Food, Family, Friends, and Spanish Follies

Hope you enjoy the new pictures! I just finished eating dinner with my host family and Bron who is from Australia and my housemate until she leaves on Sunday. We ate popino, a traditional soup of Guatemala. The soup was outstanding and included potatoes, chicken, and another vegetable similar to a potato. All the food I have had has been wonderful and is varied. I ate the best orange and pineapples today-the fruit is fresh all the time here! Antigua is also world famous for its coffee and I guess I'll need to ease into the coffee routine. My family is the best and Bron and I talked William and Lolita into dancing the other night. It was fun to watch and then William brought out the wedding picture of Lolita and himself. I am understanding more and more of the conversation around the dinner table each night which is encouraging and we all laugh quite a bit! I have posted pictures of the volunteers that have started with me. Aviv and Maya are from Toronto, Susan is from Seattle, and John ( I call him Don Juan) is from the United Kingdom. There are all super interesting people and I will really enjoy my time with them. I will be travelling for six months with Aviv, Maya, and Susan and we will leave John in six weeks to our displeasure. Each of us attend Spanish class each day and each day consists of one on one instruction with our teacher. I continue to enjoy working with my teacher, Silvia. So far, only two major Spanish follies: Aviv, Maya, Susan, John, and I went to the market the other day and I actually told a man muchas tortoise, I meant to say muchas gracias (thank you very much)! I wondered why I said tortoise, who does that? Everyone just laughed. Then, I was trying to describe to Silvia how excited I am to work with the children in the school. As it turned out, I used a word to describe sexual excitement according to Silvia. This is not good coupled with working with kids but Silvia thought it was hilarious and I made sure I knew the correct word to use for excited :) Overall, I could not be happier right now and this weekend it is off to El Salvador to visit some friends or hiking an active volcano near by. I hope everyone is doing great and until next time...

P.S. The volcano pictured above is El Volcan de Fuego. It is active and you can see it emitting smoke in the picture during the day and night. The other pictures consist of us travelling to school, getting ready to go to the market (mercado) and pictures of cathedrals built by the Spanish.

Some new pictures taken from the view on my rooftop and from the neighborhood. Also, a picture of the volunteers that are stuck with me for six months: Aviv, Maya, and Susan!

Where do I start!

Hola de Guatemala! A lot has happened in the last few days and I wanted to get a post out before I rambled people's eyes off! I began my Spanish Language School on Monday and it is going great. My maestra is Silvia and she is an angel. Between actual conjugations and vocabulary sessions we have discussed the death penalty, the past and current state of Guatemalan politics, gangs, the importance of education, American politics, my job, her family, my family, the city of Antigua being haunted, Guatemalan food, etc, etc. It has been awesome. I have been spending a lot of time with my new mates: John from London, Susan from Seattle, and Mya and Aviv from Toronto. They are all super interesting and Susan, Maya, and Aviv will be with me for the entire six months-Everyone should feel sorry for them :) Also, for the past two nights I have hung out with my friend Kelley from Colorado. She and I met back in 2004 in El Salvador and she has been living in Central America for three and a half years: Peace Corps volunteer in Costa Rica and worked in El Salvador for the rest of her time. We all stayed up way to late last night and went to two bars: El Muro and No Se. The bars have this awesome ambiance and they are so unique! My host family is awesome and I moved in with them Sunday. William is mi padre, Lolita mi madre, y Willy is my hermano. Willy is studying to be a lawyer currently. So...this week is all Spanish classes and then I begin to teach in my pueblo, Santa Maria de Jesus next Monday. I can't wait to get up there and meet the kids! It's a whole new world here and I am so happy to be here and I am overjoyed to feel totally uncomfortable at times and glad to get lost, etc. I know that sounds weird but it is exactly what I needed! The food is great and the people are even better here. I'll send something out again soon-I have way too much to talk about. HASTA LUEGO!

No stomach issues, robbings, natural disasters!!

Hola! As the Title to the post indicates, no major issues and I don't suspect I need to worry too much in Antigua. I have been doing a lot of walking and exploring thus far. Antigua is not a big city but walking around town makes for a good workout. I have become a routine diner at el restaraunte Dona Luisa Xicotencatl. The place is two stories filled with vibrant colors, tiled floors, art work, and tons of seating in big rooms or narrow hallways. I really need to expand my horizons but I just like it too much.

