Anna and a big, old, cool building

Nick @ Cafe Barista, our afternoon study spot

Friday afternoon... school is done!

Hey gang!

We've been busy here in Antigua, and are now off to the second part of our Guatemala adventures. Let me recap this week a bit:

I continued language study and now have reached the proficiency of a 2 year old, so I'm pretty pumped about that milestone. We met the couple we will be helping out in our next town and spent the day together on Sunday. During our meal we discovered that they are the great aunt and uncle of my former student at Jim Elliot School which was a hilarious development... it is a small world after all. Hey, that's catchy... I should write a song!

Tuesday night we had dinner with Seth and his wife, who work in leadership with Students International in Antigua, Guatemala. Seth and I were in the education program together at Bethel, and grew up about 30 miles apart, so it was great to reminisce about the Land of 10,000 Lakes, and the best college in all of sport. (N8r, that's for you.)

Saturday is Nick's birthday and we'll likely go out this evening for some pasteles y helados (cake and ice cream, I hope). Feel free to flood his email with happy greetings. His actual birthday will be a day in transit, so I'm going to try to see if I can lead the bus in a hearty rendition of “Feliz Cumpleanos a ti”. Early tomorrow morning we'll be leaving for Huehuetenango, so we we would appreciate your prayers.

Specifically, prayer that the kindly taxi man would remember to come at 5am and pick us up to drive us to Guatemala City, where we'll pick up a bus. Then, prayer for the four hour trip to Huehue. The roads are less than desirable, we hear. I believe we're taking a pretty reputable bus line. There are plenty of pieces that need to fall into place, so I'm telling myself to take a chill pill or two, and we're just going to try to relax and trust God to work it out. Hmm... I have the cheesy KLOVE song in my head: “Somebody's praying me through...” :)

We are fairly sure that we have internet access at our next place, so we'll do our best to let you know how things are going! Maybe we'll even include a video clip from our bus ride if it is fun and exciting.

Please... someone drink a cozy warm cup of tangy apple cider in a glass in my stead. I'll pay you back by eating a warm plate of black beans in your honor. Pretty sure I'll be doing that anyways! Bring it on, legumes.

Check out video of our home in Antigua

Anna's study break...

I'm taking this opportunity to have a break from studying. Just when I think that I'm gaining some ground I get slammed with another three/four pages of verbs to memorize. Those of you who have traveled in a country where you do not speak the language can relate to what I am experiencing these days. There is a great isolation from people that occurs. Each meal we eat with our host family I can probably count on my fingers the number of words I say. I've learned a few food words, so I can point to the “sopa” and the “pepino” and the “leche”. I can understand a good amount of what is being talked about if they are speaking more slowly, but can't contribute much yet. I threw that “yet” in there with the highest hopes that my experience will improve.

Most likely the language highlight for me came on Friday night... we were sitting the central park of Antigua and Nick was on the cellphone. We'd met a lady a couple days earlier as she tried to sell us some necklaces. Angelica came up and sat down next to me to chat, apparently, and I was freaked out at first, knowing that my lifeline, Nick, was busy on the phone and couldn't help me. We “talked” for about 10 minutes and Angelica gave me words I needed and corrected my mistakes, and laughed with me, and when Nick got off the phone I rejoiced to be able to fill him in with all I'd learned while speaking Spanish with my new friend. It was the smallest of victories, but I'm hanging on to it.

Antigua is such a beautiful city, but really difficult to capture in photos. Honest-to-goodness cobblestone roads are beautiful to look at and treacherous to walk on. The buildings appear run-down at first glance, but then I am reminded that this city was around and many of the buildings and churches built in the 1600s. I have been amazed time and again to walk in through an unassuming doorway into a restaurant or coffee shop that extends deep into the block and includes outdoor gardens and patios. Our home stay is included in that model, so watch for a video tour of where we're living.  We're trying to get it uploaded, but are not successful yet.

This week we'll continue to enjoy the touristy town of Antigua, and I'll finish up language study. We hope to do a bit of volunteering at a hospital just a couple of blocks from our place which Nick checked out last week. Saturday is Nick's birthday, and we're celebrating by taking an early morning trip to Guatemala City, and then catching a 7am bus to Huehuetenango, a 4 hour journey! We'll be staying at a Bible institute there for the following 5 weeks and will update more as to our activities when we get that ironed out.

Independence Day Parade!

