Here are some fun things that have happened the first month, or things that I’ve learned!
-“Can you milk a dog?” “You can, but should you?” (team Esther thing)
-Earwigs are a bug that are literally everywhere at the base here in Guatemala
-At 6pm here it feels like 10pm because it gets dark at 6
-Team Esther’s room is the artsiest room of the entire squad
-If you take a long time to get ready for the day, you will quickly learn how to be faster so you can sleep longer (@me)
-Catcalls are REAL. They occur everyday and vary between “Hola!” the typical whistle, “Hi, how are you?” “Como bonita!” people honking their horns… you get the idea
-DO NOT SAY HOLA TO A MAN! IT’S FLIRTY. ALWAYS JUST SAY BUENOS DIAS, BUENAS TARDES, OR BUENAS NOCHES
-You have to throw your toilet paper in the trashcan not the toilet, something you get used to fast, but it never makes the bathroom smell great.
-Most teams buy food at the store but my team buys organization things. OH YEAH
-Essential Oils are the bomb
-I managed to get 51 photos on my wall which has the least space of everyone else in the room
-It’s not always easy to chose to love your team when you don’t click immediately like other teams but that makes it real love and friendship!
-I never thought I would like eating black beans for breakfast but I do! It’s really good if you dip corn chips in it!
-I will never complain about the way laundry is done at my house. Here I have to handwash EVERYTHING! Also it rains everyday so it’s hard to get things to dry.
-The “chicken buses” we have to ride to get any and everywhere can hold as many people as can squeeze in (which is an uncomfortable too many) I did the math, the big school bus buses can probably hold like 60 or more people, tightly packed in
-There are 3 volcanoes in the area I live that I can see and one of which is “active”
-It’s not as hard as I thought it would be to share one bathroom with 6 other girls.
-Team Esther pooled our money together to buy a full length mirror but 3 days later, our team leader told us we are going to do a mirror “fast.” No looking in a mirror for a week. it’s hard.
-Every team has a different chore here everyday in order to keep this amazing place we now call home clean. for example, dishes after meals, cleaning the floors, cleaning the bathrooms (we have bathrooms behind the common room), food prep and serve, and trashes
-Our ministry hosts don’t speak English at all so we get to teach them as well as the kids everyday. We also get to work on our Spanish. I’m going to be fluent by the time I leave here!!
-Things are cheap here! $1=7 Quetzales here (Guatemala’s currency)
-People here are still Americans because this is Central Americans and they don’t like it when you say they aren’t Americans
-Earthquakes are common here, but I still have yet to experience one
-There is a tattoo place in Antigua and a lot of my squad mates have gotten tattoos there!
-The altitude here is about 5,000 feet I believe so it’s harder to breathe when working out or climbing a mountain
-There are Taco Bells, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and Subways here, believe it or not
-There are ATM’s everywhere! I’ve never seen so many before
-Absolutely do not eat an apple here without washing it in filtered water! You can get a parasite(s) from not washing it and eating it!
-Absolutely do not open your mouth in the shower! Also another way to get sick or get a parasite! At the base we can drink sink water though!
-It’s common to see a woman holding 2 or 3 chickens in her hands by the chickens feet, upside down, in the market places
-It’s not weird here to see a woman breastfeeding her baby on the streets or in front of you, just don’t stare…
-People carry lots of things on their heads and I’m determined to be able to do that successfully before I leave here
-You can buy a chick for 10 Quetzales, which is $1.42 about!
-They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving here even though they have their own turkeys in their yards… big turkeys too!
-I haven’t worn shorts anywhere other than the base the entire time I’ve been here! It’s not super hot here and rains everyday so that keeps it cool here
-Bailar, the word I learned in Spanish class in High School for to dance, refers to the way gangs dance. So we have to use the word dancar instead to people here.
-The base here made a rule that we aren’t allowed to touch any of the animals here for our safety
-When people have a dog as a “pet” here they’re more like guard dogs and almost always will bite you if you approach it
-I’ve never felt more like an adult than I do here, I go to bed at like 9:30 or 10 like every night and get up at 6ish every morning. At home in the states, even if I had to get up that early I would probably go to bed at like 11ish!
-God is flexing on us over here! He’s like, guys look what I can and will do!
-Naps are a good pastime here
-By the time we all get back to the states we are not going to get sick like ever because our immune systems will be so strong! Everyone is getting sick here
-It’s a lot easier to understand someone speaking Spanish than it is to speak it yourself
-Being in a different country never stopped anyone from dressing cute! I don’t know why I thought everyone would dress like bums… maybe it’s because of the World Race’s dress code.
-Kids cling to me and I don’t know why. I don’t know what I did, but they all love me! I think my teammates are low key jealous!
-Animals are everywhere and we’re not allowed to touch them.. with the passion I have for animals, it’s a miracle I haven’t touched any so far. I’ve become even more sure of the amount of animals I want at some point in my future when I have my own house!
-If you don’t know who you really are coming into the race, you are already one step ahead of everyone because God is remolding everyone and it takes a lot more to remold someone who already thinks they know who they are
-Don’t bring your wallet to ministry when you pass a store on the way home if you like to buy food to just eat when you’re bored. That’s a way to spend way too much money
-Living with 6 other people teaches you how to think more and more selfless everyday
-Exercise in the morning is a good key to having a good day, also the view of the sunrise is pretty dang amazing! God is good!
-Soccer at night in the dark with my squad is so fun and I will always do it when I can
-A sabbath day isn’t required but it’s HIGHLY recommended by me! It’s not healthy for anyone to go go go and not have a rest day. People have gotten physically sick from not resting enough
-My team leader, Anabelle, is obsessed with us
-We have a chicken pinata hanging from our ceiling in our room (it was part of a surprise for our team leader’s birthday)
-People from the states really are loud. Put just 4 of us in a bus full of Guatemalans and the only people talking will be the ones from the states
-I’ve never been so thankful for the paved, even roads and sidewalks in the states! The uneven paths and cobblestone roads here have caused some back pain for me.
-The people here always welcome you into their home and give you chairs or something to sit on while you visit them
-You can choose to be social or antisocial at night at the base… I can sure hear all the social people out there as I sit and type about my day in my room XD
-The fact that I’m in Guatemala and it’s my home sometimes hits me hard at random moments. Typically when I’m on a chicken bus riding home from ministry
-Music becomes your best friend when you need to have some alone time but can’t really get alone anywhere
-Mosquitoes are not bad here at all. I thought I would have to wear bug spray all the time but I haven’t at all so far and I’ve been fine! (mosquitoes outside the states carry disease… rude mosquitoes trying to get us sick or dead outside the states… XP
-Even if you’re dark skinned or don’t get sunburned, SUNSCREEN is NEEDED because… skin cancer and damage is a thing everywhere! (Val approves of this message… I think. She always brings this up so I say she does!!)
-My teammates Val, Hannah Keller(HPK), and Chelsea CANNOT whisper quietly at 6:20 in the morning when trying to surprise our teammate Makayla for her birthday…
-GOD IS SO GOOD! HE HEALS THE SICK AND INJURED AND EVEN ALLERGIES (didn’t just learn that but I see it a lot clearer now than I did before XP)
-A month on the World Race feels like 2 weeks or less
-“See you at home!” is the phrase we say to our squad mates when we see them outside the base
-“That’s a fact Jack!”
-Guatemalans call white Americans gringos and it’s so weird
-I always have to pee. I go up to my teammates and say guess what, and they’ll say, “you have to pee!” they know me so well lol
