spanish for 4 hours straight with a 1/2 hour break in the middle. I happened to luck out and not have as much homework as a lot of other people have. My homework is a lot of workbook stuff, so it's tedious but not as difficult as other people's work is. I'm really glad to be in the class that I am because it's a lot of grammar, which can be annoying, but is really helpful when speaking or having a conversation with other people. I was a little discouraged today because I had to turn in a draft of a paper that I wrote and there were a lot of errors in the paper, like in every sentence. But besides that, my professor is really nice and is focused on the work, but also is willing to answer questions that I have about Guatemala or anything really. She doesn't like the fact that we have this strict schedule to follow everyday, which is comical.

Besides class, there's a lot of time to walk around and explore. The other night my roommate, Kristin, and I went to a restaurant named Dona Luisa's and bought ice cream and cookies for a total of 14Q which is about $2 in American money. Everything is so cheap, that makes me happy.

This weekend we're going to the Pacific Coast, I don't remember what beach we're going to, but the beach has black sand. The words "all-inclusive resort" make me super excited. We're leaving tomorrow morning at 10 and returning about 4 on Sunday. I'm pretty excited except for the fact that the drive there is about 2 or 3 hours. I'll have to let you all know how it is.

If anyone that goes to Central Church is reading this, tell all the kids I say hi and that I miss them all and that I am thinking about them! Love you all!!!!

Ok, well, I'm going to start my homework because I don't really have time for it this weekend cause we're going to be on the Coast!!! Maybe after I get back from the coast I'll try to put pictures up here!!

Love you all!!!

Finally, time for internet

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been really busy and there hasn't been much time for internet, plus I didn't want to pay for internet.

So last week we spent the week in a small town named Magdalena. This was where a lot of the missions sites were, but mine was in Antigua, at a hospital named Hermano Pedro. This hospital was attached to a Catholic Church. In the mornings I worked with people in their middle ages who had development disabilities. We did a lot of things with them that people who are about 4 or 5 would be able to do. A lot of the patients liked to do art like painting and coloring. This was a little hard for me because some of the patients didn't speak and if they did, it was in Spanish. So I had two strikes against me. By the end of the week, I was able to understand the patients a lot more and realize when they needed something. We did this from about 9 or 9:30 in the morning till about noon. After that we went to a different area in the hospital, the cerebal palasy unit where kids seemed to be around the ages of 5-10 more or less. Hardly any of these patients were able to talk. During this time we would feed them lunch because a lot of them couldn't feed themselves. This was hard for some of the kids because some of them can't swallow very well, so you have to tip their wheelchairs back so they are able to swallow the food. We did this from about 12 until 1 or 1:30 and then we were able to go eat lunch. One day we went to another unit in this hospital where there were malnourished babies. Many of these babies had cleft lips and needed surgery but weren't strong enough to have surgery. So they are in the hospital to become stronger so they can have surgery and then I think they are then put up for adoption or maybe returned to the families, but I'm not sure about that. This aspect of the week was very emotionally draining because I felt as if I wasn't really doing anything for these people because there was no way I could really improve their lives tremendously. But I know the interaction with these people is important to them.

