Live a Life Less Ordinary

As I am experiencing this incredible adventure I am constantly amazed by the people that I encounter along the way.  Our group spent this weekend in the capital, Guatemala City.  In the lobby of the hotel  where we were staying we met a man who created a medical record system for third world countries.  The system is in the process of being applied to all of Tanzania.  Since Tanzania holds such a special place in my heart I could not pass up the opportunity to talk with him the next morning at breakfast.  He created the system to overcome many of the issues that third world medical recording faces.  The system also collaborates the information from all different countries in all different languages to better track outbreaks and disease rates.  Earlier in the week we toured an organization called God’s Child Project.  This organization has projects dedicated to the education of poverty stricken women and children, health clinics and sanitation education, meals for the poverty stricken, counseling for those affected by the war, legal defense for domestic violence cases and homeless shelters.  He we met a girl from the U.S. who after graduating college moved to Guatemala to do long term volunteer work with this organization.  I also met a girl at La Union (the Spanish Language school) who is Canadian but has taught in several different countries including China and Hong Kong and after she leaves Guatemala will be moving to London.  For our first few weeks here we had a housemate who was part of a group that was here studying Spanish before they left to work in a Honduran orphanage for the next 2 years.  My roommate here spent time in Mozambique working with the influential missionary Heidi Baker who was featured in the documentary “Finger of God.”  I am also on this trip with a guy who spent this summer biking from Maine to Oregon and received lodging in the homes of perfect strangers along the way.  Another girl in our group was born in Honduras, lived in China and spent a year in Zambia.  While in Zambia she encountered a baby boy who was so malnourished that his only chance to live if he was fed every 20 minutes for several months.  She got permission to leave her mission post and dedicated her time to caring for this baby boy and ended up saving his life.  These are just bits and pieces of the stories of some of the people that surround me.  From Marta, our house-mom, who cares for us like we are her own children to the guy we met in the hotel lobby (who I am quite certain I will see on the news someday), I am blown away by the massive amounts of good I have seen in the people I meet here.  In the past few weeks I have learned that Guatemala just ended its 36 year long civil war in 1996.  I have heard stories of the thousands of people who disappeared during this genocide, the children forced to become soldiers, the women raped, the ethnic divisions that still exist  and the role my own country had to play in all of this.  Every day I see guards with machine guns patrolling the streets, parks, restaurants and stores.  It is almost ironic that in the midst of all this darkness there is light that shines so bright.  These people are not sitting around waiting for life to happen to them.  Instead they have decided to live their lives for something greater than themselves.  Whether they know it or not these people have challenged me to choose a life less ordinary.

Elections & Independence Day!

Now that I have been here over a week I am beginning to feel settled in.  Many of the students in my group often remark at how it already feels like we have been here for much longer than we actually have been.  The walks seem much shorter now that we are familiar with Antigua and my home-stay is starting to feel more like home.  My Spanish is improving and I am able to understand people better and converse with Marta at dinner a little.  My Spanish tutor Glendy is really sweet and likes to tell me about her little boy.  Spanish classes a little overwhelming but extremely effective.  They consist of 4 hours each day of one-on-one learning.  It is an incredible learning environment and the teachers speak very little English which forces us to use what we have learned. 

