Pollo Campero

Soooo, we officially made it to Guatemala on Monday. After 6 hours on the plane and 6 in the van, we made it to Xela. We went to the school first, where we met our host moms (guatemama as I call her). She took me back to her casa, which is a very large house, and gave me my first cena which consisted of "frijoles" y "huevos" or black beans and eggs. She also introduced me to abuelita who was watching Joyce Meyer in Spanish. Thank you God! I have to admit, at first it was kind of awkward, with a lot of smiling and (fake) nodding. Then, (praise Jesus) I met another girl that lives here and teaches at an English school. Turns out she is from Texas and speaks fabulous, Southern English! So, I was definitely thanksful for her. I also found out that my guatemama and I have the same name...Rachel Elizabeth and Raquel Elizabet. She also is madly in love with Jesus and is an active Christian (Protestant, too). Truly the first day was a little intimidating, but everything got better!

The second day all of the students met our one-on-one teachers. My teacher is Edwin. We just talked (in Spanish, of course). Come to find out, he is actually a youth pastor. He used to be the youth pastor at Lakewood (AKA Joel Osteen's church). He pulled out his bilingual bible, and we got to talk abut Christ's goodness. Fue fantastico!

There is a huge difference between Guatemala city and Xela. Guate City is a lot like America. Then driving through the country, we saw the extreme poverty. Xela is in between kind of in the middle. Still, all the people that I met have been so sweet! I even got lost twice and went to a fellow classmates house, and his guatemama walked me home, twice! The people here greet you with a kiss on the cheek. The city is very tranquil and cozy. I have never seen so many laborious people: everyone seems to do manual labor. Also, they have fast food places just like us: KFC, McDonalds, Taco Bell, and , oh yeah, Pollo Campero (translation: Wild Chicken). This was our first stop after leaving the airport as we headed to Xela. They served fried chicken.... ha.

I already feel like I am learning a ton. I am so thankful for this experience that God has given me :) It has been such an encouraging adventure so far!