First off… sorry I haven’t blogged sooner. The house we are staying at doesn’t have wifi, and we have to plan around when we go seek out wifi. But anyways, it’s been a little over a week in Guatemala already, and somehow if feels like we’ve been here for a month now!
Instead of describing every little detail of what I’ve done so far in Guatemala, I’m going to give just a couple details at a time in category. My next blogs will most likely just be a story or specific event, but for now, I’ll just give you the basic info that a lot of you have wanted to know.
Where am I?
San Lucas, Guatemala, just 7 miles outside of Antigua. I’m with my team and one other team in a beautiful guest house meant for Engadi Ministry teams. There are 13 of us all together living here.
What is my ministry?
Teaching English! Monday through Friday we drive for about an hour and a half into Guatemala City to teach English to elementary school children! There are two of us in each classroom and we teach 4 classes in the morning then 2 classes after lunch, making our day about 9 and a half hours (from 7:30am-5:00pm), including drive time. The ages range from 1st grade to 6th grade. The title of this blog was inspired by the kids we’re around everyday. The very first day we got to the schools, a little girl saw us, ran out of her classroom screaming, “YAY!!!! GRINGOS!!!” with her hands flailing in the air above her head, running around the courtyard. But probably everyday since then, we’ll hear at least one kid will yell the same thing. It’s pretty adorable.
Also, once a week we do road construction that will eventually lead up to a boys home that’s in the making. But that project won’t get finished while we’re here, so we are basically just trying to speed things up a bit and make it slightly easier for the construction workers.
What do I do for fun?
Every week we have 2 days off (Saturday and Sunday). So far, we have gone to Antigua a few times and walked around the town there. We actually happened to be there for Guatemala’s Independence Day… that was crazy… But we have a lot of weekends while we are here, so I know we all want to take day trips to Lake Atitlan, Tikal (the Mayan Ruins), and maybe even hike a volcano! But if it’s not adventuring, there’s definitely enough of us to always be entertained wherever we are!
Do I go to a church?
YES! We take a 20 min bus ride to a church in Antigua that broadcasts from a bigger church in Guatemala City. We use portable radio sets that has the English translation on it. It’s also great because three of the other teams on Gap A Squad also go there, so it’s just a fun little party every week!
What is the food like?
Well since we all live together in a house, we have to make all our own food. So we grocery shop like at least twice a week… 14 people (13 teammates plus our driver) is a lot to cook for. But when we get the chance, we do our best to try the restaurants that the locals recommend. Plus we have had some AMAZING coffee, so that’s always a bonus!
Hopefully that’s enough of the basic info to answer most of the questions I’ve received for some of you. But if not, please feel free to email me at any time and I’ll get back you as soon as I have wifi! Also, I’m already working on a blog explaining my experiences with these wonderful kids that I get to be around everyday!
If you’d like to hear about my other teammates’ experiences, please feel free to read their blogs too… Most of them are much better at keeping up with their blogs than I am 😉
Here’s just a few:
Gracealguire.theworldrace.org
henryinglesby.theworldrace.org
samcaruso.theworldrace.org
joshuahofmeister.theworldrace.org
