A Religious Experience...

I just returned from my first experience in a Guatemalan Evangelical Church.  My ears are still ringing.  Yesterday, I moved in with my new host family.  I will live here for the next eleven weeks.  It turns out that my host father is the pastor at the local Evangelical Church, so I joined the family for the 2 ½  hour service.  When my host mother asked me what whether I’m Catholic or Evangelical, I answered “Soy Judeo.”  She didn’t know what that was, but asked if it was like being Evangelical.  I explained, in rather broken Spanish, that it’s like being Christian only without the New Testament (Close enough, right?).  She seemed content with that and didn’t ask any further questions.  I’m glad I didn’t have to explain that it was my people that crucified Jesus…

I’ll rewind a few days to my arrival in Guatemala.  We landed in Guate on Wednesday afternoon, after being awake for about forty hours.  We boarded buses for Santa Lucia Milpas Altas, where the Guatemalan Peace Corps offices are.  We immediately had our initial Spanish interviews so that we could be grouped up for training.  I was rated as “intermedio bajo,” and I only need to be “intermedio medio” to be sworn in three months from now, what a relief.  After a few hours of meetings, we were released to meet our temporary host families.  My new friend Gina and I were paired up and sent off to live with Doña Leticia.  Luckily Gina is fluent in Spanish because I would have been totally lost without her.  Doña Leti was incredibly nice, and an AMAZING cook.  She definitely spoiled Gina and I.  I quickly learned the proper etiquette for using a toilet that doesn’t flush (by pouring water into the bowl with a bucket), taking a bucket bath, and using the pila (like a big sink with no faucet).  It’s amazing how little water I can use during my daily activities!

Arrival In Guatemala!

Thursday and Friday were kind of a blur of Spanish classes and informational meetings.  I was able to spend some time with the other trainees and make some new friends.  In general, the other trainees are really nice and share a lot of my interests.  There are a number of people who, like me, are hoping to run here in Guatemala.  We found out that as long as we don’t do it alone, we’ll be able to run!  What a relief.  On Saturday morning, we received our Peace Corps-issued cell phones.  Guatemala is one of only five posts worldwide that gives cell phones to the volunteers.  Apparently it’s because Guatemala is also one of the “sketchiest” posts, and the Peace Corps wants to be able to contact us at a moment’s notice and vice-versa.  Whatever the reason, we were all stoked about our new phones. 

Saturday afternoon, I was dropped off at the home of my new host family, in a town not far from Santa Lucia Milpas Altas (e-mail me if you want the name… the Peace Corps doesn’t want us to post our locations for the public to see).  Suddenly, I was on my own.  I didn’t have Gina to help translate for me anymore, so I had to step up and figure out how to explain myself and hold a conversation with my “intermedio bajo” Spanish.  Although I often think that my host family is laughing at me, I feel like I’m holding my own pretty well.  I’m the fifteenth trainee that they’ve hosted, and they told me that they’ve had many with much less Spanish than me.

My new house has a flushing toilet and a hot shower, plus my room is large and has a locking metal door and a locking wooden chest.  I feel like I’m living the high life! It’s amazing how fast you put things in perspective around here.  I’ve already found a huge appreciation for so many of the things I took for granted in the US.

My New Digs!

On Sunday morning, my host mom disappeared after breakfast, at about 7AM.  My host father told me he would bring me to lunch elsewhere in the pueblo at noon, and then promptly disappeared as well.  I read for a while, studied some Spanish, played a game on my kindle, and then checked the time to see that it was only 8:45.  At this point, I wasn’t familiar with the town, and didn’t want to go exploring in case my host mom returned and wondered where I was.  I decided to do some exercises (push-ups, sit ups, lunges, etc.), since I hadn’t done anything of the sort since Tuesday.  While doing my push-ups, I looked around the room and actually laughed out loud.  Here I am, in a relatively bare room with cinder block walls, a concrete floor and a huge metal door, doing push-ups.  I guess I wasn’t locked in, so it wasn’t quite like prison.

I am a little worried, because it seems like whenever I’m around, my host parents are either gone or hanging out in their room, behind a closed door.  I’m yearning to practice my Spanish more, so hopefully I can figure out a way to spend more time with them.  Hopefully the next few days will be better…

I guess it’s time to study some more Español.

Hasta Luego!