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... ;)