"What Makes YOU Come Alive?"

So yes, it is now December and I believe I updated this blog ONCE in November. I cannot stress enough how quickly time is passing here. I cannot believe Christmas is less than two weeks away! It has been a different experience to be hanging up Christmas decorations and listening to Christmas music in 80+ Fahrenheit weather. If I take nothing else from this experience, I'll at least know that I enjoy the four seasons and that I don't think I'd like to live anywhere with constant "summer" weather. (Daddio, I know you're probably shaking your head right now and thinking I'm crazy since you mention you're dying for some nice sun on your face ;) )

Where to begin? Well November was definitely my hardest month here thus far. I have now been here at the hogar 3 months ago today and have been here in Central America for over 4 months. Time is flying but also going very slow... I feel like I've been here for a lot longer. However, the beginning to mid-November time was my roughest point thus far. I was very homesick and there were a few days in particular that I wanted to come home. However, through prayer and the help of my community members, and of course these beautiful boys, I found incredible strength. I also in this time received a quote from a friend that really helped me, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive." (Thanks PMF)

Something I have also been working on since being here is making sure I am being present. It's hard to get wrapped up in what I'm missing out on at home (especially with the holidays) but each day I do my best to remind myself of why I'm here and that is to love these boys and be here FOR THEM for these next 11 months.

I've started to have some amazing conversations with some of these boys. They're really starting to open up to me and tell me about their past, what they've had to go through to get here to Amigos. I have realized just how incredibly lucky I am to have two living parents who have always loved and cared for me and done what is best for me. I am lucky to have 5 healthy siblings who are also incredible support systems and with whom I have countless ridiculous memories.

Thank you to all of you for your continuous support. I cannot say enough how much your emails and letters all mean to me and how incredibly fortunate I am to have all of you. I apologize for the lateness of my responses to those letters and emails but I know you all understand. It is because of all of you that I am able to find strength to continue to be here. On some of my worst days I have received emails, letters and packages filled with inspiring words to boost my desire to serve here at Amigos. So please, keep them coming! :)

Photos!

So I will describe these photos top to bottom:

1. Me and Noe (newest ingressed child here at Amigos and my cuddle buddy) on Christmas Eve

2. One of the dogs had puppies... Olvin (9) and one of the puppies

3. Gerson David (12)

4. Dancing at THanksgiving festivities with Jose Luis and Mario

5. Holding the new puppies with community member, Regina

6. After shopping for all the boys Christmas presents... in the back of the truck with all of their gifts and community members- Alan, Grace and Chris (talk about a FUN ride home!)

7. A group of the boys

8. Me with two boys Jesuan (11) and Cristian (16)

“Can I Tell You About BEAUTY?!”

So I’ve obviously been bad at updating this blog with some of the fun stories that have occurred while here at the hogar so I thought I’d just go ahead and tell a few of them.

So this has happened a couple times and I wanted to share it with all of you because it makes me smile every time. We take some of the boys out on bikes after dinner, to Posas Verdes, to get drinks and treats occasionally. By the time we start or return, it’s usually dark. This is one of my favorite things because as we ride bikes or walk in the pitch black there are TONS of fireflies on either side of us as we walk. You can’t really see too far ahead of yourself so you have to either look out for the potholes in the torn up road or get a nice surprise when you bike through them. It’s a blast to hear all the laughing that goes on as we ride through the dark, beautiful to see all of the fireflies on either side of you and then absolutely breathtaking to look up at the countless stars above you.

This past Sunday I made ratatouille Stromboli for dinner with Rita and of course, knowing me, there was music on…BLARING! As we were finishing up dinner I decided, that after cooking for 2 and a half hours, we should celebrate the amazing food that awaited us in the oven. I then put on “Send Me On My Way” by Rusted Root (SHOUT OUT TO MARITA!) and we began to dance around the kitchen pulling Regina in to dance with us. A moment where I sat there and was just thankful that I’m here with some amazing people who will challenge me and let ME shine!
The other night I was walking up to the social work office, with Grace, and Oscar (one of the boys) stopped there with the light shining behind him and his silhouette standing before us with his arms OUTSTRETCHED for a hug. Definitely a moment that just made me smile, not a word was said… afterwards we just continued on.

On Monday and Friday nights we play soccer, after dinner, with the boys. Sometimes one of the padrinos, Padrino Luis, joins in. The electricity here is CONSTANTLY going out and so this past week it went out both Monday and Friday nights while we were playing soccer. We then cannot see a thing so are forced to stop however sometimes some of us stick around and still try and play or we just sit around and admire the thousands of lightning bugs around us and just lay on the ground and look at the stars.

Every Tuesday night we have "Silent Night". After prayer there is no music, talking and for this month we decided as a community to sacrifice the use of lights on Tuesdays and Fridays. It makes Tuesday nights really fun because I write all of my letters by candlelight. :)

Anyways, this past Tuesday we had some visitors. About 2 months ago one of the dogs here had two puppies in a shack behind our house. It's been really cool to watch their growing process (opening their eyes and learning how to walk). Two of my community members went to grab the puppies because they were yelping and they brought them into the house to play. We all sat around in the candlelight and fed the puppies some cornflakes and played with them. TONS of fun!

Our boys are VERY intelligent. They always love inventing things out of stuff laying around. One of our fans broke the other day so we threw it out in our trash. I was in the social work office the other day doing some work when my community member, Alan, came to tell me I had to come see something. I walk out of the office to see one of the boys, Gerson David, with his head over the ledge of the patio and a chord plugged into the side of one of the padrino's house. As I got closer I saw that he had taken our fan (with the part that had the 0,1,2,3 speed option and the little motor with a piece of plastic pointing out for the front of the fan to go on which was missing) and had attached a corn cob to the little point sticking out of the fan. He was using the speeds to dig a hole into the ground with the corn cob!

Another one of our boys, Mendoza, loves to play imaginary sports with you. He will pretend to kick a soccer ball to you and when you return it he'll gracefully receive it or pretend it has bounced off the ground or off of a wall or some object around and he has been known to entertain himself (along with volunteers) for hours upon end. These kids are AMAZING!

