chicas chicas chicas

i feel like i might bore you with the status of my day, but i'm going to go ahead and spell it out for ya.
woke up to no power. that's an awesome feeling. so i hopped on over to breakfast in my pajamas and ended up staying there for about an hour til the museum group left. OH YEAH. i was SUPPOSED to go to the museum, however, there weren't enough spots in the van after all the girls said they wanted to go, so i got left behind. awesomeeee. only the girls that are on Behavioral Level 4 were allowed to go today, so I only had about 4 girls left in my house who couldn't go. Tia Deily went too, so the oldest girl in my house, Lupita, played the role of Tia today for the other girls. anywayyssss, had to wait for the museum-ers to leave so that us four lone rangers could heat up our breakfastt. we had: ahem....drumroll, Please. BEANS. with some really siiiick white square cheese in them. so, of course, i followed them up with a bowl of cereal in the snack room. ps. power, still out. because the only thing that the girls were doing in the house was watching movies, i decided that i'd simply got back to my place and take a nap. This nap turned into a marathon, when I woke up 2 hours later! best decision i'd made in awhile. came up to the office, where i found the other interns hanging out, and decided it would be a good time to skype with mom! (another EXCELLENT decision!) it was so good to chat with her, and get a mini-tour of their humble abode. after my skype sesh, i went back over to the house for lunch, and we had yellow rice and potatoes in a brown salty-ish sauce. I then was put to work sweeping the kitchen, and helped Lupita and Maribel out with some of the chores. Once the chores were done, the MOVIE MARATHON took place. We sat and watched Madagascar 1 & 2, Material Girls, and something else I probably blocked out. At about 4:30, the museum-ers came home, and they were all excited because they had gotten to go to Pollo Campero for lunch! They had kids meal toys and sauce packets and were just jumping around all excited! They all cuddled up with us on the couch to watch movies while the Tia was preparing supper and getting organized for the night.
Supper was NOT what I was hoping for. Beans, and scrambled eggs, of course accompanied by tortillas. I think that everytime I hear the word "meal" I'm expecting pork chops, or steak, or mashed potatos, or something to come out, and it just never does.
The other interns left today at about 4 for an overnight trip with their organization. They will be back early in the morning, but I'm already missing them a lot!

Today was a hard day. I think that at about the month mark of being here (saturday) you start to feel the fact that you're really not at home, and it's going to be awhile til you're back. I missed America and my house, and friends and family a lot today. I just miss a lot of the convenience, the comfort. The warmth of my house and the beach. I miss the food a lot, and not having fleas. Right now, I think that my prayer would be to just rid me of the "missing" of home. That the Lord would just make me completely content in my friends, the family I have here, the surroundings. That I'd really just fall in love with being here more and more than I already am. Let the Lord take the things that I'm passionate about, and put them to full use for the next month!

Thanks so much for following this blog! It makes it so much more enjoyable to write! Please please keep in touch and let me know what ya'll are up to also!
Pray that the SUN comes out! :)

FLEAS cumpleanos!

