Hello all! What a crazy 2 weeks it has
been. Whilst I haven't exactly been super busy, lots of things have
happened and events have occurred in the time since I last posted.
All will be revealed...
So the fun starts last Tuesday when I
went with the school to a place called San Miguel to see how they
celebrate the day of Saint Miguel... La Union – the Spanish school
I'm studying in, is pretty good in the sense that they offer a
different activity every day in the afternoon, from random one off
trips like this one, to regular trips to coffee or macadamia nut
plantations to regular weekly trips up the volcano. I was initially
quite scared about going on the trip as I was going without Nahum,
and therefore didn't know anyone. But Nahum made me go, telling me I
needed to make friends for when it comes to the time that he wont be
studying in Antigua any more – leaving me solo! So I went, and it
actually turned out to be a great opportunity to meet people. In the
bus I got talking to a few people, all from the states, about why
they were here in Guatemala, etc and it was so awesome hearing
peoples different motivations and stories as to how they ended up
here. One girl I met was called Emily and she has inspired me so
much! She is 18 like me, but is here alone, without an organisation
or travel company, and is just travelling around and getting involved
in various projects that she finds along the way. Just, mind blowing
to think of the craziness that that involves! On arriving to San
Miguel, none of us quite knew what to expect, but we were greeted
with smoke and smells of all sorts, emerging from the numerous stalls
locals had set up to provide food to accompany the entertainment that
was around the corner. We walked into an area swamped with people.
There was a massive wooden fence that had people clambered all over
it looking at something in the middle of this ring of fencing.
Eventually we managed to find a space to squeeze into to look through
a gap between peoples legs, shoes, heads and the panels. What we saw
was truly ridiculous. It was a 'Corrida del toro' event – which
basically translates as bullfighting. But this was no professional
sort of bullfighting. This was lots of locals, including children,
running into and around the ring, with flags and brightly coloured
material, all with the purpose of teasing and aggravating the bull
that was trapped inside. The bull would frequently charge after
people causing everyone to suddenly go crazy as the people inside
would try to get on the other side of the fencing. Although this
didn't exactly always do the trick. As many times the bull stamped on
people who were behind the panels. This continued for about two
hours, with energetic Spanish music blaring in the background, in the
pouring rain as well might I add! A very odd event to witness
considering it was meant to be to celebrate a saint, but also a very
fun experience that laid the foundations for some good friendships
here in Antigua. :)
Following on from making some friends
on the trip on Tuesday, I ended up spending the majority of Wednesday
afternoon with 3 girls – Becca, Cristiana and Emily, who I spoke
about before. We walked around Antigua, saw quite a few of the old
colonial ruins that resulted from the numerous earthquakes in
Guatemala, visited the famous Arc, used the opportunity to take some
touristy pictures, visited the apartment where Emily is living
(another thing that makes her so cool – cause she's living totally
independently, not with a family organised by the school like
everyone else), and ended up sat in the cool shade on the benches in
Parque Central with a load of other Americans from the school that we
bumped into, eating the best ice creams ever (that I ordered in
Spanish – wahey!). It was such a blessed afternoon. It simply
reconfirmed that God is most definitely on it when it comes to my
prayers about feeling alone and needing some friends. Its like every
day he's just reminding me that 'hes got this'. Spinning of from this
is also the fact that I found out that a lot of the Americans from
Spring Arbor university at the school happen to go to 'Inglesia del
Camino' which is the church that I had been hoping to visit which is
awesome, as it means I now don't have to be afraid about going on my
own etc! So that's another answer to prayer. I write this blog on
Saturday afternoon, so its actually tomorrow morning that I'm going
for the first time, so Ill let you know how that goes!
Another exciting thing I've done is
visit 'Cerro de la Cruz' which is the famous cross on a hill that
looks over Antigua and Volcan Agua. Me and Nahum took the trip with
my teacher, Suellen as well as two other students called Allison and
Abby and their teachers. We went in the second half our lessons and
so, still had to 'study' as part of the trip, in that we had to talk
to our teachers the whole way up about what we were doing etc (in
spanish, obviously). The walk was only short – about half an hour
to cross to the other side of Antigua and then walk up the many steps
on the hill to reach the cross. Getting to the top was breathtaking.
It was awesome to see Antigua from a different perspective. Made it
seem a lot bigger and yet a lot smaller to look at it from a height.