Wednesday night is community activity night and this past Wednesday our community decided to play sardines, in the dark, in the house. If you don't know what sardines is, it is when one person goes to hide and the other people have to search for that person. Once you find the person hiding you have to hide with them. You can imagine how entertaining this was with 8 full grown adults. We blared music allowing people to hide without hearing where and would search for people when the songs were done, singing along to each song of course! :)

The Usual Week

Last week we were given our jobs and I was excited to hear that I have been given the position as one of the social workers here on the Amigos property along with Grace and Regina, two other volunteers. This job entails working with those boys who are older and have left the orphanage to live in the surrounding communities outside of the Amigos property (Posas Verdes, aka PV, and Macuelizo). The social work position entails a lot of paperwork which is time consuming but interesting because through a lot of that paper work, and going through the boys files, I am learning a lot of their “stories”. Also giving the boys, whose families and loved ones are still alive, phone calls and house visits. This job will definitely help me work on my Spanish which is something I continue to be frustrated with.

It’s a matter of challenging myself not to speak English to the other volunteers around the boys (which is disrespectful in itself) and to take my own time to study. I find myself not talking to the padrinos or some of the older boys because I am not confident in my Spanish. This is upsetting because for those of you who know me I am NOT the type to not engage in conversation… I love getting to know people and hearing their stories. I think this lack of confidence also comes with the fact that there are times where a padrino or nino/joven will say something in Spanish and I don’t understand it and they do not repeat it and instead laugh. That’s mega frustrating. It’s an uncomfortable feeling having people talk in Spanish to each other, know that you don’t understand, and laugh and look at you… I’m constantly wondering, “What did I do”, or “Why are they laughing at me”?

NORMAL WEEK AT THE HOGAR:
I figured I should probably go through a “normal week at the hogar” with all of you. Every weekday we have community prayer at 7 AM and end each day with community prayer by 9 PM. Monday nights we have “Spanish night” in our house after prayer circle and we only talk in Spanish with encouragement from Chris (the volunteer who had the idea to start Spanish night).
Prayer circle happens 2 or 3 times a week and consists of all the boys, padrinos, and volunteers standing in a circle, holding hands, with 4-5 boys assigned to a certain night to pray aloud with their intentions. Afterwards we all say an Our Father and Hail Mary together. Afterwards we walk around to everyone and say, “Buenas Noches”. It’s a pretty amazing experience and one that I always look forward to because after a day of disciplining and having certain kids that drive you crazy it’s great to either shake their hand or get a hug from them and realize that tomorrow is a NEW day.

Tuesday night is “Silent Night” and after community prayer around 9 PM there is NO more talking in the house, no music, no electronics used. It’s a great time to write letters, read, reflect, go to bed early, or do whatever with your personal free time.
Wednesday night is “Community Night”. Two community members are assigned to make dinner. After eating we have a community reflection (once a month is Catholocity which is a question posed about Catholicism that we discuss- really great) and then afterwards we have a community activity. This could include watching a movie, playing a board game, asking goofy questions, or playing soccer outside on the field bringing in some house rivalry. Wednesday nights are a lot of fun.

Thursday night we have Celebracion where everyone at the hogar gathers in our volunteer chapel to exchange the sign of peace, sing, and listen to the readings of the day. It’s so much fun listening to the boys getting into the music and singing along!
Friday night we get to lay low. After dinner the volunteers all gather up at the Amigos cross (a 25 ft. cement cross up on the hill) to say the rosary with the boys. Rosary is optional so it’s neat to see the large amount of boys that decide to participate. Afterwards the boys get to watch a movie while, most times, some of the jovenes (older boys) and a few of us volunteers play futbol. After the movie and the boys all go to bed we are all able to come back to the house and bake something, veg. and share ridiculous stories from the day, or watch a movie.

Saturday we are able to wake up and eat, the special breakfast the cooks make, with the boys. Afterwards we are able to either go back to bed or veg. until 9 AM community prayer. After prayer we are supposed to play with the boys till lunchtime at noon. This usually means taking the boys out on bikes to play and swim in the river or heading to the park in Macuelizo. The rest of the day is pretty low key and then Saturday night is basically just like Friday night.
Sunday we get up for Mass in Macuelizo. Sometimes we walk, the half hour, to Macuelizo for Mass which is a really great experience. It’s fun crossing the river with the boys. After Mass we come back for lunch and then veg. for the day. Sunday night is another “community night” and two people make dinner for everyone. Afterwards we go over our “Biz List” as a community and take care of all business.

That’s basically a normal week with all of our individual work thrown in there.

Mas Fotos!

The beach pictures are from Roatan.

The rusted ladder is the scary bridge we climbed to get to West Bay.

The cross is at the top of the Amigos property (standing 25 ft. tall).

The picture of the house is my home for the next year! :)

La Playa, Helado, y Actividades... Si, Por Favor!