the SUN greeted me this morning! hooray! i was sooo grateful to get a little glimpse of it! AND THEN. we had pancakes for breakfast! oh my oh myyy! i know i freak out everytime that we get them, but you just don't understand what a treat they are! before breakfast, my whole house greeted Aldi with a big FELIZ CUMPLEANOS! She turns 10 today! Tia Febe brought her a beautiful gold necklace that she is just treasuring. The other girls in the house gave her birthday cards, and sang to her at the breakfast table! After breakfast, all the girls jumped into chores, and I did the same. I decided that it was a good morning to sweep out the house and clean my bathroom! ohhh it all smells so so wonderful! After all our cleaning, the girls and i walked down to San Lucas to go grocery shopping! As we were walking, some of the food from the last few days started to react in Rebecca's stomach. So, we stopped in a Pollo Campero for a little bathroom stop. Of course, the Pollo Campero got us really hungry as we sat there and breathed in the pleasant aroma of fried chicken and french fries. So then, we had to leave, and finish our walk to the Plaza. By the time we had gotten there, Rebecca's stomach had started over in feeling bad, so she and Sarah decided to call Melanie to come get them from the square and bring them back to the Oasis so she could rest. (She took a ballin' nap and is feeling a lot better) So, the adventure was on Rachael and I's shoulders. Hmmmm. We started by going to Planeta Animal, where i bought my first ever can of flea powder. 45Q-aka $5 to keep those little buggers from biting me in my sleep. We began by a stop at Domino's, where we pigged out on some SERIOUS personal pan pizza's and soft drinks. The Domino's was playing Nickelodeon on the tv, so I took the liberty of changing the channel to the World Cup (there was no sign that said i couldn't). Don't worry, the Gringas presence combined with the World Cup absolutely quadrupled the business that Domino's had goin' on. You're very welcome Domino's-we'll come back anytime! After our pizza extravaganza, we walked over to Cafe San Lucas, where we indulged into some serious frozen yogurt with chocolate chips on top! Delicious, let me tell ya! We've found that once we walk down into civilization, we're not getting back up without eating some sort of ice cream. Maybe it motivates us?
Our next adventure was to the grocery store. Hmmm. Our lives were changed. We spent almost an hour searching the grocery store for all of our needs. Once we left, we spent 435Q on: ice cream, whipped cream, sprinkles, cherries, chocolate syrup, 2 boxes of cake mix, 2 cans of frosting, eggs, oil, shampoo (extra moisturizing for my itchy head), and some candy. I'm sure that the checkout man thought we were insane. Also, because we had not planned for that amount of money, we had 10Q left between the both of us. So, here we are. Carrying bags of groceries, had other bags stuffed in Rachael's backpack, and HIKING up the mountain, with not even enough money to pay off the rapists that we could potentially encounter. The best part is that it began to rain. Not hard, just a light sprinkle, which was definitely refreshing. About halfway there, we passed a man on the side of the road. We haven't quite determined if he was passed out or dead. We got pretty close to him though, and it didn't look like he was breathing. Hope he's okay!
For any of you that might be worried, we sang our way up the hill, and finally made it safely to the Oasis. We've put away all of our ice cream party things, and I'm pretty sure that the girls are trying to figure out a way to break into the kitchen to get them. The ice cream is for the Talent Show that we're hosting. So far, none of the girls are interested in performing, however, we are practicing night and day our song and dance routine. Any helpful hints to encourage girls to perform for us?? :)
After we got back, I went at it with the fleas. We got in a huge fight. I beat them with my knees, and then sprinkled powder all over them. And yes, sprinkled is such a KIND word. It was NOT kind sprinkling. Angry sprinkling with angry words. They HAVE to be too scared to come back. I then, took a FREEZING shower. No idea why, but I wasn't happy about it. I used my new moisturizing shampoo. My head feels...moist? ew. hate that word so much!!
After dinner, I went over to the lice house, to make the birthday cake with Aldi! Oh my word! Words cannot even describe the joy that she, Belen, Wendy, and I had while making this cake! They all helped me to measure out the ingredients, and I got to teach Wendy how to crack an egg into the bowl! She is a pro now! I have never seen children that wanted leftover cake batter more in my life. I swear to you, we didn't even NEED to wash the bowl afterwards. Totally clean. The worst part of the whole experience was just sitting there WAITING for the cake to finish. We all curled up on the couch to watch a movie before supper, and then Tia Deily served supper: beans, tortillas, and spaghetti. Good combo huh? I ate it all. I guess my Domino's didn't really stick to my stomach or something. After supper, everyone sat at the table just staring at the shelf with the cake on it. No one moved a muscle. Dishing out the cake was spectacular. Each girl got a slice and a little extra on their napkin, and by the end, they were literally SCRAPING the cake from the bottom of the pan with their fingers. That's when I excused myself.

Tonight, the intern girls and I are practicing our dance again. We are really excited about this song and dance because the choreography is just stellar, and we're dancing to a 15 year old boy singing about his "ONE.LOVE." (Videos to follow. Promise) I'm not even embarrassed by them because they're too good for the public eye to miss out on.

Tomorrow, I just found out that I get to go to the Children's Museum with the little babes all day! SO excited! I am currently comparing it to the SC Children's Museum in Myrtle Beach beside the Old Myrtle Square Mall, and I LOVED that place, so I really hope I'm not disappointed.

Hope everyone had a Low Temperature Tuesday!

oh. and remember how excited I was about sun today? don't get too excited. it's raining again. hmph. my raincoat is gettin a workout.

xoxo

feliz navidad! get your bead on!

ohhh today! this morning i got to skype with Allie for about an hour-ish. best hour of my life in awhile. it was SO good to catch up with her, and hear all about how she is doing, and share my current life with her (beyond the blog). after chatting for awhile, i went and grabbed some cereal from my house, and gobbled up a whole bowl while talking to rebecca and rachael about their night at the concert! apparantly i picked the wrong night to skip the concert because Alex Campos is a HIT here!
For the afternoon, I spent all of my time at the house, watching movies and playing with the girls. The good news is that while we played, we listened to Christmas music. When I began telling everyone Feliz Navidad, they didn't seem to understand that it was a liiiittle out of season. We are in the midst of a tropical storm here, so we have a lot a lot of lovely rain and wind-this keeps the fun to a minimum since the girls can't go outside to play in it. mrehhh. we were lazy for most of the afternoon, until lunch, when we all ate together in the Salon. The cooks fixed basically Beanie Weenies, tortillas, and watermelon! SUCH a delightful meal! :-/ After lunch, we went back to the house, and finished watching another movie. (when there is no school, this place turns into Regal Cinemas) At 3, we all went over to the Salon for our BEAD PARTY! WHAT.A.HIT. they made bracelets and necklaces GALORE! so so so much fun! Rachael and I decided about halfway through, when the power went out, that we needed to go get a snack. So, we went on over to our snack room and dove in on spoonfuls of peanut butter and cereal! By the time we finished eating, the power had come back on and we were THRILLED. I went on over for supper of beans and scrambled eggs. (hence why i'm sitting here eating Pinguinos). After supper, we had devotions, and now I'm sitting with the other intern girls to prepare our piece for the TALENT SHOW on thursday. We're not quite sure what it's going to be yet, but it will be a song/dance combo. Get ready. We will post it on facebook ASAP.

