Life in Antigua

Today, I got hit by a car. Don’t worry (Mom), I’m ok, but it was an interesting experience. I was walking home from school on the sidewalk, when a car that was trying to park bumped into me. Really, it barely knock me off balance and I’m just being dramatic, but really, have many people can say that they were hit by a car and somewhat enjoyed it? Anyway, it was good for a laugh. Hopefully this gives you a little picture of what the streets of Antigua are like. The sidewalks are barely three feet wide in some places and are incredible uneven. There are hazards everywhere- open holes, drains, and random dips and protruding pieces of, well, I’m not really sure what. All the streets are cobblestone, built who knows how many hundreds of years ago. The city doesn’t want to pave the streets or make other modern adjustments, because they want it to seem antigua (old) to attract tourists. They also are an unfortunate number of places where people and animals have left little “presents”. You definitely have to watch where you’re walking at all times. Yesterday, my Spanish teacher was telling me stories about the perils of walking in Antigua: earlier that week, her daughter fell and hurt herself so bad that she couldn’t get up or walk for awhile, several of her students have bruised their faces and various body parts or broken fingers, and even she broke her ankle. Luckily I’ve only gotten hit by a car so far, but I’ve narrowly escaped worse fate a few times (I’ve also hit my shoulders several times on the concrete windows that protrude about a foot into an already crowded sidewalk, but so far not my face).
Apart from this, language school has been going well. Studying eight hours a day has been challenging, but beneficial. Usually by dinnertime, my brain hurts so much that it’s hard to form sentences when talking to my host mother. I’ve been learning a lot of idiomatic phrases and reviewing things that I’ve been struggling with since the first time that I came. It’s interesting and somewhat encouraging to think about where I was at 9 months ago when I started language school the first time. I still have a long way to go though.

Words of the day:
Tener choques (ten- air cho- ks)- to have an accident (between cars or between cars and people). This can also describe two people that are in an argument.
Banqueta (bahn- k- tah)- sidewalk

Language School

I finally got the ok to go to language school in Antigua. I am feeling much, much better and am eager to improve my Spanish. Since I missed the first week, I will be studying 8 hours a day for a week. I am going with three other interns, Kelsey, Jessica, and Mark, and we will all be staying together with a host family. Please pray that the Lord will extend us extra grace and that our Spanish will always be improving. Antigua is about an hour away from the Home and a really great place to learn about the Guatemala culture. I think that it will be a great time of bonding and seeking the Lord.

Words of the Day:
Antigua (anne- tea- goo- wa)- old (for things)
Viajo (vee- A- ho)- old (for people)

Pizza Night

Thursday night, we made home- made pizza with the older boys. This was so much fun. It was so great to see them laughing and having a good time, especially some of them that are having a hard time. The pizza even turned out half decent (whenever I’ve made cookies or other food with them, it’s usually turned out pretty gross- even worse than with the youngest boys). During this time, I tried to seek out and talk to some of the ones that are more guarded. I found myself getting a little frustrated as I silently prayed for them. Sometimes they put up such a front and there are times when I feel like any progress I made with certain kids last time is gone and I’m starting again. Many times, I feel like my level of Spanish is so insufficient and that I am not trained to know how to help kids with these types of problems. These are the times when I have to trust that the Lord knows what he is doing even when I don’t. Please join me in praying that these older guys will grow into strong men of Christ.

Words of the Day:
Masa (mah- sah)- dough
Levadura (lay- vah- dur- ah)- yeast
Harina (ah- reen- nah)- flour
Queso (k- so)- cheese

Pancake Night

Last Wednesday night, we had a chocolate chip pancake night for the little boys. They were so excited and talked about it nonstop for the two days leading up to it. Randy kept getting confused and telling everyone that we were eating only chocolate chip cookies for dinner.
We made them each placemats with their names, which they excitedly showed off and asked who made each one. If you’ve even tried feeding syrup to 11 little boys, you know that everything was a giant, sticky mess, but vale la pena (it was worth it). I just love spending time with them!
After the pancake dinner, I helped bath the little boys before bed. I got soaking wet, but had a lot of fun. When each little boy got into bed, he wanted me to pray with him and then sing a song, all in English. After, each wanted to know what I had said. It was such a great reminder that the Lord hears us no matter what language we are speaking. Right before I left, Sammy told me that now that I know how to help bathe them, he expects to see me there every night. Luckily, he told me that it was alright that I can’t come while I am in language school.


Words of the day:
Panqueques con chispas (pahn- kay- kays con chee- spahs)- chocolate chip pancakes
While bathing the little boys, I meant to ask Juan David if he needed anymore jabón (hah- bahn) or soap. I instead asked him if he needed anymore jamón (hah- mahn) or ham. He nearly fell over from laughing so hard and proceeded to tell everyone else in the room.

Minor Surgery!

Warning! The picture and description below may be a little graphic if you don’t like blood.

