When your city has no water and your cisterna runs dry you call in the bomberos.

Sooo here I sit on the porch while the moms put their babies to bed, awaiting the arrival of the fire fighters to fill our 300 gallon cistern and save the day. 

Our house mom arrived to manage the situation for us. It took her trying 3 fire departments before she was able to get one who could send someone. 

While we were waiting she said to me,  each year something is wrong when you come I am so sorry.  I said back to her what my language school teacher my very first year said to me over and over again “Es la Vida.” Inconveniences make for great stories in the years to come (if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown… go to the fountain and fill a bucket and flush it down).

Prior to the announcement that we had no water the best part of the trip for me was taking place.  All of the little were blogging. One of my greatest joys is to hear, in their own words, their stories of their time here.  Thru the eyes and mouths of the littles the greatest of stories get told. 

Luca has grown so much since his very first trip to Guatemala. Sitting in school I have a direct view into the new kids classroom, and more specifically on Luca.  Although my ADD struggles with this being my vantage point I love watching him learn and seeing how excited he is.  I get 👍🏼 from him all day long, or the kids run out to show me something that is just to great to not share it right away.  Luca has grown into a great leader for his cousin and an excellent example of being a great traveler/learner.

Luca’s cousins Brianna and Bianca have added so much to our little crew. The two of them are full of sweetness and enough sass to keep you on your toes. They are for sure my kind of girls.  They know what they want,  and are excited about everything. Luca has been in Guatemala 3 times with older girls in the house with this being his first time with younger ones around. There dynamic, while different for sure, was just as fun. 

I am gonna miss having my kitchen helpers. I also am for sure gonna miss having someone around who ask just as many “why” questions as I do.  Though it may have only been 5 days it feels like we had so many memories packed into such a short time.  Grateful for them all. 

Update…our water didn’t get fixed we broke the bump by allowing the cisterna to get to low….hopefully tomorrow we get have it fixed.

Luca is the funniest cousin the world. I love him so much and we usually call him 🍀 Lucky. He is funny, kind, and sometimes Bianca bothers him and he doesn’t like it. Luca loves hanging out with me and Bianca. Bianca likes making funny jokes around with Luca. She likes doing the same things as Luca even though she’s a girl. My mommy is so strong so she can do fun stuff like all of us. Sometimes she is scared and she doesn’t want to do it. One time when we were going on the silks she thought she was strong enough and she was. Luca was having fun just like me. The end.

We took a shower 🚿 and then we sat doing this silly blog. . I had a cold shower 🚿 but Brianna had a hot shower 🚿 . Then I was doing my regular blog and then Brianna interrupted and she did emojis which I liked. Then, Bianca did her blog with Mommy/Nicole on her phone 📱. EMOJI ALERT!!!! 🫑🥙🥯🥘🍨🫙🥙🧆🍨🍦🍞🍧🍦🫑🍧🫙🥘🍨🍱🫜🌽🍝🍚🥕🍟🍚🍞🍧🥔🍝🍱🍦🥔🍨🗻⛲️🚢⛺️🏯✈️🚢🏯⛲️🗻⛽️🚖🏜️🚢🚞🗿✈️🚢🎢🎡🚂🏜️🚧🚉🚈🚢🏜️🚃🏝️⛴️🪝🚃🪝🏕️🛶🚃🛳️🏔️🛥️💺🏚️🚅🗻💈⚱️📿💎💣💈📡💣💎⚰️⏲️🪚🧱⚰️🪜🪏📡🏺⚔️⏳⚒️⏱️🗡️💎⚱️⏱️💸💷⏱️🏺💸🪏🪦💎💵💈⚰️💰🔧🧱📡🏺💰🧱⚰️⏲️🪙🔧📿⚱️⏲️🎟️🎗️🎿🤽🏽🤽🏽🤽🏽🚵‍♂️🤽🏽🎽🧘🏼‍♀️🎽🤺🙈🫎.That was the end of the emoji alert ‼️ so get used to it and read every emoji on this blog. 😃😊🙂‍↕️😝 this is about to be the end of our blog so we hope you liked it and we are about to put some pictures on the blog.😇😊. Bianca writes….. ☺️😉😌😍

Bianca writes…

On day one when me and Luca saw the water fountain outside we were so excited. The lady came and we saw the fountain and it was so beautiful and I loved it. Luca and Brianna and Nicole got on the roof. I loved it because I could see the whole volcano. When we got down I got to play with my toys and use my iPad.

On the second day we went to Hobbitenango. I love the parks but mostly I love the circle swing. You go very far and there’s a little bean bag and you can push yourself off if you are almost going to hit something but if not you can hit the bean bag. There wasn’t very much to do where the sticks playground was. My mom went on the first swing ride and when they let go she was laughing so much. I thought she was going to get hurt but I knew they would save her. Michele was second to make sure Luca was not scared and she did super cool poses like she was a superhero. When Luca was doing it he had tears but when he was done I gave him a high five.

