One week down!  The week started off so great, I went to visit two schools in the area, a school in Pastores and the other in Santa Maria.  From houses to homes helped with the funding of both schools, and we are trying to make it work so I can teach English and help out at both!  

     We first went to the school in Santa Maria, which is this small town halfway up the Agua volcano, it’s an incredibly poor town, and unlike other towns in the area all the women and children dress in their traditional Mayan clothing which is so beautiful.  Joe first gave me a tour around the town and showed me where the organization had built some houses.  I was taking pictures outside the window and these kids come running up and see me and Joe in the car and start yelling GRINGAS GRINGAS, I most definitely look out of place with my “pelo rubio”.  

     Arriving at the school was probably the most exciting time for me, it was one of those moments where I felt like this is EXACTLY where I was supposed to be and what I was supposed to be doing.  The children were gorgeous, smiley, and so eager to learn.  After the school in Santa Maria we headed to the school in Pastores which was vastly different.  This school was very big grades preschool to 3^rd (I think) and had a computer lab.  Both schools are in very poor areas and both schools need as much help and funding as they can get but the school in Santa Maria definitely pulled on my heartstrings a little bit more.

            So yesterday was my first day teaching and I couldn’t WAIT to get started.  I got there just in time for their English class and mostly helped with songs.  First they sing the songs in Spanish and then in English, yesterday we sang “BINGO” so if any of you want to sing bingo in Spanish im your girl.  After class they go downstairs for breakfast and say their prayers, first in English then in Spanish and after that they have recess.  I did however start to get kind of discouraged because I really realized that my Spanish sucks. So bad.  And when you are talking to adults they can help you and explain things to you in a different way.  But if a child doesn’t understand…well that just too bad haha no mercy with them.  So that has been kind of hard but im just going to take it one day at a time.

     Other big thing that happened this week…I went to the office on Monday (where all the volunteers meet in the mornings) and this family that my Mom and I worked with three years ago walked in!! They remembered me right away, (the man was a doctor and had actually taken care of my mom when she got sick)…just crazy that 3 years later we would be in Antigua at the same time.  So that was REALLY great, and also just to see some familiar faces.  And THEN a bunch of us went out last night and I met this girl named Libby and we were talking about where we go to school, and I told her U of R and she was like “oh I have a friend who goes there, do you know Crystal Painter??” (I lived in the same dorm as her freshman year) such a small world, and Libby is here until August as well which is nice.

      Other than my sucky Spanish things are going pretty well down here, this weekend I might be going to Lake Atitlan with an Austrailian gal and another from Virginia, so that should be fun :) thass all for noww, love you guys and MISS YOU