We returned this past Monday (the 12th) from Roatan for a long weekend vacation. It was B-E-A-U-tiful! We stayed in a little house that was across the street from the beach. You would literally walk out of our mini-resort and see palm trees with white lounge chairs and a backdrop of blue, turquoise, and completely clear water. It literally looked like the picture you find and put as your desktop background on your computer when it’s freezing cold and all you want to do is go to the beach, feel the warm sun on your face, stick your feet in the sand and listen to the peaceful noises the ocean has to share.
We got into Roatan Friday (the 9th) right around dinner time. We went out for pizza and arose early Saturday morning to start our activities. After getting breakfast a few of us went kayaking. As we were kayaking we realized that we were able to see right down to the bottom and decided to rent snorkel gear after lunch. The snorkel gear cost $5.00 to rent for an entire 24 hours. We decided to rent three sets between the nine of us. We then went straight out and while some snorkeled all the way out, through the entire bay and out into the ocean, a few of us decided to swim after them. We saw all sorts of different fish… some pretty plain and some that were spectacular and radiating with color!
As a few of us were out snorkeling the others came out in kayaks and before we knew it all nine of us were out in the ocean, knocking each other out of the kayaks and swapping snorkel gear. Talk about a great time!
Afterwards we laid out on the beach for a while and then went back to the house to get ready for dinner. We picked a great weekend to go on vacation, since we don’t have a TV in the house here at the hogar, because the Honduras/U.S. soccer game (winner would go to the World Cup) was on. The nine of us got dressed up and sat in a Thai restaurant, owned by a French man, watching the Honduras/U.S. soccer game at the bar. Talk about a night of culture! After the U.S. won J, we went out for drinks. We went to multiple bars including one where you were required to "walk the plank" to get into which meant crossing a 1 ½ ft. wide plank over the water into a platoon boat. We ended up at a bar with live music. I, of course, couldn’t help but dance and had a BLAST! I think what made it so much fun was that random people at the bar would come up and sing with the band, including freestylin’ to English songs, in Spanish and the indigenous languages of the Caribbean. Everyone was getting into it and just was a really fun atmosphere.
Sunday morning I woke up and walked with Erica to West Bay. It was about an hour walk down the beach from West End. On our walk we encountered sea urchins, slippery rocks, a rusted old bridge that we HAD to cross and finally made it to our destination which was even more beautiful and definitely worth the walk. Roatan is known for the West Bay beach. After snorkeling some more and laying on the beach, others from our community made their trek towards the West Bay beach as well. Each one with stories about crossing the rusted old bridge (which I took pics of and will have to upload- there were holes in the middle of the stairs to get up to the bridge and once at the top it felt like the wind was strong enough to blow the bridge over… but don’t worry Mom, Erica is a Civil Engineer and I had her look at the bridge before we crossed and she gave her approval ;) ).
Erica and I left (by water taxi) the rest of the gang to take back the snorkel gear. Afterwards we decided to grab nothing else but ice cream and ate it on the edge of a pier with our feet dangling off looking out at the beautiful ocean. Once everyone returned from the beach, Rita and I started to make community dinner in the house and we all ate outside on the porch. After dinner, we went to a double deck pier, climbed up to the second level and laid on our backs to admire the stars. Again, pretty awesome night!
We arose early Monday morning to travel the 11 hours back to the hogar by boat, taxi and 2 buses. SO worth it!
What’s the latest and greatest this week? Since we didn’t start work until Tuesday, this week has FLOWN by. Clare, our Volunteer Director, is coming today (Friday the 16th) to visit until Wednesday. We’re all really looking forward to seeing her! Especially the newbies b/c we are all wanting to bounce new ideas we have off of her as well as feel some relief in what we each are struggling with not only individually but as a community. The next 5 days should be very fruitful!
Hope you are all doing well! Please keep those prayer requests coming and know that you are all in my thoughts! It’s been hard not talking to everyone whenever I want and having to update people on my life through a blog. So, please don’t hesitate sending me updates on your lives as well! I want to hear how you’re all doing… email is hard to transfer all of these to the house laptop so if you’re interested in being my pen pal that’s great too! My address should be on one of my most recent blogs!
All my love,
Kate

A Million Questions, Let the Journey Begin...

So Ive had this post for almost a week and a half, however our internet continues to go out so bear with me... ENJOY!

Hola Amigos!
I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to compile an update. However, I just realized that I can start writing these blogs on the laptop we are given in the volunteer house and end up uploading it to the blog to save my hour of internet each week.
Anyways, I have now been at Amigos for almost four weeks! Time here has been amazing and I’m really enjoying myself thus far.
We arrived Saturday, the 19th, in the evening just in time for dinner. As we pulled up in the van the boys all ran to the gate and greeted us there, with Father Dennis O’Donnell, cheering with the biggest grins on their faces! At dinner we all introduced ourselves and then afterwards the boys were surprised with a piñata. One of the padrinos, (Honduran couples that come to live on the property to act as parental figures to the boys) Luis, was in charge of the piñata. He was getting so into it and excited and in that moment just felt like one big family as everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves. The evening continued with 2 hours of dancing to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album (which has been SUPER popular here in Central America ever since his recent death- pretty sure I’ve heard Thriller more here in the past 2 months than I have in my entire life!). It was a lot of fun to watch the boys dance and then for all of the volunteers to join in shortly after.
I also received a nickname that night that some of the boys still call me today. For some reason, that night, they thought I looked like Hermione Granger (from Harry Potter … most of the boys are obsessed with the movies). My hair is shorter after I got it cut in Guatemala and that day I scrunched it so it looked really curly. Also, the boys are not able to say “Kate” so the ones that can… do… and all of the rest call me “Kahtee” (when they draw me pictures or write me cards they write “Kati” or “Cati”). It’s pretty fun! Some of the volunteers just call me “Kahtee” as well.
Sunday we celebrated Mass in the chapel (which is the third level of the volunteer house) with Fr. Dennis O’Donnell. Afterwards we played with all of the boys and relaxed.
The first week was basically just us getting used to the property and the surrounding area. We went on a couple trips to Posas Verdes (a small town about a 10-15 min walk from the Amigos property) and Macuelizo (the main town in this area). We were also introduced to and had meetings with a few of the employees here at Amigos.
The past three weeks have been spent shadowing the current volunteers in action. We have observed classes, gone on social work trips (visiting families of some of the boys), delivered checks to those in our BECA program (a scholarship program for students in the outside communities), cleaned the boys dormitories, etc. After shadowing the volunteers we will be choosing our jobs at the beginning of next week.
I’m interested in taking over a few jobs here and looking forward to what I will accomplish in those jobs. My top choice at the moment is to be working in the social work area here at the hogar. My Spanish isn’t up to par at the moment so in order to take on that job I will need to really focus on improving my Spanish. I’m also incredibly interested in helping out with the BECA program and again, this requires me to improve my Spanish since I would be working with individuals in the surrounding communities. This is a challenge I want to overcome.
Last week I went I shadowed the older volunteers on a social work trip. We went to visit Nahun’s family (Nahun is mute, but can understand what is said to him). His mother didn’t know we were coming and so it was a beautiful blessing to watch them visit with one another both with FULL smiles. We also met Nahun’s two younger brothers and Nahun’s baby niece. Their home was two rooms, 1 for sleeping and the other with a bed and kitchen in it. AMAZING to think about all the rooms I have in my house and how some of them aren’t even used on a frequent basis. It just opened my eyes to a lot that I need to continually thank God for. I want to be involved in social work to have those constant reminders throughout this next year.
Another job idea I have, and am exceptionally excited about, is being the new physical education teacher. Physical education at the moment consists of the Honduran teachers throwing the kids a soccer ball and letting them go. Not all of the boys are interested in playing soccer so most of them sit out. Therefore, I look forward to taking over this position and creating fun and new activities for the enjoyment of all of the boys. I also plan on starting up a mini sports league for the boys here with at least futbol and ultimate frisbee as options.
Just excited b/c right now the newbies are all in a limbo stage and have lots of time on our hands (which I’m sure we’ll be dying for in a month or so) and sometimes we feel just frustrated b/c we want to get to work.

