New Host Family

This week I am eating with a new host family and I like them a lot! The grandma prepares my meals in the dirt floor kitchen behind the cinder block house. She lives next to her two grandchildren, Liliana (9) and Evelyn (5). I know their mother, but currently she is living for two months in a larger city in the south because there is no work in their village and she must feed and clothe her kids.

The little girl Evelyn reminds me SO much of Gloria... all the professors at our school agree that she even looks a lot like Gloria. She has a very goofy and outgoing personality and is very intelligent. When I showed her pictures of Gloria in a swimming pool, she was very jealous because she does not know how to swim. I sense that she can tell that there is a difference in the quality and standard of living between Gloria and her. She even asked her mother one day why were they poor, and then proceeded to tell her that she wants to go to school so she can work with computers so they do not have to be poor anymore. Last night I brought over some books to read and the girls were so excited! Evelyn (like another little girl I know...) was memorizing each page I was reading even though she can not read and will not get to start school for two years.

This week there is a group from a college in Wisconsin at the Mountain School so it is just me, my friend Joel, and two girls from Sweden who do not speak very good english or spanish. So I have been hanging out a lot with Joel as well as Tim and Falin who run the Mountain School. Last night we hung out and talked in Tim and Falin{s house which was very nice.

All in all, I wish I could stay at the Mountain School longer (in fact I am already planning my return...). I feel like I am learning a lot of Spanish as well as a lot about Guatemala. I am overflowing with gratefulness!