I left my home, my family, and my country two weeks ago.
How do I feel?
Seriously a mixture of everything.
Despite all my constant changing emotions, I am here. I am doing it. I am in Guatemala. I am on the World Race.
Holy Cow.
Let me introduce you to my new country and what I’ve done so far.
Monday was just a travel day, we were at the airport for approximately seven hours sitting around waiting for our plane to fly us away.
We took advantage of getting American food for the last time, I was craving cheese fries and so that’s what I thought I bought.
Instead I got a box of fries with a slice of cold cheese thrown on the top.
Seriously.
I laughed when I opened it.
However, we finally got here, landing in Guatemala City and then driving to Antigua.
Luis is our host home dad, and he is seriously one of the funniest guys I have ever met, Even while sharing our home rules he made a joke out of everything.
My ministry is helping a sweet young woman named Ellen teach kids english, and by kids I mean fourteen to twenty year olds.
They are the funnest kids ever.
It’s gonna be fun doing life with Luis and Ellen for the next three months.
Tuesday we were given the opportunity to explore San Pedro, which is the little city area right by my new home. In the middle of the square is a big washing arena where ladies and children will come with baskets of clothes and just wash their clothes.
I stood there for about thirty minutes just watching them clean, being completely mesmerized. It’s also a great place to start good conversation.
I met a young school girl named Jamie, who kept her arms wrapped around my waist the whole time we were together. She was so adorable and I wanted to take her home with me, but that wouldn’t have been a good idea.
Wednesday we started ministry, and in my first class I was grouped with three teenage boys, one whose name was William “Willie”.
This boy did not fail to make me laugh, he was constantly flirting and saying the funniest things. He told me things such as “your mother is my mother in law”, “you are my new girlfriend”, and “can we get married on Thursday?”.
After talking to the boys for a while we went out to play soccer and it was a bunch of teenage professionals against a couple of white girls in skirts.
I think you can guess who won.
Thursday we went to another school with Ellen and instead of having a group of boys I had a group of girls who loved talking about their family and their boyfriends. They were the cutest things ever and their laughter wouldn’t stop. Not only that but it was so contagious.
Friday there was no ministry but I met up with Ellen to go over lesson plans for the next couple of classes. Ellen has such a passion for what she does, she explained to us that her main passion is to connect with her kids and build relationships while teaching them english.
I seriously adore what she is doing.
After that I went with a couple of friends to a cute little restaurant and I got a tasty hamburger.
That night we had some of the local kids come to our house and watch The Secret Life of Pets but in Spanish.
Friday was a good day.
Saturday was our off day and so I went to Antigua and shopped around in the market. After that my team and I went to a fun restaurant and I got a coke float which was the tastiest thing I’ve had in a while.
Sunday we went to Luis’ church which was in Spanish, but for us English speakers we got these headsets where a translator translated the whole sermon for us. The music was great and definitely something I could dance to, and the service was great. In some weird way it kind of reminded me of my church back home. (I love y’all Bayou City people!!!)
This past week however, I have found to be more challenging. I found myself with a fever and missing two days of ministry due to illness. Friday I found myself feeling better, even part of Saturday.
This however, changed around Saturday evening when I began feeling sick again, and ended up spending my night with my head in the toilet.
This saddened me because I had been looking forward to going to the beach with my squad and it didn’t get to happen for me.
Lying in my bed I realized that maybe it’s a good thing, my day can be a day of rest, both physically and emotionally.
I’m not going to let this sickness ruin my day, or my week.
Perhaps resting is going to make me well for tomorrow’s ministry and all the days following.
All I know is that God is in control and He is the ultimate reason that I am here.
These first two weeks have been absolutely crazy and mind blowing, and it excites me knowing I still have eight months of this whole Jesus coaster.
It’s going to be a fun ride.
