10 Reasons why I'm in Love with Guate lately

1)Last week, Kata and I started a tradition that we are calling Eat, Pray, Wine... Based off of Eat, Pray, Love but I mean who needs the love part when you can have a glass of wine and maybe do Yoga a bit tipsy for the pray part? Last Thursday was the first of many Eat, Pray, Wines. We made garlic honey biscuits, curry lentils, deep fried green beans, and rosemary green beans. It was delicious. And a lot of fun. And very random but I mean we needed to mix up our tortilla diets somehow, so we combined all the random foods we had in our kitchens. We ended the night doing some Yoga in giggle fits, it was pretty great. I think laughing is great therapy and so is Yoga; therefore together they are even better. (This my friends is a conclusion to my argument; yes I'm studying for the LSAT and it's going ok but I'll tell you what those logic questions can be confusing. Oh well, I've got 4 months til my test date and a pretty intense study schedule.)


Eat, Pray, Wine FEAST


2) My LSAT studying is another reason I'm feeling pretty good. I've made a schedule and I'm sticking to it. Studying every day is a way for me to feel more accomplished and happy with how things are going. I'm nervous about the test so any study tips are welcome. Also just bits of encouragement :)

3) I cooked a new meal this week. Spinach Pasta Bake with a cheese sauce. YUM. Cooking is actually really fun and I'm getting into looking for ingredients and recipes. Funny story is that I cook like you do mom; in that I make things up. I read the recipe and then add my own stuff in. I feel like I'll be making lots of dishes that never come out the same way twice, but hopefully are always delicious. Also, today we made cookies. They turned out pretty good considering we didn't have brown sugar. (Only the first batch was a little crispy.)


Downfall to cooking is that I have to wash dishes in this hand-washing sink :)


4) Today we inaugurated a water project at our other school. It was really nice. Everything was decorated. We received a plaque that thanks Escuelas Saludables for their work in the project. We got lunch. They also put on some really cute dances. I'm posting a video of the cutest Guatemalan boy I have ever seen. Such a nice morning. The moments when we have ceremonies like this make time here feel worth it. Seeing how thankful people are and how much they want us to have a good time, really makes you feel good. Also the cheeseball in me almost always tears up during these events. They play the national anthem and have things so formally organized; it's emotional for me. Makes me happy to be an American and proud of our country but sad to see so many wonderful, good people living in a situation that is far from fair. The fact that we celebrated that a school now has water, is still mind blowing. We wouldn't even build a school, or anything at home and use it without connecting water.

Betty and Kata at the ceremony


Me and Kata with the water tank of 2000L and 8 faucets


Cutting the ribbon to "inaugurate" the project
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5) Today I found TOMs shoes in the PACA for 20q. That's like 2 bucks. Pretty sweet. Betty got some too. And Kata had some. Seems like Team Tecpan is pretty trendy :) check out toms shoes online- www.toms.com pretty cool idea. Also fun fact is I've heard of PC volunteers being in the towns where they do a shoe drop and they get a free pair as well. I'm happy to have gotten one for 20q.

6) One of our teachers invited us to dinner at her house tonight. It was so nice. Seno Alma is 27, has two kids, and we chatted her up for about 2 hours. She made us Pepian (a meat dish with a reddish, spicy sauce). It was the best Pepian I've had in country thus far. It's a dish made for special occasions. She is the cutest little teacher ever and really wants to be friends. So I hope we will be. It was nice to have a conversation with someone our age, who is really interested in learning, talking, and just spending time together. She really treated us well and reminded me again of why I'm here and what's really important to me.

7)Jessica is coming next week and I'm really excited to have another visitor. It's just so fun and will be a nice break from everything. (even though things have been so great recently)I also just really love showing people what my life is like here. It helps me to see what is special about my life.

8) Work is going well. We are having fun showing Kata the ropes. Checking up on all of our schools. Seeing Rincones de Salud, kids brushing their teeth and washing their hands. Pretty much great stuff.


TEETH BRUSHING


Rincon de Salud


Betty Spying on the school :)

9) I've been doing Yoga for 2 weeks now. Just 20-30 minutes at least every other day. It's really relaxing. I like doing it right before bed because it calms my mind and is just giving my day more of a routine. I'm finally learning how much I need a routine and how to make it work for me. It's a nice feeling. And fitting Yoga into my day is some time I can just give to myself to make me feel better and more relaxed with all I have accomplished in one day.

10) I'm doing things for me and trying to make the best out of the next 8 months. I make a list every night of what I want to do the next day in order to feel accomplished and then I (usually) do all the things on my list. It's such a good feeling to be at this place and getting things done. I hope it just stays with me and makes these next months fly by but in a fulfilling way.