We Made It!!

Hola todos from Magdalena, Guatemala!!

All of us made it safely without a hitch!  What a blessing!!

Sorry this has taken so long for me to post; we've got limited Internet in Magdalena, so I've been writing this post over the past couple days!

I went to bed around 12:30 AM the night before we left...I got about 2 1/2 hours of sleep before I had to wake up at 3 and head to the airport!  Security and all that went smoothly, and we took off for Miami around 6.  I slept a little bit on the plane, but it was fairly intermittent.  After arriving at the Miami airport, I had a Clif bar for lunch before boarding the plane to Guatemala!  Sooo much more sleep was to be had on that flight.  When we landed it was 72 degrees in Guatemala City...definitely an improvement from the cold Minnesota weather.  After we got off the plane, we went through customs rather smoothly and boarded a bus to Magdalena.  What a climb it is!  I can't believe I'm living in the beautiful mountains!  The hill to Magdalena is STEEP, narrow, and all cobblestone, so it was an adventure getting the bus to our meeting place.
Once we got to Magdalena, we were greeted by our host families.  My host family consists of my host mom, Corrina, my host dad, Edwin, and three younger host brothers (What a difference from growing up!).  The oldest, Ludwin, is 12, the middle, Alejandro, is 6, and the youngest, Avener (Emmanuel when he's in trouble), is 4.  The youngest two greeted my roommate, Kate, and I with big hugs!  Needless to say, hearing little Spanish voices all the time warms my heart!  After meeting our host families, we all went to Mi Cafecito, a cafe in town where we will eat every day this week, for dinner.  It was DELICIOUS.  And so needed after a long day of traveling!  We then had a little orientation and praise in worship.  We got back to our houses by 8:30 and most of us went to bed!
The next morning we had breakfast at 8 AM (pankekes!) and went to church up the hill.  It was a really unique experience.  Guatemalans praise God loudly and strongly!  I really had to concentrate and listen to get all of the what the speaker was saying, but I think I got the gist of it.  After church, we headed to Mi Cafecito for lunch (DELICIOUS AGAIN), and then hung out until the big event of the day!  We hiked up to an ecological park that was on top of a mountain!  It was INTENSE, and I nearly passed out several times...but I MADE IT!  It was GORGEOUS up there.  We had a beautiful view of two cities the mountains, and a lake.  After that, we all showered, had dinner, and met to sign language contracts (no mas ingles! ;) ) and to close our day.
This morning, we got up at 6:30 AM to eat breakfast (Corn Flakes and fruta), and got ready for our first day at our ministry sites!  This semester I'll be working at a hospital called Hermano Pedro in Antigua for people who are severely physically disabled.  Two other girls from the trip, Brita and Laura, will be there with me, so we can share our experience there.  After meeting our site leaders, Marianela and Nineth, we headed to Antigua in the crazy Guatemalan streets to Hermano Pedro.  I had been preparing to be very saddened and emotional today, but I actually feel differently after my first day there.  While it is sad that many of the people there cannot do what most people can do physically, I realized that they're in the best place possible.  The people taking care of them are so kind and understanding, and they have some of the best equipment for surgeries and rehabilitation there.  While at Hermano Pedro, we had a tour and then got a chance to feed the kids lunch.  The boy I fed lunch to got so attached to me that when another boy wanted to hold my hand, he said, "Mio!  Mio!" ("Mine! Mine!").  After this, I was definitely ready to take a nap until supper!  We had stuffed bell peppers and rice for dinner, which were delicious as usual, and now I am finishing up my first real post!

Sorry it's so long!  I love and miss you all!

Con mucho amor,

"Rosa"

Obligatory First Post!

Lovely family and friends,

I will be writing in this blog throughout the semester to keep you all up to date on what's happening while I'm in Guatemala!  It's only a week away!  This last week is going to be hectic, trying to finish everything for class and packing up everything in my room.  I'll miss everyone so much, but it will be the experience of a lifetime!