Hey everybody,

Or I guess I should be saying “hola”. We have free WI/FI that we can use during the day here at Anna's school. I think at the internet cafe it's about 25 cents for half and hour so it's pretty much a huge savings. I hope to be able to communicate at least once a week while here in Antigua. We leave for northern Guatemala on the 26^th and I'm not sure what our status will be. Our host family here is a nice couple, Carlos and Patricia who have been taking good care of us and feeding us mucho! We have breakfast around seven and then off to school by eight. I walk Anna to school which is about a ten minute enjoyable walk. I've found a gym that is within a couple of blocks of the school and plan to start working out there in the mornings. It would be considered “old-school” by US standards and I like the vibe; while I was checking it out there were two men kick-boxing in the middle of the gym.(I hope to be covered in blood at the end of every workout!) There's a building about a block away from where we live that is one of the largest free medical institutes in Guatemala. They have 260 permanent residents from ages six months to 200 years old or so. They also have patients that travel up to ten hours one way just to get worked on. I don't know what the deal is with health care for the lower-class. The institute also has different teams that come from all over and visit once a week to perform various surgeries or whatever their specialty may be. Anna and I will be able to volunteer there as much as we like. It will be incredibly stretching.

Anna is getting better and better at Spanish and I'm amazed at some of the things that she's able to understand in conversation with our host-family. She's applying herself mucho. Our bed here is covered with flashcards and tarea ( a word dreaded in every part of the world; homework). The Spanish is coming along fine, poco a poco. One thing that does amaze me is how fast and proficient we've become at killing mosquitos. Down here they have different flight patterns and camouflaging techniques that make them a worthy opponent. Even while typing this Anna killed one with a flashcard that was feasting on my ankle. She's hardcore!

So far we've had no contact with Americans, hard to believe after such a long time! We traveled down from Guatemala city with a guy about our age from Germany and Anna got to practice a little of her German and talk about her travels in Europe while on choir tour. Her German has been playing tricks on her and not staying in it's assigned file in her brain. It has been confusing her and coming out while estudiando with her Spanish teacher. Our neighbor student here at our home stay is from Japan and I was able to practice all of my Japanese with her in one sentence, “Eat-A-Docky-Moss?” good times!

We also found out that Carlos our host-family guy is a retired finquero. His family has owned coffee plantations for decades. We hope to be able to go on a trip for a visit and actually see the process of when the coffee plant turns itself into a Starbucks bag... isn't technology amazing.

Thanks for stopping by...

We're here!

We arrived safely in Guatemala and survived the friendly shuttle service to the colonial city of Antigua de Guatemala.  We'll have more to say soon, but as Anna is writing this, the marching band is warming up for the parade tomorrow and she can hardly think, let alone type.  Hand me a xylophone and I'm pretty sure I could bang out the melody pretty well by now!  Tomorrow is Guatemala Independence Day, and estudiantes all over the city are getting ready.
Ever seen the SNL sketch with Chris Farley on the Japanese game show?  Yeah, that's me.  I seriously walk around all day and people say things to me (friendly folk, all of them) and all I can do is look a wee bit flustered and say, "Uh, I don't speak your language!  I'm not sure what to do right now... uh, me llamo Anna?"  My teacher was laughing because I can't even remember the name of the country I come from.  Lame.
So anywho, we've got to head to la casa a comer.  I'm starving.  I WILL learn the words I need to survive.
Love you all...

Scenes from our first few days in Antigua

Last Trip to the Rockies... Mt. Evans

We're 48 hours away from departure!  Pretty crazy to think about.  Little by little these last weeks have been filled with a lot of activity.  We moved out of our apartment with most of our earthly goods making it into a 10 by 10 storage space, and the remainder into the basement of Nick's parents.  My car has found a temporary home, and the good ole Jeep is hopefully being retired today from active service.  So, doing the math, I now have a key.  A key.  One.  The load is lightening, but I'm not going to pretend that there were no tears of sadness as I packed away my tea cups and cook books and teacher plan books and winter Sorel boots, unsure of exactly when I'll see them again.

I, Anna, have a problem with wanting an adventure, but being so uncomfortable with change at the same time.  I remember when I moved out to Colorado... so many friends remarked about how great an adventure I would have in the Rockies.  Yet I remember that the transition to a new home, environment, and culture was anything but easy.  

All of us mourn losses, great and small, daily.  To some, the thought of three months in Latin America would be nothing but delightful.  And we are excited!  And we will bring you along for the ride as we discover and serve.  But as we say goodbye to our stuff and our culture and homeland and more importantly, our PEOPLE, we mourn those losses.

Thanks for reading.  Thanks for being our buddies, our partners, our encouragers as we take off.  That's all for now... gotta conquer the to-do list!