Samuel attends a preschool for three and a half hours each morning, five days a week. Although they have “English class” once a week (in which Sam is the STAR), the program is entirely in Spanish with all Spanish-speaking classmates. The main incentive for enrolling Sam in school was to expose him to the language and to new friends.
Sam has been attending his new school, Mundo Sesamo, for four weeks now and what a difference four weeks can make! The very first day we left Sam, he cried and pulled at his ears and cried and begged us not to go. (I’m pretty sure the ear pulling thing had to do with hearing, but not understanding, so much Spanish.) I was SO nervous to leave him and called the school at least twice that morning. The entire first two weeks went something like the preceding description. Sam kept crying. Mommy kept calling the teacher. Except each day that passed, the teacher would report on the phone that he wasn’t crying as much during the day and that as a matter of fact, as soon as we left he did great.
And then on the third week came…the brave cape. Yes, the “brave cape.” Mommy suddenly had the idea to pretend to sew an imaginary cape, infused with prayer and bravery that would protect Sam throughout the day and take away his tears when we left. So Sam donned the brave cap and viola! the tears stopped.
The basics of preschool here are the same - Sam’s teacher, Andrea, is very loving; they have a daily schedule; Sam colors; Sam and his friends play on the playground; they all do crafts, etc. One time a week they have the following: English class, French class, music class, physical education, and what they call “Montessori class.” Besides the language, it may not be that different of a school day for Sam, actually. But for Mommy, it’s very different!
In the first four weeks alone, Sam has had only one actual full week of school. It is super common to be warned only one day in advance that school is cancelled the next day, or that he needs to bring some special treat or item to school, or that he will be in a parade, or that parents’ attendance is required at a special event, etc. We were given a September calendar at the beginning of the month showing the theme of the month and the specific activities scheduled for each day. This is great, but they don’t follow it! The month of September showed having one holiday…when in actuality there have been seven. At first I was pretty annoyed. Then I realized I’m in for a year and a half of annoyance if I just don’t adjust to the different cultural approach.
So…Cheers to adjustment! Cheers to Sam for his successful adjustment! Cheers to Mommy for slowly getting there!
If you’re curious, the school’s website is very cool and very informative. The preschool is one of the best in the city. I really am happy he’s there.
http://www.colegiomundosesamo.com/
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
La Casa
This summer when we were makingn plans to come to Guatemala, we anticipated Stephen making the trip ahead of the rest of the family in order to scope out our potential residence. Due to the cost airfare, the idea of traveling separately, etc., we decided to hire a realtor. It was a bit nerve-racking choosing a place based on Internet photos and our realtor's advice, but it worked out better than we could have ever imagined. Our realtor was wonderful and we have adored our house, the location, our neighborhood and our neighbors. Praise God!
Take a tour through our house. Consider taking it in real life, too! We would love to have visitors!
Above is the view of the front of our house. Directly across the street is the neighborhood green area. I open the window in our living room (to the right of the front door) and have a beautiful view of the fountain and the flowering park.
To the left is a shot of the front entrance (the black door you see is the front door). The class doors lead to our living room and dining room, shown below.
Living area on the first floor of the house is L-shaped. If you continue walking on the indoor/outdoor hallway, you arrive at the doors to Sam and Ruth's rooms. Yes, technically Sam's room and Ruth's room open to the outdoors, but they are totally secure inside the walls of the house (remember the yellow wall seen from the front view of the house?). As I mentioned in an earlier post, I love the concept of the house. It's a very cool advantage of living in a place with perpetual Spring weather. Above the kids' rooms, on the second floor, is the master bedroom. You can see the window to the master bedroom in this pic.
Ruth's newly decorated nursery. We got permission from the ownder to paint and decorate and we're having so much fun with it. Sam's room is currently under "paint-struction" and I will post a pic of that soon.
Our master bedroom. The views from the window and the high, vaulted ceilings are what make this space spectacular. Too bad I didn't include pics of either of those...what's up with that?
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Surprise!
Things that surprised me after moving to Guatemala:
• Most everything really is cheaper, but not everything. I can feed my family of four on about $80 a week. Produce is delicious and super inexpensive (ex: $.50 for a pound of strawberries) but other things are not. Cheddar cheese is sometimes hard to find and costs about $8 a pound. I also had a big surprise buying soap for my dishwasher at $7 for a small box of Cascade. Most of the reason certain things are so expensive has to do with supply and demand. I think I have one of only about five existing dishwashers in the whole country (I’m exaggerating, but probably not by much…)
• The size of my house totally surprised me. It’s the first time in my adult life that I’ve had tons of space and not a lot of stuff. Usually it’s been just the opposite (I mean I lived in LA…remember?)