happy monday!

colored pictures and music videos

today was such an interesting day! it was the first full day that i've had at the Oasis with absolutely nothing to do! i woke up this morning just in time for breakfast of cereal with COLD milk this time! woo hoo! after cereal, i made my way through the hurricane that is currently residing in guatemala to my house to get a shower for churchh. after i got out of the shower, i found out that we're not going to church, so, i decided it would be a really good time to wash my sheets and towels. (best idea i've had in awhile)-threw in the laundry, and went upstairs to the office and talked to my mom for a bit! I also discovered this really neat thing called Skype telephone. It's where I can put minutes on my skype account, and use them to call anyone anywhere for only .2 cents a minute! So, I decided to call home for a bit and chat! I called Mrs. Pam, and was able to get passed around the church and talk to almost everyone! I was so excited to hear all their voices, I felt like I was almost just there! After talking to friends, I took a bunch of paper and crayons over to the Gold House, and we all colored for about 2 hours! The girls typically loooove to watch movies on their days off, so I decided this might be a good alternative. they colored oceans, and boats, and people, and flowers, and mariposas, and hearts. i got about 6 pages worth of art to hang in my room, and i'm so excited to display it so i can wake up to it every morning! after coloring time, i introduced the girls to iMovie-for those of you who don't know what this is, it's a program on Mac computers where you can make your own movie! They were ENTHRALLED. I currently have about an hour's worth of footage of dancing, singing, and just plain talking to themselves in the camera. I can't put it online because of privacy stuff, but you better BELIEVE i'll be showing all of you when I get home! we put in Sleeping Beauty, and all cuddled up on the couch after tiring ourselves out from being so camera friendly. After about half an hour into the movie, I realized that I was going to fall asleep any second, so I went over to my house, and put on my clean sheets :) and crawled into bed for a little nap! I woke up, and went over to the house for supper! Before supper we just played around. We watched TV and played cards. Tia Karen made eggs and beans in tortillas last night-actually very filling! After supper, i headed over to the office to have my American social life. I got to talk to Nikki, Kendra, and Allie! Hoorah! What a fun-filled night! While I was talking to Al, Tia Karen, Angelica, and Aldi came up to get me for a movie, and Aldi and Allie talked for a little while. I said goodbye to Allie, and went for a little walk with Aldi to get popparopa (popcorn) and a movie! We ended up with The Secret Life of Bees. (twice this week now).During the movie, Tia Karen checked my head for lice. We have realized that I DONT HAVE IT!!!!!!!! However, something either in my clothes, or in my bed has a very bad case of fleas. The whole back of my neck, and most of my scalp (ew. hate that word) have flea bites on them, causing it to be so itchy. HOORAH. Most of the older girls watched with us, until we were all so tired we could barely keep our eyes open. Little Wendy had fallen asleep on my lap, so I carried her into bed, and kissed her goodnight and then went to tuck myself in! All of the other interns had gone to the last night of Explo (music fest), so they were just arriving back home when I got there! I'm VERY grateful that I spent my time here, at the Oasis rather than out at the concert. Woulda been too too tired!

Today (because I got so wrapped up in skyping and didn't post this last night) it has stopped raining for the time being, so we're going to go for a little walk into San Lucas to the grocery store. I'm going to get some cake mix to make a birthday cake for Aldi tomorrow, and hopefully some flea powder, and extra moisturizing shampoo for my little itchy scratched head. HMPH!

I'm currently waiting for Allie to get in from her driving lesson with Ben, so that I can FINALLY meet him! Sorry Mrs Joy, Best Friend honors-I get to see his face first!!

