On the Move

Day 11 in Antigua: all of the volunteers are here! It has been great getting to know everyone and hanging out around el centro. Today another volunteer and myself are moving into a VERY NICE house to hopefully speak more Spanish then where I am right now in the student house. There is an older woman that lives there by herself, she does have a younger woman help her with chores around the house but I think she is very excited to have us. I feel like we are her grandchildren!

My typical day now looks as such: I get up and have breakfast and get ready for 4 hours of speaking Spanish from 8-12 (which by the way is coming along much better!). Really it is only three and a half because everyone gets a break from 10-10:30am for coffee/tea. Lunch is at 1pm and then we all meet up around 2pm, usually at Bagel Barn a very Americanize cafe with free Internet. Even though it is one of the more expensive places I can get excellent Guatemalan hot chocolate and large cinnamon roll for Q20/twenty quetzales or a little less than $3! Then dinner at 7pm and meeting up with the volunteers again in the evening. We discovered this great cine (movie theater) where you can see the movie for "gratis" or free but you have to buy a drink. So for Q15 or a little less than $2 I saw Avitar in Spanish while sipping my moka (mocha). I know this is the life of luxury! Not to mention how beautiful the city of Antigua is, surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, bright colored houses and tiendas/stores, and old ruins makes me feel like I am walking the streets of Europe! Most days I think how lucky I am to be here.

We are all anticipating our arrive to the Farm and trying to be patient while enjoying the last few weeks here in Antigua. Raul, a former Finca Volunteer (FFV) has come to spend a week with us here before he heads to the Farm to help them get ready for us. So we have been asking him tons of questions about jobs, what things look like there, etc., so we learned very quickly that life on the Farm will be much different.

Today we were going to hike up the el Volcan Pacaya with a guide of course but yesterday a tropical storm started to pass through Antigua. It rained in the morning, which is never does, and stopped this morning! But buses going out and coming in were cancelled and my maestra said it would be very dangerous to go up the volcan because of the rain. These storms are know to cause mudslides as well as damage just from the large amount of rainfall in such a short time period. So we decided not to go. There is un festival de maiz, a corn festival, today which is put on by the high school kids and is supposed to demonstrate the importance of maiz in the Mayan culture, which we will check out instead.

Even though I have only been here for a little over a week I have already felt and seen myself change. Life here is so simple and there is nothing for me to worry about. The more you have the more you worry, or the less you have the more you have, those frases are so true. Each day I am here I like it more and become skeptical of the way people live their lives in America. I am going to be challenged in many more difficult ways but I can tell this is just the beginning!

Three more weeks here and then a 10-12 hour bus ride to La Cieba, our welcoming and then to the Finca/Farm in Trujillo! It is hard to believe I am actually here now, it is so amazing! Thanks for all your prayers and words of encouragement, I am praying for you all daily!