• The views from my roof didn’t just surprise me…they amazed me.
• I’ve been pleasantly surprised about how wonderfully easy it’s been to make friends. I pray this continues
• I am definitely surprised that we haven’t been able to find a church that feels comfortable. Regardless of the fact that I’ve lived in Mexico three times and found a church I liked all three times; regardless of the fact that Guatemala is the largest evangelical country in Latin America; regardless of the fact that Guatemala has more missionaries than any country in Latin America…we still haven’t found a church. (I'm pretty sure those semi-statistics are correct...) We called a local missionary our first week here and asked her for a recommendation and/or the directions to the church she went to. Her response? “Yeah…well…if you find one, let me know.”
• I didn’t anticipate wanting a car so badly, nor did I anticipate the dread of relying on public transportation. (As a matter of fact, all taxis are on strike today…relying on the unreliable is tough.) I am so fortunate we had the support to get a car. Yeah to the ’95 Nissan!
Things that haven’t surprised me after moving to Guatemala:
• I knew they would, but my kids really had to toughen up (literally and figuratively). Everywhere we go, including our own home, is hard, tile floor or make of rock. They fall…daily…they scrape their knee…they cry…they fall again. I think I deal with either a Sam or Ruthie fall about five times a day. I knew they also would have to be strong in adjusting to cultural and language differences. They have been strong, brave, and resilient through the change.
• I knew we would all miss home. I think it’s probably toughest for Sam. We moved our entire lives without being able to move all our familiar things. Usually once a day Sam remembers something he used to have (and really still does) and asks for it. That’s tough. Things are just things, but a three year old is just a three year old. And he misses his Lightening McQueen car, his light-up airplane, his sandbox, you get the idea…He really missed his stuffed dog, Blizzard, but Nana and Grandpa helped Blizzard make the trip through the postal system. I’m so thankful for that!
• Even with all the rain, the weather is still so lovely.
• I really do enjoy my schedule as much as I thought I would. I liked teaching high school for six years, I really did, but I didn’t think I would miss it and I don’t. Not yet anyways.
• I have enjoyed my Kindle (and yes, I am willing to advertise for them!). I have read four novels in the past six weeks. Keep it comin’ Kindle. I love you and I love my books. Recommendations from the past month include: Little Bee, Outliers, and Ford County Stories.
• The coffee really is good. There’s a reason Starbucks features coffee from Antigua, Guatemala.
• Most everything really is cheaper, but not everything. I can feed my family of four on about $80 a week. Produce is delicious and super inexpensive (ex: $.50 for a pound of strawberries) but other things are not. Cheddar cheese is sometimes hard to find and costs about $8 a pound. I also had a big surprise buying soap for my dishwasher at $7 for a small box of Cascade. Most of the reason certain things are so expensive has to do with supply and demand. I think I have one of only about five existing dishwashers in the whole country (I’m exaggerating, but probably not by much…)
• The size of my house totally surprised me. It’s the first time in my adult life that I’ve had tons of space and not a lot of stuff. Usually it’s been just the opposite (I mean I lived in LA…remember?)
• The views from my roof didn’t just surprise me…they amazed me.
• I’ve been pleasantly surprised about how wonderfully easy it’s been to make friends. I pray this continues
• I am definitely surprised that we haven’t been able to find a church that feels comfortable. Regardless of the fact that I’ve lived in Mexico three times and found a church I liked all three times; regardless of the fact that Guatemala is the largest evangelical country in Latin America; regardless of the fact that Guatemala has more missionaries than any country in Latin America…we still haven’t found a church. (I'm pretty sure those semi-statistics are correct...) We called a local missionary our first week here and asked her for a recommendation and/or the directions to the church she went to. Her response? “Yeah…well…if you find one, let me know.”
• I didn’t anticipate wanting a car so badly, nor did I anticipate the dread of relying on public transportation. (As a matter of fact, all taxis are on strike today…relying on the unreliable is tough.) I am so fortunate we had the support to get a car. Yeah to the ’95 Nissan!
Things that haven’t surprised me after moving to Guatemala:
• I knew they would, but my kids really had to toughen up (literally and figuratively). Everywhere we go, including our own home, is hard, tile floor or make of rock. They fall…daily…they scrape their knee…they cry…they fall again. I think I deal with either a Sam or Ruthie fall about five times a day. I knew they also would have to be strong in adjusting to cultural and language differences. They have been strong, brave, and resilient through the change.
