Settling in!

Two and a half weeks of language school down, three and a half to go. So far, every new day spent here is “officially my longest time spent out of the United States”. I often find myself comparing things here in Honduras to life in States. For example, seeing a child sitting on their parent’s lap in the driver seat of a car on a main road is normal and accepted, as is seeing a small child strapped to their parent’s chest as they are zooming down the street on a motor cycle. After spending many years as the shortest member of my family, and the last four years of college as one of the shortest people in my friend group, it is strange to be taller than almost every person that I meet. More than once I have been referred to as “la chica alta Emi” (the tall girl, Emily) and named the designated selfie taker of the group. Another normal is that people here celebrate EVERYTHING. Hearing fireworks in the middle of the night has become a normal thing, as is randomly stopping everything so that a parade can go down the street. Also, there are stray dogs everywhere. The other day we were at Sunday Mass. In Guatemala they keep the church doors open the whole time to welcome anyone who might want to pop in and take a peak at what is going on. A few minutes into Mass a random dog came strolling up the isle and found a nice spot to lay down right in the middle, half-way to the front. He was very content and stayed there almost the entire time. It was not until it was time for communion and people were getting out of their seats and walking to the front that the dog decided to get up too. It was pretty entertaining to watch him follow someone up to the front and then turn around and walk back with them before finding a new person to follow back to the front and then back again. I guess he just wanted to participate in the Mass too!

The five of us with our teachers. And yes, that is our school!

Even though I love this new culture and everything that comes with it, it is nice to find a constant that connects this new life to my life back home as well. That constant for me has been from going to Mass every day. I know that sounds funny since I can’t actually comprehend any of it since it’s all in Spanish. How can I feel so connected to something that I can’t even understand or comprehend yet? It is so difficult sometimes! But then, that’s where the beauty of the Catholic Church comes in. Today during Mass I was struggling to keep my attention to what was going on. I was more concentrated on the fact that despite reading the readings in english prior to mass, I still had no idea what Father’s homily was about. My thoughts drifted to the fact that somewhere up in Oklahoma my OU friends were also celebrating daily Mass at that same time. I can’t comprehend, but I am still able to follow along and know what was going on, it’s like we are celebrating together despite being so far apart. It is such a gift.  I have been able to find so much comfort in knowing that every Sunday somewhere in Texas my parents and siblings are participating in the exact same Mass as I. Isn’t that so beautiful? I think so anyway. I also know that so much of my peace and comfort is coming from the many prayers that I have been receiving from family, friends, (and strangers!) back home. THANK-YOU!!!!

The other two missionaries, Cecilia and Laura arrived a little over a week ago now officially completing our missionary class! The five of us have stayed pretty busy with Spanish classes, presentations, volunteering around the city, and exploring Guatemala. It’s funny because even though we are not actually getting graded at school, we still spent a solid amount of time researching and practicing for our Spanish presentations this past week. Each of us individually researched a Saint of our choice, wrote up a “30 minute” presentation in Spanish, and created a PowerPoint to accompany it. In addition to that, because we are now apart of the Latin American culture, we all had to make colorful invitations to our presentations and distribute them personally to the other missionaries and their teachers as well as to the directors of the school. That would never happen in America but our teachers insisted that we not only make them, but that they look high quality as well. In addition to all of that, we obviously needed snacks for our presentation, so one of my weekly “field trips” consisted of Kassidy, both of our teachers, and I walking to the super market. Side note- on our way there we came across the nicest McDonald’s to ever exist, so of course we went inside too look around (and take a picture with Ronald McDonald).

Outside of the Convent of the Poor Clares

Another “field trip” that we took last week was to the Convent of the Poor Clares. It is located one quick ride on the Chicken bus (yes, that is what they are called), and short hike up the bottom of one of the volcanoes. It was great being able to talk to them about their lives and even our Mission to the Finca. Since my Spanish is still in it’s beginning stages it was a lot more listening than talking for me, but still interesting and helpful nonetheless. We have also gotten a lot of Spanish practice in during the weekends when traveling to various places around Guatemala. This past weekend all five of us got to visit the beautiful Lake Atitlán. We went on a boat tour that took us to three different pueblas (towns) where we spent about an hour at each place talking to the people that live there and exploring their local markets. The culture here is pretty amazing.

On the boat ride around Lake Atilán

At one of the biggest markets in Guatemala

I am very thankful for everything that I have experienced thus far. From the Spanish classes to the beautiful places that I have seen, it has been such an adventure here. I am loving my host family, the food, and all of the friends that we have made. Feel free to email or Facebook message me prayer requests, if you want to learn more about what I am doing, or if you just want to chat. I LOVE hearing from everyone! Know that my prayers are constantly with everyone back home. Blessings and love to all!

Don't worry mom and dad, we still eat ice-cream regularly

My "host-cousin" Camilla and I playing dolls on evening