Mi famila

Here is a picture of mi familia here in Guatemala, or at least most of us. Two of the girls were gone for the weekend when this picture was taken.

From right to left is my seat (empty because I´m taking the picture) rice, tortillas, beans, sweet plantains, cream, soup.... oh yeah and the people:) Kim my fellow camino segurian, her boyfriend also a camino trabajador, Julita my host mother, Alma, Nacho, and Stephanie. They are great, we always laugh a lot together, and come up with any excuse to fiestar.... someone leaving, someone coming, someones birthday... or almost birthday:-)

I stopped by the market today, and I couldn´t resist eating some of the fruit... mangos got me. I haven´t gotten sick yet, and hope I haven´t just jinxed myself! The markets are always super busy, lots of shouting, lots of bargaining (which I am quite good at I must admit.. whether that is a good or bad thing I am not sure).

Its funny, throughout the day you hear either firecrackers or loud pop noises of smoke signals going off. I never knew what they were, but a friend told me that sometimes they are used by churches that don´t have bells to signal the hour. Except when they are just fired at random. So before I thought they were all just fired at random, whereas now I know that they are signals for the hour.... except when they´re not. Glad I cleared that one up:-)

Today when I was walking down to the market all the church bells were ringing because there was a wedding...ooo! I saw the bride and her bridal party getting fluffed up before going in. But don´t worry Nina, it couldn´t possibly have been as wonderful as your boda.

Family day was great! There were SO many activities for the kids to do, and so much going on that I actually managed to lose all my kids at one point- they just kind of scattered. I felt bad, but they were all within the project and recovered in the end. They had fun though, as you can see by some of the girls showing off their hulahooping skills.

The activity I did with the parents worked really well with the parents of the afternoon class, they participated and laughed and (I think) enjoyed it. I was really glad, because the parents of the morning class I had a little more trouble with. They were all really shy, and so some were reluctant to participate, and others flat out wouldn´t. So I had to change things a little bit, and think of a new activity. But thats how it goes, we ran with it. I can´t wait to get back to class on Monday now that I feel more comfortable with the kids. I feel like I understand them all a little bit better now that I have met their parents too.

There is a gym right down the street from where I am staying so after school a bunch of us from the project go down there to work out and take salsa lessons- yay. Musica and dance... can´t go wrong.

Till nextime this is la loquita Mendez signing off.

Hey look! a bus with my name on it: