Settling In

After a ton of help from Malcolm and his local contacts, we finally got all the students into their family housing and had our first full group meeting today. I left Panajachel and stayed in Santa Clara La Laguna as we went around and met with the potential family contacts and thought about who would fit best where. I was still going through the shock of being back in Guate and so I don't think I was as effective as possible, but things got worked out and I have been really happy with the families that were willing to take a student in. The funny thing, when I arrived at the house that we had envisioned me living in, I just got the strongest feeling that I wasn't supposed to live in that home. I didn't feel bad about the family at all and ended up placing one of the other girls there, just that I wasn't supposed to be there. SO, I stayed with them for 2 days and then moved over to another community called Santa Maria Visitacion. It's a lot smaller than the first community and acclaimed to be a Tzutujil town (another Mayan language), but my host mother and more and more people that speak Kichee and I've been really happy to see how it is coming back to me. I am still not the most conversant and I would love to keep formally studying to work on the more complex verb forms, but I have sincerly understood between 80 and 100% of all the conversations I've been in even with the other people who slur their words or talk softly and I'm getting a lot better at speaking faster and having people understand me. It helps that these communities are a TON more bilingual and I can ask them in Spanish to correct things or help me with the application of the words and so I am learning faster than I was up in Tambrizap.

On Saturday and Sunday the students met us to come down to the communities. I went up to Nahuala early in the morning to go to Church because they are working on the PanAmerican and so they have huge long lines of cars as they shut things down to one lane in order to add on the additional two lanes they are working on... though they've been working on the road for the past forever and probably won't finish the new lanes any time soon. Church in Kichee was refreshing and I even saw my old president from the Chirijox branch. Then, as I left church, I figured that I wouldn't have a lot of time so I didn't expect to see my host family, but some of them had come down the hill to go to market and so I got to see them anyway! It was great to see them and some of my neighbors too. But, as I had them help me go find the bread vendor that they always went to, I ended up getting robbed of my 90Q I had in my bag (like
$15). It was the first time I've ever been robbed in Guatemala (well I had my debit card number stolen...) but at least it was just the cash and nothing more. I went back to the church to meet up with Malcolm and the two students that had come on Saturday so that I could get some money to get home. Maybe it was my punishment for buying bread on Sunday...even if it was for my host family. Saber (who knows...)

We had our first full meeting with the students today and I have had some fabulous encounters talking to the community members about the students' arrival and what they are planning to do here for the next three months. They have been much more warm and friendly and not nearly as intimidated by the foreign presence. I think there is a lot owed to the increased outside contact because the road that leads through Santa Maria and Santa Clara goes down to the big tourist towns on the lake and so they see more and more gringos passing through. Also, there have been a lot of international organizations involved in these communities including Habitat for Humanity and help for the victims of Hurricane Stan. So, I'm excited not to be TOO novel and yet have some interest and curiosity since I'm not like one of the regular tourists and passersby.

My host family is fantastic and I'm really pleased with the change. The mom speaks Spanish but is much more comfortable in Kichee and her kids speak both languages. She has four of the most adorable kids I've ever met in my life and the little 5 year old girl just clung to me and from the first day was telling me that I was beautiful and that she loved me. It was really sweet. The little 9 year old boy started out only talking to me in Spanish but after seeing me talk to his mom in Kichee the whole time, he now talks to me in Kichee and says that I am teaching him. I like the idea of them seeing value in their native language and I think that the novelty of a foreigner from the US knowing enough to converse and being comfortable enough to initiate conversations means a lot.

Well, I have to get back to the house to eat my dinner and also get one of the students hydrocortisone cream for her recent flea bites...sad story. Sorry no pictures but I'll put some more up next time!!