Antigua, Guatemala Week 1

I arrived in Antigua on Sunday afternnon to start language school on Monday. I am living with a family and am studying at the Christian Spanish Academy. On Sunday I pretty much spent the day wandering around the city and taking it all in. Sunday night I experienced by first processional, and was it ever a sight to behold! On Monday moring I started my Spanish classes. My one-on-one classes start at 8 am and end at noon. My teacher's name is Lucia and she has been doing a great job helping me learn. The family that I live with feeds me all my meals and I spend a lot of time practicing Spanish with them, too.

Antigua is a beautiful Spanish colonial city full of history. They have more monasteries and cathedrals than I can count, and plenty of beautiful ruins as well! Though they tell me that Antigua is usually a calm, relaxed city, I have a hard time believing them because Sunday marks the start of Holy Week and the city is full of visitors from all over the world! They have these elaborate processions sponsored by various Catholic churches in the city. The start first by making detailed alfombras or "carpets" in the street. Then the procession comes down the street and walks across the carpets. The processions are like religious parades and involve these huge floats. The floats in Antigua are not like our floats in the US. The floats here do not have wheels and are actually carried by 50 volunteers! It is absolutely amazing!

I have included some pictures of Antigua. The first is the cathedral that sits in front of the city park. The second is a view of a monastery through an archway. The third is an alfombra made of pine needles and flowers. The fourth is an alfombra made of painted sawdust.

Mi Casa es Su Casa

1. Exterior of my house. Yes that is a hammock off to the side! All of the rooms in my house sit side by side, next to each other in a row. So the next pics are from the right side of the house to the left, as I travel through my front door to the back of the house.

2. The first room you encounter from my front door is the kitchen. I do have both a stove and fridge that run off of propane (electricity only works at night when we turn the generator on).

3. Next to the kitchen you find the living room. I have a futon and across from it I have a TV... it gets American cable!

4. The next room in my little house is the bedroom. Past the bedroom is a bathroom, but I couldn't get a decent pic of it so... anyway, it has all the necessities and in the evening when the generator is on I can take a warm shower!

Hope this gives you a good idea about where I live!

Hola Honduras!

Thank you everyone for your prayers! I have arrived safe and sound in Honduras. It was a little hairy going through customs with three bags and a carry on! Thankfully there were lots of people who, for a small fee, were willing to carry my bags to the car for me... Poor guy didn't know what he was getting into when he signed up to carry all 140 lbs of my luggage. His $2.5o was well earned!

I got "settled" into my new place last night. I am living with Jarrod and Ally, in the guest house next to their house. It is a super cute, quaint little place with a bedroom, bathroom, living room and kitchen. I went to bed last night at 8 pm! I was exhausted from my day of traveling and had basically been up for 36 hours. I awoke this morning to the sound of God's creation waking up. Birds were singing, roosters were crowing, and I could hear the pitter-patter of the little kittens playing. What a fabulous way to start my day!

Now, I am just going about getting myself set up to live and work in Honduras. I stocked my new desk this morning with necessary office supplies. Ally spent the morning briefing me on the medical projects that I will be working on. I also went to the grocery store today to see what all I needed to pick up. Let's just say that I have never been to a grocery store that stocks and sells frozen 'conejo'... that's right RABBIT!

I don't doubt that life in Honduras will continue to be full of surprises, I just hope that they will not all include frozen family pets!

So long, farewell, aufwiedersehn, goodbye...

Well the time has come. I have tied up all my loose ends in Seattle. I have tied up the majority of my loose ends in Portland. I have fund raised. I have been fingerprinted. Now I am moving to Honduras! My flight leaves from Portland at 11:55 PM on the 13th and I arrive, sleepy and disheveled, 12 hrs later in sunny, warm, beautiful Tegucigalpa.

It has been a blast playing with friends, chatting about old times and catching up on recent times. It has also been great to hear every one's words of encouragement and verbal commitment to keep me, the people of Honduras and Mission Lazarus in their prayers. I am so thankful for the wonderful system of support that I have here in the US!

Say a special prayer for me when you wake up on Wednesday morning!



Pics: Playing with friends and saying, "It's not good bye, but see you later."