I´m 20!

Life is so crazy! I feel like I haven´t updated everyone in forever. Days feel like years, but the time still seems so go by fast. I don´t know how that works. Anyway, the past week has been so good! Last friday we went out to San Martin with the mayor and this lady named Adalilah. In the past they´ve worked a lot with Adalilah for doing adobe stoves because she has a lot of contacts and stuff. I don´t really know what her actual job is, she´s like a full-time socialite. The mayor has perfect teeth (no one here does) and a lot of bling. Anyway, we went to San Martin and met a lot of the women there, who seemed wonderful. The mayor started talking though and promised them 6 sewing machines and that we would come and teach them how to sew, which we never talked about. I don´t really know what that´s about, but whatever. Anyway, after they took us to this hot springs place that´s owned by the government. It´s kind of sad actually. there´s so much potential for beauty here, but I feel like a lot of it is just trashed. It really could be such a tropical paradise, and some parts are, but the river and the ravines are seriously covered with garbage, and a lot of the hillsides are completely bare because all of the trees have been cut down. It makes me kind of sad.

Anyway, on saturday we went to Lake Atitlan, which is gorgeous! It´s the place where the Mayans believe the universe was created. It´s surrounded by three huge volcanoes and a ton of little towns that all have their own character. We were going to hike one of the volcanoes but got there too late, so instead we went by boat around to a few different towns and bought some cool souvenirs.

Monday was our first day working on our art classes project! It´s really nice having most of our projects smoothed out. As of right now, I´m going to be teaching art classes and the Madre Hogar orphanage and playing soccer with the girls, working on adobe stoves, and possibly teaching ex ed. I´m not so sure how the teaching is going to go down at the moment with my lack of spanish skills, but I guess that´s the fun of Guatemala, right? Anyway, on monday we started the art classes. Just for background, the Madre Hogar orphanage is an catholic owned orphanage for kids born with HIV. There are 13 nuns that run everything, including teaching school, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc, so as it is they are pretty understaffed. Two girls from our group teach english classes while we teach art, and then in the afternoons a bunch of us get together to play soccer with the kids. During school, some other kids from the community come so the classes are a good mix or orphans and not orphans. It´s a lot of fun hanging out there, although still sad. The kids are wonderful, and pretty patient with me as I butcher their language. Hopefully it improves, but I´m excited about it!

So that brings me to Tuesday, which was my birthday! I have to say, it´s pretty close to the top for most favorite birthdays so far. It was our first day working on the stove project, so we headed out to San Martin to meet Adalilah. Except then she didn´t show up, which ended up being ok. There´s a BYU study abroad group that was supposed to go to mexico but instead came here because of the swine flu and the drug war that we´re taking around with us to some of our projects. 6 of them came to help out with the stoves, which was lots of fun! It was pretty funny though, because it made us all realize how used to this place we´ve become. On the way back from the stoves we got a ride all the way back in a truck. The entire ride is through the mountains and in the middle of the jungle. It´s awesome, it´s kind of like a real life Indiana Jones ride. Anyway, there was one point where we were squeezing through a semi-tight spot and everyone started freaking out about it, but we didn´t even think twice. You just have to learn to go along with it. So yeah, the villages were awesome and the women and kids were totally hilarious. Basically I spent the entire day squishing around mud with my feet and playing. When we got home there was a sign on the door that said I wasn´t allowed to come in until they told me I was allowed to. Sean came out and put a blindfold on me and then placed me in the middle of the patio and told me not to move. I could hear that everyone else was around me laughing, and I was a little scared. Suddenly a bunch of firecrackers went off about 3 feet away from me! It was awesome. Guatemalans really love their firecrackers. Every once in a while we´ll wake up at about 5 am to a bunch of gunshotlike sounds, but it´s just one of the neighbors´ birthdays they´re celebrating with firecrackers. After the wonderful firecracker surprise Veronica brought dinner and we had cake! But not before Melissa shoved some of it in my face. So yeah, good birthday!

Tonight one of the board members for Guillermo´s orphanage, who apparently was an orphan for 4 years of her life but somehow ended up graduating from BYU, is going to talk to us and share her story! I´m super excited about it. So anyway, life is good! I wish I had more time to tell more specific stories, but I guess that´ll have to wait unti I come home. I´ll try to post some pictures soon though. Anyway, hope everything´s going well at home!