Consume Me From the Inside Out

Just got to Honduras a few hours ago and wanted to post to let everyone know I have arrived safely!
We are meeting up with the five current Amigos volunteers in about an hour or so and I´m SO excited to see all of them! We will then head to the orphanage tomorrow after lunch and have what I believe to be a 2-3 hr drive.

I cannot put into words the immense joy I am feeling right now! I cannot wait to meet up with the other volunteers, meet the boys at the hogar, and finally settle into my new home! I will definitely need many prayers tomorrow since it will not only be a day full of excitement but will also be a day where I will be given a massive dose of reality. Thank you so much for your continuous prayers not only for me but for my community and the boys at the orphange. :)

I will do my best to update this blog each week. However, internet will be incredibly slow once we arrive at the hogar so I ask for you all to please bear with me since I will only have access to internet once a week.

I hope you are all happy and well. Thank you for all of your support!

Time Sure Does Fly By....

Hola Amigos!

I have now been here in Xela for 6 weeks... its so funny to think back to my first day when time went by sooo slowly as I was adjusting to the culture and the language. I am now getting ready to head to Honduras on Friday morning. We plan on taking a private shuttle (safer and makes it easier to cross the Guatemala/Honduras border) and leaving around 4:30 AM. I am now done with language school (Friday was my last day) and so this week and I am just hanging out, reviewing my notes and enjoying Xela. The Independence Day of Guatemala is this Tuesday, September 15th, so this weekend and upcoming week are full of different events including fairs, battle of the bands, parades, etc.

My Wednesday nights, the past few weeks, have been busy and tiring but OH so fun! I am still playing soccer with the kids from the hogar here in Xela with the Quetzaltrekkers. Afterwards I meet up with some of my community members and we've gone salsa dancing every Wednesday and Friday nights with a few of the Sakribal teachers. Carlos is a WORLD champion salsa dancer while Luis is a National Champion salsa dancer. Needless to say, its a lot of fun dancing with the two of them and their friends because they all know what they're doing and make you feel like you're an awesome salsa dancer. HAHA.

Last weekend I had the privilege to attend a Quincinera (spelling?) with my teacher, Ana Luz. She is the beautiful, petite Guatemalan in one of the pictures I posted last week. If you have ever seen the show "My Sweet 16" on MTV... being at that fiesta made me feel like I was in that show. Everything was ALL OUT! The hall was massive, there were over 200 people in attendance and the Quincinera felt very much like a wedding. It was also an amazing experience for me because I was the ONLY "gringa" in attendance. I have never experienced being the minority in a group of people. It was very awkward at points having everyone staring at me and whispering to one another. However, It was an experience I am very grateful for. That experience opened my eyes to a little of what minorities in the U.S. experience.

Last Sunday I went to the Xelaju futbol game. Another awesome experience! We sat in what felt like the "student section" at a UD Flyers basketball game. Everyone was up and cheering! People were climbing on the fence in front of us waving the Xela flag and lighting the other teams jersey on fire... CRAZY! After half time, it began to POUR and we all continued to dance and cheer. Eventually, after we were all sopping wet, we realized that we could purchase blankets of colorful plastic to use as shelter so we crammed about 4 of us underneath one and continued to cheer Xelaju on to victory!

Last night, six of us from the Amigos community, went to another Quincinera for the daughter of one of the teachers at Sakribal. We first attended the Mass which was a beautiful experience as we watched how happy the family was as their youngest daughter became a woman within the Latino culture. After the Mass we all went to the reception where we enjoyed delicious food, dancing, cake and great company. This Quincinera was more of my kind of party. Dora, the teacher at Sakribal, made all of the decorations, all of the food and it was a much smaller group of about 50 people.

We left and walked through the rain to find a shuttle back home. In the shuttle we were alone with a family (the father was driving with the mother in the front seat and the grandma and kids in the back of the shuttle with us). The kids (ages 5-9) had NEVER seen Americans before and were so excited to show us how they knew how to count to ten in English. Too cute. I swear, every child I've encountered here in Guatemala is more beautiful than the next.

Once reaching Parque Central, we went to a bar (Ohala) for drinks and just to wind down the evening.

I'm looking forward to having this week to relax and just enjoy my last week in Xela. Sakribal is planning on having a big going away party for us on Thursday night. My teachers in Sakribal now feel like family and its going to be weird to say goodbye to all of them. At the going away party we're expected to each give a speech in Spanish so I'm excited but a bit nervous to give mine. As sad as I am to leave the people I've met here in Xela, I'm really looking forward to moving on to Honduras and starting what I've come here to do. It's weird thinking about the fact that I'm not going back home this next weekend but instead going on to Honduras for 14 months. However, I'm really looking forward to meeting up with the current Amigos volunteers in Copan Ruinas and heading to the Amigos property next Saturday. I'm really excited to meet all the boys!

I'll be sure to write another blog before I leave since once I get to Honduras I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update this blog.

As always, I hope you are all well and happy. I continue to pray for all of those specific intentions some of you have sent my way. Please keep them coming and thank you for all of your support!

All my love,

Kate

Snail Mail Address at Amigos

So a couple of you have asked for this already so I figured I´d just post it on the blog!

Here will be my address for the next 14 months starting next weekend! :)

Kate
Amigos de Jesús Hogar de Niños
HONDUCOR
Macuelizo, Santa Barbara
Honduras, Central America

Keep in mind this is the SNAIL MAIL address... mail takes about a month or so to reach me.