Looooved talking to everyone, and will try to chat a bit more often! :)

americans? europeans? who are they???

well, so i got dressed and ready on time this morning, hooray!! Tiffany picked us up at about 9:30, and we headed to Antigua for the day. First, let me tell you about Tiffany. SHE.IS.AWESOME. Seriously, I'm not dreading the other girls leaving anymore because I just love the fact that she'll be here! She is 19 years old, and is currently studying Medicine at the public college here in Guatemala. She is Chinese, and her parents are from China & Hong Kong, but her dad has a big chinese restaurant in Guatemala City, so she was born and raised here. So, not only can she speak perfectly fluent Chinese and Spanish, but also English. Oh, and she's studying medicine in all 3 languages. no big deal. but yeah, so, she is really really cool, and we spent a lot of the day just getting to know each other!
First, she took us to this AMAZING museum in Antigua. It was attached to a hotel (GORGEOUS-I want to get married there. Start saving for plane tickets now please) and it had a really yummy smelling restaurant attached as well as a personal church. The museum had a lot of natural artifacts in it, several make-shift businesses from long long ago (candle factory and ceramic factory), and also a part of it was an art museum! We spent about an hour in the museum, walking around and taking pictures of everything. SO much fun. I wasn't sure that I was really going to enjoy that, but I'm so glad that we went!
Next, she took us up to the top of a mountain to the Cruz de Antigua, to overlook the whole city. On the top of the hill is a giant stone cross that looms over the city, so you can see for hundreds of miles! I've been there before with mission trips, but it was so so wonderful to see it again!
THEN. lunchtime!!!! we went to Pollo Campero. I told you about it yesterday. I.LOVE.IT. I got 2 pieces of fried chicken, french fries, and a sprite to drink. I was in heavennn! it almost felt like America!! The other girls loved it too. They are typically all about some Guatemalan food, but I think we were all ready for a break and a little taste of home! After lunch, we walked across town to Cafe Barista (we've eaten there before) and joined a huge crowd for smoothies and the USA vs. Ghana world cup game! It was USA's last game in the cup, and we LOST. in DOUBLE.OVERTIME. aghhh! we had a blast watching it though, and joking around with all the other Americans in the restaurant!
After our hopes being crushed in the game, we decided to go wallow our sorrows in the market and buy handcrafts for very little money. (good therapy) we walked around the market, and i was able to get some other gifts that I hadn't gotten so far-i think i've gotten for just about everyone now! Currently, our favorite pastime while walking around Antigua is to determine where people are from. Whenever we see people that don't look of Latin descent, we try to figure out whether they are American or European. Right now, Americans are defined as: backpacks, sandals with socks, tennis shoes with high socks, cameras around their neck, hats, maps, and very loud mouths. Europeans tend to have a better sense of fashion, and maybeeee blend in a little more? Anyways, it's also fun to count the number of youth groups with matching shirts as they divide up their team into shopping pairs so no one gets lost. ahhh people watching!
Despues del mercadooooo, we did the BEST part of our day. We walked back to the square, and went and toured the Cathedral in the town center. When we entered, the pews were covered with big white bows and there was a red carpet rolled down the aisle. a party??? for us??? I think not! After looking around for clues, we decided to sit down and see what all the fun was. A WEDDING! Ohhh, and the bride looked gorgeous! The ceremony was completely beautiful-she had the most precious flower girls and a cute little man singing some spanish songs as they were at the altar! CONGRATS MARIA & PACO!
We decided to dip out of the wedding a little early (it was starting to run long. felt like i was at AME church), and went on to the car. It was starting to rain, and we needed to go on and head back to the Oasis.
We got back just in time to relax a little before supper! On the weekends, the Tias cook their own food, rather than what the kitchen makes for everyone during the week. Both of my normal Tias are gone this weekend, so we have Karen, a LOVELY substitute. She is just precious! She loves to learn English, and her spanish speaking pace is nice & slow so that we can really have conversations. Tonight she made a DELICIOUS ( i got the recipie) supper. She hand made flour tortillas, and then cooked carrots, potatos, peppers, and celery and put them inside. After that, she fried them on the stove, and poured a sweet orange salsa over top of it. I ate 4 of them, and was completely in heaven! I wanted more, but I knew the girls would want seconds too, so I had to contain myself.
After supper, I painted more nails. OOF-and then came over to write this bloggy blog, and talk to some friends! My friend Rowland (Clemson) was on Skype, and we were able to video chat for about an hour! He has spent the majority of his summer interning in Dallas, TX, and is leaving in about a week or two for Argentina for the semester! So excited for his adventures! I was thrilled to be able to talk to him for awhile & catch up!

We have church really early in the morning-a whopping 11! We typically walk to church, so we leave here about 10, just incase! I think that tomorrow we're spending the day in San Lucas getting some groceries, watching some soccer games, and looking for fresh fruit! Yuummmmyyyy!

Chapel tomorrow! Hope Pastor Shaw is bringin' it like always! I was talking to a friend today, who is speaking at church tomorrow, and he is using this verse in his talk:

1 Tim 6: 6,11
"But Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But you, man of God, flee from all this (worldly matters) and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness."

