Hey, sorry for missing the last few days...Theyve been busy. By the way, this post will have bad punctuation because the keyboards here are wierd, the most of the symbol keys show the normal symbol im used to but they dont actually produce that symbol (like a question mark).
Anyways, I arrived here in Antigua late friday morning and attended a missionary conference with all the missionaries at NLCH as well as most of the christian missionaries in Guatemala. This event is put on every year by donors in the states, with the help of individuals from Green Acres church in Tyler, TX who come down to speak in the workshops on the second day, and to provide child care etc. So, friday, saturday and sunday there was a sermon given by a guy named Bill from Dallas Theological Seminary, as well as workshops and kids activities and singles activities. The format of the services was j
ust like a church service, with worship and everything.To the right and below is 'the Arch', with a bit of the cathedral behind it (yellow).
The workshops were more or less discussion sessions lead by a person with knowledge on the topic. This conference took place at a hotel, so all missionaries attending stayed there, at little expense (since it was largely supported by groups in the states), and ate 3 meals a day there etc. I got to meet a bunch of people affiliated with New Life Advance International and other organizations.
This is one of the rugs in the streets. Again, all sawdust.
I began spanish classes on monday at a language school here in Antigua. I will be here for 3 weeks, going to 4 hrs of class per day. All class is, is me sitting down with my own teacher conversing about me, my life, my experiences, my family, my future, whatever. The prof. just leads the convo in a way that requires me to use different vocab and verb tenses. Its going well so far, today being the first day that I feel good about where my spanish going...hopefully I can keep that up. Last night I went to the gym with another student in my house...uhhhh what else...
OH, this past sunday there was a procession, as there is every sunday during lent. The whole thing is a bit odd from a christian perspective, because of the mixing of beliefs and general sentiment that traditions must be adhered to, in order to look good to God. But its also pretty cool, the art that is put on the streets. Many families create these "rugs" out of different colored sawdust. Imagine painting images using templates to paint the designs. This is what they do, except instead of paint, they pack sawdust into the stensils and then pull the stensils away. I dont have my camera with me right now, but Ill try to post some photos of these sawdust rugs at some point.
Some factoids Ive learned about Guatemala
There are 24 completely independent languages here, 21 of which are indigenous...the others are spanish, french and portugues I think.
There are 33 volcanoes here, and I can see 3 of them from Antigua.
The original capitol was destroyed by Volcan Agua when it erupted and caused a huge mudslide at some point in the 1500s i think. Then this city (Antigua Guatemala) became the capitol until it was destroyed in an earthquake in 1773. So now the capitol is the current Guatemala city.
Apparently Villa Nueva, the site of the Childrens Home is the gang capitol of Central America (sorry Mom).
Ive seen Volcan Fuego erupt 3 or 4 times now, spitting up a mushroom cloud of ash and smoke, probably a couple hundread yards high and a hundred yards wide or so. The Todds, from Texas (they are here for 6 months of school, before the go to NLCH for 2 yrs) have seen Fuego shoot out lava.
Thats all I got for now. ¡Hasta luego!
Dave
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