my momma!

Sooo, my mom flew into town for a 10 day tour. Primarily she wanted to see my house, my neighborhood, meet my friends and be able to realy SEE my life here with her own two eyes. It meant so much to me that mom would spend the money & time to just see my world!

We had a really awesome time together working on home projects, cooking and travelling around San Salvador and greater El Salvador. Shane & I painted my back yard wall while mom surpervised. (I chose two potential colors and Shane suggested striping of some kind--well after two longs days of labor, the wall looks awesome and hanging in the backyard is so lovely. ) After the painting, mom & I hit the local nursery and purchased a bunch of flowers and herbs to complete the back yard. See the attached photos--Isn't it cool!? We also visited Price Mart, the local Costco and Super Selectos, the closest super market, A LOT.

And it was fun for here to meet the wonderful people that God has blessed me with here! Currently I have 5 people living in my house and mom quickly won everyone over with her sweet spirit and general momminess--and her awesome tacos. (We ate them twice will she was here!)

Mom flew out Thursday night, after a few tears, and I waited at the airport for a few hours until Darcy flew in! Next update... "Darcy visits Tina in El Salvador!"

antigua spanish school

In the last 5 months, I have spent 7 weeks in Antigua, Guatemala at the Christian Spanish Academy (CSA).

To give you an idea of what they looked chunk of time looked like, here is my general schedule:

7am - Breakfast
7:30am - Check email at school
8am - Class begins with my maestra Victoria
Noon - Break for lunch
2pm - Return to school

4pm - Finish class for the day, head to the gym

6pm - Get home, do some spanish homework
7pm - Dinner
8pm - More homework and whatever else I want to do...

Yep, it's a pretty full day with lots of class time and then lots of extra spanish speaking time after class. which is awesome and oh so tiring. But I really feel I learned a lot in a short amount of time, so I definitely recommend my program highly.

On both visits, I stayed with the Romero family--Hector, Sandra, Diego & Sofia. They are an amazing family that always made me feel totally at home and helped a lot with my Spanish.

On my first trip to CSA, I was super focused on my Spanish and purposely kept to myself--not thinking I had time for friendships and homework. Not surprisingly, this resulted in some pretty lonely weekends and nights and on my return trip I prayed that I be spared such feelings of loneliness. Well on this visit, I had a fellow housemate named Patrik that was from Sweden & Norway and he was answer to that prayer. Patrik was at my school trying to learn as much Spanish as possible before touring Central America. He was great for me because he actually got me out of my routine a bit and I saw a lot more of Antigua then I would have on my own. He also helped introduce me to people at the school and generally helped me have a much more enjoyable time--whether speaking Spanish or English! Through Patrik, I also met Nick, a fellow American and the three of us spent a great deal of time hanging out in Guatemala. More about them when I finally write about my time at Lago Atitlan.

lago atitlan

Well, this is about a month past my visit to Guatemala's lovely Lago Atitlan--but better late then never. After 3 weeks of Spanish class, I crammed my class load into four days and took a 3 day weekend along with my friend Patrik and Nick.

It was Valentine's Day weekend and apparently the lake is quite the spot for romance, so most of the hotels we tried were booked. After a few attempst we finally found Hotel De Terraza en San Antonio Polampa. This is a very small Mayan city off the typical tourist circuit with 2 hotels and 2 restaurants. When we got there on Friday afternoon, we were definitely the only 3 gringos in the city.

On our first walk around the city (totalling about 20 minutes including helping a stuck van get back on the road), we met Paulina, a young mayan woman, owner of one of the two restaurants and genereal entrepenuer. This was definitely providence at work because Paulina hooked us up with a boat driver, some meals, some great textiles and generally offered us her friendship from day one.

San Antonio Polompa was cool because I think it was a better view into how some Guatemalans live then in other tourist destinations. Most of the native men still wear the traditional dress made of textiles made by their wives and wrapped around their middle like a skirt. This town was a big producer of the textiles for sale in the cities. So it was cool to be able to buy direct from someone that actually had a loom right in their house.

Friday night we had fried fish and fries and ended our evening with cuban cigars--which are prevalent throughout Central America. It was my very first cigar! But although merely 21, Nick (as you see pictured) was an old pro.

On the Saturday, we rented our own boat and drove around to different lakeside communities. The lake is absolutely spellbinding and I loved just cruising around on the water. My parents live right by Lost Creek Lake in Southern Oregon and we spent many a great summer day on our boat on the lake. I kept thinking how much my dad would have loved to have been in that boat with me!

Sunday we went to a local ecopark that promised a butterfly garden. And we did see 2 moths and 2 monarchs, but that was about it. Mariposa does mean butterfly doesn't it?! Maybe we got the translation wrong and it was some other kind of garden?

All in all, it was a very chill weekend with good friends, laughter and a front row seat to some of the beauty that God created so long ago. I was so blessed by the time--it was renewing, interesting and down right fun. And all weeked long, I kept praising God for being so generous with his blessings. I kept thanking him for being a God that wants me to enjoy the world that He made. A God that takes delight in the smallest details. A God that sent his spirit of restoration, peace and joy so clearly into my 3 day weekend. It is so ridiculous to think that God of All would care about my school break--and yet I saw reminders of His presence everywhere. That is just cool.

So double humbs up on Lago Atitlan. As always, thanks for your prayers and emails. You guys rock!

introducing p 18 487

THANK YOU FOR ALL OF YOUR PRAYERS!
Here is a direct answer! She is a 1989 Toyota Land Cruiser--diesel, 4-wheel drive, comfortably seats 6. She has been perfectly cared for and is in AMAZING condition for a car that is almost twenty years old. I'm thankful for her age, because it kept the price within my range for such a great car. So far I have driven her twice and each time it has been cake. The power steering works like a charm and she has such dirth that she is incredibly safe. Oh, and she has dual air conditioning and an ice maker/cooler. Yep, you read correctly!

Tomorrow I am heading out to explore some of El Salvador . Yea!!!! I am soo stoked. Thanks for your prayers and keep it up--now I'm on the roads of el salvador--I will definitely need more prayer.