Solo el Principio (Only the Beginning)

Buenas tardes.

Hello to any who are reading. It is Friday and so my fifth day here. Already my Spanish has come back to me and although sometimes I still don’t understand at first, eventually I do. I’m to the point where I forget that I am talking to a Gringo (or white person) and I start speaking in Spanish until they look at me with very confused looks on their faces. I had a great time at Casa… spent time with my old friends and made some very good new friends. It’s such a good feeling when you walk around and you hear your named being called out instead of “Hola Gringa!” Even though I hadn’t slept much and I was getting sicker each day, it was a wonderful experience, yet again. I was able to play music for the kids on guitar and sing for them, and actually taught my new friend, Jose, or, Cu, as he likes to be called, how to play a song. For Rosmeri’s birthday, Bret treated her entire dorm to dinner, cake, and games at Chuck E. Cheese’s in the city. That means we took about 40 girls on a bus to the city for 5 or 6 hours. They really enjoyed it and as a bonus, they got to experience a little fright. There was a good sized roller coaster in the mall and all the girls who wanted to, got to ride. It was actually pretty fast and after eating pizza and cake, it made my stomach turn. But they all loved it despite how scared they were. I know it’s an experience that they will never forget. Yesterday, around dinner time, Carol and her driver and his family, came and picked me up and it’s about a 25 minute drive back to her house in Antigua. In the states, the drive would probably take 15 minutes, but it takes about 10 minutes to go a mile or two in the stone streets. It is a very bumpy drive.

The place here is beautiful. Everywhere in the house is open. In the middle of the house there is no roof and so sunshine, rain, or darkness, whatever it may be, are inside the house. There is no need to turn on any lights during the day because there are sunroofs everywhere and windows in every part of the house. They have a dog named Shakira and she is a German Shephard. Their maid, or muchacha as they call it here, is named Juanita and she is very sweet. We all went to el Mercado today to get frutas y verduras. After lunch we will be visiting the village where I will be teaching, called Santiago Zamora, and so I will get to meet the kids there.

If you want to pray for me, as always I ask for patience and guidance, but also for my health. I am pretty sick right now and so sometimes with all the congestion in my head it is hard to think straight.

I will add photos as soon as I get my computer hooked up the internet sometime next week.

Que Dios les bendiga