Pictures from last weeks adventures...

This is Almolonga. Isn´t this amazing?

Our guide, Mike, and me taking in the view.

This suckers were so big-this picture doesn´t do them justice.

Here are your prewashed vegetables everyone. I know you love the taste of fresh garbage.

It looks a lot colder here than it really was. I love this picture of the road disappearing into nothingness.

Half cow, half bunny! Look at those Dumbo ears!! I had never seen anything like it!

The beloved bus. This is before they added 5 more people. Not kidding. Don´t even ask me how the driver could see to his right. Just thinking about it gives me a stomache ache.

This is the Totonicpan market. Who wouldn´t want to buy colorful fabric from such a happy lady?

This is the main square in Toto. Nothing too fancy except that good looking foreigner.

These kids broke our hearts. They were the dirtiest little things I´ve seen. Their parents were nowhere to be found. We gave them some french fries-you should have seen their eyes light up.

Don´t ask me how we got here, but this is a look into the market from above.

This is the beginning of the rain. This is when it was still a light rain and we thought we would wait it out. (doesn´t it look like Ben has a great idea in this picture? haha)

This is what happens when you are impatient and dont wait it out....

We survived the earthquake!

Yep, there was an earthquake here yesterday morning. It wasn´t ginormous (thank goodness) but big enough to scare the crap out of me. I have realized that if you are someone who suffers from anxiety, this is not the place for you. If you don´t suffer from anxiety and you come here, you soon will have anxiety, as I do.  Don´t get me wrong, I´m loving it here, but there are many things that aren´t in my normal comfort zone. For example, Ben and I took a little adventure on Saturday to a little town called Totonicapán. Don´t ask me what I was thinking (I wasn´t apparently) because we had to take a bus there. One hour on an old yellow school bus that was going well over the recommended speed limit in a rain storm, jammed packed with at least 30 people over the recommended limit, people literally hanging out the door, I was on the verge of tears. Alas, we made it. It was market day in this little pueblo and it was fascinating to see everything. When each little city has their market day, they bring out the goods to buy. It’s not like a normal day where they have the usual veggies and fruit. There was a different vibe in this pueblo (I like Xela more) but it was worth the adventure. My camera is dead right now but I will post pics ASAP. When the bus dropped us off back in Xela, we started to walk back to our hotel (you can walk everywhere in Xela-nothing is too far away). Within minutes we were surrounded by some of the scariest looking clouds I have ever seen. Then, it started. The WORST rain storm I have ever been in!! Within one minute of the storm, we were soaking wet. When I say soaking wet, I mean it looked like we had jumped into a swimming pool with our clothes on (I am SO not exaggerating!!). We got wetter in this storm then we do in our stinkin shower (which started smoking and almost exploded the other day by the way). The streets turned to rivers and I felt as if I were a Baywatch Beach Babe for a split second as I ran in the water that was up to my calves. The worst part was the lightening. We came within 30 feet of a lightning strike. I thought I lost my hearing. It was pretty scary.
So, to backtrack a bit, on Thursday we (me, Ben and Mike) went on a guided tour of another pueblo that is only about 20 minutes away called Almolonga. This is the big farming and gold country. It was beautiful. It had just rained right before we got there and so there was a haze above the fields which made it incredible to look at. We ran into some carrot farmers that had just picked their crops. They were washing the dirt off their carrots in the nasty, poopy, gross water that was streaming down the middle of the street. This made me realize that when vegetables say ¨prewashed¨ that I might want to wash them again. They have some natural hot springs there that they have commercialized. Uh, gross. That´s the only way to describe what they looked like.
Other than our adventures, things are going well. The academy is a bit slow but we take what we can get. I love my Spanish classes. I hope to be a Spanish speaking fool by the time I get home. Ben taught his first Sunday School class yesterday and rocked it. Hope that all is going well with everyone-we miss you all!

Cause for hope...

Hey all! Besides a fieldtrip with my Spanish school yesterday (which I will post about later) not too many exciting things happening here. My brain is a bit overwhelmed this week with trying to grab the Spanish language. My school is great and I love going everyday. I didn't have school today but I spent approx. 4+ hours studying. So much to learn.

My heart has been heavy this week. When I step outside everyday I am continually reminded how blessed I am to live in the U.S. The way of life here is so hard. My heart literally aches for these people. I know they know no different but I wish they had better. I hold back tears when I see a sick or disabled person. They do not receive the same accommodations and comfort as we would back home. It's so hard to watch them struggle. They have something coming to them in the next life, I'm sure of it. The people here are so pure, which reminds me that life does not always need to be filled with activities and "stuff". What beauty there is in simplicity! The power of now, enjoying this very moment because that is all that is guaranteed to us, is much easier to live down here than at home. I have a lot to learn from this experience and feel blessed to have this opportunity.

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Some more pics...

Nothing too exciting since I wrote yesterday. Here are some pics to enjoy...

These little guys are beautiful and are always flying around (this picture isn´t the best, but trust me)

This is one of the main parks in town. It is ALWAYS moving and shaking!

Another market pic. Love the market (have I mentioned that yet?)

This is a dad with his two sons on his bike. I think Guatemala holds the record for how many people you can put on a bike and still get where you are going. We have seen whole familes...mom, dad, three kids!

