Luca writes…I woke up at 6:09am. Then I woke up and had breakfast. Then we went to Spanish class. I learned the word profession today and it means what job you do.  After lunch we went to the basketball court.  And then I made a few basketball shots.  And then me,mommy,and Tia went to the place that Jesus lived. Then after that we went to get a shirt for me.Then we went back to our house. Then we had dinner. I ate a hamburger with chips. I took a shower 🚿 then I brushed my teeth. That’s our blog/story!

We apologize for our delay in post. Our wifi wasn’t quite strong enough to push out all the content we are living. Thanks to Nicole (our keeper of the laundry) she was able to work with our house caretaker and they put in a brand new internet line for us today. This was both helpful for our blog but also for Michael-John who still has to work amidst our beautiful surroundings. We have had impeccable care and response from our host and couldn’t be more grateful.

Nicole writes…Never trust a fart. That is all. The end.

So here I sit once again in the tensions of the opposite. While language school has given me both a purpose and an excuse for being in Guatemala, it is also my least favorite part of the trip 🙃. It’s not that I don’t want to learn Spanish, it’s quite the opposite,  I want to learn. But for me it brings out all of my learning disabilities that I worked so hard to compensate for/and hide as child. Try having a speech and language issue combined with dyslexia and learning another language…. welp that’s me. Talk about insecurities on display. But that’s ok,  that’s what we are here for right? To sit outside our comforts zone in a country where we know no one,  where we don’t speak the language,  and don’t quite yet fully understand the culture.  To sit with the tensions of the opposite and want be here yet dread having our insecurities put on display. I spent yesterday with my teacher who is tougher than tough and exactly what I need if I am ever gonna learn.  She might not be the easiest but she is a straight shooter like me and doesn’t seem to give 2 flying… insert word… about my IEP that I so desperately need lol.

Also it’s day two and we bearly cracked the book.  We’ve just been talking… for what seems like hours.  We’ve discussed culture,  her family,  my family,  jobs, abuse, relationships,  domestic violence,  poverty,  and well the list goes on.  To be clear every part of me is exhausted and simply spent from such intensive conversations in a completely different language and though I long for a vocabulary card or two instead,  I know that this is the only way to force learning for myself.  

Our school has moved and they now have two new locations, our house is in a different part of town,  so in many ways it’s been a very real reorientating experience for myself.  Yesterday I had my first real taste of familiarity when we all decided to go to Salsa y Mas studio for free salsa lessons.  Upon entering I was greeted by one of my old instructors who remembered me and also remembered Michael and Kianna.  He even commented about playing basketball with Michael everyday after school.  It was nice to see a familiar face.  It was even cooler that my brother and Maggie joined in and learned along side me.  Side note, I was very impressed with my brother’s abilities and honestly kinda shocked.  

Today we were blessed to have our grounds keeper Felipe and our housekeeper Dona Clara tend to our house.  There’s this mix of emotions that comes from being taken care of by others.  On one hand it’s like wow do I really need all this care, and the other hand I am so happy to be providing employment for those that are local in the community. This came up in class today when we talked about the cost of living and wages here in Guatemala vs the US (ugh see what I mean, this ain’t no Duolingo). The conclusion was it’s all relative in cost when it comes to wages and cost of living,  However the biggest difference is the ability to gain employment. Work is hard to find and the type of work offered is hard….. and I mean physically hard.  So while I feel silly to have 2 people coming 3x a week to tend to a house we are perfectly capable of caring for,  I am thankful for the ability to provide income to others.  

There was another pause in my day as the realities of home where brought to my attention. My heart is broken for the families of MSD as they are forced to relive the most horrific moments of their lives, and for what seems like a very cruel and pointless endeavor,  because facts are facts and they are well known.  My heart aches for those families I worked closely with and its been extremely difficult for those of us that worked with the families to watch them suffer yet again. I am angry for them,  I am sad for them,  I hurt for them, and today many of us have cried with them and for them. My heart is heavy. 

I just finished blogging with Luca, which has become a highlight of my day (and I think maybe his too). While I started this post this am before anyone else was up,  I finish it tonight by the fire in the Sala. I am beyond ready for bed as the today has been draining in many of ways.  

