So I am in Guatemala!!! AAHHHHHHH This is sooo surreal! It is still sinking in. We have a few training days before we start at our ministry sites. It is sooo great seeing the squad together and hanging out. On Wednesday people will be leaving our hostel and going to their sites in the country. My team gets to stay here at Mochileros!!! So happy we don’t have to travel more. I spent most of my Thursday in a plane (PHL to PHX to LAX to Guatemala…maybe like 12 hours total I don’t know I was up for almost 24 hours due to time differences). Anywho… Guatemala definitely is not what I expected. Lots of people trying to get you to buy things, people missing extremities laying on sidewalks, super colorful builidings and outfits, every street looks the same and there are no street signs, a huge mountain jawn in the background, a fountain that squirts water from nipples, stone streets, dogs everywhere, craziness. It is soooo busy here. As much as it is awesome to be here and fall into tourist mode during these training days, God has definitely been revealing the need to me. I still cannot put words to everything that is going on. All I can say is that shopping for food is a trial. We get 11 quetzales per meal, which is equilvalent to $1.30. We have to shop at markets and hope we aren’t going to get a parasite or some nasty illness. We can only really afford vendor food which is a NO NO! Bartering in Spanish and trying to talk to people is quite the sight. We brush our teeth with no water or a water bottle, we can’t flush our toilet paper, the shower will shock you if you touch the shower head, a rain jacket is awesome to carry around at all times, the internet goes in and out and takes FOREVER to load anything (comparable to dial-up), but it is sooo great! I will make a video of our hostel one day when it is nice out and calmed down around here (It is beautiful in a gross kind of way, but truly beautiful). Just wanted to give you a small taste of what is going on here. Stories are to come. As of now I just want you to know I am safe, overwhelmed, lost, loving it… it is still not real to me, I feel like I am in Epcot or something. However, I am not. These are real people living real lives and I cannot wait to truly be immersed in the culture and lives of these Antiguans! I wish I could post photos, but it will literally take me like a half hour since this is going to slow and I am losing patience and am hungry so next blog I will make up for it!
