By the time I am posting this blog, I have been in Antigua, Guatemala for a little over a week now! I arrived on Friday, August 12th, and since then, have been busy getting accustomed to the life here, meeting new people, and learning more Spanish.
During the weekdays, I have one-on-one classes with my Spanish teacher, Claudia, which consists of grammar lessons, learning vocab, and lots and lots of conversation practice.
Learning a language, just like any experience in life, comes in waves; some days I feel like speaking and learning the proper grammar is a breeze, other days it is ~so hard~. This week my teacher said something which has stuck with me so far: “poquito a poquito,” meaning “little by little”. Although it would be nice to learn a language overnight, it requires lots of determination, persistence, and discipline. It’s trying again and again after you completely butcher a sentence, using charades to find the word you don’t know, and most importantly, laughing at yourself through it all.
Outside of Spanish classes, there have been some highlights from the past week as well.
1) Our first day in town, my fellow missionary, Kenna, and I met a seminarian named Kevin from the states who showed us his favorite places around the town.
2) This past Thursday, I went to a couple free Salsa and Bachata classes and learned the basic steps of both types of dance.
3) Another day this week, Kenna and I were walking around the square of a Catholic church and monastery at night when we stumbled across a procession for “Nuestra Señora de Dolores”, or “Our Lady of Sorrows”. Everyone was in their black Sunday best carrying a giant float displaying Mary weeping for her Son. It was such an incredible experience to be able to see both the culture and spirituality of Guatemala .
4) Kenna and I also went on a tour to a cute little fictional town in the mountains called “Hobbitenango” which was created to look like the movie The Hobbit. Little hobbit houses with grass-covered roofs and circular doors were spread out across the green hillside. The town was surrounded by many lookouts to enjoy the incredible views of the neighboring towns and volcanoes: Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango. Towards the end of the night, once it got dark, we were even able to see a big eruption of glowing lava running down the mountainside!
I can’t wait to continue on this adventure and see all that the Lord has in store!
Peace, Natalie