Back at Ministry Sites!

Before I get to an update on my life here in Guatemala, an update on the girls basketball team.  Here is how my night went last night waiting for the results of the game.

9:35   The Streeter Sports Blog has told me for the last 20 minutes that there's 5:03 left, and we're up by two.  I have literally sat and pressed the refresh button on my computer for 20 minutes.

9:38   My stomach was in knots, and I was scared to press the refresh button because I didn't want to know if we lost.  But I needed to know!  I was going back and forth between the blog, Facebook, and the St. Cloud newspaper to see if I could find anything.

9:45  Still nothing!

9:47  WE WON!!!  I litterally breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when I read it!

It was a stressful night, and I wasn't even there!  They play Friday night at 8:00 for a trip to State!  Seriously, if you're in the area Friday, GO TO THE GAME!! 

Ok, that was a long enough rant, back to my life here.  This week we've been going taking a very eventful ride to Magdalena each morning.  The drivers of the chicken buses we take feel no need to slow down on the very curvy road to Magdalena.  We are all hanging on to the seats for dear life until our knuckles turn white.  All of the Guatemalans laugh at us because we struggle to stay in our seats.



Tara and I with some girls.  The little girl on my left is holding up the art project we helped them with.

Tara and I with some girls.  The little girl on my left is holding up the art project we helped them with.

Once we get to Magdalena, we walk to Magdalena and usually get there around 9:30.  This week we helped Marcos with a craft on Monday and Tuesday, and today Tara and I taught an English lesson on different vocab words for clothing.  The kindergarteners were very excited, and the first word we taught them was "shirt".  They all screamed it at the top of their lungs; however, they have trouble saying their r's...Tara and I were laughing so hard, and Profe Marcos caught on as well.  We were thankful that as the kids got older, their ability to say their r's increased as well.  The kids also enjoyed playing dress up with our clothes, and we even got Marcos to wear a skirt!  (Tara has the pictures from today on her camera, so I'll post them once I get them from her.)

After school we've been helping a couple women within the community with their reading and writing.  I really enjoy doing this because we get to go into their homes and get to know more people within the community.  It's a very humbling experience to be helping these women learn how to read and write in their first language, and being able to understand what is going on in my second language.

They enjoy having us guess who's behind us, which is

fun, but difficult when I still don't know names very well!

We've been getting back to Antigua around 3:00, and I have the rest of the day to hang out, work on econ homework, and walk around.  This weekend we're going to the beach and staying at an all-inclusive resort for the night!  I'm super excited!

*The photos were taken by Jose who works for Students International.