Vida es bontia!

Me hace falta Ustedes!!! Life has changed quite drastically since my last post. Sabrina and I moved almost a week ago into a house very close to the school and the centre of town. Patty was a wonderful house mom, but I thinkI've become a paranoid person and really was not experiencing Antigua when I wouldn't leave my house past six. We moved into a fairly large house with a lovely surprise...two other students from Guelph are living there as well! Laurel Gaylor (chica bonita) and Katie Mac! And the other surprise was Adam, an 18 year old Canadian from Winnipeg who is taking a year off before going to Carlton for Political studies. He's studying at another school in Antigua, but has pretty much amalgamated himself into our large group. Sabrina, Laurel, Katie, Adam and I have become a tight-knit little family. Haha. Before I didn't want to leave my house because I didn't feel safe, and now I don't want to leave my house because I have so much fun in it! Our house mother's name is Ahilde, (I can't pronounce it, so I just call her Señora) and she lives in this huge house just with her sick aunt. And a lot of boarders. There are the five of us Canadians, an older Guatemalan man named Don Conrado (I think he's around 80, but it's a mystery that no one knows for sure) and 3 Koreans. The Koreans are hilarious. They don't speak any English, so we communicate in Spanish. I can tell that I've started to really get a hold on the language when we are able to make jokes in it. The dinner table is a funny time. And Don Conrado is fascinating. He is totally fluent in English, as he taught it at the University when he was younger. He has a son that lives in Kelowna, so he's pretty familiar with Canadians. He's very quiet, but when we start to talk to him, he's very willing to share about himself.

We've had a couple cool experiences with a school in Ciudad Viaja (a smaller town beside Antigua) in the past few weeeks. Our group was able to get connected with an NGO called "Proyecto Mosaico" and have been involved with this particular project. Last year, the NGO opened a school in Ciudad Viaja for kids who can't afford to pay school fees. CV has a lot more poverty than Antigua, and even public school is difficult for a lot of children to attend. PMG bought an old house and converted it into a school that can take 25 students ages 5-12. They are taught basic reading, writing and math skills, along with art, acting, music, sewing, cooking, nutrition, gardening and other basic skills. The fees are about half of those of a public school-- about 5 dollars a month, and even so, many parents can still not afford it. So the NGO funds scholarships for about half of the kids. It's a tiny building without electricity and the water isn't totally hooked up. But it's an education that these kids would never have the opportunity to experience otherwise. So our group volunteered to do some clean up and painting for the school. We've spent the last to weekends cleaning up the yard and painting the walls (I'm not too sure our painting of the Mayan calender looked to authentic...haha...but they really appreciated it). But the coolest part was the week before when we went to the school and met all of the children. All 25 of them brought us home to see where they live and meet there families. I have never been so close to poverty in my life. The spaces where whole families of 8 or 10 people live are the size of my backyard. And their chickens and dogs and pigs and vegetables are all in the same place. But they were so welcoming. And so proud to show us their homes. I was really taken aback by that. But it was a blessing. I have some pictures that I want to put up, but the internet connection where I am is too slow, so I'll put them up tomorrow hopefully.

I'm off to lunch...escribiré un orto vez tan pronto como pueda!