My First Day
Well, I made it! Yesterday was a VERY long day to say the least. Myself along with 28 other volunteers woke up at 3:00 am to leave for Reagan airport, but didn't fly out until 7:00 am. Had a slight layover in Atlanta before heading to Guatemala City. We were greeted by a large Guatemalan band as soon as we went through customs. Then hopped on a chicken bus and skipped Guatemala City completely. We headed to our training center in Santa Lucia - which is a very small municipality west of Guatemala City. Didn't stay long - only for a little health and safety training.....and then went to meet our host families around 3 pm. My host family is AWESOME!! I have a brother who is 11 years old, a sister who is 4, and another sister who is 16. Mario (mi hermano) is very shy and just stares at me most of the time and laughs. My younger sister is the most adorable little girl I think I have ever seen - and she is constantly hugging on me and giving me kisses. My mother is extremely nice - always wanting to know if I am okay, whether I need anything, etc. She told me over and over yesterday how happy they were to have me. I spent my afternoon getting a tour of the town (La Libertad is the town where my host family is) from my brother Mario - and then playing soccer with him and his friends for about two hours -also included freeze tag, lots of cartwheels, and throwing them in the air, etc. Then headed back to the house for dinner (scrambled eggs, beans, and tortillas). My spanish is better than I thought it was - but I still had a lot of trouble comprehending what each family member was saying. There was a lot of laughter!! I taught my father and brother a card game and we played for about two hours....it was a combination of Go Fish and Gin Rummy....because it was too hard to explain in Spanish. I will try and send pictures of the house when I can. It's definitely a humbling experience....My room is actually located off of the house - dirt floor, queen bed, little dresser for my clothes, and a little lamp. The bathroom is an outhouse where I have to put water in the toilet to flush things down. I also had my first bucket bath today - with cold water.....very interesting. It got the job done though:) I have four other volunteers in my town - and we have to walk about 45 minutes to get to the training center in Santa Lucia. So classes start at 7:30 - we had to leave the house at 6:30. My mother packs a lunch for me each day - which I felt like I was back at home because it consisted of fried chicken and potatoes. Okay, this is a horrible post -but lots of people are waiting on a computer!! Hope everyone is doing well....more to follow soon:)
posted by Carin Robinson @ 10:26 AM
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