Here I am in Antigua Guatemala, on lunch break sitting in my room in our hostel with my teammate Brittany typing away. It's hard to realize that this is my life now (I'm sure I'll say that fifty million times before this year is out). I just wanted to give a quick review of what's been happening to keep everyone in the loop. I was in Fort Lauderdale for about a week doing some more training before they set us off to the field. We stayed at a church and lived off of five dollars a day for food per person per group. It was pretty great. Lots and lots of sessions and team leader meetings all of which were pack full of informative goodness that I hope I remember at least half of it over this next 11 months. My squad (D) was there with squad C and E a totally of around 150ish racers getting ready to leave to their respective country. World Race alumni spoke of choosing your attitude every morning, on how to utilize feedback and how as a leader you are the first to die to yourself, and all sorts of other things. We left on Friday evening, packing up and walking about a mile to get on bus, to then get on a train, a shuttle to the airport and overnight stay at the airport,
a flight into Guatemala City and one final van ride and we arrived in Antigua.
Boom. Antigua is beautiful, cobblestone streets, every building is a different color-yellow, green, dark blue, vivid blue, sky blue, orange, white with brick peeking through, women in traditional Mayan dress selling street food that may or may not get you sick, volcanoes that randomly puff smoke, a giant yellow church down our street who's bells peel every hour and a sky so vivid that it looks fake.
We are staying in a hostel; I have my own bed and get the privilege of sharing a bathroom with 10 girls from the two teams. We get to make our own food every day, which is getting easier all the time now that I know my way around the labyrinth of an outdoor market. Ministry looks a bit different than I thought it would; we switch between going to an elderly home, visiting a children's hospital with kids debilitated with Cerebral Palsy and helping out in character development classes in different schools around the city. My Espanola is not so bueno, so chatting it up is difficult. But I've realized that chatting isn't always necessary, especially with the kids in the hospital. The kids at the hospital are so desperate for human interaction and love that just sitting with them and talking about absolutely nothing makes them smile. At first I thought that I should be doing something more, something more tangible then just siting and holding them, I'm glad that I was wrong. I'm glad that my poquito Spanish isn't necessary when listening to a woman in her nineties tell me something that makes her whole faces light up. And finally I'm really glad that just being my silly self is enough to entertain too cool for school Jr high and high schoolers.
