#4 - This is my 3rd attempt at writing it. I give up. POST.

I partially wrote this blog on Friday evening then when I went to post it I lost it. I apologize for how all over the place it is.

I am sitting on the roof of our house watching a lightening storm over the volcanos. Amazing.

I just watched a volcano erupt. I wrote that last sentence than sat back with one of my roommates at was watching the lightening storm when we saw what looked like a rocket ship taking off from the sky. It got bigger than calmed down in a matter of seconds. For the past few minutes I have watched the on again-off again flicker of the red volcano. THIS IS AMAZING. I have a feeling that I will be sitting on our roof more often. Clear days in Antigua are amazing.

On Wednesday we were packed on a 34 person bus carrying 52 people, driving on roads that the mudslide had devoured when our director asked the road workers if the road is safe to pass. They answered and said, "No, not really." Our director replied, "Is okay" and we kept driving.

We had to stop the bus 3 times to have the men get out and place rocks and plants in the holes in the road so that our bus could pass. I was lucky enough to sit in the front seat on the window side of the cliffs. I felt like I was on a 2 and a half hour roller coaster ride. We then were able to ride on top of the bus for the last 40 minutes of the trip. It was partially the most beautiful ride of my life and partially a glimpse of what death looks like. The people of rural Guatemala are not used to blue-eyed, gringos frequenting their towns and especially not ones on top of a school bus. We went to an elementary school that our Spanish school built. Sam played basketball and I just loved on the kids. Sam was dominating the tiny Guatemalans and got put on their team for the second half of the game.

#3- Mudslides

Something I forgot to post yesterday is about our karaoke singing next door neighbors. Remember that the term next door neighbors has a very different meaning here. There is no yard or land separating the houses. It is more like a plastic sheet which I can look through and watch homeboy belting out Shania Twain. Before dinner his ladyfriend sang every Selena song that I remember. It made me flash back to the days of watching Movies That Rock on VH1.

We went to a cafe with our housemates and some fellow students last night after dinner. There is a group of seminarians here who are awesome. Who knew future Catholic priests could be so funny? We laughed so hard and had so much fun with them.

Joseph, one of the seminarians was bringing supplies to a nearby town for victims of the mudslides and invited us to go with them. We decided that is was worth missing our last hour of classes today. I didn't know if we would have another chance to see it and my favorite part of traveling is always seeing and interacting with the locals. Talk about educational. We brought the supplies to the church which is heading up all of the relief efforts. It was amazing how many Guatemalans were there cooking and taking donations for the people who were affected. We then went to see the areas which were hit the worst. They said the damage all happened in about 30 seconds. I have posted photos on facebook that show the destruction. There is an entire area that was completely wiped out. It was so incredibly sad to see all of the destruction but I feel like I've been surrounded by that lately. The floods in Nashville, the oil on the coast and the various hurricanes that I've seen in my life... But these things are a constant reminder that the peace and joy of God is what makes difficult times bearable. I realize that I have the wonderful gift of the gospel and sharing the good news with others is one of the reasons that we are here.

# 2

One of the things I have learned to say in my classes is ¨Antigua is cheap.¨ My teacher says, ¨Come es Antigua.¨ I say, ¨Antigua es barato.¨ The point of that is to tell our families that we bought a cell phone. I should more appropriately call it a joke phone. It was around $26 for the phone and for 90 international minutes. We bought it for emergencies so if our families need us they can call it and tell us to call you back and we will.

The number is 011.502.5378.7144

Love you all!

#1

After two long days of travel we finally arrived in Guatemala last night around 10:00pm which means we arrived at our house around 11:00 pm. It was dark and almost everyone was asleep so it was kind of awkward but we were unbelievable excited. The father, Thomas, answered the door wearing a Miller Lite t-shirt and couldn't have been more than 5'3. The stairwell up to our room is bright blue and the stairs bright green. Our room is possibly half the size of my Elam single person dorm room. We have a few hooks on the wall, a window and a bookshelf (makeshift dresser). The bathroom is smaller and nastier than any European hostel that I stayed in. #1 thing to buy on our list. Shower shoes. This may sound like complaining but it isn't. Just describing. I love it all.

We both woke up an hour before our alarms went off and just layed in bed laughing about what we have gotten ourselves into. At breakfast we met Antonio from Mobile, Lindsey from Maine, and forgothername from New Orleans. Our 5'3 man of the house had breakfast with us which consisted of wonderful pancakes, fresh pineapple and lots of Spanish which I understood none of.

Probigua does weekly outings for the students. Today they went to Guatemala City to a few museums, the zoo and some miracle crying blood Mary person. We kindly declined to catch whatever disease that woman has and start our lessons. I think there are 19 students and we were only 2/3 that stayed at the school today. My teacher's name is Carmen. She laughs at me a lot. She told me that I need to study all night long. I love how they all say my name. I am now Salah and Samuel is Samwell. Samwell's teacher told him that when he laughs he looks Chinese and sounds Chinese when he speaks Spanish as well. Wonderful.

After class we went home to have lunch with our house mother's sister. Lunch was buttered noodles, milky cauliflower, tortillas and seasoned cucumbers. It tasted better than it sounds but I really don't enjoy noodles and had to force the last few bites down. I'm all for spending time with the family and eating their food but not if it consists of buttered noodles everyday. After our carb-only lunch we walked around the city for an hour to find Antigua Gym. Unique name- I know. We have joined the gym for the 6 weeks and it has free wifi. Ta da here I am using their wonderful internet after my 20 minute, no sweating workout. Samwell on the other hand is inside taking his workout very seriously, as usual. They offer classes and I plan to take those instead. They also have showers here so that will be nice since we're only allowed one shower a day at our house. Gyms usually make me a little uncomfortable but this one tops them all. Sweaty Guatemalans and their children and paintings of naked man bodies all over the wall. Yeesh. This will take me some getting used to. Hopefully we'll make some Guatemalan friends along our way.

As for my first blog this is it. I love you all and will post again soon.