GUATE!

I can’t believe I have already been in Xela for a week… although it seems as though I’ve been here for quite a long time. But it really has only been a week since I said my goodbyes! This week has been full of adventures. Main events include soccer, salsa dancing with my family and with the group, a wine and cheese party, a family birthday party, a professional soccer game and climbing a mountain to see one of the wonders of Latin America.

•       Soccer: We went to an artificial turf semi indoor place to play soccer for an hour… about 6 injuries later including one tough blow to the head to my “aunt” here, my friend Grace, we left. It was very fun because some guatemaltecos were watching us and we had two native players. They were also on our team. Our team won! However I sat out with Grace when she got hit and we noticed that all of a sudden our team scored about 4 goals in a short time period, which made us question our importance! But it was a great time.
•       Salsa dancing with the group on Wednesday- Our university, Celas Maya, has arranged for us to have one hour of free salsa dancing lessons every week. This was an amazing time with the whole group. We danced all together to the salsa, they played some American music and then we all kind of split up later in the night to do some more dancing. It was so great and I am really looking forward to it this week.
•       Salsa dancing with my family- I ended up going out to this little salsa dancing bar on Thursday night with my host mom, Maria Elena, Gustavo, my host dad, and his brother, Julio who is from Guatemala City. I learned some steps from them and it turns out that Maria Elena and Gustavo go dancing quite a bit together, which I thought was very cool.
•       Wine and cheese party on Friday is a weekly tradition at Celas Maya because they have students graduating weekly. Well, there were no graduates there this week that stayed around so it was just us students from CSB/SJU. Ariel and I talked to some teachers from Celas which was fun and good practice because these ladies didn’t speak any English at all, whereas mine speaks a little.
•       Birthday party- I put up pictures on Facebook, but this party was absolutely crazy. There were 150 people invited, and I think about 90 people showed up, so quite a bit of family. It was a Toy Story theme as can be seen in the pictures, and the little boy in the Woody costume was the birthday boy. The payment for the party organizer, all of the food, music and entertainer was 10,000Q which translates to over $1,000 for a 1 YEAR OLD’S BIRTHDAY PARTY!!! They are pretty important in the society though. Grace, who is staying with my mom’s mom, was also there, and we got to break open the second piñata which was pretty fun. My host mom spun me about 10 times! And Grace 0. She gets all the luck. It was a good day.
•       Xela soccer game- About 20 of us went to a soccer game on Saturday night. It was basically a time to just chat and it was around $4 to get in.. and the jerseys outside are around $6 so it’s ridiculous. Xela won this exhibition game. The most entertaining part of the game was when we were walking in and we were pointed to a hole in the fence where we were supposed to enter. Most of us went home right after this in preparation for our big hike on Sunday.
•       La Laguna Chicabal- One of the wonders of Latin America, and is known as one of the most beautiful places that some elders in Guatemala have ever seen. However, it is a tough climb. I was so glad to have my inhaler because I needed 4 puffs to get there and back and it was definitely a struggle. Really good exercise though, and my body is definitely going to hurt on Monday. Such is life. Again, more pictures on Facebook of this, but just for a little background information. La Laguna is a sacred place of the Mayans and individuals aren’t able to touch the water or it is really disrespectful. We got to look at it from high above, and also got a great view of the surrounding volcanoes, and then climbed down a few hundred steps to get to the beach of the lake where we ate breakfast/lunch (at 9:45) and then walked around the lake. After that, we climbed back up the mountain, again really difficult, and then returned back to our lovely town of Xela.

I have still had really good luck with the food that I am having. Not that I am picky at all about the food that I eat so really it has to be pretty terrible for me to not try. I am also getting to know my host family better, and I really like them. They are extremely nice and also let me have my independence. I enjoy watching telenovelas with my host mom and I have some good chats with my host dad. Every day, my speaking and understanding gets better. I can usually understand the things they are saying on the first time as of late, which is really nice because if I wasn’t, I would be really frustrated. My teacher at Celas Maya is fantastic. She seems to think I am really funny, which I enjoy.  Our group has also been getting along really great thus far. We females are SO lucky to have 12 guys here, and guys that are willing to pick us up in the morning, walk us home in the afternoon and night, and also when they don’t live near us. It is really great of them to do that to make us feel safer.

I have also taken on the name of Sarita, by both of my parents and other members of my family. The use of –ita is a term of endearment, so it is really special. Also, my teacher at school calls me that now, so I have a good relationship with her as well. Sarita is also the name of an ice cream seller and a chain of restaurants. Pretty cool.

This week, we start our environmental science class with our director, Tania, who is really opening up. If you look at her, she is a serious lady, but she has a funny side as well, which I appreciate. I am also starting to volunteer this week. We have a required service time of 40 hours, and I will be spending my time at a women and children’s shelter. I am crossing my fingers that it goes well!

I know that southern Minnesota received quite the snow storm last week, and I just wanted to let you know that I am struggling with sun burn down here… but no snow! J However, there was frost this morning on the ground in the mountains, but it melts pretty fast.

Well, I hope that everyone is taking care in the Minnesota winter and keep me and my group in your thoughts as we continue our studying and traveling down here! I miss you all!

Abrazos- Sarita