Pictures

The Hidden Gifts That We Receive...

First off, I want to apologize because it has been a very long time since I last wrote on this blog!

Where to even begin with what has gone on in the past 2 weeks or so!

Well, two weekends ago my community members and I went to Antigua, Guatemala for the weekend to relax and just enjoy ourselves in this beautiful country. We got to Antigua on Saturday afternoon and did a bit of browsing in the market. Afterwards we all went to Mass together and then went out for a night in Antigua.

We went to dinner at this really fun restaurant that had a live band playing Latino music. The entire restaurant was getting into the music and the cooks in the kitchen were even flickering the lights on and off throughout some of the songs to get people hyped up! We enjoyed some delicious food, drinks and fun music. As we were leaving I noticed a sign for ¨Camino Seguiro¨ the program Jake, my brother, volunteered at for 6 months this past year. It was fun to know that some of the money made at the restaurant goes to help that program so it was fun in that moment to know that I was unknowingly helping a program that my brother is so passionate about.

Jake I thought about you ALL weekend! It was awesome to walk around and realize that Mom, Dad and I were just there back in February/March visiting you and realizing that those were the same streets you walked down for 6 months. I think the coolest thing was realizing once we got off the bus that I knew exactly where I was and how to get to the Aurora.

Sunday morning Rita, Erica and I woke up at 6 AM to hike up Volcan Pacaya which is an active Volcano here in Guatemala. We took an hour and a half shuttle to the foot of the Volcano and had the privilege of riding with a guy from France and 7 Spaniards who were here in Guate to volunteer their medical services. The ride at 6 AM was and adventurous one filled with LOTS of laughs as the Spaniards quizzed me on my Spanish and gave me tongue twisters. We then in return gave them a couple English tongue twisters and laughed at their terrible pronunciation as well.
The hike up the volcano was amazing and once we got to the top we were able to stand right next to lava. We even enjoyed roasting some marshmallows over the lava. Just an all around fun experience!

On the shuttle back home I was EXHAUSTED but the Spaniards asked us tons of questions of what kind of songs Americans sing in the car on road trips. We then explained that its usually whatever is on the radio and I even said that Disney songs are very common to sing within my group of friends. They continued to insist that we share a song with them, and NOT Disney, after they sang a famous song sung in Spain in the car. Rita, Erica and I then began to sing ¨99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall¨ haha since we had NO idea what to sing!

We met up with the rest of the community and all took the bus back to Xela after purchasing some ice cream for the ride home. The chicken bus we took was LOCO! There were 3 people to a seat and then they continued to pile people into the aisleway. There were at least 75 plus people on this bus. Erica and I had a little boy sit on our laps and everyone was crammed into this bus that stopped for a half hour or so because of traffic. At one point I was incredibly frustrated but then realized that I needed to take in the experience and then laugh at it later and just enjoy the moment. I then began to look at the people around me, at the little boy sitting on Erica´s lap, at an elderly women near me whose eyes shimmered and toothless grin made me happy inside, and at the incredibly caring girl sitting next to me who reminded me SO much of Miss Andrea Stella Berkemeier! Just tried to take in the beauty of the sweaty yet beautiful Guatemalans that surrounded me. In that moment I realized that instead of worrying about the sweaty, uncomfortable position I was in, I needed to take in the gifts that these people around me were sharing. In that moment my mind was opened and I was able to appreciate those gifts for what they were.

After getting off the bus, Tom realized that his wallet was no longer in his pocket so we gave him a telephone and told him to call his family to cancel his credit cards IMMEDIATELY. As Tom was calling his mom, Rita realized that she did not know where her wallet was either so she rummaged through her backpack and realized that someone had opened the front pocket of her backpack (which was sitting on her lap) and slashed through to the next pocket to take out her wallet. As Rita was calling her family, Regina checked her purse (which was sitting next to her on the bus) and stuck her hand out of a slash that was within her purse... her wallet was gone as well. Three out of the seven of us had been robbed.

It was a very eye opening experience that we need to ALWAYS be aware of our surroundings and to just be careful because even though we might be sitting next to the nicest elderly man in the world, we still need to be aware of our belongings at ALL times!

Vale La Pena

Hola Amigos!

I am currently studying in Cafe Nor de Sur and just got done playing with the grandchildren of my host family. They are absolutely adorable and make me so happy and excited to be working with children these next fourteen months. Their names are Andrea (9), Jemena (5), and Andres (3). Andrea and Jemena love to sing and so I have a couple videos of the two of them singing songs both in Spanish and in English (the lyrics arent all correct but its too adorable because they love trying to speak to me or sing to me in English). They remind me so much of myself when I was their age. I havent been feeling so well the past two days and so I was attempted to take a nap earlier this afternoon and awoke to Jemena singing as loud as she could. It made me so happy. Andres is probably one of the most adorable little boys I have ever seen. He has these big brown eyes that just make my heart melt. Today he was really sad about something and so we were watching a tv show called Charlie and Lola (I used to watch this show when I would babysit and it is by far my favorite kids show on tv because the two characters have British accents and so it was really funny to watch it in Spanish)... I started to rub his back and he just grabbed my hand and gave me a huge smile.

So I realized that I havent posted a blog in a long time and there has been a lot that has happened since I last posted a blog. For starters, Emily is returning to Xela tomorrow and beginning school on Thursday. I talked with her yesterday and she said that she is feeling 100% better which is really good to hear. Im really proud of her for making the decision to return despite the horrible experience she endured while here in Xela for a mere 3 weeks.

In the afternoon, after classes, the school (Sakribal) has activities for all of us to participate in. Last week we were able to attend a ballet with individuals with special needs and it was very interesting! Most of the ballet incorporated individuals in wheelchairs and there were a couple tricks done that were absolutely amazing! It was a beautiful experience to witness.

