Transitioning

Sooo, finally here in Guatemala! Haven't been able to post sooner because I didn't have internet until today and even still it is REAL slow right now so I'm not sure if that is the norm and gotta work on that. So this Wednesday will already be 3 weeks that I've been here and I can't even believe it. It feels like I haven't been here long but at the same time I feel like I was home an eternity ago! Weird...

So my first week here was rough, which might be an understatement. I was not only physically exhausted the first few days being here and completely disoriented and just out of it, but I proceeded to get really sick. I had intense diarrhea, some vomiting, constant nausea, and stomach pains that made me wanna never eat again. It was awful and it lasted for 8 days, and I'm not gonna lie, it made me homesick and wanting to go home at the time. Thank God though it passed on its own and am now healthy and happy! It's been good here since. I live in a town called Pastores about 10 minutes outside of Antigua. The really cool thing is that we arrived here precisely in time for a festival called Convite. It takes place every weekend in a different town and I have been to three so far. It's fun but kinda weird at the same time. It's like their Halloween and people get dressed up and parade down the street with a band following them so all the people dance in the street alllllll day, literally. The most peculiar thing is that it's really common, for some reason unknown to me, for the men to dress up as women. Haha so strange but really entertaining. As far as training goes, it's been going slow. I just feel like there's been so much introduction to things and not much action but finally this week we are going to start doing more hands-on training so I'm really excited about that. I'll be working with a couple schools soon with volunteers that have already been here for at least a year in my program so I think it will be really helpful. Once I start working and training with the schools I can write more specifically what I'll be doing and helping out with. So far, we've learned some pretty fun activities and songs that we can teach the teachers to do with their classes to improve sanitation and personal hygiene within the schools. Funny coincidence, one of the schools I'll be training with soon is in a town called Serroniño and the director of the school is my host aunt that lives with me. She told me the other day how the school doesn't have a stove and that instead they use a fire they make on the ground to cook the kids a snack. She asked me if maybe we could help build a stove for the school and at first I thought it wouldn't be possible since it isn't in our program. To my surprise, though, I talked to one of the head training instructors today and it sounded like it might actually be possible after all! I really hope so. I'm going to keep pushing it and see what happens so I'll update if there's any progress there. 

Otherwise, tomorrow is my birthday and I will be twenty-three. My family here has decided to throw me a birthday party, or "fiesta". I invited all the volunteers that live in my town and I'm pretty sure all my host's family's family that lives in town is coming too. I'm pretty excited to see how exactly it is going to turn out but regardless I think it will be fun. So I am going to write again sooner because so much happens and it makes it harder to write when too much time has passed by. Hasta luego