In May, we saw a patient in the clinic that had been in a work accident involving dynamite. When he came to us, he was missing 2 or 3 fingers on each hand, had burned corneas and was unable to see, and had traumatic injuries to his arms, chest, and face. His wounds were all badly infected.
This week, he returned and is doing better. His infections are gone; however, when he went to the hospital after his accident, they just stitched him up and didn’t check his wounds, leaving pieces of wood from the explosion embedded in his arm, chest, and face. On Tuesday, we removed a small piece from his arm and on Wednesday, we performed minor surgery on his chest to remove an inch and a half piece of wood that was embedded in his muscle.
This was such an exciting (but nerve wracking) experience for me! I don’t want to be too graphic, but I was able to actively help (including sticking my fingers into his chest to probe for the wood). In addition, I feel like I’m finally getting to the point where I know a good portion of the medical vocab (and non medical vocab) that we use and can understand almost anything that she tells me to do.
After she finished with the sutures, the doctor briefly told me how to clean and bandage his chest, told the patient and his wife that she was late for a meeting, but was leaving him in capable hands, and turned and ran out. I tried to answer their questions as best I could, but had to laugh to myself. Can you imagine if that had happened in the US?
It has been amazing to work with a Christian doctor. We were having a lot of difficulty locating the wood and she began to pray out loud that the Lord would guide her tools.
Please pray for this man and his family as he still has a long, hard recovery ahead and is still in incredible amounts of pain, plus, he earns his living with his hands and eyes. In each encounter with him, he and his wife have been laughing and joking and he told the doctor that he was a Christian. This has been a great witness to me, reminding me that the Lord is faithful no matter what the circumstances.














Here is a picture of the piece of wood that we pulled out of our patient's chest.

My Weekend in the Hospital

This weekend turned out a little differently than I expected. Instead of making chocolate chip pancakes and pizza, going to McDonald's with the kids that passed all their classes this marking period, having a gringo game night, and watching Hairspray and painting finger nails like I had planned, I spent two nights in the hospital.
Friday, I was still feeling very nauseous and not able to eat, so I went to a different doctor in Villa Nueva. The doctor here told me that he thought that I had typhoid fever and he wanted me to spend the night to be treated for that and dehydration (my heart rate was at 41). The directors of the Home decided that they wanted me to stay at Herrera Llerandi (the best hospital in Guatemala), which is in the middle of Guatemala City. Here, they ruled out typhoid fever and said that I probably had some kind of virus. It was a really frustrating, slightly boring three days, however, different interns and staff came to visit and rotated staying with me, which put me so much more at ease. All the nursing staff and doctors were incredibly nice (one doctor even spoke English). Several of them called me "conchi", which means blondie (no I have not dyed my hair recently). We watched a lot of movies (one nurse sat with us for a little bit and we turned on the Spanish subtitles) and everyone was so incredibly nice, so it wasn't horrible and it was really good for practicing Spanish, but I'm glad to be back home. I felt like I might not make it. First, my discharge paper were missing, I thought that I misplaced my wallet, and then Staci and Lee had a little trouble disarming the car alarm so we could start the car (at this point I was ready to get out and push). The first thing Sammy said to me was, are you feeling better? And then, when can we make pancakes? Edgar asked me when we are going to make pizza. He said, I waited for you on Friday, but you never came. Everyone was so sweet and asked how I was doing and I had a pile of cards from the kids on my bed when I got home. It reminded me that so often these kids minister to me so much more than I am able to minister to them.
I'm still pretty nauseated, so if you could continue to pray that I would fully recover that would be much appreciated. Also pray for patience. I was supposed to leave for Antigua today to attend language school for two weeks with the other interns, but was not able to go. Wendy said that I might be able to go in the middle of the week, but will probably have to wait till next week or not at all. I'm anxious to improve my Spanish, but at the same time I'm glad that I get to spend more time with the kids. Pray that I will use this unexpected time with them wisely.
Thanks again for your prayers. My mother said that she received a flood of emails from people who were praying for me.










Night #1 with Rebecca, the intern that slept with me both nights.












Words of the Day: suero (sue- where- o)- IV
virus (vere- oos)- virus
fiebre tifoidea (fE- A-breA tea- foi- day- ah)- typhoid fever
deshidratado (dAs- he- drah- tah- doe)- dehydrated
panza (pahn- zah)- Guatemalan slang word for stomach

Missions Conference

Saturday through Tuesday, all the gringos went up in the mountains to a missions conference in a hotel on Lake Atitlan. This was an awesome time of rest and sharing. Missionaries came from all over Guatemala, along with a few people from the home office in the US. Us interns went to watch the missionaries' kids while they were in their meetings, but we were able to participate in worship. I was especially grateful for this as when I am here, I really miss worshipping in English. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time because of tropical depression Alma, so we weren't able to take the kids outside or use kayaks or things like that. Luckily, we will be returning in July for our intern retreat. A few of us got pretty sick the last night that we were there (it was one of the most miserable nights of my life). Yesterday, I went to the doctor and she said that I have intestinal and throat infections, along with gastritis. I'm still feeling pretty sick and I haven't been able to eat in a couple of days, so if you could pray for me and the others who are sick that would be great. The good news is that when I turn my head I don't throw up anymore.


Tomorrow, two other interns are arriving and then four of us will be heading off to Antigua to attend language school for 2 weeks. Please pray for safe travels for the interns, safety in Antigua, patience and increased mental capacity while trying to improve our Spanish, and for me as it is going to be hard to leave the kids for that long.

After I gave Michelle a bath, I gave her a mohawk.



































The three one year-olds we took care of (look how small Michelle is!!).

































Lake Atitlan from our balcony.





























A clearer Lake Atitlan last year at our retreat.

Words of the day:

Jugar (who- gahr) and tocar (toe- car) both mean to play. You use the first when you mean to play sports or games, and the second when you mean to play instruments. You also use tocar when you want to use the verb to touch and to knock.



Partido (par- tea- doe) and juego (who- weigh- go) both mean game. The first is a sports game (for example un partido de futbol) and the second is a board or card game or something like tag.