I actually found that I had this highlighted in my Bible, but don't remember reading it. SUCH a solid reminded of the character that we're supposed to uphold as Christians. Leave what's in this world, and pursue only things that will make known the name of Christ! Don't long for those idols (1 Thess. 1), but be content in your relationship with the Lord, and the relationships and things that HE provides you with! Please pray that as I'm here, and missing home, I'll be able to have a heart of content and purity and love as the Lord calls me to!

gracias por tu amor!

lovelovelovelovelove.
-b.e.t.s.y.-

salta! salta!

just pretend that it's friday night okay?
this morning i woke uppp, and went over to my house for breakfast! i was kinda excited because we had tortillas with pureed beans and salsa on them! soo yummy! since today is the start of break, our schedule is kinda thrown off because the girls are able to sleep really late! so, breakfast was at 9:15, and before that, I was able to get in two quick skype sessions with Andraya & Mom! LOVED IT! It's sooo good to see people & catch up on their livesss! After breakfast, we just played the day away. The sun was shining for most of the day, so we jumped on the trampoline (no Pelusa today!!!!), played soccer, and then cards! When the sun went behind the clouds, Aldy and Wendy and I went into my house and played Go Fish. After 6 rounds, I think we all got a little bored, so I sent them home, and Rebecca and I came up to the office and watched some good youtube videos (never will they fail as a distraction) Lunch was at the normal time, but was TERRIBLE. i'm telling you, nobody ate more than half of what was on their plate. Therefore, post lunch, we went back to our house and STUFFED our faces with Chikys. After Chiky time, I had to take a shower and get ready for my first christian spanish rap experience! we loaded up the van at 3:00, and headed to San Cristobal (a city about 10 minutes outside of Guatemala City) because we left at 3, all of us interns are figuring that we're going to go eat somewhere on the way, or right before we get to Explo (the concert). NEGATIVE. We pulled into the most ginormous thing i have EVER seen in my entire life. it was the Guatemalan NewSpring, except BIGGER. Inside this church, they have a food court (mall sized), a help desk about the length of a football field, and 30 entrances into the sanctuary. I would compare the size byt saying....fit the palace theater inside and then cut it in half and fit that half in there. HUGE. OBSCENE. i'm not quite sure where they get the people to fill that church, but, apparently it's that big for a reason! we got to our seats (up REAL high) with about an hour and a half to go before anything started, so the girls decided to check out my camera, (all my pictures-they now know who almost every one of you is, and a little description of your personality), and then we played hangman. then...dun dun dun.. the lights went dim! the concert started with a few songs from the church's worship band (very talented), and then the guest speaker of the event! there was not a TON that i could understand of the speaker, but i gathered the jist of it, which was what was important! then, an AMERICAN group, Group 1 Crew came on stage. They have very discoteca music, and it's very "jump-able". honestly, it was really really nice to have something in a public place being done in english, because we got to fully understand what people were saying, without having to guess & check our vocabulary knowledge! One of the girls, Keila, sitting beside me, asked me if I understood it all, and I was like, "YESSS FINALLYYYY!" she laughed really hard. I think that the American band was boring for most of our girls, because they couldn't really understand the lyrics or anything! The rest of the crowd was really really into them though! Then, THERE.CAME.THE.RAP.
His name is Vivo-he's really really good actually. Keep in mind that i couldn't understand a LICK of what was being said, because I can't really understand American rap. But it was a very good beat, and of course, I was bouncing (my signature dance move) :)
the concert closed with Vivo, and we were leaving the church at 10. still, hadn't eaten anything. my stomach was screaming at me in about 12 different languages! don't worry, they haven't quite got it figured out how to get that big of a crowd out of a parking lot here, so we sat in the parking lot for an hour and a half. every girl in the van was asleep by the time we actually got moving. when i first got in the van, i couldn't wait to get home & snag some easy mac, but by 12 when we arrived, all i wanted was my bed! aka-why i didn't blog last night! whoops!
climbed in my bed, and was OUT within 5 minutes i'm sure!

this morning we're going to Antigua again, this time with a friend of Rebecca and Rachael's that they met through their organization. Her name is Tiffany. She is Chinese, yet is fluent in English, Spanish, Chinese, and something else. I can't remember what! We're going down there probably for the last time today, so that we can grab whatever more gifts we need to get, and also get POLLO CAMPERO (guatemalan KFC) and McFlurries for lunch! Oh my, never have been so excited!! We're leaving in about 20 minutes though, and I'm STILL in my pajamas, so I'd better get rolling!

Hope everyone is having a glorious weekend, and surviving the heat that I hear has taken over the East Coast! Tigers & Gamecocks play tonight at 7 EST, so be sure to watch! It's an elimination game for the College World Series! Go....BOTH! Represent SC boys!

pelusa!

