Today is the final day of Guatemalan homes for the group.
There was a group of at least twenty students from Prairie Bible Institute staying at our campus for the week, so our group was put into Guatemalan homes in the city of
San Pedro a las Huertas.
Our campus is in San Pedro el Alto, which just means we are kind of on the outskirts of San Pedro.
It was about a fifteen minute walk everyday back to our other home.
Each day we would wake up in our Guatemalan family’s house, in one of their spare rooms.
We would have breakfast at 6:30am every morning.
The group, which we now call “Guat Squat”, would meet in the central park of San Pedro between 7:00 and 7:15am.
We had to be back on campus by 7:45 for our morning devotions.
We then would do our normal routine of school work on the campus, but in between we would go back to our Guatemalan families for lunch, and then after afternoon Spanish class, we would slowly make our way home for our early evening dinners (7:30pm).
My Guatemalan family was great.
I had a mother, father, grandma, four brothers, and a sister-in-law.
My mother Blanca mostly cooked and cleaned the house all day, and she talked with me when I was around.
My dad Demietro (or something close to that) is a carpenter.
He and I got pretty close.
We talked together the most and I got to learn a lot about Guatemalans and
Guatemala, and he got to learn a lot about Canadians and
Canada.
He works at home as a carpenter.
There are apparently four parts to making furniture.
One person to carve the wood (which was his job), one person to stain and paint the wood, one person to make the cushioning, and one person to put everything together.
He said that there is a lot of Guatemalans who have their own businesses; a fair number of them being carpentry shops.
My brothers Melfin, Nelson, Robin, and Lester are 22, 21, 20, and 18 respectively.
Robin shares the same birthday as me turning 20 on Thursday, while I turned 19.
Nelson (the 21 year old) is married to
Haiti and are expecting a baby in either April or May.
I might get to see it before the trip is over.
My brother Lester let me rip all his Spanish to my computer.
There are some English and more Spanish songs; most of them falling into the romance/love category.
It is fine by me; I just listen to whatever is playing; if it happens to be some romantic Guatemalan love song, so be it.
On Wednesday, before lunch I asked to help make tortillas because that is what Blanca and
Haiti were doing.
It was disastrous; Blanca left me alone with
Haiti to make the tortillas and I made half of one in the time it took
Haiti to make fifteen.
I got to eat mine after and it still tasted good.
All the meals that Blanca made and
Haiti helped with tasted amazing.
Every breakfast and dinner was served with beans.
Breakfast and dinner were smaller meals than lunch, which was the main meal of the day.
Lunch was always served with meat and some sort of grain product (pasta, rice, or potatoes).
The meals were served with different drinks: coffee with milk, mush???, some concoction with flour and milk???, juice, milk, and water.
Almost every meal was served with fresh, hot tortillas made by Blanca and
Haiti.
I had some amazing chicken, beef, potatoes, and picaya (some Guatemalan dish).
All the meals were great and the time spent with my dad was amazing.
The meals were eaten by my dad and me alone, no one besides Blanca was ever really home, and Blanca ate later.
My four brothers were usually at their jobs in
Antigua and didn’t get home until about 8:00pm, so I didn’t get to see them until the night.
Their house seemed poor if you compare it to a Canadian’s home, but the way I saw it was they were pretty rich.
It was a two story house with another story on top, which was just the roof.
There was an awesome view from the roof, especially first thing in the morning. It was a fair sized house, on the more luxurious side for Guatemalan standards.
They had a toilet (that had the stench of an outhouse, but I got over it), a shower, a fridge, a couple stoves, a place to eat, a place to wash stuff, and a place to sleep.
They were pretty well off.
They could have used some shelving to store stuff and better organize stuff, like plates, dishes, cutlery, pots, pans, and groceries.
The center of their house had no roof, so it was almost like a courtyard.
Their toilet and shower were in separate rooms under their stairs.
So they were obviously pretty short and I had to crouch almost to fit in the shower.
Also the room with the shower, just had the shower, so I had to change out in the open, which was fine because it was a house of guys.
They also had a dog as the family pet.
He barked quite a bit which got annoying quick, but I got used to it.
