Greetings to all my faithful readers,

Today we had a free afternoon and were going to take Loren and Pat Swartzendruber (our college President and his wife, who came to visit for the weekend) to the central market. I was excited and ready to spend some cash! On presents for friends and family, of course. But, there was lots of traffic and by the time we didn´t even get there.. it was basically time to turn around. So 4 of us came back. While we were walking to catch a bus back here to CASAS I saw a woman at the street we were stopped at waving at me. I thought she was telling us we could walk in front of her. Then I realized it was my host mom´s best friend! What are the odds.. in such a big city, of seeing someone I know? It was crazy. She asked where we were going and if we wanted a ride, but she would´ve had to let us off before our stop.. so we just grabbed a bus. But when we grabbed a bus, not long after a couple got on that had been on the same bus going to the central market. Again, what are the odds in such a huge city? It was crazy!


Also, I´m up to 100 on my license plate number game.. which is really inconvenient.. mostly because the license plates here only have 3 numbers and 3 letters.. so from here on out it´s hit or miss. Mostly miss though.

This past weekend our group traveled to Santiago Atitlan and it was kinda like a vacation. We had to listen to some speakers and met with some missionary couples (one that were EMU grads) but mostly we relaxed. Saturday we had free time to shop a little and going swimming in the pool at the beautiful hotel. It was freezing though. However, I did dive in, and stayed in for a while.. you would´ve been proud Bec! Then Sunday after our group worship service we boarded a boat and headed over to Panajachel.. a touristy town for more shopping. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) I had spent all my money the day before.. so I didn´t buy anything. But most of it was the same things I´ve been seeing all semester anyway, so no loss. I did manage to make a fool of myself though. I wasn´t watching where I was going and some silly Guatemalan put TWO steps at this one spot instead of one.. and I missed it.. falling forward. Luckily my wrists broke my fall and NOT my camera. I walked away with only a severely bruised and sore knee.. hurts to bend it.. oh well. Oh, and I got burned again. But I´m not complaining.. number 1 because it will turn to tan.. number 2 because I should have known better. 3rd time´s the charm, right?


We started our second semester in Spanish today.. woo hoo! I already have an essay due Friday. All our Spanish classes did short presentations for Loren and Pat in front of the whole group. My class sang a love song in Spanish and gave them flowers. I pretended to play guitar. It was awesome! There´ll be pictures on the EMU website sometime in the next week..


Well, I suppose the Grosh family is getting ready for butchering this coming weekend. I´m sad that I won´t be there. What a fun Valentine´s day activity! I was talking in Spanish class about it. My teacher Albertina wished she could come too.. and eat our meat cause she said it´s probably better than the meat here.. she´s right. She was all into it! I´ll have to show her the website of the photo project I did on it last year!


Spiritually I was challenged this weekend during some quiet time to think about what it means to live a grateful life. Too often I just say quick prayers of thanks each time I feel guilty for taking something for granted. But I don´t wanna keep doing that. Hearing stories and seeing firsthand the poverty and injustices here has really challenged me.. especially in my Western consumeristic tendencies. I feel blessed to have parents who have asked me ´Do you NEED this, or do you just WANT it?´ because that question has stuck with me and I have put things back on the shelves when I haven´t been with them.. It´s also interesting thinking about the fact that I only brought about 8 shirts and 3 pairs of pants with me and I´m surviving with this limited wadrobe. Meanwhile, I have dozens of shirts back home (that Becca is probably wearing all the time..) that I don´t actually need! I guess this is just something I need to keep wrestling with..


Today is the 33rd day here so that means we´re 1/3 done with our entire trip.. crazy! Well, that´s all for now. I probably won´t write again for about a week since our free afternoon was on a Monday this week! Hope you all have a great week and a good Valentine´s Day spent with the ones you love! I´ll be thinking about you all and missing you this weekend.

Con amor (with love),

Lindsey

Here´s me being enthusiastic about my camera and being on a boat in the sun in Santiago Atitlan this past weekend. Jin, don´t make fun of me for scrunching my nose!