This is the academy where we spend a good chunk of our time. Glamorous, I know.

This is our stinkin shower. Yes, that is tape and wires sticking out . This sucker has as much water pressure as a dripping faucet. Takes a good five minutes for my hair to get wet.

Santa María & Santiaguito - (12,372 ft)

   Hey there. Sorry it´s been a few days since I have had a post. It can be difficult to get access to a computer sometimes. What a crazy and fun weekend we had!  Friday we spent half the day going from market to market to get fresh ingredients...love it. We made fresh pico and guacamole (or guatemole if you prefer). We also found my new favorite place for hot chocolate. The BEST hot cocoa in the world. Not even kidding. Its a 5th generation, family owned, all organic chocolate shop!! YUM!!
   Saturday was the big adventure however. We climbed the Santa Maria which is an inactive volcano. It was a major kick in the pants!!! I still can´t go up and down stairs very fast, it was so steep! We started on the trailhead about 8am and got down at 3:30pm. Once we got to the top there wasn´t much to view because we were surrounded by clouds. A bit disappointing, considering the whole point of climbing it is so that you can look down into an active volcano (the Santiaguito). Well, can´t say we didn´t try. It was worth it though. The whole bottom half of the mountain is covered in farms. It blew me away that these crazy farmers climb that far everyday to take care of their farm. The extra cool thing was that when we started out in the morning it was super misty and so magical! It was incredible to see the farmers working in the fog (check out photos for coolness).
 On Sunday we had church as normal. They gave Ben two callings (haha, thats what happens when you speak the language). One is to teach Sunday School and the other...you´ll never guess.....choir director! HA! Cracks me up. We had choir practice yesterday and all I will say is it is going to take a miracle from above to make it so these people can hold a tune! No joke. They don´t hesitate to ask me to do things as well, such as pray and read scriptures. When I read,  I know they are laughing at me in their heads but I give it a good Annie try.
Hope all is going well with everyone at home. We miss you all!

This equals...

This! Delicious!

Warning: possibly the cutest thing you will ever see!! We saw this pup and her mama at the base of the trailhead. This alone was worth the trip there.

Misty morning.

Farmer working away. Isn´t this pic so cool?

These guys are crazy. They haul these gigantic loads of wood on their backs down the mountain to sell. I thought I had it bad...

Yeah! Finally to the top! For our reward, we took one of these....

siesta.

Exploring and Salsa dancing...

Yesterday during our break, Ben and I decided to go exploring a bit. First, we strolled through the market which is always a blast. So many sights, sounds, and smells!! I could hang out there all day. We continued past the market and ran into the city zoo, if you can call it that. We walked the whole zoo, saw every animal they have in a total of 20 minutes. Yep, not that exciting. We continued our walk up the street to get a sneek peek at the temple being built here. It is due to open in September-November, after the presidential elections. The elections here are very controversial (even more so than at home). They have about 20 political parties that each have a canidate that runs. Appartently, the current president and his wife got a divorce so that she can run for president (its against the law for family of the president to run for election). It´s so corrupt that it doesn´t matter what the votes say, she is going to win. Anyway, back to the temple...it is beautiful. Very small compared to the ones in Utah, but beautiful! It was fun to see it crawling with construction workers.  On the way back we heard sounds of a huge crowd going crazy in the local recreation center. Of course we had to check it out. It was a boy´s vollyball game between rival schools. The only way to explain what it was like is to compare it to a high school football game at home. They are serious about their vollyball. It was fun.

Going kookoo for coconuts!

This guy was so sad.

This is Ben inside the zoo. They had a ton of land that they treated more like a park than a zoo.

This freaked the crap out of me. We were seriously 2 feet away from him with nothing but a chain link fence between us! Dont let those bars fool you...he could easily fit between them and have me for lunch if he wanted.  

We made friends with some people who run a Spanish school down here. They invited us to participate in their salsa dancing lessons last night.We figured it woudn´t hurt to give it a go. NOT Ben´s forte! It was still a good time. While we were there, I got signed up for Spanish classes! Yep, 15 hours a week, starting Monday. Even though I am mega determined to learn this language, pray for me!!

Morning Celebration!

This morning in the middle of teaching English class we starting hearing loud banging noices. What in the world??? A PARADE!!! Whoop Whoop! Ben and I ran outside to check it out, leaving our students to fend for themselves. It was a parade of all the different private schools. Apparently they like to walk down the main street every year or so just to show themselves off. It was so freaking funny. Check it out...

All the schools had what looked like beauty pageants contestants walking in front of them. Not sure what their official title was.

The all girls school band. I love a good band. In the back of the picture you can see some of them playing xylophones and some were banging metal cans. Sweet.

This school is also an all girls school. As you can see, their uniform consists of wearing the traditional indian skirts.

Some boys goofing around. In this picture you can kinda see how gross the air is here. Nasty polution.

More pics from around town...

This is the street we live on. Nice, eh?

These are the dogs that live in the field behind our house. Poor dogs....they have a pretty sad life down here.

Our church building

Pretty

Mucho pretty

This is Bens favorite tienda (store) to drink a coke at.

Many colorful churches down here.

This is at the market-isn´t the fruit beautiful?? I love it!

Also at the market. This blanket is handmade!!!!