{"id":2285,"date":"2014-01-29T20:45:39","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T00:45:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crosscultural\/?p=2285"},"modified":"2014-02-10T17:01:28","modified_gmt":"2014-02-10T21:01:28","slug":"primera-semana-en-guatemala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/2014\/01\/29\/primera-semana-en-guatemala\/","title":{"rendered":"Primera semana en Guatemala!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a1Hola nuestros amigos!<\/p>\n

\"Sierra<\/a>
Sierra with Carias host family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So here we are after our first several days in Guatemala sitting in t-shirts\u00a0in the middle of winter, enjoying the gorgeous view from our school, CASAS. \u00a0It has been nice to start settling into a routine here as we get up each morning around 7 and begin Spanish class here at 8:30. The classes are very small \u2013 with two to three students for every teacher. Class is difficult\u00a0but we can definitely tell that our Spanish is already improving. We have\u00a0class until 12:30 and then it is lunchtime. The food here (at school and\u00a0Guatemala in general) is AMAZING. We had mentally prepared ourselves for rice\u00a0and beans all day everyday so now that we are having chicken, papaya,\u00a0pineapple, plantains, and salads, we are ecstatic. Unfortunately, the change in diet, schedule, and water has been hard on many of our bodies.\u00a0 Many of us have felt quite under the weather this week, but we\u2019re remaining optimistic because we know that our bodies will adjust and we will quickly feel fine again.<\/p>\n

\"guate<\/a>After lunch, from 1:30 to 4:30, we do something as a group. Yesterday we\u00a0went to the Central Plaza and the market (both are gorgeous) and today we are\u00a0having a siesta and time of rest. We have already discovered a shopping\u00a0center within walking distance of the school and after lunch several of us\u00a0like to walk there and purchase pastries at Isopan (a wonderful bakery)\u00a0and explore the city. Around 4:30 we return to our host families and it is\u00a0there that we do our homework, talk with our host families, sometimes pretend to understand them, but overall enjoy experiencing Guatemalan culture and life with them. The two of us are extremely grateful that our families typically eat dinner around 7 instead of 9 or 10 like some families.<\/p>\n

So far the things we like the most about Guatemala are the pretty flowers, the different sounds of the\"IMG_0004aaa.JPGlargethumb\"<\/a> birds, plantains, the view that we have at\u00a0CASAS of the mountains and the volcanos, the bright colors, and the willingness of people to open their hearts and homes to newcomers such as ourselves.<\/p>\n

We thank God often for the caring people who have taken us in as their own.\u00a0 Although we are all having different experiences, it is meaningful to see God working in each family and student.\u00a0 Each morning we look forward to getting to CASAS to share and hear stories from everyone\u2019s evenings with their host families.\u00a0 Many of our families attend church on Sunday.\u00a0 Andrea had an interesting experience at her first Mass, where the priest asked her (in Spanish) to collect the offering.\u00a0 She accidently agreed and found herself a part of the service.\u00a0 Cluelessly she attempted to follow the example of the other collectors but completely missed the part where the collectors kneel before the collection baskets and bless themselves. She felt relieved when it was over and could return to her seat. Each experience is an opportunity to learn and grow and we are thankful for the ways in which we have been able to connect with the \"IMG_1487\"<\/a>people living in Guatemala, our host families, and each other as a group.<\/p>\n

Overall, the last several days have been busy but have been full of promise. We are excited to be here and are thankful to God for health and peace. We are so grateful for your continued prayers and we look forward to sharing more stories soon.<\/p>\n

– Andrea King & Savanna Lester<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a1Hola nuestros amigos! So here we are after our first several days in Guatemala sitting in t-shirts\u00a0in the middle of winter, enjoying the gorgeous view from our school, CASAS. \u00a0It has been nice to start settling into a routine here as we get up each morning around 7 and begin Spanish class here at 8:30. … Continue reading Primera semana en Guatemala!<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4037],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guatemalamexico-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2285"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2305,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2285\/revisions\/2305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}