Happy Superbowl Sunday everyone! There's some excitement down here about watching American Football, and the restaurants and sports bars will certainly be busy here in Antigua all afternoon! Lots has happened since I last blogged, so I'll try to chronologicize it by day for you :)
Jan. 30th: I had just finished blogging and headed back to Parque Central to meet up with some friends. In the park there are always little boys running around trying to shine your shoes, or girls selling necklaces, belts, etc. I had noticed one small girl selling belts during the day and she happened to be sitting next to my friend, Jo, on the bench when i returned. We had a little conversation and I found her just super adorable. Her name was Gloria and she asked me how old I was and told her I was turning 19 tomorrow. Caramba! It so happened that it was Gloria's 11th on the 31st also! So we went out and got a huge piece of cake to share. and then I helped her sell 7 belts to my Outtatown friends. It was awesome :)
Jan. 31st: First day of school! They sang happy birthday to me and we had a pinata. It's crazy, down here they tie the pinata to wires and pull it everywhere, so it's super hard to hit. Much funner though :)
Our small group went out and got a cake and shared it together. It was fitting, as 6 of the 8 of us have either our actually birthdays or our half birthdays within a week and a half of each other. More feliz cumpleanos!
I had been feeling sick all day, so I went to bed at 6:30. My parents called from BC to wish me a happy birthday at 9:30, so that was a pretty groggy phone call, but i loved it.

Feb. 1st: This was our first actually day of actual classes. I'm in a group with Ben, Xena, and Geoff. We've done tons of verbs and grammar and vocab already. Now to actually put it to practise...
Every Tuesday we are split into 4 groups and do service projects around the area. My group is working on a communal farm that grows Nispero fruit and makes jams, juices, liquers, etc. Tues afternoon there were 6 of us that scrubbed the moss of these trees in San Juan. It was quite thereapuetic :)

Feb 2nd: Today was Geoff's birthday, so after school we all headed to Antigua and had a bash at the MonoLoco (The Funky Monkey). There isn't a movie theatre here in Anitgua, but they have these cafes where you can go in and order a meal or even just a drink and they show movies in English at different times throughout the day. A few of us were going to watch one at 8 that night, but the one that was running previously went long and didn't end until 8:45 and I told my fam I'd be back by 10, sooooo... that didn't work out. But it's a neat idea, and we'll try again soon.

Feb. 3rd: Checked my email today and THANK YOU everyone SO MUCH for all the birthday cards and emails! I love you all sooo much. And thanks guys for commenting on my blogs. I read them all and cherish them. Today I led worship for the group with my guitar. Geoff was on the jumbay (funky drum) and Karis and Carmen sang also. It was sweet. I went to Pan's house after. She had to do her book report, so I sat on her bed and read for a while. Then we did some listening prayer together, which was awesome!

Feb 4th: Me, Dee, and Jeffrey walked from the pink church in Jocotenango to Antigua (30 mins) to meet up with 8 others to do our culture day. One day a week we have a culture day where we'll go on a tour, or see some sights, etc. Today we walked to Las Ruinas Capichinas, which is a 17th century convent, rebuilt in the 18th century. It was PRETTY, and really neat. There's this circular courtyard that connects 18 of the nuns meager bedrooms. We all stood in an arched doorway and then one person goes and stands right in the middle and speaks. To us standing in the arches, it just sounded like someone talking normally, but to the speaker his or her voice echoed SO much! It was amazing! So we all gave it a turn. It sounded like i was standing inside a tin can. Then we went downstairs to another circular room and stood at different places along the walls and sang. Again, amazing how gorgeous the sound was, and full! A "cappichino" is actually named after this convent and the ladies in it because of how they wore dark on the bottom and white on the top. There was something to do with the colour red too, but I forget. Neat coffee fact for all your Starbuck's junkies our there. Oh, I also found out that a thousand pound bag of coffee is sold for $18 Canadian dollars. Wow. We need to get cracking on buying fair trade stuff...
We left there and went to Santiago Cemara, a small village about 30 mins from Antigua. There we met with 15 ladies who started these tours to raise money to send all the kids in Santiago to school. We learned about the history of the village and then went inside a large house to watch how they make clothes (some shirts take a year and a half of working everyday for 10 hours and sell for only $100! Whoa!) and make coffee! The coffee trees are neat. They pick the fruit and let it dry in the sun for a month, they crush the shells to get the beans and crush the beans to get the grounds. I don't think the Guatemalan coffee tastes like coffee at home. I'll try to bring some back for you guys to try. We also made our own tortillas, which we ate with the chicken, rice, and sauce they gave us for dinner. mmm, good!
Later that night a handful of us went out for brownies and ice cream at the Cafe 2000 (one of the places where they show movies), but there was no movie on.

5th: Today we had the morning off, so i went to Katie Butz's house. Tabitha and Joel were already there and Joel accidentally let her dog out when I arrived. So we spent the first 10 minutes chasing this big golden retriever around Joco! Hahaha! At 1:00 we all piled onto a bus and headed to the base of Volcan Pacaya! We started our hike at 3:30. It was STEEP! The first hour was in bush, but the last hour was straight up loose volcanic rock. It was 2 steps up, sliiiiiide back, 2 steps up, sliiiiide back. It took a long time and the wind was INTENSE. I loved it! At the top we were able to look down into one of the craters and watch lava spit out from two different places! So amazing! Coming back down, you lean back and just run-jump.It took only 5 minutes to bottom the first part. Then me, Pan, Katie, Tabitha, and Jo ran ahead and ran the last hour down the mountain. The sun set (again, more amazing gorgeousness), and the lights from the city were beautiful and we saw fairies! Well, I guess they were fireflies, but nearly as cool as fairies. :) By this time it was pitch black and they looked like mini lights everywhere. Very exotic and romantic. We came home around 9:30 and i headed to bed pretty quickly after that.

So that's been my week! Full and fun! I'm thankful that I'm not feeling as flu-ish as I was earlier on this week. Please pray that I kick this cold for good. And also that I'd be able to really be praying lots while I'm here, and to continually step out to bless and serve these people, and not solely during our independent services, etc. It's been hard connecting with my family because they are never home, and are super busy, so also that I'd be able to be a servant to them also. How can I pray for you guys? I do lots. Pray, that is. I do pray for you guys lots. I miss you tons and hope you all are at peace. Oh, next weekend we are headed to Montoricco to sit on the beach all weekend. We also have one of our first semester speakers, Nathan Reiger, and his wife, who will be there with us and we have some classes with him next weekend. He spoke on idols and freedom in September, so I'll bet his follow-up classes will be awesome. Next week (14--18th) We have our independent service projects. I'm not sure yet what the options are, but I'd like to work with kids, either at an orphanage, school, hospital... so I'll let you know! Be blessed,
Janelle