For pictures of Guatemla, click the link to my facebook Here!!
So I have officially survived the first week of the World Race! This month, my whole squad is staying in one location in a small mountain town of Quiche Guatemala. The town is full of indigenous Mayans and the traiditional Mayan culture is very prevelent. Most of the people here wear a traditional skirt and shirt combo that is hand made, and a single outfit will be worn everyday for a solid 10 years! As a part of my ministry, I got to wear one of these traditional Mayan outfits in the Guatemalan Independence Parade! Let me tell you, they are not as comfortable as I would have hoped. Imagine the sufocating power of a Victorian era corset all consentrated on my lower 3 ribs…. ouch….and pant…..
This month for ministry, I get to work at a Special Education school here in Quiche. It is one of only a handful of special schools in all of latin America. At the school, my teammates help out in the classrooms by assisting the kids with writing, doing art and physical education and just generally loving on them. For me it’s a bit different. I was told to “help out” in the 3rd grade classroom. But by “help out” they really meant teach the class…. in a language that I don’t know… like at all (current Laura is now kinda frowning upon past Laura for learning an obscure lanaguage like Arabic, when Spanish could have been much more beneficial…. but not really cuase let’s face it, I love my Arabs!) Anyway, I entered the classroom and the teacher starts by introducing me to all of the kids in the class, then she smiles and says “hasta Manana!” and darts out of the room….. so there I am….. staring at the kids….. and the kids are staring back…. and I have no idea what to do.
Thankfully, one of the kids saw my distress and pulled out his notebook to show me that they are learning to write in cursive right now. So I wrote 3 new letters for them to practice and they do that for all of 15 minutes before they get bored. Then I wrote names of animals and had them illustrate the words. That lasted until snack time…. at 10am….. so with two more hours left to go I gave up with acedemic related stuff and started singing songs and having a popcicle stick war….
Let’s just say that God definitely braught me through that one! Cause it was a bit painful… for both me and the kids I’m sure!
