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