wooooahhhH!!!

ohhh man!! just saw the biggest flying beetle i've ever seen in my whole entire liiiife!!!!! ohhh maaaan!!! i couldn't stop screaming, thank god i live with a family because i start screaming when i see a spider or a cocroach and they come and help me get it out of my little house!!!! aaahhh, i hate seeing these bugs move around. it's one thing to see them sitting on my walls, but then when they move, booooy they move sooo fast!!! ahhh soo scarrry!!! it's unearthly their speeed!! ohh man. quite the experience! saw my first scorpion last weekend in pachalum.. luckily i haven't seen any in my house!! only biiig spiders and maaad cochroaches!! harmless, they say, but oh man they still scaaare the bigjeeeezes out of me!

anyways, enough with the bugs!! so my friend rebecca is here, she's another volunteer living about 30 minutes away! sooo i'm using the internet here, thanks to her!!! soo we've just been hanging out!! the past three weeks, don robert (the head of the household in the family i live in), well his brother and wife and 3 kids (who were born in canada) are visiting from canada! they've lived there for 20 years, so they speak really good english! so we've all been hanging out a lot! it's their last night tonight, so we were sipping on atoll (a drink made out of milk, corn and lots lots of sugar) with them and don robert's neice and her 3 kids! oh man, it's a full house around here! and tonight there's gonna be another party for saying goodbye to all of them leaving tomorrow morning! so it'll quiet down around the house here again, just three brothers- juanfra, anthony and abner, and dona chayito and don robert.

but there's a lot of bussstle in the town. it's their independence day the 15th. it's a reeeally big deal around here! all the schools go on different trips, some for the day, some for a couple days, so they all go different places around guatemala! so two days ago, i went to the zoo and a kids museum in guatemala city with like 70 little elementary school kids (they call them chicatitos) and their parents and teachers, all packed like chickens in a big school bus!! ohh man!! it was so much fun though!! we left at 3 oclock in the morning-- wait correction-- we were all waiting from 3 in the morning until 430, when the bus actually came to pick us up! i'm really learning a lot about patience here, let me tell you! soo then we left, went to the zoo.. it was so cute, it was smaller than in the states but it was soo cute with all the decorations and beautiful trees (thank god there was so much shade! i feel like its impossible to find shade in the zoos in the states, but here, there was soo much shade!!).. soo yeah then we went to the kids museum which was sort of disappointing compared to like the boston children's science museum which is like the coolest thing ever, right? but yeahhh it was fun for what it was!! i had a fun time with the kidddos!!! then on the way back, our bus broke down at about 9 at night in the middle of nowheeere! so we waited about an hour-- the bus driver fixed it! and we're off again- apparently this happens A LOT hereee!! so we returned and we all got out the bus a little outside of el chol and ran with a torch screaming and woo hooooing through town to the park. (the whole tradition here to go on trips with your school and then upon return, you run and scream into town holding a torch celebrating your school and your trip of the day!!) soo yeah, that was that!! it was my first experience of it!!

and wooo i'm going on 4 more trips this week and next week!!! i'll let you know how all of those go!!! i'm going with another elementary school to a sports morning in another aldea-- we're walking 10 km to get there!! wooo!! and then the next day i'm going to xemap.. a place where there's pools and monkeys and we're camping there with another elementary school!! and then a couple days later, i'm going back there with one of the highschools i work with for the day! and then two days later i'm leaving again at 3 am to go about 6 hours away to the department of el progresso and we're visiting a sort of waterpark place, apparently!! and then we're coming back late in the night that night!! and that trip is with one of the middle school i'm working at! soo it's gonna be a fulll weeek of trips with kids and teachers and parents from my town!!! and then on the days i'm not tripping with them- there's gonna be different dances, food tastings, folklores and plays in the park as cultural movements prepared for by the schools! soo it's a full week of cultural events, movements and trips!! i'm excited!! glad to share it all with you!!!!

mmm.. so as far as work goes, this is part of it!! which is pretty much the coolest job i could think of!! yeeess!! but as far as work in the schools- i had a week full of charlas last week- getting to the know the kids, having them work in groups to answer questions about their communities, their schools, their thoughts about education and things like that.. as sort of a youth analysis to base my future work in! soo last week was full of preparing and working in the schools!! i really enjoy the work that i'm doing, it's fun and i love getting to know the kids and i feel like we're all gonna learn alot in the classes!! i mean i learn a lot from the kids all the time and i know it's gonna be a neverending eye opening experience. and then they seem interested in the types of youth topics we're gonna be working with- and through conversation with parents and the kids- i know they need it too. so that's exciting!!

did i tell you i'm on a soccer team here? we've played 2 times and gotten second place (out of 3 teams, but wooohooo).. so we've travelled about an hour away these two times to other towns (aldeas, they are called) within the municipial of el chol on the back of a pick up truck with 10 girls about 14-17 years old.. they are my team members!!! and so we drive in the truck of another teacher, grace, whose also on the team, and her husband who is really cool too and verrry into the success of our team. it's funny. it's really fun and we're playing again tomorrow in el chol.. beginning the tournaments with other girls' teams in el chol! wooo!!

sooo that's about it over here!! i've totally been hogging rebecca's computer and i'm sweaty and haven't taken a showeer and it's soo hotttt here!! i'm gonna get going now!! it's been so fun to connect with you all, one-ended i know!! but i hope to see most of you on my trip back home for twwwwoooo weeeeekkkksss!!! woooooo yyayayayyayyyyy!!!! i'm gonna try to download some photos for you now!!! i hope you all the best of the best in everything that comes your way these days! i love you all very much and take care of yourself and others always!!! mucho mucho amor!!!! I LOVE YOUUUU!!! have a great day!!! : )

sarah! : )