In addition, the landscape of hills, mountains and the volcano
tumbling around the city made the sight idyllic, even though a big
cloud was covering the peak of Agua.
Saturday was a truly interesting day.
After a precious one hour lie in, I made my way to San
Fransisco, the church that's a minute walk from my house. Saturday
was the day of celebration for the Saint, Fransisco... so, following
on from the last demonstration of how Guatemalans like to celebrate
Saints in a rather ridiculous fashion, we basically witnessed masses
of locals get their pets blessed by a priest from the church, who had
an iguana on his shoulder, using the head of a broom with some 'holy
water' from a bucket. Seriously. What was weirder, was the fact that
there was such a diverse range of animals present. In addition to the
hoard of dogs, there were many with cats and kittens in bags (to hide
them from the dogs), people with cages of birds, a lady with a parrot
on a pole, a man with a turtle (which he carried around on his head),
people with little boxes containing terrapins... and the funniest had
to be a little boy carrying a small bowl that had a little fan tail
fish swimming around inside. Just ridiculous! Following the blessing
at the church, a huge parade, involving three different marching
bands, who all played a different concoction of odd music – from
your traditional marching band tunes to 'Bad Romance' by Lady Gaga,
marched and danced around the streets of Antigua, accompanied by lots
of children dressed as animals and the standard 'bombas' which are
basically reeaaaallly loud firecrackers!
After the madness of the morning I
spent the rest of the day chilling. I spent some time in the Parque
with two other American girls I have met here, where we chatted a lot
and had more of the amazing ice cream we discovered the other day!
And then later on I went with Abby and another girl to the market for
the first time. Being Saturday meant that it was a crazy day for the
markets which explains why we got quite lost on a few occasions
whilst inside the indoor market. There is truly no way to describe
with accuracy what the markets are like. All I can say is that when
your there, every sense is alive. There's smells of meat going funny
in the warm temperature. There's sounds coming from every direction –
from people bartering, arguing, talking, and shouting out their best
price, from things falling over, from motorbikes and cars outside.
There's sight of lots of people milling around, foods piled high,
goods hung onto any spare part of wall, pirate DVDs and 'legit' TVs
and electronic devices being sold for 'a good price', and lots of
funny looks at the white person. There's the taste of dust and
humidity on your tongue. There's contact with lots of people as you
try to squeeze your way past through the narrow pathways that form
the maze that is the market. Its a truly unique experience. We also
visited the artesians market which is basically the market that is
specifically for tourists wanting to purchase some kind of
traditional Mayan hand craft. From dolls to jewellery to hammocks to
fabrics, its all there, piled to the ceiling in a beautiful array of
colours.
Sunday was the day I got to travel to
Alotenango to visit Nahums church and family, and to take part in
celebrations for 'Day of the children' (you might be starting to
realise that Guatemalans like to celebrate pretty much everything!).
Arriving in Alotenango was a very different experience to arriving in
Antigua. The town is more rural and a lot poorer. It had a similar
feel to it though – lots of stray dogs and a 'Tienda'(/corner type
shop) on each road. Our first job for the day was to fill the three
piñatas with, literally, thousands of sweets! It was harder than it
looked, lets just say that. Afterwards we had a short prayer meeting
and I was introduced to everyone helping out and then me and Nahum
were placed in a 'room' built by one of Latin Links Summer Step teams
this year. We were given a table and a few chairs and it was
basically our job for the afternoon to paint the face of every child
who attended. 165 children attended. So lets just say it was kinda
hard work! We did Spidermen, Batmen, Butterflies and LOTS of flowers.
Nahum discovered he is especially good at cats (haha ;)).
Things changed in the afternoon,
however. All week I had been having trouble with my IBS which is a
condition I've had in England for many years now. But on Sunday
afternoon things took a big turn for the worst. I experienced pain to
a level I have never felt before and it was just, awful. As a result,
Pastor Juan ended up reviving a very old car and driving me back to
Antigua early. I spent the rest of the day in bed, in a lot a lot of
pain – to the point that Suzanne had to come to me from the city to
take me to the hospital. Thankfully by the time she got to me, me and
Nahums prayers had started to work as the pain had significantly
subsided. Suzanne therefore went back home with the new plan that we
would instead go in the morning, when I would receive a better
service. So this is what we did. Monday morning I had an 'enjoyable'
examination in the school lounge by a doctor, and then a trip to the
hospital to have a load of tests done as the doctor was under the
impression that I had picked up a fever or a bug on top of my IBS as
I had feverish symptoms and rather low blood pressure that aren't
normally associated with IBS. The test revealed that luckily I hadn't
picked up anything dodgy, but that the reason it had gotten so bad
was because I had a unusually high level of a certain bacteria.
