So far we have had a ton of crazy adventures in Guatemala, we have had a ton of fun learning about the culture, God and ourselves! We have worked hard, played hard and even picked up a bit of Spanish along the way.
Our adventures began at Camp Aduloun where we "rested" and got to know each other again after our long Christmas break. We were pretty much caged in and not allowed to leave for three days. (It felt like three weeks)
Our next adventure was perhaps our most rewarding of all. Both site 1 and 2 headed off to Mazetenango for two weeks of hard labor building houses with Habitat for Humanity. We got to know our small groups a lot better, because we had to spend all day with them shoveling dirt and laying bricks. As the end of the day neared we really looked forward to a cold shower and beans at night. We stayed at a university, well a Guatemalan university. At this university we experienced cockroaches, floods, gecko's and no privacy! We had two awesome cooks that helped us get used to the food in Guatemala, feeding us beans, plantains and as many tortillas as we could eat. Tanned and chiseled we headed off to Jocotenango.
We arrived in Jocotenango where we met the families that we would be living with for the duration of our stay. Knowing no Spanish and our families knowing no English we went to our new homes and ate a very uncomfortable lunch. On Monday we started Spanish school learning verbs, phrases and names of objects and food. Our Spanish teachers have much patience and we have learned to laugh a lot when we make crazy mistakes with our new language!
On Tuesdays we all head off to four different service opportunities. One is in Antigua at the Hermano Pedro Hospital working with disabled children, another is at an Orphanage in Antigua, in Tizate building a community centre, and a Nispero project.
After two weeks of Spanish we all headed off for a week of independent service. In groups of four we headed off to five different places around Guatemala where we learned, served and grew. It was an awesome week and we all came back eager to hear about one another adventures.
Our next week we ventured off to Columba for a week of "Knowing Ourselves." Accompanied by Blayne and Betty Greiner (speaker from first semester) we spent the week learning about our spiritual gifts, passions and abilities. In the mornings we had short teachings done by our leaders, and in the afternoons we spent time thinking about what matters most to us and praying for guidance. One afternoon was spent in small groups encouraging and praying for each other.
On our last day at the Coffee plantation the owner, Antonio took us on a tour of his plantation. We saw coffee trees, bamboo trees, asparagus fern, worm farm, and his race horses. Then in the afternoon we all (site 1 and 2) piled into the back of four pickups and went on a rather bumpy one and a half hour ride through a jungle to a beautiful waterfall.
Leaving was hard, we were feed amazing food, slept in pretty good beds and even had hot showers. But back to Jocotanango we went for another week of Spanish!
On March 2nd Blayne took us all up to see the cross on a hill. The cross overlooks all of Antigua and you can see it from many parts in Antigua. We all sat around the cross and Blayne spook to us about balanced living and how Jesus had lived a balanced life, then we sang and worshiped before we headed down.
Now we are back from travel week. It was a ton of fun, and defiantly worth the many hours spent on a bus. We saw monkeys, slept in hammocks, tree forts and a luxury resort! Climbed up Myan Ruins, swam in the ocean, saw Tabitha get Baptized and tanned by the pool.