I met the majority of the staff and volunteers stationed here in Antigua through Global Vision International last night. We went out to eat and had a few drinks. Everyone is very intelligent and quite committed to their volunteer assignments. I will be helping to teach 8-10 year olds at the school in Santa Maria just outside of Antigua on the slopes of a dormant ( I hope) volcano, El Fuego, shown in the above picture. I am nervous but am looking forward to having more structure in my days. Most of the volunteers are from Australia or the UK with a few from the States. It is nice to meet such diverse people and funny to hear the varying vocabulary and accents. I thought Spanish was hard but at times I have understanding my own language!

As I said, most of my days are filled with meandering through Antigua as I await Sunday. I enjoy going to the park and getting harassed by the vendors trying to sell me flutes, wood figurines, necklaces, etc. as this gives me a chance to work on my Spanish. Most of these peddlers are kids and it is fun to joke with them and learn their names and backgrounds. I wasn't gonna do it, but I gave in to Miguel today. He has been trying to sell me a Mayan flute for three days now and he sat beside me in the park today. We talked beyond him trying to convince me about how awesome his flutes are and he told me his background: no father, not in school, very poor. I could tell he was poor by looking at him and I would guess he is probably not more than 13 years old. I drew a map of where I live in the States for Miguel and he wanted me to keep going and I drew (tried) Central America, South America and Miguel was actually very knowledgeable with his geography.

Miguel then said he was thirsty and if I could give him money for a drink. We made an agreement that if I gave him money today that would be the only time he would get money and I told him other people will ask me as well. Miguel agreed and, probably naive on my part, I gave him five quetzales which is roughly 65 cents in the U.S. We talked some more and I told him he should go get his drink which he did, I watched him walk to the store and he was smiling and gulping down his drink when he came out! I have come across several examples of kids like Miguel: Alex, Marisol and her family, Isabel. All of them come to Antigua to sell their goods and then return by bus at night to their families, or in Miguel's case, lack thereof. These are the type of children I will help to teach in Santa Maria which makes this much more meaningful. Hopefully, I can help in my own way there.

Today I will meet the four volunteers whom I will be spending the next six months with. I am confident they will be like minded and am looking forward to meeting them. Then, my orientation tomorrow and on Monday I begin my intensive Spanish school. Mono y mono with an instructor for around six hours each day. It will be grueling but good for me for sure. Hasto Luego (Until later) and Feliz Dia (Happy Day) as they say in Antigua.

P.S. Here are a few pictures of El Volcan Agua and la plaza in the middle of the city of Antigua.

Geography

Click on the map to enlarge. Find Guatemala City and I'm located in Antigua Guatemala just west of the capital!

Translation of El Guero and First Blog!!

Hello everyone! So, the name of my first official blog is Journey of El Guero. For those of you that don't habla espanol, el Guero is the Whiteboy. Obviously this applies to me and my friend Carlos already calls me this so I thought it would fit! My blog will consist of an on-line journal with pictures documenting the next six months of my life as a volunteer teacher for Global Vision International. I will be in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecaudor, and Peru over this span. Please feel free to comment on my blog or just take part as a casual observer. Thanks for thinking of me and I hope all of you will stay in touch with me-I'll need it!

I arrived in Antigua, Guatemala this afternoon and so far so awesome! The city of Antigua has been around since the 1500's and was once the capital of Guatemala. The city is flanked by three massive volcanoes, the streets are cobblestoned, the people are diverse, and I have already wanted to buy another bag worth of hand made goods, etc! My first chance to use my Spanish came when the driver for my program, Marvin, came to pick me up. My Spanish was actually a lot better than I thought it would be and he is super nice. I also ate in a quaint little restaurant and had a great meal. The only negative thing is I accidently flushed some toilet paper-ooops, hope the toilet is resilent! Rule Number One: No flushing paper-ever, I should have known.

I'll be in my motel until Saturday night and then will meet my host family on Sunday! A volunteer, Katie, from Georgia stopped by tonight and gave me a mini-tour of Antigua. She seems awesome and just the type of person I envisioned meeting here! Marvin told me there are volunteers from the States, England, Germany, and Ireland currently!

Well, tonight I will talk to the family over the computer and then just relax and read. I hope this blog offers some interesting stories/viewpoints and thanks to everyone who doesn't mind reading my rambling prose :)

Take care until next time,

Aaron