So, I bet you all are dying to know what I’m doing here in Guatemala, so drum roll pleeaasseeee….IM A TEACHER ASSISTANT IN A 2ND GRADE CLASS!!
Every morning I wake up at around 6:50am to be at breakfast at 7am, it’s almost like I’m back to being in high school and waking up 10 minutes before I have to leave haha. We usually have an amazing breakfast of anything between pancakes to French toast to beans and eggs (beans are the most common of course).
At 7:15, after we have stuffed our faces, we run out to the curb to catch a chicken bus. We wait anywhere between 5-20 minutes for a bus to show up. Let me tell you about these chicken buses. They are old school buses that are driven from the states down into Central America, gutted, and used as public transportation. These buses are meant to hold about 30-40 people depending on the bus, but that doesn’t stop them from fitting over 60 people on there. The seats are barely big enough to fit two people, but it would be a waste of space if we didn’t fit three to a seat. And don’t forget, there is still room in the isle for people to stand. So, long story short, there is barely room to breathe, but I have actually grown to love the ride to ministry. It has become a game of “how many people can we fit without people falling out of the door.”
We usually arrive at CANI School around 7:55am and class starts at 8am. I am in a classroom with a beautiful and amazing teacher Andrea and my dearest friend Ashley (YES!! I get to teach with Ashley again!). We are in a second-grade classroom with 21 students who already have my heart. They are such a spunky group of boys and girls and I am so blessed to hang out with them every day. During a typical day, Ashley and I do little projects around the classroom (decorating, drawing things in notebooks, writing out homework, etc.). We also have taught them songs and helped them learn what different objects around the classroom are called in English. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays an English teacher comes and we help her. My limited Spanish has come in clutch considering our students speak no English and the teacher we are working with speaks limited English.
We have ministry from 8am-1pm with a 30min lunch break sandwiched in-between. Then, after class is out, we pile back onto the chicken bus and head back to the ministry base we are staying at. Let me tell ya, where we are staying is amazing. I stay in a room with my six other teammates and we all have our very own, brand new beds. We share a bathroom in our room and it has a HUGE shower with HOT water. Everything is brand new and it is such an honor to be staying there. We have our very own team of people who are pouring into us spiritually through one-on-one time, hosting sessions for us, and holding Bible studies. They are so invested in seeing us grow and provide such great support. The base is truly amazing.
So far Guatemala has been so good! Our ministry and living conditions are so great and I love it here. It is just so amazing that I currently live in a place surrounded by volcanoes and such beauty. God is seriously so so good!!
Just keep my teammate Drew in your prayers!! She is just about $2,400 away from being fully funded and needs to money by the 29th of this month! I have a good feeling that God is going to do some really big things, just keep her in your prayers and if you feel called donate! Every single dollar counts! Thank you for you continued prayers as I am on this journey! I wish I could express how much they truly mean to me!
