Long week and more gifts

This has been a long week for me. You guys know that, while I do need alone time, 24/7 alone time is more than I can usually handle. There's a difference between being alone and being lonely. This week, I was lonely. I'm in a "group" by myself, get through at a different time from the other students, am the only american in the school at the moment (all Dutch, Swedish and Danes) and now live by myself in a hotel....lots of alone time! School has been difficult for me this week as well. It seems like I hit the wall in what I can learn and now nothing new is coming in and lots of the old stuff has fallen out! I've been frustrated, lonely, felt crappy (unfortunately that is the literal truth!), and just in general wondered if I am really doing the right thing, or just doing the hard thing because it seemed like a good idea.

But that is the frustrated me talking. Deep in my gut, I know that for some reason I need to do this. That's were the gifts come in. I met a couple of ladies, Pam and Mary, from New Mexico the other day and had dinner with then again tonight. I was venting, and they were kindly listening, when Pam said "What do you expect...you've moved, have stuff going on at home, are about to start a new volunteer job, and are in a tough school program...of course this has been a tough week!" Sometimes it takes an outside eye to put things in perspective. What a gift.

Oh, and the club next door is hopping...a guatemalteco won Latin American Idol tonight!!! Fireworks and cheers for HOURS!

Love you guys....more later
Earline

The weekend

It's Sunday morning and I'm listening to the soundtrack from Rent while the drummer at the club next door practices. Not the quietest place I've ever stayed...but last night I had a HOT shower!!!! It was wonderful!



Yesterday I went to visit Santo Domingo. It is an old convent that has been turned into a combination Hotel/Museum. It was incredible! So beautiful...Below are some pictures....



This is one of the ruins of the convent...


A kitchen in the 16th century!The fountains in the center of the convent!






The convent/hotel is so beautiful and peaceful. I'll go back, just to have a beautiful place to "be".

I still haven't really learned how to upload pictures in any really good order, so here are some random shots of people/things....



This is Miguel...He's been my teacher for the last week. Nice guy, approx 22, and a pretty good teacher!

Last Wednesday, we had "salsa class". I'm not really getting it, but it's fun to watch. Afterwards, the school had a little fiesta for the students. It was funny...they had chips, guacamole, refried black beans, picco de gallo, and rum and cokes. I felt right at home!

The blonde guy on the far right in the picture below is Martin, the girls are from Holland(?) or Sweden....I'm not sure anymore.

Back to Santo Domingo....there were basins with rose petals everywhere, and beautiful, incredible art from the 16th cent. onward. One of the most interesting museums was the class and sculpture museum. I wish I could scan some images I bought in for you guys....they had Mayan sculpture and the beside each there were modern class sculptures using the same theme. The point was (I hope!) that while the expression might be different, people of all times have depicted life.... and life contains music, animals, flowers, ways to keep time, and of course ourselves . It was incredible.

There was beautiful furniture from 16th cent on.....

Fountains everywhere...


Random inserts here...the family I've been staying with also had another family at the school...and I got to practice being G-ma! This is the baby (whose name I can never remember, and who Izzy just always called "Baby!" She is just beautiful!

This is the rest of the family d'Allesandro....Krissy, Greg and of course the beautiful and abolutely adorable and hilarious Isabella (Izzy). I had a blast. It's funny, one of the things I've been a little worried about has been my physical ability to play with my grandkids. But after this last week I think I can stop worrying. I played and played. It was fun! These guys went back to Cuba today. They were another one of those gifts I talked about earlier.




This may well be one of the best cooks in the world. This is Senora Lopez, and it was her house. Wow the soups she could make. She was so nice!
One last picture of the fountain in the courtyard. I looked out yesterday morning and there was a beautiful pink rose on the fountain...just like in the movies.
That's life here. There is a lot going on in Houston...and I wonder sometimes at God's timing...but for right now I'm just trusting that I'm where I'm supposed to be. Love you guys...
Earline

Gifts and Pictures

One of the best parts of traveling around is the little gifts you are given along the way. I´ve been really lucky here in meeting people. A couple have been true gifts. The first is Martin...who, behind that serious 31 year old (was SOUNDLY corrected) exterior is like the rest of you reading this blog....he ain´t right! We share a like of Galaxy Quest, distaste of stupid people, and so far, very similar tastes in food (I´m REALLY sorry about the awful Chinese restaurante). Pretty regularly I´m threated with death ¨Make your peace with your God....I´m gonna get ya!¨ He helps fill in the holes left by you all not being here.

