Hello family, friends, and mission partners!
My adventure has begun! I arrived in Antigua, Guatemala last Friday, August 12th. The first weekend in Antigua went by slowly as we became acquainted with the city, settled into our host family’s homes, and anxiously awaited the start of our Spanish classes.
Natalie and I have been blessed to meet quite a few English speaking young adults who have been here a couple weeks longer than us and know some hidden gems in the city. For instance, on our very first morning here, we went to mass at La Merced, which is only about a 5 minute walk from my host family’s house. At the end of mass, a fellow American walked up to Natalie and I (us Americans are pretty easy to pick out from a crowd of Guatemalans), and introduced himself. He is a seminarian in Georgia and has been here for a couple months studying Spanish and teaching English to children in need. He generously treated us to coffee and then showed us around the city. After arriving the night before and experiencing major culture shock, it was very comforting to meet a fellow American who was so kind, welcoming, and spoke so highly of Antigua.
I realized that might make it sound like I’m only speaking English, but don’t worry… I am speaking much more Spanish than English, that’s why it’s nice to give my brain a little break every once in awhile. As soon as I arrived in Antigua, I hit the ground running on practicing Spanish. I started language class this past Monday. The Spanish class takes place in a garden, which is a very peaceful setting. The format of the class is one on one instruction for four hours. My instructor’s name is Patricia. She has been a Spanish instructor for over thirty years. She speaks to me in Spanish the entire time and caters my time with her based off of what I need the most help with. Not only do I spend 4 hours a day only speaking Spanish with my language teacher, I also speak Spanish all the time in the city, attend mass in Spanish everyday, and then come home for meals three times a day and speak Spanish with my host family.
My host family is amazing! They are an incredibly generous, kind, flexible, and faith-filled family. They love hosting language students because it is fun for them to meet so many unique people from so many different places around the world and to watch them improve immensely in their Spanish in just a short period of time. They are very patient with me as I attempt to speak very broken Spanish to them.
A few highlights from this week:
—On Friday during language school, Natalie and I’s Spanish teachers walked us to this organization called Nuestros Ahijados (God’s Child) that provides education, food, healthcare, etc. for children with limited resources. We received a tour of the organization and they showed us their hospital for malnourished babies and children, called Casa Jackson, which we are going to start volunteering at 3 days a week for 2 hours each day. I will keep you updated on our experiences there… I am very excited to see how that unfolds!
— On Friday night Natalie and I went out to get ice cream after dinner and the owner of the ice cream shop was very friendly. We started talking to him to practice our Spanish and found out that he has visited Oregon before. At the same moment, a family who lives in Oregon and who are currently in Antigua visiting their grandparents, happened to enter the ice cream shop. So, I felt like I was back at home. Then we happened upon a procession at La Merced Catholic Church for Our Lady of Sorrows which was incredibly beautiful!
— Yesterday, Natalie and I went on a sunset ATV tour in the mountains. We went up to this little place called “Hobbitenango” which means Hobbit town and it literally is just that. It is such a cute little (touristy) place in the mountains made to look like the Hobbit. For all of you Lord of the Rings fans out there, to much of your dismay, I have only seen the first movie. So, I probably couldn’t appreciate every little detail as much as you could but it was still very fun. Then, we went down to this village to have a delicious traditional dinner overlooking the volcanos, including el volcán de Fuego which erupts about every 10-20 minutes. Some days we have a much clearer view of the volcano from Antigua than other days. But last night was by far the best view I’ve had of the eruption. As we were ATV’ing down the mountain, the volcano erupted and a huge streak of orange lava lit up the night sky (which by the way was filled with stars). It is a view I will never forget!
I am beginning to adjust to my life here. Everyday I am humbled and I learn something (well many things) new. Homesickness of course comes and goes in waves but I continue to be blown away by the Lord’s providence. He knows exactly what I need and provides it for me every day in order to ease my anxieties and trust Him more deeply.
Wow I am just now realizing how long this blog is! If you made it all the way to the end, congratulations and thank you for following along with my journey! I am excited to see how it continues to unfold and I look forward to keeping you all updated! Know that I am praying for you all from afar. Let me know if you have any specific intentions I can pray for.
En Cristo,
Kenna
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