Last week my community members and I heard about this group called Quetzaltrekkers. They are a group of volunteers that lead hikes to raise money for a school and hogar here in Xela. The hogar is for children who are abandoned by their families and living on the streets. There are currently 20 kids at the hogar and a very long waiting list of kids wanting to live in the hogar. The Quetzaltrekkers also volunteer at the hogar and school. Every Wednesday night the kids from the hogar and volunteers go to a caged in futbol field to play. I went with my community member Tom to play this past Wednesday and had an absolute BLAST! All the kids are so much fun and watching the Quetzaltrekkers interact with the kids got me incredibly excited and encouraged me even more that Im doing exactly what Im supposed to be doing.

My community members and I had a few hikes we wanted to do and so we wanted to do them through the Quetzaltrekkers since the money is going to something we{re all very passionate about. This past weekend I had the opportunity to climb Volcan Tajumulco (the highest point in Central America) with four of my community members, the Quetzaltrekkers, the three girls from the hogar (ages 12, 13 and 14), and some individuals from all over the world (Israel, London, Guatemala and India). We began our hike on Saturday morning at 10:30 AM (after getting up at 4 AM and taking 2 different buses to the volcano). We hiked for seven hours up to our campsite where it was about 25 degrees. There we had dinner, hot drinks and went to bed around 8:30 PM. At 3:30 AM Saturday morning we all awoke and began climbing the rest of the way up the volcano in the dark with flashlights and headlamps. At points we were even climbing up on our hands and knees. At one point, I stopped to take a break with my community member Erika to wait for the rest of our community members and it was a beautiful site! We were above all of the clouds. We could see the lights of the town below us with a layer of clouds in a way protecting the cities below. Above us were a countless number of stars. This was the most stars I had seen since our Schoen family trip out to Montana and close or possibly more to the UDSAP backyard. I couldnt help but stand there and thank God for the beauty he has created for us to enjoy.

We continued to hike up the volcano and got up to the top just as the sun was rising. Sunday was my 22nd birthday. Now, I dont know how many people get to begin their birthday at the top of a volcano watching the sunrise but I felt incredibly blessed...blessed to be experiencing that with my community members and some amazing people from around the world. Here is a snippet of what I wrote in my journal that day...¨We made it to the top and I sat on a rock, that was the highest point of the colcano and just sat and looked at the sun as it was peaking over the mountains. What an amazing way to spend my 22nd birthday! I couldn{t help but sit there and thank God for this amazing life He has blessed me with. I feel so blessed for my family, friends and this opportunity to get to travel such a beautiful country and experience moments like watching the sunrise from the top of the volcano! Thank you Lord!¨

After this occurred, Ben (the guy from London who was also celebrating his birthday taht day and had packed a six pack of beer in his pack to drink at the top of the volcano) asked me if I{d like to have a celebratory drink with him. So we did as the sun was rising at 5:30 AM. To all my fellow FLYERS, it reminded me of opening the hills. HAHA we were opening the volcano.

This experience was quite possibly one of the hardest things I have EVER done. Hence the title of this blog, ¨Vale la Pena¨... ¨worth the pain¨. This site was worth being sore the past two days in places I didnt even know could be sore... I havent had to mentally overcome something that difficult since competing in my first Olympic distance triathlon dehydrated. It was worth EVERY bit of pain to witness such a beautiful part of God´s creation.

Also quick side note to my fellow MET loves... I hear ¨OLE, OLE, OLE, OLE¨ almost every other day and it reminds me of all of you. So you´re all here with me whenever I hear it on the radio as I´m listening to the futbol games with my host mom, Aury. ;)

Well, I got to get home for dinner! I´m going to update some pics from the Volcan Tajumulco trip hopefully tomorrow. Keep in mind, these pictures don´t do the real sight any justice!

Hope you are all well! Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes! It was wonderful to receive emails from so many loved ones when I was so far away from everyone.

God bless.
Love,
Kate :)

Poco a Poco

Hola Amigos!

Sorry I havent posted in quite some time. It´s been a bit difficult to find time to post all I want to share.

Wednesday, this past week, we went to Fuentes Georginas for the school activity. Fuentes Georginas is an area with three different hot pools that are filled by the natural hot springs up in the mountains. It was a very relaxing, peaceful and definitely needed trip.

On Thursday, some of my friends and I went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We were all really craving pizza so we decided to go BIG and ordered about 3 BIG pizzas between the five of us to try three different kinds that sounded delicious. BAD IDEA. We all ate WAY too much and it was food that we werent used to and honestly now, we werent sure if it was washed correctly.

Friday, the next day, I felt INCREDIBLY sick and ended up leaving school at 11 AM to head to my host casa. Once I got back to my house I layed in bed and started to receive chills and began shaking and apparently, according to my host mom, I was pale and had a fever. I took like 3 different medicines and was in bed from 11:30 Friday morning till 11:30 Saturday morning. I was in bed for an entire 24 hours and it was a looong 24 hours. I cant remember a time when I was ever that sick. I had plenty of time to think about everything going on and so it was a barrier I had to mentally overcome as well. My host moms favorite phrase through all of this was [poco a poco] meaning little by little and telling me to take it slow and not get frustrated with slowy getting better. I was still a bit under the weather on Sunday but I am feeling WONDERFUL today and eating a normal diet!

Also, if anyone has an opportunity to watch the movie, Motorcycle Diaries, I HIGHLY recommend it! I watched it on Saturday in the school since I was still not feeling well and wanted to get out of my room in my host house.

This weekend three more of the Amigos de Jesus community members got into Xela. Their names are Ritamarie, Chris and Erica. It´s been fun having some new faces in the group. We are the only students at Sakribal right now so its cool that we are able to have some good community time.
This weekend we´re planning on climbing Volcan Tajumulco (the highest point in Central America, 4015m) to watch the sunset Saturday evening and the sunrise Sunday morning! I´ve been looking forward to this hike for at least 4 months since I had heard about it from my friend Mike who studied in Xela last summer. I CANNOT WAIT!

Hope you are all well! God bless you.

Love
Kate

´´Oh the Places You´ll Go!´´

Wanted to upload some photos for you all!

Photo 2: A picture taken from a bridge.... thanks to my new camera i was able to zoom in a LOT!

Photo 1: My view from Cafe Norte Sur (North and South) on the roof.

K thats all for now.. it takes a while to upload pics and im getting kicked out right now of Cafe Norte Sur!

