Family The part of cross-cultural that I was most nervous about was being so far away from family without any real contact with them. I should’ve known that my fear was silly. Early in our time in Guatemala Sara asked a missionary couple we were visiting, how they can be away from their family for....

This week has been full of lots of different activities as well as end of year wrap-up activities. Each of us has been working very hard on writing a paper on a cultural theme about Mexico. Although the paper is not a huge stretch many of us have been nervous about the presentation over our....

It is hard to describe in full what we did on our weekend in the Federal District, which is more commonly known as Mexico City, but I will try briefly to describe to you some of the places we visited. For many of us, who are not city people by any means, the idea of....

Las Gringas Perdidas We went to Antigua, where we spent loads of money on gifts (feel loved). We dined on cheesecake and cappuccino slushies. A random shoeshine boy offered Sara some weed. (Don’t worry. She declined.) We raced around in tuk-tuks, and Amy lap-hopped around a chicken bus. When we left, we hopped the wrong....

We left for Tikal, Peten, at five in the morning. Most of us were dead on our feet until we received our brown bag breakfasts consisting of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and yogurt. As of lately, peanut butter has become a hot commodity in our group. You could bribe someone with just a jar....

One of our sessions included a field-trip to the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation (FAFG).  Our entire time here everything we learn seems to connect in some way to the years of violence Guatemala has experienced.  Over 200,000 people have died or disappeared in the conflict and despite the signing of the peace accords in 1996,....

This weekend’s trip to the Cobán area was, for me, a chance to discover beauty in simplicity.  On Friday night we ate supper with missionaries Galen and Phyllis Groff.  They had simply ordered pizza, but it was delicious and we had a wonderful time learning from them about the culture of the indigenous Kekchi people. ....

My time so far in Guatemala has been enjoyable and I am experiencing a lot. My host family is really wonderful! My host brother is actually getting married next weekend and I was invited to his fiancee’s bridal shower. This was a new experience for me because I have never been to a bridal shower....

During my time in Guatemala, I certainly have felt the presence of God. I feel so vulnerable living in a large city where I don’t know the language,  and living in a country that has more violence and danger than I knew before coming. Yet God has given me a sense of peace and protection,....

Chichicastenango: a tourist trap, but a necessary trap.  On Friday night a group of us, Brent, Allison, Stacy, and me, just to name a few were walking down the streets of Chichi when an indigenous woman, Manuela, and her daughter, Elena, invited us to her house.  So being the ignorant people we were we went....