1. TODAY.WAS.BEAUTIFUL.
just wanted to let you guys know that. for the past two days, the sun has been shining, and there haven't been any clouds in the sky. on days like this, i truly believe that i could stay here forever! today, woke up, went to breakfast where i had tostitos (crunchy tortillas) with salsa. really really delicious. AND my tia fixed TEA (its basically hot sweet tea with cinnamon). she knows its my favorite drink here, so we always have it for breakfast to get my day rollin' on a good note! then, went to school, where all 4 of us started out our day at 8am OUTSIDE in the SUN! que fabuloso! the rest of the day followed with kinda busy work that we could take outside and enjoy this glorious day! at lunchtime, we were able to sit & talk with some of the adults, while we ate our Chow Mein. (i know, asian food here?) after lunch, we decided to go play outside with some of the little ones for "recess".
Recess began when Rachael, Maribel, Maria, Wendy, and I all jumped on the trampoline. Reasons why this was a bad idea:
1. you're not supposed to have more than 3 people (GUATEMALANS) on the trampoline at one time. (there were 5 of us. 2 of us being adult sized americans)
2. the girls introduced us to a game they like to call "Pelusa". Pelusa is not a fun game. It's where the 3 little Guatemalan chicas tackle Rachael and I to the trampoline and pull our hair as hard as they can, while yelling, "PELUSA! PELUSA!" It is our job to get back on our feet and save our hair before they knock us down again. Let's just say that we spend the full 30 minutes screaming "NOOOO AYUDAMEEEE" SERIOUSLY, the only thing that saved us was the school bell ringing.
after recess, Rachael & I had to help teach Math class for the older grades. NOT an easy task! They are currently dividing (something I haven't done without a calculator since Coach Hurston taught me in 3rd grade.), and doing fractions. I HATE fractions. It's so easy to get frustrated too because you KNOW how to do it, and how to explain it in english, but then there is that little thing they like to call a "language barrier". don't like it one bit. they don't teach you "make the numerator & denomenator equal but multiplying all parts by the same number" in spanish class. they just don't. so, we worked with them until school got out at 3, and then we decided to put in a quick load of laundry. (much needed) and walk down to San Lucas to get iceee creeeammm! Rebecca, Rachael, Anna, and myself all walked into town and got yummy yummmmmy ice cream. It totally hit the spot after a day in the sun!
after our little exercise (i say little, but we must climb a MOUNTAIN to get back up to this place-therefore, i worked off all my ice cream so i can have it again tomorrow right???), we came back and just relaxed as the sun went down on the wooden swing. by this time, our laundry was done in the dryer, where we had burned all the fleas to death. (yes, we have fleas. lice too) we folded our laundry, and headed to our prospective houses for the evening. when i got to lice house, the girls were watching the Little Mermaid, so i plopped down on the couch and joined them. I brought my 2nd round of Silly Bandz for them to choose from, so they were all verrryyy excited for their new regalos! I also brought them a verrry special treat-NAIL POLISH. So, I painted 10 little pairs of hands. They all are sooo excited about it, and have been showing it off to each other all night! By the time the movie was over, it was time for supper. Ya'll would be proud of how far my eating habits have come! We had a plateful of pureed beans, and fried plantains and only 2 tortillas per person. I NEED the tortillas to balance out the taste of the beans. But SOMEHOW, i was able to use my tortillas, and eat all of my beans (plain) and reward myself with the plantains for dessert! I could tell that even the girls were semi-impressed that I ate everything! After dinner, we all just listened to music, and danced around the living room. Doris, a girl from another house, came over, and asked if she could paint MY nails. We went to her house, where she did a very good painting job, and then surprised me with sweet little white flower decals that have rhinestones on them for my thumbnails. OH.BOY. the good news is, i'm a trooper and don't really care how totally ridiculous these decals look and it made her really happy to be able to spend that time with me and do that for me!

Now, Rachael and I are blogging, and about to put in the Blindside in spanish. We can stay up reeeally late tonight because.....WE DON'T HAVE SCHOOL FOR A WEEEEEK!!! This week is their mid-year break, so we're getting a lot of time off! we're taking this as an opportunity to travel, and then spend really meaningful time with the girls!

sooo excited to sleep in tomorrow, and i CAN'T WAIT for hopefully good weather and an entire day in the sun! (i'm starting to get a little Guatemalan tan goin' on!) Hope everyone is doing well! Tomorrow night begins a concert series that we're going to with the girls in Guatemala City. We're really excited to be able to take them to a full weekend of awesome Spanish Christian bands and help them experience the love of Christ through music! Pray that they'll really embrace what they hear and understand the meaning of it all!

still missing sweet tea,
betsy

ps. we're casting a vote. how many people think that mom should start a blog called Frauline Wendy to tell about her adventures in Germany????? :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