On the third day Sunday my daddy went home and I didn’t like it and I gave stuff to my dad so we wouldn’t have so much in our backpacks and so he could change my bed and my sheets and organize my room. And then we went on the silks which are like rubber bands and it was super cool because we got to like pretend we are caterpillars and went in a cocoon and we changed into a butterfly but we didn’t do the butterfly pose we were just in a cocoon. We had lunch and then we came home.

On the fourth day this was our first day to our Spanish school to learn in Spanish. I was nervous but we were going there Michele made a little song and it was like this “this is the way we walk to school, walk to school, walk to school, this is the way we walk to school all day long” and that made me a little better. And my teacher was named Noemi. It was fun. We got to write and made paper airplanes. We went really high on stairs and then we went tippy top of the roof and also we got to fly it on the garden and then we got to go down and pick up our airplanes and then do it over and over. And then we walked home and then we ate lunch and then we did salsa lessons but I liked it a little bit but then we went home and ate dinner. And then we went to bed.

Then on the fifth day we went to school again and I was so excited but I was sad that I was leaving my teacher but it was more important to not leave Jesus behind. We played games like you have to pick a chalk and the teacher says it in Spanish and then if you know the word first you would get a point. So pretend you are a teacher and you say a word in Spanish and like if you know the word in Spanish and you get a chalk and then if you start to draw it first you get a point. And I got a certificate. On the sixth day we are going to the airport because we are leaving Guatemala because we are going on an airplane to fly all the way back to America. I’m happy and sad because I’m leaving my teacher and I’m a little happy because I’m going to see my dad👱🏻‍♂️

My favorite thing we did while we were here it was today. We got to go on a tuk tuk so we can go to a rock area where there was a festival but it is only open on the weekend. But today wasn’t the weekend but today is Tuesday so we just got to like hide in rocks and take pictures and climb but mostly of all I loved going to secret passages. And going in them. But my most most favorite ❤️ taking pictures with the whole family. And everybody else that are now on the trip. I saw a lot.

Brianna writes……We were excited and we loved the first day of the house. We got to sleep next to the garden. We got to go bug hunting and we got to play music with the piano and the guitar.

The second day we went on the Hobbitenango mountain. We got to go on swings, in the little house, we got to go on a hand. A big hand. Mommy went on a big swing and she flew out and Luca went on the big swing and flew out and Michele went on the big swing and flew out too. Bianca was screaming when Luca was on the big swing.

We have fun playing with Luca. We call him Lucky 🍀 . We have a fun time.

On the third day daddy went to the airport and then after we went to a farm. We got to go in the silks. They are big things that people can go on and pretend they are swinging and going in a cocoon. It was so fun that my back hurt. Bianca was screaming having fun. 🤩

The fourth day we walked to school and it was so much fun. We learned about animals, colors, body parts and we learned about Luca 😂 . When we were walking to school we saw volcanos and they were pretty.

The people at the school are so nice. My teachers name is Keyla. Bianca’s teachers name is Noemy. Luca’s teachers name is Kenia. 🤩

The thing we started to cook is spaghetti and meat sauce for dinner tonight. My favorite thing we ate here was homemade Chipotle bowls. Luca’s bowl was spicy. 🌶️

I’m looking forward tomorrow to go to school again. The end.

Luca writes…Today was a sad and exciting day for me. I have a new Spanish teacher. So it all started with me waking up at 6:26 am and then I ate cereal and a banana for breakfast. I got dressed and then packed up my backpack 🎒 for school. Then me, Brianna, Bianca, and Tia all were participating in school. When we all got to school, we had the best time ever because the kids played games together and we threw paper airplanes across the room. Tia was just having the best time learning Spanish with her teacher 😂. I really miss my old teacher (Ms. Lucia) because she was 300% perfect and my new teacher is 150% perfect so I really miss her Ms. Lucia.

The End.

Luca writes… Today, I woke up at about 6:00 and ate scrambled eggs for breakfast. As you can see in the title, the most tiring part of the day was a 5- 10 minute walk which felt like forever just to get to the bus place to drive up the mountain. When we got to the first part of the trip, we went on a smaller truck to go to Hobbitenango, an amazing place in Guatemala. As you can see in the title, the most exciting part was the swing. We went on the biggest swing in Guatemala. Me, Tia, and Titi Carla (Brianna and Bianca’s mom) went on the big swing. Titi Carla went first and when I saw her, tears almost came out of my eyes. Then, Tia went and this time, 2 tears came out of my eyes. Then it was my turn. The best thing about the swing was that I was brave enough to not scream! I went about 100 feet in the air and when I got used to it, I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t scared that I wanted to go again! Then, I went on a tire zip line and it was also fun. We walked some more and then I went to the playground because the place had one. Then, we went on this old trampoline and I loved it. Then we walked around the place and we were about to do jumbo Jenga but there was a big line of people wanting to do it so we skipped that and then we walked to our truck to get down the mountain and then we went to the bus and then drove to the bus place and then we walked back to the Encanto house. Then we chilled and then we had Chipotle for dinner. Then we took a shower and then we watched some of Wonka (a movie) and then we went to bed.