Following these developments I was prescribed some medicine which I
have been taking over this last week. But in all honesty the medicine
that has really been the one to work has been Jesus. I say this
because even before I started taking the medicine, as soon as me and
Nahum and other people started praying hard over the situation, I had
a massive improvement, and experienced virtually no pain on the
Sunday evening, the Monday and the Tuesday. So its been truly amazing
just how faithful and good God has been about sorting me out! :)
Thanks to all those who have been praying for me back home! The level
of love I've felt from you all has been touching :)
Having been ill, I've taken it quite easy this week, but did go on another activity with the school. This was a trip to a place called San Antonio which is an area which still remains full of indigenous people whose main language isnt even Spanish! The afternoon involved us sitting in a 'room' made of corregated iron on little plastic stools about to break, trying our hardest to understand a little old lady telling us about the traditions in Mayan culture. Traditions about dress, about the meanings of the colours and patterns featured on fabrics, and about marriage. They performed a cute little dance for us with incense and lots of bobbing around which was fun if not awkward to watch. They also showed us how they make coffee - from grinding the beans away from their shells to cooking them to grinding them into a powder, to filtering them, to adding a load of sugar to then drink! The final thing they did was interactive, which we weren't expecting. Me being the only girl, meant I had the joy of being wrapped up in traditional clothing with a veil and a tiara, to then have to reinact a Mayan wedding. Awkward and embarrassing doesn't quite come close! :/
Other than all these specific
activities I've got up to over the last week, I've also enjoyed a lot
of other things :)
I've had quite a few get togethers with
the people I've met at the school, from going for more ice cream, to
going out for drinks, to just chilling in the Parque. There was also
a 'meet and greet' at the school last Friday which was another good
opportunity to meet new people and further develop the relationships
I've started to form, so that's awesome – there was lots of dancing
and Guatemalan snacks to try!
I spend quite a lot of free time
chilling in the school at the moment, doing extra study, reading,
journalling or checking facebook. This has been really good as its
meant I've had lots of conversations with various teachers and people
who work there – in Spanish! So its been great practice as well as
fun to get to know others.
I've had two more mentor sessions with
Suzanne which seem to be getting better each time in what we cover
and also as our friendship develops. We have just started studying
Esther together so I'm excited to see how Gods going to speak to me
through that. Me and Nahum have also started studying Pauls Letters
together, starting with Romans, so we're both eager to see what God
wants to say through that as well. We're sure that it will provide a
good opportunity to regularly encourage and build each other up in faith.
In addition to doing these studies with
Suzanne and Nahum I have started a daily bible study plan from
Scripture Union. I share this because I was reminded when I started
them the other day how God works in funny ways to prepare us for
things. This is because I was actually given the study books at
Momentum whilst in a rush to get to work. I remember I had politely
said no due to being in a hurry but that the lady had been persistent
in giving them to me. Id put them in my bible case and forgotten
about them, only to discover them here. and find that they're
actually really good and perfect for keeping me reading Gods word
regularly whilst I'm here. Funny how things work out, aye?! ;)
Something else I've found really
beneficial in regards to my spiritual life, has been listening to
podcasts on my ipod. A line from one I listened to last week has
really stuck with me, so I'm just going to share it below along with
a song I've also been totally loving recently.
Until next time, Adiós!
Elle :)
'Peace is not the absence of troubles
or problems, but the presence of Christ'
For those who pray:
Things to be thankful for:
- That God has continued to be faithful in answering prayers regarding friendship making as well as making my free time beneficial
- That God has blessed me with a very speedy recovery from being ill
- That God has been preparing me in many ways for my time here - such as with the bible studies
Things to be praying for:
- This coming week is Nahums last week that he'll be coming to Antigua every day for school, as he starts his project full time the week following. This will mean I have even mooore free time, but also that I wont see him very much and might get quite lonely. So prayer that the friendships I've made in the school so far would develop more would be good, and just that I wouldn't struggle without a friend for company.
- Also prayer for Nahum as he goes on to start his project full time and takes on his full responsibilities.
- That as I finish my prescribed tablets my IBS wouldn't come back as an issue, but that God would keep me in good health for the rest of my time here
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