The second gift this week has been Anita...a woman about my age from Holland. She has been here 3 weeks and today was her last day. She has been volunteering at a clinic for special children, and just reminded me that all over the world there are amazing caring people. The clinic would be impossible for me, and I´m so thankful there are wonderful people like her who can do what she has done for the last three weeks and LOVE it!

Below are some more pictures.....

This is the infamous ¨suicide shower¨!


The garden at my house.....
We went to a plantation...at least that is what I would call it....one of the oldest in the country. This is the central courtyard.
this is a coffee flower...
Antigua is a city of contrasts....and I took some pictures the other day to show just how much!

Here is a picture of a cloister and monestary built in the 16th century.....



and a coffee shop on 5th ave....


Some new Dutch girls at school.....

The volcano is different every day....here it is on a cloudy, rainy day.....

More pictures of the monastary cloister.....


A 16th century version of a stove venti-hood.....

Just thoughts

Just a couple of thoughts while I'm here at school and the computer is free....

This is both harder and easier than I thought it would be, both mentally and physically. The cobblestones are "kicking my butt". Uneven, different heights, missing...all makes for interesting walking. I'm amazed I haven't fallen, and grateful that my muscles are strong enough to catch me for the first time in years! Lots of stairs...my class in on the 3rd floor...and physically I'm tired a lot but not really hurting like I used to. It's been a long time since I was just "tired". I couldn't do enough to get tired!

Mentally, the courses are so intense that I have to work really hard to keep up. I feel like I take one step forward and 2 back. There is no way to keep up with the vocabulary I learn every day...so I'm constantly saying I forget! But I'm learning a lot!!! I was optomistic that I would be fluent in 3 months...am I crazy?? I'm not even fluent in english and I've spoken it for 50 years! But hopefully I'll know enough to start to do what I need to do.

My ability to talk to a dead stick and have it talk back is still working....yesterday I was in the square and heard a man speaking English on the phone. When he was finished..I stopped him and asked him how to get a phone here. 10 minutes later he's taking me to the phone store and making sure I knew how and where to buy phones and minutes. I've met people in bars (WHAT a surprise), in school, or in restaurants. It's fun. One of my freinds in Houston that I was in school with gave me a couple of names to look up, and I've met them and know if I get in trouble I have a place to go!

I do miss my friends in Houston and at TWU. It's interesting how that works emotionally for me. I miss you all, but I wouldn'tr change what I am doing now for anything. Take care of yourselves...I am. LOL
Earline

Cancun and cranky

I will freely confess…I was a bad girl this weekend. I went to Cancun Friday, Saturday and came home Sunday. It was wonderful. I had this fabulous room in this wonderful resort (enough superlatives yet?!) and this incredible beach. (Enough!) Mostly I slept, on the beach, by the pool, in the spa, in the 2 person hot tube on my porch…need I say more? It was needed. Here are some pictures....

The beach outside my hotel room....

The wedding chapel...I saw a wedding on Friday!

The view outside my hotel room... on my patio with the 2 person jacuzzi!

I stayed in the tower...only 6 rooms max per floor! I was so spoiled! It was an all inclusive place...so I really didn't leave!

I came back cranky. I’m not sure how that works. I was rested…and cranky. OK, I’am going ugly American. I’m tired of cobblestones (they look great but they are HELL to walk on and really tire me out), damp beds, a kitchen that is closed except when meals are served, and only OCCASIONAL hot showers. Breakfast is at 7:30, even though class starts at 8:00 and it is a 15 minute walk. Lunch is at 1:00, (school is done by noon) and dinner is at 7:30, or whenever it’s done. My family is very nice, and the food is wonderful, but the bathroom thing …. I have decided I am too old to take cold showers using something to warm the water called a “suicide shower.” The heater for the water is attached, electric cords and all, to the shower head. If there is no water pressure, there is no hot water. If there is no electricity, there is no hot water. If you turn the water on too fast and it doesn’t have time to heat, there is no hot water. If you turn it down to heat, there is no pressure…are you getting the picture here? Many of you remember my one request…HOT WATER for my shower. So Saturday I will move to a hotel, where there is hot and cold running water, a shared kitchen, wi-fi, and my own private bath.

Another sign of my move down the culture shock curve to “Oh…NO!” is my purchase of a phone. I bought a phone for and 300 minutes today for approx $35. My new phone number is 57396757. Yes I know that is too many numbers, but I don’t know which ones to leave off! Here in Antigua, you dial only the last 4 or 5. Nice! Today was triple minutes day. Every Monday is. So if I have to buy minutes, I’ll just be sure and buy them on Mondays!

I'm in the wi-fi café where I can load this on to my blog. It takes forever to load picturews...or there would be more.

