Well…it’s been a long couple of days. I’ll start at the beginning and fill everyone in on what’s happened. I got up around 4 am Thursday morning to catch my flight at 6:30. I spent more time on the runway that actually in the air in my flight to Atlanta. Then I met up with 6 other Journeymen (and girls) who are all headed to Mexico or S. America. We all flew together into Guatemala City. It was very easy getting into the country with almost no questions asked…in fact, the hardest part was getting all our luggage together and onto the vans. Once we were loaded up we drove about 30-45 mins to Antigua. Where we live is actually just outside of Antigua in a small town of San Juan de Obispo. This is where our language school is located and where our new homes are. It’s a very quiet town and not very big at all. Once we arrived, we met some of the school staff and were introduced to our national families we are staying with. The family I’m with has a husband, wife, 3 daughters (7, 17, and 20 yrs old), and a 11 yr old son. Then we went home to eat and sleep…at least that’s what I did. Ate lunch, took a nap, ate dinner, and then went to bed at 8:30. Since we’re two hours of behind yall here and I hadn’t slept a wink the night before leaving, I was glad to sleep soundly for 10 hours straight.
Language school starts at 8:00 on the dot so I’m getting up around 6:30 in the morning. That’s early but it gives me enough time to read my Bible and pray in peace and quiet before everyone else in the house gets up at 7. Kids getting ready for school is pretty much the same around the world. And to my pleasant surprise I can get a hot shower. This, however, has to be done carefully. As I was warned, the device that heats the water and acts as the shower head is affectionately known as “the widowmaker”. No, I’m not making this up. As you might guess, it has the potential to give a rather unpleasant shock to anyone who might touch while the water is running. Not sure how dangerous it really is but I’m not planning on finding out. After breakfast I walk up a very steep hill to school. Let me emphasize that hill. It didn’t seem so bad coming down…except that it’s cobblestone and a nightmare with rolling luggage weighing 70lbs. But it’s a lot worse going up. Especially when the altitude here is comparable to Denver. So I’m usually sucking wind by the time I walk up the hill with my backpack. But hopefully I’ll acclimate in a couple of weeks and be ready for the 8300ft I’m headed for in Ecuador. Once we all arrived at school we got started. Today was very informal and not typical at all. We had some group lessons while we were given oral interviews one at a time to place us with a tutor. Then we put some vocabulary to good use by swinging at a piñata and shouting words like arriba, abajo, al izquierda, a la derecha, atras, adelante (up, down, left, right, behind you, in front of you). For me, it was fun but kind of like being back in Spanish 101 and not real challenging. But that’s why on Monday we start with our tutors at our individual levels of proficiency. So language school lasted until noon. After that we were all supposed to head to Antigua by bus to check out the public transportation and find our way around the city. However, one of the girls had been bitten by a dog the night before and needed to go to Guatemala city for possible shots. I went with her to keep her company and help interpret if needed. We took a taxi to the city and met up with two other missionaries that live in the city. It turns out that the trip wasn’t necessary as the bite didn’t actually break the skin but just bruised it. So after grabbing lunch, one of the missionaries drove us back and dropped us off in Antigua where we met up with our group. We walked around for about an hour and then took the long, bumpy bus ride back to San Juan. It’s really only about 15 minutes away by bus…but in the evening it stops every five feet for the next person to get on. Let’s just say that if anyone has issues with their personal space…don’t ride public transportation in Guatemala. However, it is very cheap…about 1.5 quetzales one way, which comes to about $0.20 in the States. After that it was time for dinner and to bed early again.
Woke up this morning around 9 and relaxed to read and pray a couple of hours. Then 4 of us met up to ride the bus into Antigua and mooch off of Pollo Campero's internet for a couple of hours. We figured that after buying lunch we could stay for a while. Tomorrow will be our first time going to a national church so that should be interesting. I still haven't found great internet in the town where I live except for the occasional wireless signal that comes and goes. So it might be a few days before I respond to e-mails and such. I'm thinking that I'll come into town on Wednesdays and the weekends. Thanks to eveyone for the prayers! Monday starts language school and I'll be spending 4 hours a day one-on-one with a tutor speaking only in Spanish...then I have several hours of homework each day...plus plenty of extracurricular activities and trying to keep up with e-mails...so it seems there's still not enough time in a day even in Latin America. Pray for opportunities here with the family I live with (I think they have knowledge of the Gospel but aren't believers), teachers at the school, taxi drivers, etc. There are opportunities abound.
Here's my desk in my room. As long as I have my workspace it's home.
Here's our classroom at the school. Nice and open and great views!
Amazing view from downtown Antigua!
That's all for now guys. It's taking forever to post just one blog with pictures so I'll probably update in a few days or so. Keep praying and thanks again!
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