Luca writes…I slept until 7:15am. Then we got ready for Spanish class.  Then we walked to a new Spanish class at a different place and it was bigger. They had a roof above or desk in case it rained.  It did rain and we got wet because we sat at the picnic table with an umbrella. All of the teachers,  Maggie,  Tia and me were playing games.  We played a game with opposites in Spanish.  I won the first game, and Maggie won the second game. Nobody won for the teachers because it started raining and all the cards flew away, luckily we didn’t lose them.  Then we walked back to our house and ate lunch.  I tried a sandwich that Tia gave me with fried salami, eggs, and bread.  It was a little bit good.  Then we took a tuk tuk to see the city from above. Then we walked through the slippery dirt and took the same tuk tuk as last time to the chocolate museum.  I tried chocolate and it was good.  I peeled the chocolate beans. Then I tried an empanada (it’s a piece if bread with beef inside of it) and it was a little bit good.  Then we went to Tacool (taco place) with Maggie and Michael-John. And then we ate steak, pork, and steak with guacamole (i ate the food like a chomping machine) Then we walked back to our house, and I took a shower.  Then we watched the fire that Michael- John made in the sala.  The smoke came through the chimney. The fire went out. That’s our blog. 

Nicole writes…I am one with the laundry. I am one with the garden. In a past life I was a woman named Estela toiling all day at the pila. Thankfully, I did not have to wash anything traditionally and had a modern washing machine to do the hard part. Rearranging clothes on the line brought me a peace I didn’t think was possible and I am secretly lamenting bringing an appropriate amount of clothing because I now won’t have as many opportunities to do laundry lol

Luca writes…..I slept until 7:15am. We woke up and took a tuk tuk to breakfast. Then I did word puzzles.  Then we took a tuk tuk back to our hostel and packed up our bags and took a boat ride. The boat driver was so crazy that the boat flew in the air.  Tía, me and Maggie went on the front of the boat.  We took the boat to San Marcos where there was a 40ft jump into the volcanic lake that was made 84,000 years by the volcanoes around it. We went on the path until we got to a big rock.  I first jumped off a lower rock then I jumped off the big rock.  It was cold in the lake and in the air when I got out of the lake.  I was excited and a little bit nervous before I jumped.  It felt like “I believe I can fly” when I was in the air.  It was so fun.  I felt brave. After we jumped we swam to the other side,  but we had to take 2 or 3 breaks because our arms were tired.  We swam over to meet mommy and Tia who didn’t jump because they thought it was scary so they just slid on their butts into the cold lake. After we dried off, I was so dry I didn’t get one single drop on me.  Then we walked to the boat and took it back to Santa Cruz because we had to get our stuff from in the hostel. The ride back was super rough and people were brave.   We ate lunch and then I was waiting to play pool before we left but other people took two turns and I didn’t get to play before we had to leave to go meet Mr. Sergio. We took another boat to Pana. Mr. Sergio picked us up at 3:51pm and then we took a 2 hour drive.  Then when we got there we had the largest house I could ever think of.  Even there were stairs that goes to the roof.  Tia asked me if this was a cool house, but i said “it was the best house I could ever think of.” But a grown up has to be with me for sure when I go on the roof.  I can see the beautiful view of the volcanos and people’s yard from the roof.  There are 3 gardens.  There is even a Spanish school I go to. 

Today was my first day at Spanish school.  It was fun. I made mistakes all the time and I tried again.  My teacher’s name is Lucia. Her name is almost the same name as me.  She is nice, she doesn’t even know how to say bacon.  I picked out the best words in my notebook that was the same letter in English.  Like blocks and bacon. We wrote in my notebook things I like in Spanish and my notebook is almost full up to the 3rd page. Michael-John picked us up and we walked home and we can finally relax.  But I didn’t because I went bug hunting.  I have a special cauldron that I put my bugs in.  I have two grubs and lots of rolly pollies. After that I watched Netflix under the bed until mommy called me for lunch.  I had the best fried chicken and french fries with ketchup.  I hate all of the chicken that Tia gave me and all the french fries. After lunch we went to salsa place.  That means we get to dance but I only danced a tiny bit because I didn’t want to get tired.  After we went to dinner.  We took pictures and saw the volcanoe with the clouds sitting on it.  We walked back and we almost got lost because Tias map on her phone wasn’t working until 7:50pm. Then we finally got home and then we went to our room, took a shower,  and then we wrote our blog.  The end. 

