From Hostel to Home...Life in Guate

happy birthday dad!

i love you & wish you a grand day:)

our little lives in the giant city

it's hard to update the happenings with such little time at home, but here's a small snap shot of life in guatemala.

work: i absolutely love the school i'm working for. my colleagues are fantastic and the school has a very warm, welcoming feel to it. my students are amazing! the job itself has a bit of a learning curve and i knew coming on board that it wasn't ideal, and more of a foot in the door. overall, it's going well and i'm positive knowing that what i'm learning is a great tool for my future general ed. teaching at the next international school hired on with. within the next few years, i will be back in the gen ed. classroom with ever more tricks to being a better teacher.

home: the apartment is beautiful. full of character, life, delicious smells & comfort. ben has been experimenting with cooking and pretty much kicking it's ass. the thought of coming home brings a sense of peace to the hectic day in the city. i love our home.

school: ben is taking a biology class online and studying like crazy. i'm not envious of his work and he's keeping himself busy with his class, cooking, cleaning and taking care of all house needs.

transportation: let's just say that fears are being conquered daily here. the teacher bus picks me up first in the morning, and drops me off last. it's about a 45 minute commute (on a good day) and the ride is full of "oh my god, this bus kills me" "is anyone else feeling nauseous?" "this teacher bus makes me feel sick everyday" and many, many more... in "real" life, i would panic and get off the bus no matter what crazy country i'm in, but somehow, i'm managing to conquer my fear. i've been vocal about my phobia, yet not to the point of annoyance, and i have ALL fingers crossed EVERYDAY that it's all talk, and the teacher bus will remain vomit free. that being said, it is an extremely nauseous ride taken twice daily, and i'm pretty darn proud of myself.

food: love it! like i said earlier, ben has been doing a great job of coming up with super yummy meals. i've taken a few photos and will upload them later.

that's all folks. i hope that gives you an idea of our little lives in the giant city.

much love...

happy peace day

colegio maya mission statement:

A community where active learners seek excellence, value diversity and find their own voice to become active leaders for a more peaceful world.

did you know that today is international peace day? my school has been working on prepping students weeks now, for peace day, for today. amazing! the vocabulary words for my first grade esl students were: peace, community, family, symbol, flag & country. sure the message is brilliant to send off with young educated children who have a chance to make a difference, but i was unaware of just how brilliant until the assembly at 1:45pm.

words cannot describe the power behind the message. i sat in an auditorium chair listening, watching, singing, joining and experiencing something so extremely powerful that it brought me to tears. i'm not a writer, nor will i ever want to claim to be, so today will stay with me, yet i thought i would attempt to share a glimpse.

immersed in one of the most dangerous cities i've ever set foot...i'm teaching at a school that believes in spreading a message that i've grown to believe unbelievable.

today was a good day. happy international peace day.

 

dollars and shakes

i've never been a fan of monday's, but today was an unusually bad day of events. getting up at 5:00am has yet to settle in and become part of my routine here in guate, so my day started out a bit groggy. my classes are scattered, and my classroom was full of empty chairs when the first quake hit. unaware of what to do, i walked out into the hallway to find other teachers grasping a pillar designated for earthquake safety. my day continues a bit shaken by the quake, and i now check my balance to make sure that i had enough money in my checking account to go grocery shopping after work. mcdonalds? taco bell? mcdonalds again? what? i call ben to see if he's been out eating fast food while i'm at work and charging random things in high amounts. nope. we had been warned, and it actually happened. someone cloned our credit card and charged 1,933 dollars to our account. not only fast food, this person stayed at nice hotels, grocery shopping and been using our credit card number for the past week without us knowing. bummer. but wait, another huge freaking earthquake rocks the school (again without kids in my class) and i hold onto my swaying classroom waiting for the danger to pass. today was not a good day. however, wecu is going to refund our money, and ben and i are both safe from the shakes. to some, it was a much worse day and i'm grateful for our safety and for wecu being such a great bank. read more about the earthquake here. tomorrow should be a better day...

antigua

there are some pictures posted in an album "antigua" on the left of the blog if you would like to see more photos of our long weekend getaway. it was independence day for centeral america on thursday, so we celebrated with some good friends by getting out of the city and visiting one of my favorite towns in guatemala, antigua. our new awesome friends alejandro and chepe invited us to tag along with them and stay at chepe's parents weekend house. i was thinking cabin style, but actually, it was BEAUTIFUL! here is a picture of the entrance.

ben and i loved it there! we did however leave the comfort of the stunning house and wander around antigua.

ah chicken buses, i don't miss you one bit!

the markets were beautiful.

antigua has such a different feeling than the city. maybe it's the other white people, or that you can take out your camera without fear, or walk home from a bar without looking over your shoulder. i just love this city, and ben also enjoyed the vibe as well.

it's very catholic and you can find a church at every corner.

 
the clock tower

and a shot of the boys having a good time at the house.

overall, it was a fantastic weekend spent with some great friends. antigua is only 40 minutes outside the city, so we were a little disappointed at first because it was one of our four day weekends, and we felt the need to go further. but, i'm so glad we didn't because it was a great time. ben and i see ourselves booking rooms for normal weekends just to get out of the city and enjoy the culture. check out some other pictures from our weekend in the album on the left, and i will add more later.

much love,

ben and sherri

independence day (tomorrow) september 15

happy independence day guatemala...

i've enjoyed watching the street festivities and the flags waving. it feels good to live in guatemala today.

our new apartment

bedroom

bathroom

spare room (unpacking zone)

living room

dining room

kitchen area

terrace

our neighbors (where all the embassy workers live)

the apartment came fully furnished and it's super clean and nice. we're really happy to be out of the hotel and in our new place. the only downside is that now i'm the first one to be picked up on the teacher bus, and last to be dropped off. we went to the equivalent of costco, target and vons today to gather random necessities for the new place. the city has everything you need, it does cost a bit more than the states however.

the election for president is tomorrow and the city is drowning in campaign posters. it's rumor that after the election, crime tends to go down and the city feels calmer. ben and i are staying away from politic talk, but it's interesting how things are so different here. it's just one of many more things to appreciate back home.

we love our new place, and my job is great here. enjoy the pictures of our new home...

much love.

las lisas

pictures are worth more than any words i can use to describe this weekend, so enjoy.

before getting on the boat to our island of paradise

this picture was taken from our hotel deck

scrabble, beers, sunshine &  each other

our friends stayed in the bungalows, but because we signed onto the weekend late, we stayed in the hotel (which we actually loved)

the hotel. we had the entire upper floor with a deck overlooking the water

pure relaxation

unwanted critters flying above our heads as we slept:( sure they eat the mosquitoes, but i still really hate them flying above my head INSIDE our hotel room

one of my new co-workers has a girlfriend that happens to be an amazing singer, so we had a mini concert after dinner

i've got so much to say about this weekend, but absolutely no energy. i need to get busy with preparing for school tomorrow so writing about all the fantastic things we did this weekend is going to have to wait. overall, it was a perfect weekend!

unfortunately, we're still calling the santander hotel our home, but that will change this week.