Language School

I arrived safely in Guatemala this Tuesday. The travel was exhausting, as I took a midnight flight through Houston. But, I only had to wait a hour and a half at the airport for my ride to Antigua, so it wasn´t that bad. Once again, my first meal in Guatemala was from an American fast food chain--McDondalds this time. I slept soundly through what I heard was a rather noisy night.

On Wednesday, Fernando and I went back to the city (here, ´the city´ refers to Guatemala City) to pick up a family at the airport that is also joining SI. They were supposed to arrive on Tuesday with me, but their flight was changed. I only rememer his name, Nick, but he came from Oakland with his wife and two small children. They will be living with Fernando and his family until they can find a house. I think there are two other families/individuals coming in October to join SI as well.

While in the city, we stopped at Telefónica to see if my very cool cell phone would actually work in Guatemala. It does. Fernando gave me a prepaid SIM card for it that I can use until I get on the SI staff plan.

On Thursday morning, I began Spanish language school at the centro linguistica MAYA, one of many language schools in Antigua. I don´t know how long I´ll be going there. The instruction is all one-on-one, so it is rather exhausting, but very fruitful.

Thursday afternoon I moved in with the Olviedo family in Antigua. They live just three blocks from the school and one block from the central park. Roberto and Sandra have four boys, from 13-23. Sandra cooks wonderfully. They also have an excercise bike that I excercised on Friday, and which I plan to excercise regularly. I asked whether there were any lap pools in Antigua. Sadly, there are not.

Today, Saturday, I took a walk over to Fernando´s house (4km). I am quickly gaining confidence in my ability to navigate the area.

I am looking forward to going to church tomorrow, as it will be my first time attending a service in Guatemala. I was quite ill on Sunday when I visited in December.

But as for most of my time for the next few weeks at least, I will be getting tutored, studying, eating, sleeping, and doing enough excercise to keep from wasting away.