The End.

Michele writes:

Sometimes being brave goes unnoticed because everyone’s brave looks different. What comes easy for me might be hard for others and vice versa. One of my favorite parts of traveling is forcing myself to be outside of my comfort zone.  It’s not something that comes easily for me. I, like most people, like familiar, safe, comfortable things. But I have a strong belief that sitting in discomfort until it no longer feels as distressing is the only way to learn and grow.  Familiar only become familiar by doing. But this takes courage. Sometimes small amounts and other times it takes every ounce we’ve got. 

Luca has been big brave our first two days in Guatemala. He used an airplane bathroom for the first time. Something I thought was a simple ask of him took a lot of courage for him to do.  I had no idea he was afraid to use the airplane bathroom.

He made me think about all the times people don’t do and we don’t understand the reasoning behind it.  Also, it made me think about how infrequently we are brave enough to just say “I am scared” or “this makes me nervous.” Not only does it leave us feeling isolated in our own fear,  but we rob those we love of the opportunity to help us through hard things.

The second time Luca was brave, he asked me to be brave first.  Yesterday we had the chance to swing on a pretty big swing at Hobbetenango. Due to weight, age, height and all the things,only Luca, Carla, and I qualified to go.  Luca asked me to go first.  Now this was big brave for me. I don’t necessarily have a fear of heights,  but I do have the fear that comes with aging. I have far out grown the stage of life of being invincible.  The knowledge that a broken bone or even a simple injury could ruin an entire trip, not just for me but those around me.  This is the fear that stops me.  But Luca asked me to be brave and go first, so I did as he asked.  I flew through the air with all the espresso filled adrenaline rushing through my body and I loved every minute of it (though the coffee right before might have been a bad idea). Those moments were thrilling and freeing.  No time to hesitate, analyze, or talk myself out of it.  Just moments of pure joy. 

My excitement continued as I got to watch Luca conquer his fear.  For two years he has wanted to do this and backed out each time.  This time he told us he was nervous, he voiced wanting to do and then decided he was gonna be brave and try it. Afterwards he told me while he was on the platform he was so nervous he wanted to cry.  I told him that there’s lots of times in life that he will feel this way. We were all so proud of him,  but most importantly he was proud of himself. Shoot, even I was proud of myself lol.  Not gonna lie,  my legs trembled for a good 15 minutes even after I was back on solid ground, but it was worth every minute. 

So be brave,  tell others when you aren’t feeling so brave.  Do the hard things till they don’t feel so hard.  It reminds your brain that you are capable of tough stuff and not as fragile as the voice in our head tells us we are.

Tell others when your proud of them and create safe spaces for them to tell you when they aren’t feeling so brave.   Today I am proud of Luca for being big brave. 

Luca writes….woke up at 7:00 and our flight was at 11:20. Grandpa picked us up at 9:00 so we wouldn’t miss our flight. He drove us in his truck and we went to the airport. Brianna and Bianca met us at the sitting station at the airport. Brianna and Bianca are my other cousins, this is their first year in Guatemala. When we settled in the airplane, we took off. 2 hours and 13 minutes later…. We arrived in GUATEMALA. Then, the guy drove us to our Encanto house. This was the most boring day because all of the grownups were unpacking their suitcases. We did drawing activities,played outside, and had some alone time. Then we walked to dinner and we had some delicious dinner. After that, we went to Guatemala’s Central Park and walked around the park. After that, we went to see if the ice pop place was open but it wasn’t open. Then, we went home to take a shower and go to bed.

The End.

Luca writes…Today I woke up for an amazing day. We went to breakfast when Uncle Sam ( Brianna and Bianca’s dad) had to leave because he had to work in Florida. Then the most exciting part of the day was the aerials, silks, and acrobatics. But first, we had to go in a uber car 🚘 to get there. Once we got there, we saw bunnies and a dog 🐕. We had to go straight to the best part of the day (which is the silks) and we started to stretch. Mommy did the stretches which took a lot to convince her to do it. Then, we went into the action. First, we did simple exercises on the silks. Then, we went upside down 🙃 doing an exercise called the mariposa which means butterfly 🦋 in English. After we ate lunch and I had bison burger. It was delicious. Then we played on the playground. We went home and I played with Brianna and Bianca. The end.