Nicole writes…We climbed up a treacherous mountain/volcano/rock thing today so that MJ, Maggie and Luca could jump off and I could silently play out all the ways in which we could become maimed, handicapped, or fall to our deaths. I did this as silently as possible so as not to disuade my child from experiencing this once in a lifetime opportunity to plunge into the depths of a volcanic lake. He was so brave and I was so proud. Michele and I got into the water in a more senior citizen fashion; sliding down the rocks on our bottoms until we hit water. We then traveled to Antigua and entered our magical new home. It is old and gorgeous, has a beautiful open air garden courtyard in the center (which thrilled Luca whose first words were “I can’t wait to see how many bugs are in here”), and may just be haunted. The thumping heard on the wall between Michele and I’s bedrooms is, um, confusing and a bit disturbing. We will explore more and get back to you on the origin. Other than that bit of potential paranormal activity, I am in love with this home and am so excited to see what the week has in store for us.

First days of school are better when there’s a (dormant) volcano in the background.

Today was a good day. But that discomfort I talked about? It’s real. Even though I speak Spanish, have been to Antigua three times, and am an obsessive planner there are always tricky things. Yesterday and today it was food and internet.

Our house is great – a big four bedroom house with a wonderful courtyard in the middle. A rooftop view of the city, comfy couches, there’s even a piano.

But. The internet is not great. That threw a wrench into my work plans for the morning. But fortunately I had a backup plan and headed to a coworking space across town that had great internet and spent the morning on video calls. There were lots of “Ummm, is that an avocado tree behind you?!” I still haven’t quite figured out the rhythms of working from here yet. I’m worried I didn’t dial back enough what I’m trying to accomplish while I’m here and only working half days, but at least the internet works?

As, for food challenges. Food wouldn’t be that big a deal, except of course the plan is to cook for ourselves and not eat out all the time. Since we are here for three weeks it would get expensive to eat out every day for all our meals. So last night after dinner out for our first night in Antigua I went to the grocery store and found myself tired, wandering around a grocery store that was just foreign enough to be disorienting. Figuring out breakfast shouldn’t be that hard. I’ll spare you the gory details (including the florescent pink “strawberry” yogurt), but tonight we finally had some success. Pasta and tomato sauce, roasted broccoli and chocolate milk for dinner. Bonus was the cookies for desert that taste just like chips ahoy and the setting up on our rooftop.

Challenges included, it was a great first day in our new town. Maggie enjoyed school, we did some daddy-daughter salsa dancing at the free salsa lessons, and grabbed some cotton candy in parque central. But I’ll let Maggie tell those stories when she hopefully blogs soon.

A few bonus photos from this weekend in Lago de Atitlan.

Tonight I dictate this blog through crack in the door from the toilet to Michele. Gotta get the thoughts of the day out when they come to you, right? It is here, with the sound of nature, in the dark (so that I don’t traumatize any more neighbors) that I have been able to reminisce on all of the good. Breakfast was lovely. Coffee feeds my soul. I still don’t like the men at the launcha (boat launch). The man at the kayak stand was lovely though, as are all of the people here (aside from those boat men) and reminds me how hard it must be to have to hustle to feed your family. I truly am blessed. Lunch was delicious especially the frozen watermelon and Zacapa. We decided to stay put and spend the day on the dock jumping into the lake. I am sure Luca will have a more to share about that in the morning. I always thought that I wanted to experience a healing retreat where you go into a smoke filled hut with a shaman doing peyote, but alas, no. Why you ask? I got smoke inhalation. How you ask? From the wood burning oven in the kitchen below our room. This my friends may be what takes me out.