• I knew we would all miss home. I think it’s probably toughest for Sam. We moved our entire lives without being able to move all our familiar things. Usually once a day Sam remembers something he used to have (and really still does) and asks for it. That’s tough. Things are just things, but a three year old is just a three year old. And he misses his Lightening McQueen car, his light-up airplane, his sandbox, you get the idea…He really missed his stuffed dog, Blizzard, but Nana and Grandpa helped Blizzard make the trip through the postal system. I’m so thankful for that!
• Even with all the rain, the weather is still so lovely.
• I really do enjoy my schedule as much as I thought I would. I liked teaching high school for six years, I really did, but I didn’t think I would miss it and I don’t. Not yet anyways.
• I have enjoyed my Kindle (and yes, I am willing to advertise for them!). I have read four novels in the past six weeks. Keep it comin’ Kindle. I love you and I love my books. Recommendations from the past month include: Little Bee, Outliers, and Ford County Stories.
• The coffee really is good. There’s a reason Starbucks features coffee from Antigua, Guatemala.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Repeat from FB as I get this started...
Tomorrow will mark the start of our fourth week in Guatemala. Before we left I was considering our move here to be more like a life pit-stop - just a quick pull off the side of the road, but not the real destination. I realize now that I even packed with that mentality. “Ah, we’ll just get (fill in the blank) there. It’s no big deal.” Thinking in my mind it was just a week at camp and anyone can survive a week at camp without (fill in the blank). I now understand that I don’t want to be at camp for a year and a half, I want to be home. We are slowly making our beautiful house here a home, but we still have a ways to go!
We arrived Monday, August 16th at 2:30 in the afternoon. Our flight was very smooth and the kids were amazing. By the end of the first week, we had acquired most of the essentials we failed to or were unable to pack – a crib, towels, groceries, Internet, a new microwave, and even a new (very small) TV and we’re settling in nicely to our new house.
Although we had seen many pictures on the Internet, our house was still a wonderful surprise. We have what’s called in Spanish a “casa de corredores” or a corridor house. Our house is like nothing you would see in the United States. We call it our indoor/outdoor house. Our house is a big square. In the middle of the square is a patio terrace. The living room, dining room, kitchen, and both kids’ rooms run along two sides of the square and the doors to all these rooms open right to the terrace. When Sam wakes up and opens his door he is essentially outside inside our house. Stephen’s and my room is on the second floor. Our door opens and leads either to the roof top terrace or our indoor outdoor stairs. I think it took me about 24 hours to adjust to a totally new style of house and then another 24 hours to absolutely fall in love with it. My children have never had so much wonderful, fresh air!
Our house is in a very nice and very secure residential neighborhood on the south side of Antigua, Guatemala. Antigua is a sheik tourist attraction town. The local adjective for the town is “tranquilo.” It is essentially a ten by ten block town mixed with old churches and new hotels, flanked by three volcanoes and all paved with cobblestone streets. It took me about 24 hours to adjust to walking and commuting on the quaint cobblestone streets and about another 24 hours to absolutely hate them. OK, not hate, but I’m easily annoyed by them. Sam loves to imitate driving on them – bump bump bumpidy bump bump bump.
We have lived three weeks in the middle of Guatemalan winter. This essentially means that it rains everyday (EVERYDAY) and is often cool in the afternoon and evening. Come November, we will adjust to Guatemalan summer, which apparently means perfect temperatures all day long. Regardless, it’s beautiful.
By the second week we attempted to start a normal routine. Ideally, Stephen works a full work week on his dissertation. The University of Texas has offices in the middle of town (five blocks from our house) and three days of the week he walks in to work. Two days of the week, Stephen travels into “Guate” to do further research at archives and libraries not available in Antigua. I am home with the kids, but work most mornings on my translation job through Wayland Baptist University (a wonderful opportunity that materialized this summer). Monday through Friday, I have a woman named Sonia that comes from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 to clean, help watch Ruthie while I work, and help with lunch. Samuel attends a new pre-school every morning while the three girls (me, Sonia, and Ruthie) keep the home fires burning. The afternoon is naptime and play time for me, Samuel, and Ruthie. We have already had many fun afternoon adventures (playing in our neighborhood park area, the public park in the middle of town, and playing at one of two indoor play lands when it rains).
In just 20 days, we have already met many wonderful people. Our neighborhood has been an amazing blessing and so far all of our “friends” are in our neighborhood. Some of the important people in just the first few weeks are:
• Sonia, Antonio, and Cecilia – Sonia is the woman that comes everyday to help. Her family is lovely and includes her, her husband, and their three year old daughter, Ceci.
