Aqui Estoy!

Here I am in Guatemala!  I arrived safe and sound on Wednesday night and went to Antigua to stay for the night with Migde and his family.  To begin introductions, Migde is the person who is on the board of the school and who coordinates everything, but is not in charge of anything officially as far as I know.  The next day, Margoth, the daughter of the pastors with whom I am staying, and I left via bus to Mazatenango, the city close to Santo Domingo.  There Margo's dad, Angel, met us and we continued on to Santo Domingo.  Everyone has been SO gracious and welcoming, and they try to accomodate me and my gringa ways in every way possible.  All of their smiles and welcoming gestures have been so touching.

Yesterday we spent time in Mazetango shopping for groceries and a mosquito net for my bed, because I have already been eaten alive.  Fun fact: they do not refrigerate eggs here!  Not in the grocery store, not in the house, nowhere.  I'm not sure exactly how that works, but oh well...

Today we went to the pool, which consisted of three pools of varying depths, a playground, bike trail, cafe, and motorized train.  Apparently the place also doubles as a baptismal pool, and huge church groups come and sleep over and all get baptized.  It was nice to escape the blazing heat and to watch Margoth's kids run around like kids in a candy store.

Tomorrow, we leave to meet the group coming from Covenant Presbyterian Church (Madison) in a town called Coyolate, where we will be doing a "water project" for two days. I don't know a lot more than that, but I am so excited to see everyone from Covenant and spend the week with them.  It will be nice to see some familiar faces, even though everyone here is very welcoming.  I'm going to sign off now, as I have to go pack for tomorrow, but I'll try to post a few more introductions to the people and place I am staying.  Hasta lluego!