So Chris and I have been in Antigua for just over two weeks now and we absolutely love it here! Besides the weather, which is practically perfect (highs of 22 – 24 and lows of 12 – 14 every day), we have found the people to be very friendly and are looking forward to practicing our Spanish with them! After only 2 days here, we found an apartment 4 blocks north of the main square and we love the location and our apartment. It came fully furnished and is owned by a woman who also runs a laundry service next door so we get a good deal on laundry too! We are spoiled with a once a week cleaning service of our apartment that seemed to be a mandatory part of the rental agreement (not that we’re complaining!).
In terms of our Spanish, we have completed one week of classes at Antiguena Academy for Spanish. We each have a private tutor and we are really enjoying the lessons! It’s certainly more time consuming and mentally draining than we thought it would be! We are in class for 4 hours in the afternoon that includes a much needed ½ hour break after two hours! The ½ hour break is just enough time to enjoy a coffee in a tiny little restaurant with only 3 tables close to the school! We have already booked another 2 weeks and we’re hoping to continue with classes for our entire duration here. We may not have the time to continue with full time study depending on how much time and energy volunteering takes. So…volunteering...
Through a connection that Chris had, we met with a man named Luis Carlos who started an organization called Nueva Generacion that is dedicated to working with the youth of Guatemala. There are 13 million people in Guatemala, and 43% of the population is under 30 so the youth make up a large percentage of the population. Their main focus right now is to teach bible classes in the public schools here in Antigua which is now a mandatory class that the students must take. They have hopes and plans of moving their ministry beyond the classes to a possible youth center since there is no where for youth to go in the city, and to start up a youth group in the church he attends where Luis hopes kids from the classes can come for continued support in their Christian journey. So he wants us to help teach the classes and to help start up the youth program at the church. The church he attends which we have also been attending was only started a year ago and is strongly supported by people who commute from Guatemala City. Many of the attendees are currently from Guatemala City so it will be a challenge to organize a youth night around getting the youth to Antigua and to spread the word here in Antigua that the youth events are happening and open to anyone. Luis is hoping to start up the youth program in a few weeks. Classes at the schools will start in a week so we have one more week to become fluent in Spanish!
In other news, definitely missing having Mike around! He went home on December 31st and managed to surprise everyone back home as he gave them a later date for his return! He didn’t quite make it home in time for midnight but he was in Winnipeg airport then! It took a few days to adjust not having him around! We were glad that he could live with us in our apartment for a few days so he has a good context of our life down here! But Mike and I have spent a lot of time together in the last 8 months since we worked together before spending the two months traveling together! I guess university is important though too!
Hoping to put up a video or pictures of our apartment in the next day or two but no promises! We would both like continued prayers for motivation and energy for studying Spanish, and more importantly for how we can be effective with our time here as we begin to build relationships with people.
(Sorry I’m not posting more pictures of Antigua yet – we really haven’t played tourist here yet and are actually finding it quite odd to see tourists walking around with cameras in hand! We are hoping to have a “tourist” day soon!)
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