I wake up a little before 6:00a.m. Lately I have not wanted to get out of bed, because of the chilly air that consumes the atmosphere before the sun has come up. Yes, it gets chilly here but snow never does squeeze through the clouds. jaja. After convincing myself I can endure the cold, I get myself up and get the day started! I get excited about life in the mornings, because every day is a new day to learn more spanish and to learn more about kids and to learn to just be...which is a lot of the time.
After readying myself, I throw my bag together with a few quetzales in case I need bus fair and a snack, and I head downstairs for breakfast. Since my host brother leaves SUPER early in the morning to go the the university and my host dad leaves early to deliver children to school, breakfast is a wonderful time for the women of the household....my host mom, sister, and I. My breakfasts usually consist of some type of egg, frijoles, pan (bread baked over a fire..delicious) plantains, or pancakes. Recently my host mom found out after I got sick that I LOVE atol. Atol is basically like drinking different types of oatmeal. They make it from corn, bananas, and many other things. When I come down in the morning it is always a suprise to see what steaming hot delicious drink I will have that day. So I eat my breakfast, grab my lunch that my host mom always has ready and I head out the door.
My walk to school is about 20 minutes of walking pretty darn fast. I absolutely love this morning walk. A time to pray and see many different things I would never see in my own culture and country. I have been taking note of some interesting things I see in the mornings....a mom carting her little girl all bundled up and asleep in a wheelbarrow, stray dogs everywhere and some of them chewing on the massive bones from the meat stores, dads giving their kids a ride to school on bicycles and motos, and moms walking their kids to school. I also have to watch the ground carefully as well..(.multitasking because of course I want to see the people and all things going around me....) because there is dog poo and other ungodly substances in every orfice of the street. This morning I smelt something odd as I turned a corner and could only try to divert my mind to something else so as not to puke and wonder if I had stepped in something. ( i had NOT,. jaja) As I get closer to my school, I start seeing little first graders I know and they get all shy when I say hi. Part of my morning walk usually consists in somebody in the street saying BUENOS DÍAS CANCHITA, which means good morning light haired girl. I take it they mean it with love ;)
After arriving at the school which is quite miraculous considering all the distractions on my walk there, I start working on something to prep for the Homework center that will start in less than 2 weeks and I AM the one ahead of it! AH! I will write more about my kids after that starts up!
Around 10:00a.m. all the kids find their way outside for recess. For recess, a certain number of kids must put on florescent colored vests and put up signs and cord to create an area (in the middle of where lots of traffic pass through) so they can run around and play. About this time I come out of the homework center to buy my favorite snack of the day....a fresh pealed orange, sliced in the middle with added salt, crushed pumpkin seed powder, and a little bit of what would be like chile pepper (sounds strange, i know, but just try it!) I buy this snack from a señora that sets up her table under the tree by the school to sell delicious snacks everyday.
After a full day of work, I am ready to head home around 4:30p.m... this is another favorite part of my day ...my walk home. As I head home, the beautiful volcano 'fuego' is in the distance straight in front of me. The sun is usually getting ready to go down and beautiful clouds with sun rays shining through usually beautify the view.
I arrive home about 5:00 or 5:30 and it is time to rest.....read, do some yoga and other exercises in my room, or watch t.v. with my host sister. About 7:00 someone comes up to my room to say that dinner has been served. I enjoy dinner with the host family. I mostly just listen to the family discuss.... friends, family, neighbors. jaja. There are usually some good laughs. Sometimes I find myself at the table with just my host mom...talking about our AMAZING GOD! I usually leave the table at these times feeling wonderfully blessed. How could God be so good to me? Because HE LOVES ME!
After I finish dinner around 8:00p.m. or so, I am ready to head to my room to read, journal, pray and sometimes just fall asleep at way too early of an hour. I sleep a lot here....but I am told that is totally normal when you find yourself being integrated into a foreign country and maybe feeding a few extra parasites (not even kidding). So I simply embrace this common knowledge and am usually sleeping around 10:00 p.m. all covered with warm, warm blankets because it can be very very chilly.
So...that is an idea of the Day in the life of Julianne in Guate....I am really loving it for the most part. For the most part because....I think I will always have the desire and have days when I just want to be home and near my dear family and friends. But I think this is part of the journey....learning to live ONE day at a time and realizing how I always (even when I am in the states) desire to be somewhere else or everywhere at once so as to not miss something or because I think life would just be so much better 'there' and with 'so and so'.
So I will sign off now. I still need to finish walking home...I am using internet near the cute little plaza area here in Ciudad Vieja.
Love you all!! Praying that you're finding JOY in the little things! (like for me seeing a girl sleeping away in a wheelbarrow this morning...lol)
I come home 6 months from today....crazy how time works. Half my time here is almost over!
