Xela... Finally!

Hey! Got to an internet cafe.
Everything is super.
Our bus ride to Xela was hard... 4 hours of driving with a couple of 5 to 10 minute breaks....WE stopped at this place to use their washroom and it was weird that when we walked in they had a aflat screen tv! Then we kept travelling and we stopped again to take pictures of all the volcanoes that are around here. There are many many volcanoes and one close to my site where i´m working. We reached Xela and our hotel is amazing amazing. It apparently used to be an old prison but it does not look anything like it. Ann and I got to our room and its pretty simple with 2 twin beds and a tv which is pretty interesting because its all in Spanish...With a toilet and shower. The shower needs to be treated well in order to provide hot water but its pretty nice to me! We had a welcome ceremony and we met our familes that we´re building the houses for. My group is building in Cantel which is 20 mintues away for a single mother and her daughter who is 8 years old. Ann is working in San Mateo building for a family of 4, two parents and a daughter and son. The daughter in my group whose name is Jackie Alexandria but likes to be called Ale, totally warmed up to me, maybe because I started teaching her how to count in English but it was real nice! My goal of the night was definetly to become best friends with her and I did! We took lots of pictures. Yesterday for lunch we had tacos and dinner was chicken with applesauce... My parents keep telling me that I´m going to loose weight but I´m definetly going to gain muchas amounts of pounds. This morning we had eggs and salsa and we had packed lunches ready to go. Today I met my family again and our stone mason didn´t show up for 2 hours because apparently Guatemalen culture does not require one to be on time...So then we played games with Ale, our little girl and I taught her the Banana song... hahaha shes trying really hard to say it in english. THen we started taking these long metal wires and cutting them to certian length.. we needed about 300 and then we bent them so that we could put them and fasten them on 2 large metal wires for earthquake protection. Then we layed out the house, since its only for a mother and her child it is a small house but it has 4 rooms, bathroom, 2 bedrooms, livingroom/dining room. AH this keyboard is really hardd to type with. So then we stoppd fr lunch and we had 2 sandwiches in our lunch...one chicken salad and one peanut butter. I liked the chiken salad while Valeria enjoyed the peanut butter so were going to keep trading sandwiches if we come up with the right combinations. Most other groups have already completed houses while we are starting ours from scratch. I don´t think we´ll see our house completed but if others finish their houses quick then i´m sure we´ll get more help and try to finish. Everyone is working super hard and my group is awesome. Our little chicka is awesome too, shes in grade 2 and she just recently won a beauty pagent at school so she enjoys pretending to be the boss full with a mic and podium. We got ordered around today to answer questions, talk in English and do the Chicken dance which I got amazing pictures of. We also had reflections after and spoke about our fav pics we took today, mine was the picture with our family and our group together.. Ale and her mom with the local affiliates and our gruop. SInce ale wanted everyone in her picture we all had to set timers but it worked out nicely! I can´t wait to post lots of pictures online. For dinner we went to an italian place here and I had ravoili with spinach and tomato sause. It was so good. We´re def getting fed nicely. Ann and I both got super hot showers too, you just have to be pro at how you adjust the tap. I think Ann and I are going to head to our hotel after, we were going to look for a calling card but today is a national holiday so not many shops are open. Hopefully tomorrow.
Thank you to everyone who is reading and commenting...
Maureen thanks for your support and i´ll try and email you back when I have more time, Sania! I miss you too and Ann´s mom, I´m glad your reading the blog thank you for everything.
One other thing I wanted to say was that everyone is super religious here, and its sad to look at our society that takes God for granted. They look so content with just small little things always laughing and smiling. The family asks God to help us with anything we want in life and pray for us every morning before we start working. Its really nice and motivating.
Carpe Diem. 786