This is part of the town near Magdalena

This is the house I lived in for a week

These are the two kids in my house

Living in Magdalena was a totally different experience. This town is much poorer. Kristin (my roommate) and I stayed with a family there. Julio was the father and was an accountant in Guatemala City so he had to take the bus there everyday except on Sundays. Ester was the mother and she works as a bilingual secretary, but I'm not sure in what town. They had two kids Rebeca, 10 and Roberto, 6. These kids had a lot of energy and loved to play futbol, also known as soccer. Every morning we got up at 7 for breakfast and then went back to sleep and met with the group at 8:30 or so. We were told that this family had warm water for a shower, but there was one day where I had warm water, so cold showers it was. On Tuesday and Thursday we had a class after our ministry sites. Every night we ate in this little restaurant in Magdalena called "Mi Cafecito." The food was pretty good and it was authentic Guatemalan food. We ate dinner one night, Thursday night, with the family. They went through a lot of work to make the food for us. I felt kinda bad through all the work they went through for us. We had sack lunches that we took to our ministry sites. And a main food staple here is beans and no not the baked beans like you're thinking, rather black beans that I once saw ground up in a blender.... but really, they're not that bad and I'm learning to like them. I have tried so many foods I can't even tell you how many and what different kinds. But it's all good =)
Also in Magdalena, there were hills like you wouldn't believe. It was really funny the first day we got there, we all had to pull our heavy luggage up this huge hill, I wish I would've taken a picture, maybe next time in May. And we walk literally everywhere. most things are a 15 minute walk from where I live. Oh yeah, (I remembered this at the end of when I was done writing this beast) we, meaning myself and two other girls, took the chicken bus to Antigua every day to work at our site and then back to Magdalena. It's called a chicken bus because they pack people in there like you wouldn't think possible; there's always room for more. Also, sometimes people actually bring their chickens on the bus. So I guess that's where the name comes from. Those were always interesting because we were the only gringos on those buses and because we often sat 6 across in a seat, it's like a school bus only decorated with paint. So that was an interesting week.

And now we're in Antigua until May. We got here on Sunday night and then started our language school yesterday. Let me tell you, 4 hours of Spanish is enough, plus we're supposed to be talking Spanish the entire day. It's a bit frustrating because sometimes I can't express what I'm trying to say in Spanish. So I switch into English. It's also frustrating because many people aren't speaking in Spanish at all, which is kind of the point as to why we're here. So I'm trying really hard to speak in Spanish all the time but it's hard when others aren't. English is so much easier. On the positive side, I feel like I'm able to understand people much better than when we first started speaking in Spanish.

Ok, I think that's all I have for now...yeah, this is a really long post. Sorry. This is what happens when I don't have internet for a long time ;) If I think of anything else that I forgot, I'll try to post it up on here. But I want to hear what's going on in all of your lives, so write me an e-mail. Or write me a letter, I don't have the address on me, but my parents have it, so you could ask them!

As far as prayer requests go, obviously to learn this language quickly and correctly.
And that I might make some good connections with the group (that's not really happening right now)
That I don't become overwhelmed.
And finally for the group that they might not be complaining about this culture, food, language and much more but that they might be grateful to be in this country and experiencing this culture.
Thanks for all your love and prayers!!!

I miss and love you all!!! I still need to put my pictures on here...eventually... ;)

Friday Night

So we just got back from the director, Fernando's house where they made us a spaghetti dinner, which was excellent. Today we went to all the ministry site's where we're going to be volunteering at for a part of the time here. It was really interesting to see how some of the people live. There were poorer people than the people who lived in the ravine in Guatemala City. We went to El Gorrion, which is a small town about 15 minutes away from Antigua. They don't have running water there, but some of the people from Bethel are going to help build cisterns that collect the rain and then they use that water for drinking and what not.
We also met some cute kids today who were super excited to see us. We also went to the site where I'm going to be working, Hermano Pedro, which is a hospital connected to a catholic church. I'm going to be working with kids in the nursery who have cleft lip and are too malnourished to have surgery. Also, I'm going to be working with kids who have cerable paulsy, that should be a challenge. When we're living in Magdalena, some of us have to take a bus, which they call "chicken buses" because they pack lots of people on the bus and sometimes people bring their chickens on the bus. Anyway, we have to take that bus from Magdalena to Antigua, so that should be another interesting experience. Luckily I'm going with people who are much better at Spanish that I am ;)

Also, I met with our site leader today to find out what we are going to be doing, which is above. My site leader's name is Ramon and he's pretty cool. He spoke almost the entire meeting in Spanish, there was some which I didn't understand, but I got the jist of what he was saying.

Tomorrow we're moving to Magdalena for a week of homestay. This is more of a rural area, so I might not have internet access for a week...sad, but maybe there will be somewhere, where I can keep all of you updated. Before we leave for tomorrow, we're going to be going to some of the ruins in Antigua and then to a coffee bean field, so more sightseeing.

Anyway, I'm going to go to bed soon and hopefully I can update this thing once in the next week, if not, no worries, I'm ok, I just might not have internet access.

Love you all!!!