• Judy and John – The house across the street from us belongs to a missionary couple. Judy knocked on our door the first week with a smile and a loaf of delicious banana bread. Judy and John operate a “transition home” for girls who come from orphanages but now need help “transitioning” to find a job, perhaps continue their education, etc.
• Fredi, Amalia and their three daughters – Right next door is a beautiful Guatemalan family. The younger two daughters (ages 5 and 9) have fallen in love with Ruth. Amalia, the wife, works in Guate and Stephen has been able to ride with her when he goes to work in the city. What a blessing!
• Maritza – Already a dear friend. Maritza was raised in Puerto Rico, lived 25 years in Atlanta, Georgia (after moving there for college) and has now lived here for two months. She is very kind and I am excited about our growing friendship.
I am proud of how our family is adjusting and I am soaking up the beauty of where we live. So far, there have only been two real hurdles and I am confident we will successfully jump over them soon. The first has been transportation. Before we moved we had planned on depending entirely on public transportation. While we have done well with that (Stephen takes Sam to school every morning on a “chicken bus” and Ruthie and I pick him up every afternoon the same way), it has gotten old fast. Relying on public transportation has make some days hard getting Sam to and from school, going grocery shopping, taking the kids to the park, and more. We have decided to buy a car (thanks to the help of my in-laws!!) and will hopefully be acquiring a 1989 standard Mazda 323 this week. Niiiice. I’m SO excited if it all goes smoothly this week and I’m looking forward to finally learning how to drive a stick-shift. Having a car will make so many things easier. The second hurdle has been finding a church. Granted we’ve only visited two so far, there are many things that make this tough. We actually have another missionary friend here that I didn’t mention above. When we called her the first week and asked her where we should visit she said, “Yeah, if you find a good one, let me know.” We pray we are sensitive to understanding how to adjust to this cultural difference and where we can best serve our community and raise our children.
And, ahh, my children. I will close with a brief description of how they are. Samuel is amazing. It is obvious he loves our home, his new room, and the routine we’ve established. His biggest adjustment has regarded going to school. Most days when we drop him off he is in tears, but smiling when we pick him up. The school is very nice and his teacher is very loving. I feel confident that after a year and a half his Spanish will be beautiful, but now it’s a source of frustration for him. He has asked me several times if we can only have English in our house (which is tough with our visitors, neighbors, etc.). Ruthie has grown even more in the past three weeks alone. She turns 14 months old tomorrow and still is not walking. She is close, though, and I think this will be a big month for her. The cobble stone streets don’t help, though! 100% of her words (besides our names) are in Spanish. Some things she loves to say are: agua, abre, patcha, leche, Bubba, “Ruti,” and of course Mama and Dada. She has a smile on her face from the moment she wakes up from the moment she goes down. She is very outgoing. Anytime I’m on a walk with her or out in the middle of town, she waves and smiles. Both my kids have become “popular” in town (they’re easy to spot and remember!).
Although we are enjoying our new home, we really do miss our family and friends. We love to hear from you (e-mail, Facebook, snail mail, skype). Know that it is only with your prayers and support we have been able to bask in the blessing of this transition. We love you!
We arrived Monday, August 16th at 2:30 in the afternoon. Our flight was very smooth and the kids were amazing. By the end of the first week, we had acquired most of the essentials we failed to or were unable to pack – a crib, towels, groceries, Internet, a new microwave, and even a new (very small) TV and we’re settling in nicely to our new house.
Although we had seen many pictures on the Internet, our house was still a wonderful surprise. We have what’s called in Spanish a “casa de corredores” or a corridor house. Our house is like nothing you would see in the United States. We call it our indoor/outdoor house. Our house is a big square. In the middle of the square is a patio terrace. The living room, dining room, kitchen, and both kids’ rooms run along two sides of the square and the doors to all these rooms open right to the terrace. When Sam wakes up and opens his door he is essentially outside inside our house. Stephen’s and my room is on the second floor. Our door opens and leads either to the roof top terrace or our indoor outdoor stairs. I think it took me about 24 hours to adjust to a totally new style of house and then another 24 hours to absolutely fall in love with it. My children have never had so much wonderful, fresh air!
Our house is in a very nice and very secure residential neighborhood on the south side of Antigua, Guatemala. Antigua is a sheik tourist attraction town. The local adjective for the town is “tranquilo.” It is essentially a ten by ten block town mixed with old churches and new hotels, flanked by three volcanoes and all paved with cobblestone streets. It took me about 24 hours to adjust to walking and commuting on the quaint cobblestone streets and about another 24 hours to absolutely hate them. OK, not hate, but I’m easily annoyed by them. Sam loves to imitate driving on them – bump bump bumpidy bump bump bump.