this morning i woke up (regretfully) to a breakfast of soup. AGAIN. seriouslyyyy??? the girls were all very quiet, and i was very tired-so, i came back to my house and climbed in my bed for another hour! hooray! climbed out of bed and got to work directly on time! i tutored wendy this morning, and then also worked in a math class at 915. after math, we have our break, so sarah and i decided to sit in the sun! we didn't have to tutor after break, so we just sat in the sun some more and wrote lesson plans. it was BEAUTIFUL today. very different for san lucas this time of year! so, for two hours, i enjoyed the sunlight and warmth, and even soaked up a little BRONZZEEE :) right before lunch, all the girls came out of school, and played cards with us! lunchtime was rather mediocre, because all we had were beans, rice, and tortillas. that's actually very bland for lunch. during the afternoon school hours, rachael and i worked with the upper grades math class until school got out. after school, the other girls decided to walk down into san lucas, but i wanted to rest, so i just laid in my bed, took a GLORIOUS shower, and listened to some music! (got all that alone time i've been longing for! eeek!)
at 5:30, all of the girls met for devotions in the Salon, where Tia Carla gave the devotion on John 13. She demonstrated the importance of washing the girls' feet, and what that meant biblically. some of the girls really appreciated it, but there were also some younger girls who didn't quite understand the concept.
after devotions, i went to the lice house for supper. WE.HAD.PANCAKES. breakfast for supper is my favorite thing ever & i had THREE GIANT ONES! mmmmm. yummm! after supper, i helped the girls with the dishes and their chores, and then played teacher again! i helped Isabel, Aldi, Belen, and Nancy with their homework. Most of them needed help with math, and it was fun to get to see them work hard at home and be motivated. most of these girls aren't interested in school at all, so when they ask for extra help at home, it's nice to be able to give it to them!
right now, me & the other interns are watching a movie "The Secret Life of Bees". It's really good so far!
Tomorrow should be a good day, much like this one. over and over and over!

soooo glad that mom made it safely to germany! for those of you who haven't heard from her, they are at their temporary housing for a while, and will begin looking for permanant housing tomorrow! they'll have internet the whole time theyre there too! her first meal in germany was at a Greek restaurant. way to go huh? she sure is authentic!!

today was dad's birthday, 57 i think?? maybeeee. i hope it was a great day! i thought about you all day long, and i wish i could have been with you to celebrate! i should be getting a cell phone this week sometime, and i'm pretty excited about it!

mucho amor!
hope ya'll have a great week! :)

frijoles bueno?

you guys get two updates today! hooray! i think i last ended with telling you that i was going to tutor Candy. I tutored her, and Maribel, and Maria today-and taught math and english class. i am BUSYYYY. so then, after work-rachael, rebecca and i decided to walk into the villages to get a little fresh air and we got some sprites, and some cookies! wonderful sweet treat after all the salty & bland things we eat here everyday! on our walk, we noticed that they are "paving" (aka putting dirt down) in the GIANT potholes that we have on our road to the Oasis. FINALLY! it was almost miserable to walk on them, much less drive! after our walk, we sat and ate our treats with Maria Del Fina and talked with her about the girls and her plans this weekend. Two of the older independant girls from the Green house have moved out because they got jobs, and are going to be adults. I'm so proud of them for taking that step, because it's not easy to leave the 4 walls that you've known for so long! Maria is really sad right now because all of her house-mates are gone, and it's going to be her in the house alone after August when i leave. (it almost tempts me to stay!!!) after talking with Maria for awhile, we decided that little naps and reading times were in order! all of us 4 girls have talked about how important it is for us to have our alone time for at least an hour every day for our sanity. it's gotten really hard to CONSTANTLY be with at least one other person, whether sleeping or not, so we've decided that every afternoon we will take the time to do our own thing and give each other space. it's worked really well so far! i think the little girls are even aware of the need, and they tend to leave us alone a little in the afternoons!
after my siesta, i got up and went on over to my house. i was able to help Isabel with math, check 3 girls for lice, and help Angelica cook supper! I must say, that I am becoming part Guatemalan. I DEVOURED my beans, FIVE tortillas and TWO eggs tonight for supper. I don't know if i'm just hungrier, or if i'm starting to like it, but i actually craved some tortillas today. oof. bad signs. after supper, Lupita and I came over to the office to get on the computer and listen to some music. She LOVES pop music, and is currently obessessed with Justin Beiber & Paramore.
I'm supposed to skype with Andraya tonight & I can't wait! It's been so long since I talked to her! Corbin skyped me today, and she made a B in her ANATOMY CLASS! everyone get excited!!! she graduates in 46 days! yeah yeah!

i've decided to read thessalonians for the next few weeks! if you'd like, read along with me. i'll start chapter 3 tomorrow!
vs. 4 says:
"We are not trying to please men, but GOD who examines our hearts."

what a great reminder for me. all this work that i'm doing, and the time i'm putting in isn't to please anyone but the Lord. i'm following HIS will, and doing all things in HIS timing. pray that all work that i continue to do will do nothing but glorify Him and praise His name!!

happy tuesday!