                This week I have gotten to have so many incredible, once-in-a-lifetime experiences.  On Monday I started taking salsa lessons.  It is certainly a challenge to learn how to dance when you cannot understand the teacher, but it has certainly broadened my Spanish vocabulary.  I am about as “white” as they come which seems to reflect in my dancing abilities.  However, I absolutely love it and I am determined to get good before I leave in December.  This week has been an eventful one in Antigua since they held elections on Sunday and their independence day was Thursday.  There has been what seems like a constant string of random parades, fireworks, crowds and events.  On Wednesday during Spanish lessons we were given the opportunity to, as I understood it, run with a torch in an Independence Day parade.  So we all got on a bus with our teachers and drove to a town 45min away.  Then, after we watched the parade go by, they gave us a torch and told us to start running.  So me, my housemates Cassie and Kevin, my friend Kyle and a younger boy from La Union started running with the torch.  It was all good fun until I realized we were not about to stop anytime soon.  The buses carrying everyone else were following along behind us honking their horns in all sorts of festive rhythms.   To say the least we were more than slightly confused.  After running about 4 miles down a mountain road in jeans me and Cassie were breath taken by the running and the view so we took a break and got on the bus.  This is when we found out that the purpose of this little adventure was to run the torch all the way from Parramos (the town we started in) all the way back to Antigua (approximately 12 miles).  We all ran the rest of the way on and off until we reached Antigua where everyone got off the busses and ran to the school.  We joked about how this was just an elaborate practical joke to see what they could get the Gringos (white people) to do.  However, that night we went with the school to Guatemala City for a soccer game and the entire way there were thousands of people running along the side of the road with torches.  Guatemala City is usually about an hour drive from Antigua but because of the masses of people (mostly children) running there it took us almost 4 hours.  Apparently they actually gave us Gringos the “kiddie experience” only having to run 12 miles.  The soccer game was between Guatemala’s Cremus and Mexico’s Monterrey and I believe it was a world cup qualifier game.  Guatemala won by one goal which I was incredibly relieved by because security seemed to be prepared for the apocalypse.  I really enjoy Antigua but Guatemala City is a completely different story.  There were people everywhere, traffic was insane and there seem to be no air quality regulations so we were all somewhere between high and sick by the time we left.  Yet, it was still a good experience and I am glad I had the opportunity to go.

Every day I feel less like a tourist and more like I live here.  I am starting to understand and appreciate the culture, their traditions and the way of life here.  Antigua is somewhat like a miniature Ann Arbor in the middle of nowhere with all its coffee shops, stores, restaurants, entertainment and the wide array of cultures that live here.  I am really enjoying my time here and I am excited to see what the next 13 weeks will hold.

I have arrived!

Today will be my second full day in Antigua.  I live in a house with three other girls from Spring Arbor.  The woman’s house that we are staying in is named Marta Julia and she is a grandmother.  She calls me Raqelita.  She also has a helper that comes during the day named Julia. They are both very sweet, excellent cooks and speak only Spanish.  This made our first dinner together a little awkward because we could not communicate much.  However, two of the girls I am living with are Spanish majors which has been incredibly helpful and I will be starting four hour a day Spanish lessons on Monday.   

In Guatemala you cannot flush toilet paper which takes some getting used to, but we are lucky enough to have heated showers.  Our group consists of 4 guys and 14 girls all of whom are incredible people and we are all getting along extremely well.  Antigua is approximately one square mile, surrounded by three volcanoes, suffers an average of 20 minor earthquakes a year and called the “Land of Eternal Spring” since the temperature rarely leaves the 70’s.  Last night we felt our first tremor but most of the group slept through it. At one time Antigua was the capital of Guatemala and the name literally means “old.”  Before the capital was moved to Guatemala City it was called Santiago Caballeros (St. James the Cowboy) or Santiago de Guatemala.  Antigua has a rich history which is evident in its beautiful architecture and cobblestone streets.  We visited the ruins of La Iglesia San Francisco (Church of St. Francis) where Brother Pedro is entombed and it also just happens to be less than 5 minutes from our house.  We also visited Museo de Capuchinas (an old nun convent).  Although Antigua is the least culturally Guatemalan area of Guatemala the third world nature of the country still is clear.  We saw many men walking around or riding in the back of trucks with machine guns (they are the police).  Also, if you are observant you will notice civilian men with handguns on their belts.  There were also street beggars and a man sleeping in the street.  There was a huge market that had everything from Adidas shoes to fresh raw chickens.  There are also many classy cafés, restaurants, spas, museums, and jewelry stores.  So far I am really enjoying Antigua and am excited to learn more!

Special Thanks to:

Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship program for awarding me the funds to afford such an incredible adventure.

Paul and Bev Nemecek for moving to Antigua to host this amazing program and for being extraordinary teachers, leaders and people in general

All my family, friends and Spring Arbor staff for supporting, encouraging and praying for me

God for blessing me with this incredible experience