Part of my quick decent into the "what the &*((**& part of culture shock is the similarity to Trinidad. I've already had that adventure...for 6 years. Hopefully, my next blog won’t be from Earline the cranky! Love you guys and love your comments..
Earline

First Impressions

I’m not sure where to begin! Arriving in Guatemala City was a lot like arriving in Trinidad in one sense….people and vendors and beggars and taxis were everywhere! The culture here is so different it makes the similarities stand out. The roads are…roads. Not freeways, even the freeways! There was traffic everywhere Sunday since it was Election Day. The cars are usually older, and no one really uses air conditioning. Why would they when it’s only 75◦ outside? The same little shops line the roadways, people walking everywhere, and most of the roofs are corrugated tin. Houses are jammed together, and the humidity is 85% on a good day!

(the fountain in "Central Park")

Then there are the differences….The country is incredibly beautiful. Rivers, mountains, and the beautiful volcanoes in the background. The climate is great…75 for a high in the day and 65 for a low at night. What makes the heat or the cold is the humidity. (the fountain in "Central Park" ) It is comfortable when the temperature is 75 if you are standing still in the shade, but if you walk or do anything, especially in the sun, it is so humid that you begin to sweat just because there is no evaporation. And a humid 65 feels cold due to the dampness that is everywhere at night.

My family is very nice. The mother is Consuela, and she is very nice. Her husband had surgery Monday, so we have not really met him yet. She has three daughters. One is very friendly, has three older children, and does a lot of the cooking. Actually, all the daughters cook…a lot! There is a lot of family around to feed. I’m still not sure who lives here all the time, but the family is very welcoming and nice. They take in several students at a time, and Sunday night an American family (Greg and Kristi) who are living in Cuba came to study as well. The family has two daughters, and they are dolls! Lexi is 2 and a pistol, and the baby is as happy as she can be. Here is my house....I have the room next to the "garage" which is the front door!

School started Monday, and the professors IMMEDIATELY diagnosed me as a beginner….might have something to do with the French words I was throwing in. And that has proven to be a real problem, especially since the student they paired me with also speaks French. He is from Sweden, and is a student of American History (?). His name is Martin and he’s 32. Today, we had a substitute instructor who also spoke French! Martin just looked at him and said “Don’t go there…trust me…we’ve already been!” Martin’s English is amazing. He has just a bit of North Carolina there, since he lived for a year as an exchange student in Raleigh. But if I say anything else in French…he may kill me and tell God I died!

School is only in the mornings, and I’ve found my way around enough that I’ve found a WI-Fi café. So below are some pictures of what I’ve seen so far in Antigua.

Here is one of the most beautiful churches in Antigua, and I live just behind it.

There are many modes of transport here.....

The famous "Arch de Antigua"

More later. Love you all.

I'm finally here!

Wow...it doesn't seem possible that I'm actually in Guatemala. The last few weeks have been hectic. I closed up my house, packed 2/3's of it before I left for Wilminton to see Nicole and Ryan. Before I had to pack the rest....I would have told you I had packed almost all of it, but it took the whole last 4 days and renting a pickup truck to get all the stuff I had left in the house to where it all needed to go!

The last 4 days have been saying "goodbye" (although not really), and eating and visiting with close friends/family while packing, packing, packing. Jon and John Watson loaded and schlepped stuff all over. And just when I thought all was done, last night at 10:30 I realized Mark still had my passport at his house! It was pretty funny.

The flight was great, and I was met, finally, by a really nice guy who drove me to my family. I'm really just putting this blog up because I'm too tired to do anything else and it's not time to go to bed yet. School starts tomorrow, and I have already taken my first test, which let me know how MUCH I have to learn. Love you guys...more soon.

Wilmington

The last post was supposed to be up last week. OOPS! Oh well. This week I'm in Wilmington, North Carolina visiting my daughter, son-in-law and grand-dawgs Winston (the toy destroyer) and Chaucer (the "noble" hound). They are (the dogs) beagles, and too funny. My kids are great too. A number of Nicole's friends have relocated here to Wilmington from Harding, so it is kind of a reunion. We've had a great week. I even went to the beach today to see if I could be some other color than "fish-belly white". I get back into Houston tomorrow, then on to Guatemala Sunday. Wouldn't you know it...I'm following a hurricane in. It should be interesting!

I got both my passport and my drivers' license replaced and they were both mailed to me in time! Life is good. Only 5 more days. I still really can't believe it's real, until I look at my empty house. I'm staying with a friend, (John Watson), but part of my furniture is at his house so it's kind of surreal.