ENJOY!

“You don’t get through things, you grow through things.”

Buenas Tardes Amigos!

Well, yesterday was possibly my hardest day here in Xela. As I´ve mentioned in previous posts, Emily has been very sick since last Wednesday. After lots of hospital tests, tears, and decisions Emily is on her way back home to Minnesota today. It was very hard to say goodbye to her but we all knew it was for the best. Emily is now able to recover with her family and friends back in Minnesota. It was too hard to feel so helpless while she was here. Too hard to watch her struggle and be in such pain. But she is now feeling better and on her way to a comfortable recovery! Thank you for all your prayers!

It was very beautiful because before the four of us (Emily, Regina, Tom and I) left the hospital last night with Em, we sat around her bed and all prayed together. Prayers for Em´s continued strength and wellness, prayers for focusing more on Spanish here and just overall strength while experiencing this AMAZING but difficult first week with Em in the hospital and now returning home. It was beautiful and a moment I will never forget.

Yesterday, on our school activity, we went to Zunil (a town right outside of Xela). There we went to see Sansimon (also known as Mashimon or Maximon?). If you have the opportunity, look this thing up... its basically a puppet that some Mayans consider a saint. It goes from house to house to live with people and people offer it whiskey, cigarrettes, sacrifices, etc. Probably one of the CREEPIEST things I´ve EVER seen. It is not regognized by the Catholic Church and is considered witchcraft by most Guatemalans.

Today I am doing very well! Spanish class today went splendidly and I´m looking forward to getting some homework done tonight and studying as much as possible after our activity to a nearby market!

PLEASE send out your prayer requests! Would love to hear from some more of you!

Also, a shoutout to Franz, Monica and Drew who helped make yesterday a wonderful day!

All my love,
Kate :)

The Magic of La Luna

Hola Amigos!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend thus far! A quick shoutout to my little bro, K-man (Keegan)... K-man, as many of you know, is eight years old and this morning he competed in the Sylvania Kids Triathlon. Kman, I´m soo proud of you and I plan on getting more minutes tonight to call home and hear how it went! Also, Daddio- hope you´re getting pumped for your triathlon tomorrow morning as well. Good luck and I cant wait to hear how it goes! :)

So like i mentioned in the last post, on Fridays Sakribal has a potluck dinner for all the students and teachers. Last night was SO much fun! WE had guacamole, frijoles, frutas con chocolate, empañadas, an Israeli dish (unsure of the name, but was delicious!), and a bunch of other amazing food. WE all sat and ate together and apparently on Fridays before dinner, anyone leaving the school and not returning the next week ¨graduates¨ and receives a diploma. Then after dinner, the student puts their handprint in paint on the wall of the inside of the school and writes their name next to it. Eugene is leaving on Monday and so he received his diploma, gave his speech and left his handprint. After dinner we had some salsa lessons. It was a lot of fun! Carlos, one of the teachers, is a world champion salsa dancer so he teaches us all his moves! :)

After dinner, I asked all the students to join me at La Luna for some of that delicous chocolate caliente. All of the students came and so the eight of us sat around and enjoyed some hot chocolate and conversation. I got to learn a lot about some of the students that I dont know as well. Lewis and Nicholas are both older and have come to Xela for language school. Lewis is teaching English in Mexico and Nicholas is teaching spanish in the US. Both are dealing with extreme changes in their lives and so it was really interesting to hear about their challenges as well as the wisdom they´ve learned from those challenges. It was the perfect evening and amazing how each person opened up and we all just discussed our fears and dreams. It was really encouraging because everyone at the table was at least a few years older than me and encouraged me with the fact that I will never regret this experience and that I´m going to gain and grow more than I can imagine.

Earlier in the day, Regina and I walked around Xela and explored some of the bookstores in the city. All the bookstores are really cool and all contain used and traded books. I picked out a book, recommended by Eugene (he actually sold it to the bookstore I got it from), called ¨Streetkids from Brazil¨. I´m really excited to start reading it today... one of the other bookstores is also a cafe, ¨North and South Cafe¨, and yesterday Eugene showed me their rooftop which has a beautiful view of the city and is very peaceful. Looks like a great place to read and also to be my future studying location. I´ll have to take a picture of the view sometime.. although it won´t do it justice.

Something I recently thought about... I´d really like if you could all please post (in comments, possibly?) some prayer requests. It means a lot to have all of your support so i would really like to have some things that I can pray for specifically for all of you. So please post those.. that way all who look at this blog are able to pray as well. If you don´t feel comfortable posting, please feel free to email me at kteddingfield@gmail.com

Again, thank you so much for all your comments and posts on the blog. It means a lot!

Love,
Kate

Chocolate Caliente en Cafe La Luna

Hola Amigos!



It´s hard to believe I´ve been here in Xela, Guatemala for 6 days now. So much has happened in that time that the days all feel very long. I want to first apologize for this blog because Í started language school on Monday and since then have learned mucho Espanol. However, my mind is constantly thinking in Spanish now so it feels like my English has already suffered some.



I love my host family! It´s just Aury, Ernesto and I in the casa. Aury is an AMAZING cook! My mom is also a wonderful cook so its nice to be eating well here in Xela. I don´t starve thats for sure. I´m working on trying to get Aury to understand that I want less portions. Most meals, she gives me just as much food as Ernesto and sometimes more! I don´t want to be rude and i hate wasting food but I´m trying to eat less on my plate each day or just ask for smaller portions. However, when i ask for smaller portions she only takes a tiny bit off the plate. So we´ll work on it... poco a poco.

As I mentioned earlier, I started language school on Monday (August 3rd) here at Sakribal. My maestra (teacher) is Sylvia and she is wonderful! She is very upbeat and beaming with energy! She makes each class really enjoyable because we not only study words and have a regular class at times but we also will get off on tangents and talk about random stuff so I´m learning a lot about her and vise versa. I love the personal attention that Sakribal gives to all their students!



Today Sylvia and I went for a walk, during class, to a nearby church (iglesia) to pray. Apparently every Thursday people go to church to pray for the sick. Sylvia and I went to pray because my community member, Emily, is very sick right now and actually in the hospital.

