This past week my small group (Team H2O) pretty much finished up the house we were building for Raphael and his son. Making cement is such an art! For one room it takes 6 wheelbarrow-fulls of sand, 4 wheelbarrows of gravel, 2 bags of "cemento" and auga (water). It's actually a pretty hefty job! The albanils (masons) mixed it once we brought them all the ingredients, and then we just carried buckets of this stuff into the house and the other albanil was smoothing it onto the ground to make the floor. Then they put a rust coloured finish on. it looked awesome!
Guatemalan time is hilarious. I still can't get over how totally ok it is to show up to something an hour and a half late and no one even bats an eye. Punctuality might take some getting used to once i return to BC though... haha!

On Friday night we had a little fiesta with the Habitat for Humanity people and some of the families who we were building for came. it was cool :) Neither our small group's fam nor our albanils could come, which is too bad, but it was good none the less. we had steak, which was awesome. Oh, and then an announcement was made that there'd be a Site 1 meeting on the roof after dinner. So we all got there and we started singing a worship song, which conveniently broke into "Happy Birthday" for me and Peter! It was SUCH a surprise. We got cake a firecrackers too. I loved it. :)

So after breakfast yesterday, we loaded our bags onto our insane buses to drive to Antigua. Honestly, there have been nights where I've gone to bed and just marvelled at the fact that I haven't seen a car accident or any injured pedestrians on the side of the road. there are NO road signs or traffic rules or anything! it's fun, but i've been brushed by trucks that have whizzed by on more than one occassion. it's actually quite the fun adventure to play "dodge the traffic" when you're walking on the sidewalk the whole time! hahaha! but back to yesterday... the buses came an hour late and we were off! Away from the ...erm... less than 5-star hotel experience we had just lived in. funny fact: they made us clean up all our things on friday so that they could exterminate the dorms before the students arrived. we came back from habitat, the place looked and smelled exactly the same. and there were still roaches and spiders. what can ya do, eh?

So after 3 hours we pulled in Antigua and I. AM. IN. LOVE. no joke, it is GORGEOUS here! Completely surrounded by volcanoes and trees, it's Parque Central lies admist the 500-year-old ancient ruins of the original Spanish architecture. Antigua is a 15 minute bus ride or 20 minute walk (shows the efficiency of the roads! haha!) from Jocotenango, which is the city we all live in and will be learning Spanish in. Joco is really pretty too. Everywhere there and here in Antigua has cobblestone streets, with fruit venders, and these teensy horses pulling massive carts. The locals dress in traditional, colourful garb, and are taking their crafts/produce to the market, or sit on the corners conversing. It's super cool. Antigua is much more touristy than any other city in Guatemala, so there's lots of europeans and most of the restaurants and cafes have english on their menus as well as spanish.

speaking of spanish... lol, no pun intended there, but i honestly CANNOT. i'm trying so hard and i find it hilarious! my family must think i'm a nutcase. I met them yesterday! My mom's name is Esperanza (super super cool name :)), my dad's name is Jaime (pronounced "High-me"), I have a 25 yr old bro named Alejandro and a 20 yr old sister Paula. Paula and "Alex" are learning English on the weekends in Guatemala City, so they spoke to me at dinner last night, but for the few hours before that I did my best to listen, learn, understand, and communicate with Jaime and Esperanza. I showed them my pictures (I think they think that the fact that Durango has 2 different coloured eyes means he's lucky, or worth more, or something). They loved the mountains and Christmas trees too. Dinners are late here... I ate at about 8:30, unpacked the rest of my stuff, read a bit, and went to bed around 10:30. Got up before 8:00 and asked if i could have a shower. So...i'm in the shower this morning and Esperanza yells in at me and i had to turn the shower off and she had to repeat herself like 13 times and still to this moment i'm not totally sure what i answered "Si!" to. The language thing is pretty complicated and funny. Ooooh, but they have a washing machine upstairs, so I don't have to lug my laundry around the city to a "lavanderia" to get it washed! yes! I'll pick up some of my own laundry soap though. What else? We start Spanish classes tomorrow! That's exciting. We get tested in the morning to see what level group we should be in. We are put in groups of 3 or 4 and then a teacher. Also we have service projects that we'll be doing during the afternoons this week (and the 6 to come also), so I'm not sure what I'll be doing for those, but i'm stoked for that also! Oh, I was told that we can't receive mail, so i have no post addy to give you guys. sorry about that! i do have a phone number... it's 7831-0229, but i'm not sure the country and area code for that. and the time difference is 2 hours ahead of BC. but no one is obligated to call of course :)
Next weekend, we're climbing a live volcano! It's called Pacaya. And the following weekend we're going to Monoricco, which is one of the world's top ten beaches ever. It's amazing!
Shoot, i got to go. I miss you guys incredibly. Please pray that I'd get over my cold and fall more in love with everything here. I do love it, but i don't LOVE love it. And I miss home. be so blessed.
Janelle