¡Mis Amigdalas Me Odian!

Pictures: Acul, playing Uno with our English class

So I spent my first weekend with a different host family with a trip to the hospital again! Ha. Translation of title: My Tonsils Hate Me. I got tonsillitis again on Friday, so I went to the hospital on Saturday, though my host dad simply dropped us off and said here you go! Luckily Jenna came with me, and Ben joined us later, and they helped me navigate the hospital, quite an experience. But good news now I am healthy! Not much has changed since my last blog entry. The association really doesn't have anything for us to do, which is frustrating, but we're having a good time hanging out and exploring Nebaj. In the mornings we're at the association, we started entering our entire book inventory for the library in Excel. On Monday, the SALTer who worked in Nebaj this past year, David, arrived to help a group from Canada who is staying in a nearby town, Acul. It was really great to talk to someone in English who understood the organization and spoke much better Spanish than us. We sat down with Kristobal and tried to think of things that we could do, though we we're pretty overwhelmed because we only had 2 more weeks and weren't sure what we could do in that amount of time. That afternoon we visited our first community with Esteban, and it was arranged that we got 15 minutes at the end with the local youth, only about 10 were there. So, we taught them Head and Shoulders, the song, in English. It was so much fun and the kids loved it. So now, whenever we have the chance to go to the communities with Esteban, we'll get to interact with the kids a little bit at the end, after he does his lecturing in Ixil, which will be great. David and Kristobal also set up an English class for us! It's thrown together just because we're here, but I'm hoping it will be a great opportunity. Classes start tomorrow from 9 am to 10 am every weekday, and tomorrow we have 2 young women as students! I think we're starting with basic numbers and greetings. Oh boy. I had a great day today. The Canadian students arrived at the association in the morning, having spent the night with host families, and we introduced ourselves and hiked to a nearby village, with about 60 families, named Acul (where the group is staying), which is where Kristobal lives with his family. Maybe it was because I was coming off of being really sick, but oh my gosh the hiked almost killed me. Acul is on the other side of the mountains from Nebaj, so it was a pretty serious climb to get up and down to the other side. But oh my gosh it was beautiful, and Acul was amazing. So green, so small, such a beautiful, peaceful place. Kristobal's family cooked us all lunch, and we then spent the afternoon playing soccer in a small field with the local neighbors and Kristobal's siblings, while some of the girls played with Kristobal's oh so cute little daughters and friends. This afternoon to me seemed to be a picture perfect cross cultural experience. Ben hiked back to Nebaj, and Jenna and I plopped our weary bodies onto a bus and rode back to Nebaj, where we are now checking email. The rest of the week we'll teach English and finish our book inventory, Saturday I don't know what we'll do, but I really want to see a waterfall, and Sunday we'll go back to Acul where Kristobal wants us to have breakfast with him and his family and then he wants to show us other communities around Acul. If only I had bionic legs or something, but I'm sure it'll be fun!

Our family continues to be very warm and great. They recently wanted us to teach them English words, and we laughed at their pronunciation just as much as they laughed at our Ixil pronunciation, a very fun time. That language is impossible to speak. They've also showed us lots of family pictures and always want to know about our days. A very friendly environment surrounded by an unbelievably beautiful place, what more could a girl want. Ha. Needless to say, I am enjoying my time here and as the time comes closer to return home (only 2.5 weeks!) I bet I'll be putting on the brakes to stay here longer. The community in Nebaj is very warm and welcoming, mostly everyone greets you with a smile and is eager to help when approached. Well, I just wanted to give a small update on my life here. Thanks again for all the prayers and encouragement, I don't think I can say that enough. And stay cool, Seattle! My goodness.

Much love to all,
Rachel

Oh, and yes, Nebaj's full name is Santa Maria Nebaj, Guatemala.