WE´re not sure what is wrong with Emily at the moment but we think she might have amoebas or worms in her stomach causing her to be very sick and she actually had to have a colonoscopy (spelling?) today.



We sent Emily to the hospital yesterday, during classes, and so after class Regina, Tom (two of my Amigos community members), Eugene (another student at Sakribal who lives with Emily in her host house and is from Israel), Lewis (student at Sakribal) and I went to visit her in the hospital. In the hospital room we all talked about ourselves, Tom played the guitar and sang and we talked a bit about Amigos de Jesus (the program I will be serving at starting in September). It was a wonderful time and as I looked aroudn teh room I couldnt help but be thankful for my current family here in Guatemala. It was wnderful to know that if it was me in that hospital bed every single one of those people would be there as well in a heartbeat. What a beautiful thing... people who were complete strangers to me a mere six days ago now feel like family.



I went back with Eugene to a cafe called ¨La Luna¨. Part of my homework (tarea) yesterday was to go to ¨La Luna¨ for a cup of their delicious chocolate caliente. Great homework, right? Needless to say, Eugene wanted to help me with my ¨homework¨. In ¨La Luna¨ Eugene again is from Israel and Spanish is the fourth language he is learning. He already knows Russian, Hebrew, English and some Spanish. He is currently traveling Central/South America and began his travels in San Diego where he bought a motorcycle by which he travels. Needless to say, he has some pretty amazing stories.



Eugene and I talked about our families, friends, reasons for wanting to travel Central America, and faith. Eugene is an atheist so we had some awesome conversation! He was curious on why I´m Catholic so I told a few of my own stories about my faith, experiences, and desire to serve. He posed a few challenging questions for me to ponder about my faith so it was a really life giving and bountiful discussion.



Every day, at around 3 o´clock, Sakribal has an activity for all teh students. Today we have salsa lessons here in the school so I´m getting ready to head to teh other room for that. Every Friday, the school has a pot luck dinner where each student cooks something with their teacher and brings it to share. Sylvia and I tomorrow plan on going to the market tomorrow during class to purchase some strawberries, pineapple, bananas, mango and chocolate to make chocolate dipped fruit. I´m really excited becaue its basically just a big fiesta and time for us all to hang out, eat, drink and dance!



Tonight I plan on going to visit Emily in the hospital, after salsa lessons, with Tom. REgina is already there and actually stayed the night with Emily in the hospital because she is a nurse and wants to make sure they are taking care of Emily.

I hope you are all happy and well! Thanks again for reading!

All my love,
Kate

Bienvenidos!

Hola Amigos!

After saying goodbye to family and friends at 5:30 AM, I have now arrived safely in Guatemala to begin language school tomorrow (Monday) at Sakribal.

Yesterday was an incredibly long and exhausting day. After landing in Guatemala City, my two community members and I (Regina and Tom), took a four hour bus to Quetzaltenango (Xela-pronounced Shae-la for short). It was not my first experience driving through the mountains of Guatemala but I was yet again reminded of the loco drivers that exist here...winding through the mountains without decreasing speed... loco. After arriving in Xela around 6:30 p.m, we took a taxi to search for our hostel. Our driver didnt know where our hostel was located so we drove around for quite some time in the dark trying to find it. After finding the hostel we checked in and went out in search for food. Sitting at dinner the three of us discussed how we´re all still kind of in shock of the fact that we´ll be calling Latin America our home for the next 15 months. Emotions were all over the place last night... excitement, nervousness, sadness... we were all so exhausted we couldnt completely register what was going on. It´s all still very surreal.

We then went in search of a phone card to call our families to let them know we had arrived safely in Xela. After about an hour and a half of searching for one in a town we had never been to before, in the dark, we had no luck. We went back to our hostel and asked the guy at the front desk who became our hero for the night. Not only did he go out and buy us two phonecards but he also came back and helped us to figure out how to put them onto a cell phone my brother Jake had given me to use in Xela. After the minutes were logged onto the cell phone we still couldnt figure out how to dial out to the US. After dialing about 5 or 6 times we finally realized that the country code was necessary and then proceeded to call our families at 11:30 (in the states) PM to inform of our success and safety. Needless to say... we slept VERY well last night-we all ZONKED!

This morning we woke up and went out in search for food then realizing that it was Sunday and most restaurants are closed. We went back to the hostel and Tom got sick so Regina and I went out looking for our language school (Sakribal). After finding Sakribal we checked in and then went back to grab Tom and all his luggage. Our host families were then called and picked us up at the school. So we went our separate ways to our casa´s that we will call home for the next 6 weeks.

I live with Auria (spelling?) and Ernesto. An older couple that is incredibly friendly and welcoming! Ernesto is wonderful because he is determined to help me learn as much Spanish as possible in the home. If I pronounce something incorrectly he is always sure to correct me and then teach me the proper way to prounounce it. AMAZING! Ernesto also has his own radio show and has an office upstairs from where he runs his radio show. Walking into his office and seeing all the shelves FILLED with different CDs of music was so exciting. My obsession with music will continue to be fulfilled!! :) Ernesto has also said that once I learn more Spanish he wants to put me on the radio show... but ONLY after I learn more Spanish... HAHA! It´s great though because he is very encouraging and patient... hes my buddy in the house.

Today Regina and I have just been exploring Xela. On the first Sunday of every month there is a mercato in the central park of the city. There have also been performers throughout the day! It´s been a fun first day in Xela! Today I´ve been really excited about all that I´m going to learn in language school in the upcoming weeks. Throughout the day we´ve been picking up different brochures of activities or trips we´d like to take part in while here. Basically i think right now I´m just enthralled by the culture and exciting opportunities that await me! Mom, Dad, Jake, Mol, Mike, Ben, and Keegan... this doesnt mean I dont miss you ;)
It´s Sunday night and six o´clock here in Xela, meaning its 7 in Toledo, OH which means that the Schoen family is currently sitting down in the Eddingfield living room for rosary which is a really beatiful thing to think of.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! I´ll continue to update this bad boy of a blog every week or as frequently as possible!

Love
Kate