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Our team's first few days here in Magdalena, Guatemala have been filled with many exciting adventures. We have loved being able to explore the town, learn about Students Intenational, and meet our host families!
We left for LAX on Sunday and hung out at the airport until our red eye flight took off. It was hard to sleep on the plane so when we arrived in Magdalena we were all pretty tired. Thankfully we had some time to rest and then took off to explore the town. One of the first things we noticed is how kind everyone is! They will take the time to stop and say hello and are always smiling. We also met our host families who have been nothing but wonderful. Even though they don't speak much English it has been fun using hand motions and our broken Spanish phrases to learn about their lives and get to know them.
On Monday evening we learned another girl was coming to stay with Julie and I who are with the same host family. She came to Guatemala by herself from Arizona so we adopted her onto our team. Riley has been really fun to get to know and we have made her one of our own. Another exciting thing that happened Monday evening was a small earthquake! Most of the team was asleep when it happened, but for about 10 seconds the beds were shaking like someone was at the foot of the bed moving it. When we told our host mom she said there was another one at about 4:00am, but we slept right through it.
On Tuesday we had orientation and learned what Students International is all about and met their amazing staff. Everyone here has such a heart for the people in Guatemala and their excitement definitely rubbed off on us. We are here with about 16 people from InterVarsity in Canada and got to spend some time with them in orientation. We had dinner together and played a human version of foosball which quickly became a Canada versus USA matchup. We had a great time with them and are excited to keep hanging out with them.
Today was our first day on site and tonight we will have team time to debrief. I am at the education site with Paul and Riley and it was a wild day! The kids have so much energy and kept us on our toes the whole day. We learned some dances for a school program coming up and learned about how Guatemala got their independence. The kids love giving hugs and whispered "Gringa!" every time I walked in the room.
We will be sending more updates about the different sites and can't wait to keep sharing our experience with you!