First Impressions
After a fourteen-hour journey that began in Aberdeen SD, I landed in Guatemala City, Guatemala. The other three volunteers (Liz, Kristina, and Claudia) and I picked up our bags and went through customs without a problem. I was quite relieved, since I didn't know any Spanish yet. Two members of VMM (The Volunteer Missionary Movement) met us at the airport and bundled us into a pair of cabs with all our baggage. As we pulled out of the airport, it began sprinkling, and soon turned into an all-out downpour, a result of the hurricane that was currently in the Caribbean. The streets began to fill with water, and before long we came to a place where the water level was higher than the bottom of our doors. Our cabbie stopped, trying to decide if he could drive through it or not, while I could feel the water pushing against the floorboard under my feet. Then, we moved forward slowly until we were over higher ground, and proceeded to the house we had rented for the night. The next day, we took a first class bus to Xela (pronounced Shay-la). First class means an old school bus where you have only two people in each seat. The land was beautiful, with many hills, green trees, and corn that must have been 10 feet high. Many hillsides were terraced, which is having the unfortunate side effect of much erosion and occasional landslides. Along the roadside during our 4-hour ride were many rocks with ¨PAN¨ and an up arrow painted in yellow and blue. Since then, I have learned that PAN is a center-right political party. When we arrived in Xela, we went directly to our language school (where we will be spending the next 2 months). Within half an hour each of us was picked up by a different "host family", with whom we will live while we are studying. My host family consists of a husband and wife, 2 sons and various other people whose connections I don't know yet. The food is very different, of course, with many frejoles (beans), huevos (eggs), and corn tortillas, but Rosa, my host mother, is a very good cook. A couple days ago I even had chocolate pancakes for breakfast! I'll try to pass some recipes on to you once I develop the vocabulary to ask about them.
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