We have lived three weeks in the middle of Guatemalan winter. This essentially means that it rains everyday (EVERYDAY) and is often cool in the afternoon and evening. Come November, we will adjust to Guatemalan summer, which apparently means perfect temperatures all day long. Regardless, it’s beautiful.
By the second week we attempted to start a normal routine. Ideally, Stephen works a full work week on his dissertation. The University of Texas has offices in the middle of town (five blocks from our house) and three days of the week he walks in to work. Two days of the week, Stephen travels into “Guate” to do further research at archives and libraries not available in Antigua. I am home with the kids, but work most mornings on my translation job through Wayland Baptist University (a wonderful opportunity that materialized this summer). Monday through Friday, I have a woman named Sonia that comes from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 to clean, help watch Ruthie while I work, and help with lunch. Samuel attends a new pre-school every morning while the three girls (me, Sonia, and Ruthie) keep the home fires burning. The afternoon is naptime and play time for me, Samuel, and Ruthie. We have already had many fun afternoon adventures (playing in our neighborhood park area, the public park in the middle of town, and playing at one of two indoor play lands when it rains).
In just 20 days, we have already met many wonderful people. Our neighborhood has been an amazing blessing and so far all of our “friends” are in our neighborhood. Some of the important people in just the first few weeks are:
• Sonia, Antonio, and Cecilia – Sonia is the woman that comes everyday to help. Her family is lovely and includes her, her husband, and their three year old daughter, Ceci.
• Judy and John – The house across the street from us belongs to a missionary couple. Judy knocked on our door the first week with a smile and a loaf of delicious banana bread. Judy and John operate a “transition home” for girls who come from orphanages but now need help “transitioning” to find a job, perhaps continue their education, etc.
• Fredi, Amalia and their three daughters – Right next door is a beautiful Guatemalan family. The younger two daughters (ages 5 and 9) have fallen in love with Ruth. Amalia, the wife, works in Guate and Stephen has been able to ride with her when he goes to work in the city. What a blessing!
• Maritza – Already a dear friend. Maritza was raised in Puerto Rico, lived 25 years in Atlanta, Georgia (after moving there for college) and has now lived here for two months. She is very kind and I am excited about our growing friendship.
I am proud of how our family is adjusting and I am soaking up the beauty of where we live. So far, there have only been two real hurdles and I am confident we will successfully jump over them soon. The first has been transportation. Before we moved we had planned on depending entirely on public transportation. While we have done well with that (Stephen takes Sam to school every morning on a “chicken bus” and Ruthie and I pick him up every afternoon the same way), it has gotten old fast. Relying on public transportation has make some days hard getting Sam to and from school, going grocery shopping, taking the kids to the park, and more. We have decided to buy a car (thanks to the help of my in-laws!!) and will hopefully be acquiring a 1989 standard Mazda 323 this week. Niiiice. I’m SO excited if it all goes smoothly this week and I’m looking forward to finally learning how to drive a stick-shift. Having a car will make so many things easier. The second hurdle has been finding a church. Granted we’ve only visited two so far, there are many things that make this tough. We actually have another missionary friend here that I didn’t mention above. When we called her the first week and asked her where we should visit she said, “Yeah, if you find a good one, let me know.” We pray we are sensitive to understanding how to adjust to this cultural difference and where we can best serve our community and raise our children.
And, ahh, my children. I will close with a brief description of how they are. Samuel is amazing. It is obvious he loves our home, his new room, and the routine we’ve established. His biggest adjustment has regarded going to school. Most days when we drop him off he is in tears, but smiling when we pick him up. The school is very nice and his teacher is very loving. I feel confident that after a year and a half his Spanish will be beautiful, but now it’s a source of frustration for him. He has asked me several times if we can only have English in our house (which is tough with our visitors, neighbors, etc.). Ruthie has grown even more in the past three weeks alone. She turns 14 months old tomorrow and still is not walking. She is close, though, and I think this will be a big month for her. The cobble stone streets don’t help, though! 100% of her words (besides our names) are in Spanish. Some things she loves to say are: agua, abre, patcha, leche, Bubba, “Ruti,” and of course Mama and Dada. She has a smile on her face from the moment she wakes up from the moment she goes down. She is very outgoing. Anytime I’m on a walk with her or out in the middle of town, she waves and smiles. Both my kids have become “popular” in town (they’re easy to spot and remember!).
Although we are enjoying our new home, we really do miss our family and friends. We love to hear from you (e-mail, Facebook, snail mail, skype). Know that it is only with your prayers and support we have been able to bask in the blessing of this transition. We love you!
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