Their “backyard” consisted of Demietro’s work area, the area where Blanca and
Haiti cooked tortillas on a separate stove/fire, and it had some trees.
The grandma owned a chicken and took care of it.
The trees had fruit with different varieties: lemon, lime, small fruit, and oranges.
The oranges were the neighbor’s tree, but my family got to use them.
In fact one morning I got freshly squeezed orange juice for breakfast.
My family accepted me with open arms and amazing hospitality, and how they just accept this complete stranger into their house was awesome.
I didn’t have much trouble communicating with them as my Spanish is fairly good.
I was able to have couple hour conversations with them.
I then found out how Shawn and John’s visits went.
After talking with Shawn, she was struggling quite a bit with communicating to her family and just wanted to come back to the campus, but near the end of the week she was happy she stayed.
Her communication skills were still not up to par, but she was trying and she just loved living with the Guatemalans, doing what they do and just talking with her mom at mealtime with the little Spanish she knew.
It turned out to be a good experience for her.
After talking with John; who knows if he wants to go back to his Guatemalan family.
He said that those six days was long enough for him and thinks he is going to stress when we go for two weeks, for our next visit, in March.
He tries to converse with his dad, but it is difficult for him.
He didn’t know who was in his family, didn’t know when mealtimes were, etc..
By all the adventures he told me he had, it sounded like a blast, but then he said he was glad to be back on campus.
Oh well, you can always pray and hope for the next time.
According to Liz, Bob and Shirley’s daughter; married to Juan Carlos; who took the program the first year, said that the first week of Guatemalan homes is always the toughest because of the language barrier, entering a new culture, and living with a new family.
I know that John, Shawn, and I found it difficult to surpass these issues, but I think Shawn and I overcame them and John will in his second visit with his family.
I think the whole group enjoyed their first visit with their new family and their new lifestyle.
Today is the final day of Guatemalan homes for the group. There was a group of at least twenty students from Prairie Bible Institute staying at our campus for the week, so our group was put into Guatemalan homes in the city of 
It was disastrous; Blanca left me alone with 
There was an awesome view from the roof, especially first thing in the morning. It was a fair sized house, on the more luxurious side for Guatemalan standards. They had a toilet (that had the stench of an outhouse, but I got over it), a shower, a fridge, a couple stoves, a place to eat, a place to wash stuff, and a place to sleep. They were pretty well off. They could have used some shelving to store stuff and better organize stuff, like plates, dishes, cutlery, pots, pans, and groceries. The center of their house had no roof, so it was almost like a courtyard. Their toilet and shower were in separate rooms under their stairs. So they were obviously pretty short and I had to crouch almost to fit in the shower. Also the room with the shower, just had the shower, so I had to change out in the open, which was fine because it was a house of guys. They also had a dog as the family pet. He barked quite a bit which got annoying quick, but I got used to it. Their “backyard” consisted of Demietro’s work area, the area where Blanca and 
I then found out how Shawn and John’s visits went. After talking with Shawn, she was struggling quite a bit with communicating to her family and just wanted to come back to the campus, but near the end of the week she was happy she stayed. Her communication skills were still not up to par, but she was trying and she just loved living with the Guatemalans, doing what they do and just talking with her mom at mealtime with the little Spanish she knew. It turned out to be a good experience for her. After talking with John; who knows if he wants to go back to his Guatemalan family. He said that those six days was long enough for him and thinks he is going to stress when we go for two weeks, for our next visit, in March. He tries to converse with his dad, but it is difficult for him. He didn’t know who was in his family, didn’t know when mealtimes were, etc.. By all the adventures he told me he had, it sounded like a blast, but then he said he was glad to be back on campus. Oh well, you can always pray and hope for the next time. According to Liz, Bob and Shirley’s daughter; married to Juan Carlos; who took the program the first year, said that the first week of Guatemalan homes is always the toughest because of the language barrier, entering a new culture, and living with a new family. I know that John, Shawn, and I found it difficult to surpass these issues, but I think Shawn and I overcame them and John will in his second visit with his family. I think the whole group enjoyed their first visit with their new family and their new lifestyle.
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