Had the BEST week!  I dont even know where to begin!  We finished the building of the house on Friday (bittersweet considering it was some of my friends last week), but I must say it has to be the best looking/well constructed house in all of Guatemala built by yours truly.  It was kind of weird because we never really saw the family at all until the key ceremony.  Every family and every building is a little bit different, sometimes the family is really invovled in the building and with the volunteers and others times not so much.  But regardless of their involvment throughout the week, the the meaning of these new houses for these familes is always the same.  A new house changes these families lives.  Its hard to explain the living conditions of these families, it actually almost seems unreal.  A lot of families (like the one we worked with this week) just have little huts made of sticks, some have metal roofs and others just have a roof made of palm or wood (which becomes a huge issue when its rainy season).  They all cram into the these little huts (10 people in the family this wekk), and most families cant afford school, healthcare, food, clothing...the list goes on.  And the more I learn about From Houses To Homes the more I fall in love with the organization and what they are doing here.  They provide not only a new home for these families but also access to education (like the school im working at on Tuesdays) and healthcare (they just opened a clinic in Pastores where families can have access to healthcare FOR FREE).  Its an incredible organization, I really feel like I couldnt have picked a better one.  Im super stoked because this week I get to tag along with this man named Luis, who is in charge of looking for families to build houses for as well as check in on the families that have already had houses built for them!  So ill get to learn a little bit about how they go about choosing families as well as see how the families are doing in their new perttty homes.  He also has an assistant..not sure her name.  But she translates for him because a lot of the towns still speak their Mayan language called Quichean. There is no building this week...not sure why...I think its some type of holiday on thursday and friday so nobody has work.  But really excited to work with Luis and it will be really good practice for ma spanish. And since im done working with him around 2 or 3 every day im also going to go take some more spanish classes at a local school for two hours a day...on a roll!!
This week I also got the chance to talk with my house Mom, Elsa, and she is the most INCREDIBLE woman.   She grew up in very poor family with 13 (!?!?) brothers and sisters.  Her parents were very poor and would paint portraits to sell in town.  She was telling us that often times they would have nothing to eat, and at the most a couple tortillas and some beans.  Then she met her husband Fransisco (Im pretty sure he was much more well off) and they now have a beautiful big family and house (and plenty to eat).  But she still basically ONLY eats beans. every singe meal haha I would think she would be sick of them but she says she likes to stick with frijoles. She worked as a nurse for 40 years and now has an enfermeria in the house where people can come to her that cant afford healthcare and most incredible is that she does everything for free.  She also collects clothes and food to give to give to her patients that cant afford anything.  She said to me " I know what its like to be poor and in their position, I dont think these people know that, but I do everything I can to help".   Such an amazing woman, such a big heart.

And THEN I met Elsas nephew (I think) Oscar, who is learning to speak English (you can make much more money if you speak two languages in Antigua because its so touristy).  He is by far the most motivated man I have ever met.  He had only studied english for three days (four hours every day) and knew SO much.  So we decided to meet every night for one hour and teach each other Spanish and English.  Today was the first hour and I can tell Im going to learn so much.  I definitely know a lot more spanish than he does english so I have to try to expalin everything to him in Spanish (which is prefect for me, lotsa practice) and then we quiz eachother on verbs, nouns, all that stuff.  My days are so jam packed but I lalalveee it.  Everything is FINALLY falling into place, not homesick anymore, and really getting into the swing of things.  I absolutely love it here, every day just keeps getting better!

And then the best part.....PAPA CHANS comes on thursday!! gahhh cant wait, so excited! love you guyss