Blessed.

Heyyy folks :)

Me again, I'm sorry its been a while since my last blog - I've been rather busy recently - which I guess isn't a bad reason considering one of the previous problems was that I had too much free time.

In this post I don't want to bombard you with every detail of everything I've done and experienced - so I'm just going to summarise some of the highlights of the last few weeks (I promise to try to keep it concise!).

I'll start with the promised update on how my visit to 'Iglesia del Camino' went - the bilingual church I had found and was hoping to try... I LOVED IT. I've been twice now, and will be going for my third visit tomorrow morning. Both services have had a different feel to them due to different people preaching and different bands leading worship, but I enjoyed both.. What I love most about it is that being bilingual, and therefore having an English translation for the sermon as well as the songs, I can actually worship in my own language, freely, and out loud - not restrained by not wanting to be heard singing in my room at home! And whilst I haven't really been there long enough to establish proper friendships, each week I have met new people, even gone for lunch with some of them, which makes me feel part of a church community again - something I REALLY miss from home. So overall a real answer to prayer and a help to me the past few weeks as I've tried to stay spiritually fed.

A big highlight of the past few weeks has to be the relationships I've been forming and building with various people. This is especially when reflecting on my first few weeks here when I experienced quite a bit of loneliness in this area. I've made some great American friends in the school who I've had various outings with... from visiting an orphanage; to going on walks around Antigua; trying guacamole ice cream, yes - guacamole flavour....going to the market and buying bargain price nail varnish (1 for Q3 - about 24p); hanging out in our favourite cafe, Bagel Barn - which ironically does great bagels, as well as funky flavours of licuados (although i wasn't too keen on their avocado, orange juice and banana one...) and generally just the fact that I've been able to be my crazy self around them has just been so awesome and such a blessing (although I still require a regular Skype to Jenny Stewart back home to get my real crazy out, haha ;)).

I've also really enjoyed getting to know one of the other Striders with Latin Link - Murielle from Switzerland. Despite all of our conversations needing to be in Spanish (because she doesn't speak very good English) we can surprisingly communicate very well and so have become quite good friends. A few weekends ago I even stayed over at her house in the city after a film night with the youth at her church. Lets just say I never want to watch 'Prometheus' in Spanish again... disturbing I tell you! But a cool thing was that the following morning we went to her church service (which is the one that me and Nahum went to our first Sunday in Guatemala), and in comparison to the previous time I had been, the level of the Spanish sermon that I understood was a lot higher! So that was really encouraging - its the weird little things like that that reassure me that I am actually making progress!

On the Spanish theme of things - its one of the things I'm always asked about so I'll give you a brief overview of how that's going...

Baring in mind that when I came to Guatemala, the only Spanish I had was some basic vocab for fruits and other objects, I know I've made huge progress overall! I can now have conversations lasting hours with Guatemalans - and have even managed a few phone calls in Spanish which, trust me - is hard! Of course there are many occasions I still get lost in conversations, especially in group conversations, but these days I can follow the gist of most things at least, it all depends on how fast and clear the person speaks really! I've only got one week of lessons left now, which will bring me to the end of two months of intense learning. I'm grateful to say that in the whole time I have only really had one week that I really struggled and felt defeated, but I'm thankfully past that week and have been feeling positive again since then! Learning languages has nevereverever been a gift of mine, but I know that God is blessing me with the ability to learn Spanish right now. Its only through him. At the moment the main problem is that I've learnt so many tenses etc, that its all started to get a bit muddled! I'm therefore looking forward to moving to my new family and project so that I can be practising daily, not learning anything new as such, just getting all the endings for different tenses in order in my head! 

In the past few weeks I've also visited Nahum in Alotenango a few times, mainly to take part in activities with his project. We had another celebration afternoon for the children which included some fun games involving balloons, sweets and such like. The other day I went whilst a group of Americans where there from Birmingham (in Alabama though - sigh) giving free health care to the community. It was pretty cool talking to them, as well as hearing Nahum translate the story of feeding the five thousand, and chatting more with some of the girls from the youth group that were helping out. It was funny - they literally sat me down and ordered me to practice my Spanish! (which I did - I even told a few jokes which they laughed at - hurrah!) 

On another afternoon I also went and played basketball and football with the youth group. I'm not going to lie and pretend I was good, cause if you know me, then you'll know I'm not exactly the most talented when it comes to sports... but I did score a few baskets... and it was generally good fun ;)

One of the experiences I have yet to decide about being either cool or terrifying is the earthquakes. So far I have been awake and therefore felt 2 - although I am aware that there have been some small ones during my sleep also D: The first was a few weeks ago, during my Spanish class in the morning. There was a small shake and then a BIG sway of... well, life! (5.5 on the Richter scale if you're interested) I'm not gonna lie, it scared the heeby jeebies out of me, but it also feels pretty awesome to say that I've felt an earthquake... Then the second was the other day - again I was at school when the ground shook. This one lasted about 10 seconds, so longer than the last, but not quite as strong. However, what we found out only hours later was that in other parts of Guatemala it was a lot worse. It was a 7.4 on the Richter scale, which is the worst they've had since 1976 (I think?). In the paper yesterday 50 had been reported dead, 28 still missing and 17,000 affected in some way - either through their house falling down or being injured. I can only hope and pray that whilst they are a little cool, we don't get any more serious earthquakes here any time soon.

