Cambio, Flexibilidad y Paciencia

It has been a crazy and mildly stressful past couple days. Between presentations and reading for class, housing and travel, Monday and Tuesday have been quite the test. I definitely feel myself being stretched and tested in ways I did not expect. These days can be described in three words: change, flexibility and patience (hence the title of this post). Change sums up Monday, patience sums up Tuesday and flexibility includes both days!

Monday started as any other Monday here. I got up at 6:30, ate breakfast at 7:15, and went to Spanish lessons from 8-12. Then, we had lunch at 1:15 and I left for class at 2 at my professor’s house. I stayed there until 5:30ish and walked home with my roommate, Aleia. When I arrived home, the changes began…We were told that we would be moving from our apartment to the two rooms in our host mom’s actual house because three girls were coming from Sweden the next morning and would be staying in the apartment where we had lived for the first 40 days. We packed our things quickly and moved everything into the main house and unpacked again. Instead of doing homework for the 2 hours before dinner, I packed up my possessions and moved them to a new room and unpacked them there. After dinner, I found myself finally ready to work on my homework…Soon it was time for bed before our big day in the City Tuesday.
Here are some pictures from my new room…
[My bed]
[Jen’s bed]
[Our closet]

Tuesday was another adventure in and of itself. We left Antigua at 8 to head to Guatemala City. Our plan was to go to the Embassy, a school and Casa Bernabe and be home around 4:30. Of course, that was not the case. We arrived at the Embassy a little bit late and after going through security and everything it was a little after 10 a.m. The Embassy was really interesting and we were able to hear from a lot of people who all work in different areas of the Embassy. We ended up being there a little longer than anticipated (about an hour longer), so we ended up getting back on the bus around 12:20ish. Then it was off to the school, Colegio Decroly Americano. This would have been fine if someone had known where it was. As it turns out, the driver had the address for the school, but we could not find it. No one knew where it was either. We eventually found a random stranger who knew where it was (after asking many) and made it there around 2. We got a brief tour of the school and then watched a class practice a dance while waiting in the cafeteria for Cassie, who will be doing her student teaching there this spring semester. We left around 2:45 to head to Casa Bernabe and grab some lunch. We ended up stopping at a Burger King on the way to Casa Bernabe around 3:20 and by the time we got our food, it was about 3:40 and we were off to Casa Bernabe. We arrived there a little after 4 and received a brief overview of what they do and how it is layed out. We had the chance to visit a few houses where the children live in family units and passed out candy and got to play with some kids. It was a really neat place! I hope to try and make it back there this semester when it’s nicer out and I have more time as my roommate, Jennifer has been there before. We left the orphanage around 5:30, but didn’t arrive back in Antigua until 8:20…not exactly 4:30, but close enough I guess :) Chiqui made dinner quick upon our arrival and then we went to our rooms where I worked on presentation for today.
[Sign outside the school]
[Casa Bernabe with a kid!]

Needless to say, Monday and Tuesday were interesting days! I am definitely learning a lot while here. A lot of change went on Monday and it was necessary to be flexible about what needed to happen. It’s only Wednesday, but I already love our new housing situation. I feel closer to our host mom and her granddaughter, Sofia, is always in my room coloring and talking to us. I feel more like part of their family now that we live in the same house. Change can be good! When we were packing our belongings to move to our new lovely home, I was talking with my roommates about how when we first arrived we were a bit disappointed that we didn’t feel super close to Chiqui (our mom) and wished that we felt more at home with her. So I said, “God is laughing at us right now. He’s giving us the opportunity to get to know our host family better and this is going to be a great opportunity for the last half of the trip!” So far, I was right. I think we all love the change and have learned to be flexible…I can’t control everything! :)
Tuesday was another great reminder of flexibility, but also gave me a huge dose of patience. Through everything that went on: being late and getting lost, I learned to be patient and flexible. I think I am a pretty patient person, but yesterday I found myself getting frustrated with the situation. I was able to take a step back and pray about it and realized that I just needed more patience. Everything was going to work out and everything was going to be fine. I just needed another gentle reminder to be flexible.

Guatemala is teaching me much more than I thought it would, but I’m okay with that. A little lesson in life never hurt anyone. Neither did change, flexibility or patience.