Hello Everyone!

Another week down in site and things are continuing to become more and more familiar. I do officially have a place to live but have to wait one more week so that my new host family can put doors on the bathroom and "shower"/ bucket bath area (i say "shower" loosely because we only have running water from 6-9 am every morning). The family seems very nice, it is a young woman that is a teacher, her daughter that is around 9 years old, and her father. I am very excited to get into my room and make it my own space. It is big enough for me to have my own stove and a full size bed so I am not complaining. I am trying to find a space to start a garden, but i may be getting ahead of myself!

I wish I could say this week was super eventful, but unfortunately the strike raged on. The teachers have a big list of demands and unfortunately all of them are about money in some way, which Guatemala unfortunately doesn't have. SO the strike will officially come to an end on Monday April 25 because at this point school will not have been in session for close to a month. This is good for us because it means we can start visiting schools on the 26th and really get to work. I know I shouldn't be complaining about not having to work for the past couple of weeks, but getting out to the aldeas will help us integrate into the community much quicker as well as learn the ropes and all the things we want to accomplish in the coming weeks!

This week was interesting though, Maggie and I had a bit of a scare on the way home from Antigua monday, when we discovered that there were no longer buses running from the cabicera, Salama to our town San Miguel. Fortunately there was a taxi that agreed to drive us out there, but for a large fee. Tuesday we had another awkward experience, when Maggie's host dad invited us to coffee with some of his friends. This is fishy for many reasons. One Guatemalans don't "grab coffee" and two normally the only time guys and girls will hang out is because they are dating. the term "guy-friend" does not exist here. if you show interest in the opposite sex you are dating. which means you are engaged. there is no inbetween. haha so the whole time we were drinking our coffee, maggie and i kept exchanging looks of "oh god please let this not be what i think it is. " I think it was all in good fun, but that is something we probably will not be repeating any time soon.

On Wednesday I was invited to a church meeting where I finally met the women from the evangelical church that have lived in town for over 30 years. Both seem incredibly nice, one said her sister went to App State (small world) and that there was no way she believed I was from NC because I definitely don't have the accent! ( I wasn't sure how to feel about that but smiled and said 'yeah I get that alot') I think in the future I might be working with one of them to start up english classes as a secondary project, but again vamos a ver.

Thursday I visited my friend that lives about an 1.5 away from me. We made a delicious coconut curry lunch and watched a movie, it was an incredibly nice break from speaking spanish all the time! haha and the curry was soooo good! i can't wait to get into my room and be able to make food like that all the time! (what are leftovers for?) We met up again yesterday to go to a nice private pool which was also a nice break from men constantly making rude sounds and gestures at me. It was almost like we were back home.

Things are definitely looking up here though. I found myself relieved to see the familiar sign of bienvenidos a san miguel chicaj when we returned on Monday night and even more relieved when i woke up and realized i knew exactly where my market was and that i could go across the street and talk to the owner of the hotel and feel like i was having a real conversation again. I am constantly blown away by the niceness of people here, it is definitely starting to out weigh the bad stuff!

the next couple of weeks are going to fly by! this week because there is no school (again) we are going to semuc champey. if you have a guidebook i highly suggest looking this place up. to everyone else it is a river that runs over a natural land bridge and has made these emerald green pools because the land bridge is made of limestone. The guatemalan's claim it to be the 8th natural wonder of the world, my guide book author says it is still one of the most beautiful places he has been throughout the world! So i am very very excited to say the least! the following week work starts and then we have our welcome to the verapaz's party which will be nice to finally meet all the volunteers living in the region! (there are not a lot....i think there might be 16-20 out of the 260 in Guate)

I hope everyone is doing well and i think about you all often! thank you for all your support during this rocky first months, i know that the roller coaster ride is nowhere near over, but its nice to just be coasting for right now!
Hasta proxima vez!
Kata