Some other cool stuff I've done the past few weeks:

• I visited the project Ill be working in for the next 6 months which was awesome - so encouraging and exciting, and really motivated me to get through the last of my time learning Spanish in Antigua.
• I also visited a potential family to stay with whilst I'm working at my project in San Cristobal and am happy to say that they now are going to be my host fam! They were an absolutely lovely old couple, who are just, hilarious. I can really see myself loving living with them.
• Me and Nahum took a trip to a place called Sumpango on the 1st November to witness the extravagant celebrations that take place for Day of the Dead which include gigantic kites, or 'barrilletes' which later they try to fly, in the purpose of sending up messages to their dead loved ones. The day was full of colour, people and Guatemalan food (all of which Nahum of course wanted to try out!).

• Me and Nahum took a weekend holiday to the black, volcanic sand beaches of Monterrico for some rest and relaxation! We made the most of the nice pool, hot-ish showers and nice food at the restaurant. We also went on a boat tour of the nature reserve at sunrise, watched baby turtles race into the sea and even went on a night walk along the beach to try and spot momma turtles burying their eggs, but unfortunately we didn't see them. We did however see some beautiful sunsets and stars, reminding me once again how amazing and big our creator God is :)

Of course, whilst I am here health is a major issue as I'm exposed to so many new and strange things. So far I've not been so lucky. Obviously I spoke about issues with IBS last time, and trust me when I say that God was so faithful through that time, but since then I have encountered other nasty things which have made some of my time here a little less fun :( Not long after my last post I got bitten by a spider on my right hand which caused one of my fingers and some of my knuckles to swell up and go all red. Fun stuff. Thankfully it was nothing serious and was better in a few days after a course of anti-venom and antibiotics. Although it was a slog to get the medication - 4 hours waiting at the hospital to see the doctor, who wasn't even there! He hadgone to mass and not even told anyone! Typical Guatemala right there for you. 

Secondly, Monday last week I discovered I've got E-coli :/ I was put on a load of medication but that doesn't seem to have killed the parasites, as I'm still experiencing bouts of illness :( What makes it worse is that with my IBS, its slightly more intense, and the doctors have to be very careful about what medication they give me. So overall, not really having a great time on the health side of things so really appreciate all the prayers on that front. 

Also, a few weeks ago Nahum got what we're pretty sure was Dengue fever - thankfully he's better now - but evidently we don't seem to be having much luck in general!

A little update on what Gods been up to in my life:

As was expressed in the previous posts - becoming accustomed to spending time on my own has been hard. Especially when Nahum stopped coming to Antigua and I therefore had even more time on my hands! However I really feel that my initial struggles were all to help prepare me for this time as I now am able, and happy-ish to spend time on my own. I also really feel that this is all leading towards my time in San Cristobal, where I will probably find myself with even more time alone - or at least time that I cant spend with English speaking friends. The reason I think this way is because I'm pretty sure that God is telling me! A constant theme I've been picking up in all of my different bible studies, both with Nahum and on my own, is that God uses challenging times to build our endurance, patience and reliance on him. And in all truthfulness I can see this promise to be true! So yeah, Gods being really amazing and faithful and always, even through the struggles and I'm proud to say that I need to depend on his strength through all of this! :)

For those who pray:

Things to be thankful for:

• That God has been protecting me and Nahum during throughout our time here, especially during the earthquake.
• That God has blessed me with so many friendships during my time in Antigua.
• That God has blessed me with an amazing project and an awesome family to live with.
• That my Spanish is constantly improving, only through his power!
• That God has blessed me with so many opportunities to experience fun cultural things in Guatemala.
• That God has been surrounding me with his presence daily to help me get through the struggles that come with life here and that he has been faithful in answering prayer.

Things to be praying for:

• That no more earthquakes or other disasters would occur and that the lives that have been affected may start to be rebuilt.
• For the transition I face as I move to my new family next Friday and start my project the following Monday. That I would get along with the family and feel at home.
• Continuation of prayer for my Spanish - that it would all start to solidify in my head and that it would become natural, not needing much thought as to the tenses I'm using etc.
• Continuation of prayer for me and Nahums health - that neither of us would pick up anything new, that we would remain healthy, and especially for me during this time - that I would be able to get rid of the E-coli and return to health with no more issues!
• That God would continue to use my bible studies to speak to me but also that I would be able to hear him when he speaks to me in different ways, as I'm not always the best listener.