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| Sandra keeps Edges
up to date on her work in Guatemala. I have now been in Guatemala for a month, things are going ok and I have settled into a new routine. I am living with a Guatemalan family who have 2 sons and 2 daughters, only the eldest son doesn’t live at home. They have told me to act as if their house is mine and they are all looking after me well. They talk to me in Spanish and help me if I get stuck and correct me when I say things wrong (which is very often!) I get up at 7am and have breakfast at 7.30 and have to be at school at 8am. Thankfully the school is only 2 mins walk down the road so I haven’t far to go. Studying is very intense, I have my own teacher and we study from 8am till 10am then have a half-hour break and then we study from 10.30 till 12noon. So I get three and a half-hours one to one teaching. My teacher is called Angelina and she is about 24. She is a good teacher and varies the exercises we do so I have a variety of different things to tackle. At the moment I am trying to master 5 different tenses of verbs and also adverbs, pronouns and other vocabulary. Some days I feel like I have forgotten everything but at other times I feel like I am progressing. I understand a lot more that is said to me than I can say to others but my teacher says this is normal. Lunch is at 12.30pm and then the afternoons are for me to decide what to do. On Mondays and Thursdays I work at another charity which is here In Antigua and is funded through the states. The charity has a school and offers a variety of other things such as medical advice and food to children and families who are very poor. It is similar to Toybox except the children have homes to go back to after schooling, they are not on the streets just very poor. I help out in the children’s classes and so far have had to show the children how to do long multiplication and fractions. It took me a while to remember how to do these as it’s a long time since I was at junior school and at first I felt a bit helpless because I couldn’t say much or remember what to do, but it’s easier as I get to know the children better. Playtime is good fun and we play basketball, tig and football. I am only working here because its close to where I live and they need volunteers and I need to practice my Spanish so it will give me some more experience of working and communication before I go to work in the city. The other afternoons are taken up by studying, resting, using the internet or going out with the other girls that I am with. Tea is at 6.30pm and then in the evenings we either go out for a while to a local café or stay in and study more. We have found a church here that has an English service on Thursday evenings and also a bible study group in a Sunday evening as well as having an English translation for the Sunday morning service. I would describe the church as Evangelical and it is very lively. Worship starts at 9.30 on a Sunday morning and generally songs are sung till about 10.30. So far every service I have been to has lasted till about 12noon. The teaching is very good although it’s hard to try and listen to the Spanish and try and decide what is being said and then also listen to someone translate. The English service and Bible study are run by an American pastor, he lives here with his wife and 2 young children and they have an open house. They have made us all welcome and its good to have fellowship and pray together. Because there are 7 of us at the moment we have invaded the Americans but they have welcomed us with open arms. I am going to be left on my own at the end of this week as the other 6 gap year students finish their Spanish on Friday and go off to work in various teams around the charity until December. It is going to feel strange without them but they have said they will visit me on their days off and I will no doubt go and visit them. We have all been involved in the youth club that is run every Saturday afternoon for the children and for me this has given me the chance to meet the children again, it is wonderful to see how they are all continuing to grow and develop as individuals. We have been doing a little exploring while we have been here, we went to the beach the other weekend, just for the day. It was amazing. We travelled south to a place called Monterrico, which is on the pacific coast. The sand is black, it was very hot and sunny and if we had taken a surfboard we could have surfed on the waves. It is still winter here although its nearly ended and we have had rain nearly every day since we arrived, plenty of thunderstorms and the odd power cut. It has been warm though and when the sun shines its great to just go and sit in the central square and watch the world go by. The square attracts many people and there are lots of local people selling their crafts. You only have to sit down for 2 seconds and someone comes to try and sell you something. Most of the vendors are young children and it’s been good to meet them and chat to them about why they are there. We met a boy called Wilbur this week, he is 12 and he did his best to sell me and Rachel one of his bracelets. He studies in the morning and then comes to the square every afternoon until 6.30, by which time it s nearly dark. He then returns home by bus and has a journey home of about half an hour. His mother makes bracelets and necklaces and he comes into Antigua to sell them. He chatted away to us for a while and I bought him a drink and he was happy just to sit with us until we had to go. Later in the afternoon Rachel and me returned to the square to sit and read. After about half an hour Wilbur appeared and came and sat between us and chatted to us again about some of the traditions of his country. All of a sudden he jumped up and said he wanted to go to the loo. He gave Rachel a handful of necklaces and me a handful of bracelets and asked us to look after them until he returned. I felt so humble that only after meeting us that day was he prepared to trust us with his goods while he went to the toilet. I eventually bought one of his bracelets but he is a good salesman and I had to bargain hard to get a good price. Its hard to accept that children like him and others younger, many of them girls, are sent out to work by their parents but that is part of life here. Adjusting to a new place and new culture takes time and I still haven’t got used to the fireworks. There are many traditions here, one of which is to celebrate almost anything with fireworks. However, for the last 2 mornings I have almost jumped out of bed with fright at 5 o’clock in the morning after being woken by loud bangs! Yesterday the first ones went off at 5am then some people started singing, then more fireworks every 15mins or so after until about 6.30am. I was not amused! I am now on the hunt for a pair of earplugs. Well that’s about it from me for now, thanks to all who have emailed me, thanks for all the prayers and many thanks to all who have provided financial support your donations are being put to good use. Take care, love and prayers Sandra. |
