Rockamala.

I had to. It was the first thing that i thought of to write about Guatemala, and since this is my blog, I wrote it. Please, if you are not impressed, do not write. I am in Guatemala!
thanks for all of your concern. i have made it here safely, and I am happy and healthy in la casa de mi familia nueva. Find Flores on the map...at the north end of Guatemala. Then look across the lake to the north and mostly west. This is the tiny Guatemalan town of san andres. How I got here is not important. All that matters for the time being is this town. I am living with a family of 9 for the week, not including the animals. My host mother has all daughters, four of them, and three grandchildren. There are roosters here! Serious roosters that cock their doodles at 4 in the morning. The sun has not even begun the shallow morning breaths, and already the villiage boys are setting off bombas, the loudest kind of firecracker, and the roosters are busy waking me up. After that racket, the birds and parrots sing in the trees, and my host mother gets up to begin cooking breakfast for her husband, who works very early in the morning. At 5, the bus for the next town over, Santa Elena, drives through the town, honking and hollering Elleeeenaaa. Living without windows in a town that rises before the sun is, well, new for me.
After I get up, I write in my journal for an hour or so ... trying to get my dreams down, trying to make sense of it all ... and practice my spanish for a bit before going out to breakfast at around 7 15. When I go out into the courtyard outside of my room, the chickens and roosters make a narrow berth, and i walk through quickly so I dont get pecked. The dog usually says hello to me, and the cats look up expectantly for some food. I never feed the cats. You know how I feel about them, and anyway, they get enough food.
i learn spanish every day for 4 hours. It is some of the more exhausting work that I have ever done. Marta, my teacher, talks to me and I write down the things I know, the things I don't, and the things I wish I could know someday. She is incredibly patient, and we laugh a lot at not being able to understand each other, and also because in my spanglish meanderings, I frequently use improper words and even...gasp...vocabularia sexual...and then I get shushed and we both laugh. After school I take lunch in the dining room, and a nap in my bedroom- possibly the only doored room in the house. But actually, i have only napped when I needed to... when I didnt compensate for the roosters and bombas.
In the evenings, I usually walk around the town. Its a town of 7000, not unlike St Peter, except that to walk around the town I have to walk up the most giant ass hill that I have ever climbed. It is as tall as Mount Everest, or at least as tall as Mount Cook. I have to huff and puff my way up the hill to get to the internet cafe, that is usually offline. Then I huff back down the hill, careful not to fall, con mucho cuidado porque es un poco peligroso, and make it back to my house in time to watch spanish television. Its not great, but it helps me with my spanish! Plus, I need a break every night after listening to a new language every day...so we watch the tele. And then I go to my room to practice my Spanish, write in my journal, and start it all again tomorrow. I know, i know, I am leading an exciting existence right now. When i go to Antigua, hopefully I will be able to make friends, but in San Andres, everyone hangs out with their families at night and goes to bed pretty early. I havent met white people until today, so maybe I can hang out with otro gringos for the rest of the week.
Anyway, I am way over my internet allotment for the day. I hope that everyone is okay in Minnesota...I heard you got dumped on by the snow! Love you,
Lora