imma tia ;)

wellll, sorry i didn't post last night, i was little busy taking care of 10 little babes! the day yesterday was really great! i tutored twice (of course) and then worked with math classes twice as well! i'm reallyyyy learning how difficult it is to be a teacher, because you can't think on one wavelength at all times. every child that i've worked with thinks in very different ways and so i have to be prepared for that always! after school yesterday i got to talk to my mom for a little bit! our last skype from the states for her! then, i ran & took a power nap before i had to be over at the lice house to prepare supper and get the girls ready for movie night! i was lucky, because one of my two tias in that house is pregnant & didn't really feel like going out last night, so she was there to help me along. for supper, i baked tortillas to make them crunchy, and then melted cheese with onions and tomatoes for a cheese sauce to cover the tortillas. SO.GOOD. i'm very proud of my guatemalan cooking skills! after supper, all the girls straightened up the house, and we went over to the Salon (school cafeteria) for movie night! A local missionary couple brought the movie Happy Feet for the girls to watch. they aren't typically allowed to watch movies on school nights, so this was such a treat for them! we all cuddled up in chairs and ate popcorn and watched Happy Feet-in spanish of course! (spanish movies are getting a littleee easier to understand!) then, i got all of my kiddies together and we walked back to their house, where they all just conked out because they were soooo tired. because their Tia was there, i was able to go home & sleep in my own bed (thankgoodnesssss!). i got home, did some reading, and then got to sleep at 9:30!!!!! yesssss. so so grateful to get to sleep early. i had to get up at 5:30 to go over and help the girls get ready for breakfast and school, so i made my way there, poured cereal in bowls, and did about 15 pigtails. the cereal that they eat here is covered in hot milk. gross me out. but, if you just put a liiiittle on there and then eat it really fast before the cereal gets soggy, you are good to go! right now, i'm about to go tutor Candy! we're doing a board game and vocales flashcards for lectura, and a spinner game to recognize numbers in math!

travel safely mama! te quiero mucho!

semuccc champey!

this is long. and i'm really sorry, but i promise by the end it will be TOTALLLYYYY worth it! plus, you haven't heard from me in 2 days so you're anxious riiiight?

FRIDAY:
woke up, normal time for those of us in guatemala, 5:30am. went over the the gold house, which i now refer to as the "lice" house because 80% of the girls inside have lice. HOORAY! we had SOUP for breakfast. it was strange. real strangeeee. anywayssss. then, we went to work from 7:30-12:30, where i taught math, and tutored twice before lunchtime. at lunch, we discussed our travel plans, and then went and packed all of our stuff for the weekend. we weren't quiteee sure what we were going to need, but had tried to plan to spend as little money as possible on all of our food & everything. so, i packed: 2 pairs of shorts, 2 tshirts, a bathing suit, towels, toiletries, a peanut butter sandwich, two muffins, two chewy bars, and a pair of tennis shoes. oh, and a raincoat. helpful hint: NEVER come to guatemala in the summertime without a raincoat. THEN. Melanie drove us to the place where we were going to meet our shuttle. the local Shell gas station. Picture....the gas station on the corner of atlantic avenue by the produce stand. so, waited for our shuttle, which turned out to be about 30 minutes late. that's okay though....until, we see the shuttle which probably carries about 15 people comfortably, and had at least 20 of us crammed in. We began driving, and driving, and driving, (keep in mind this is an 8 hour drive) and then we STOPPED. standstill, no one moving, truck driver between his cab & tires using the bathroom, DEAD TRAFFIC. so, we continued to sit, and sit, and sit, until our driver decided that he was bored, so he took us to a gas station. this was a...special gas station. 3 shelving units with nothing but junk food on them. don't worry, THIS was our dinner destination. we thought we would be going to mcdonalds ALLLL this time, and all of us were so pumped for mcflurry's. humphhh. soooo, we whipped out our peanut butter sandwiches (thank goodness we thought ahead!) and sat in the gas station to wait for our driver to fill up the van with gas. then, back on the road. still very very slow traffic, but at least we were moving this time. keptttt on driving. about 4 hours later, we stopped again, outside a hostel in the town of Coban-this was a NICE hostel and we were like, "ohhkayyy this is with the same travel agency, sweeeet our place is gonna be aweeesome!!!"--sooo excited for our destination! we stopped to switch drivers, because it was already 9pm and we still had at least 2 more hours. so, get back into the van (potty stop) and drive some more. we all felt like we had been drugged because we were sooo tired, and the van was not AT ALL conducive to any sort of sleeping habits. after an hour, we got onto this verry steep, rocky road. stayed on this road alllllll the way to our destination: El Retiro Lodge. Of course, it was 11ish at night, and none of us could even stand up because we were so tired, so we just walked carefully to our "room". As we approached, we saw the cutest little wooden/bamboo huts & we were so excited to sleep in them. As we got closer, we noticed a ladder going up somewhere & decided it was for decoration. NOT for decoration. Our little Mayan Hostel employee shimmied up the ladder with our bags, turned on the light, and said "Vas!" (Your turn!) So, we climb up the ladders, (2 rooms, 2 beds in each) and pull back our CURTAIN (what should have been a door) to reveal a room held together by corn husks and bamboo, and mosquito netting hung everywhere to "keep the bugs out". All of us looked at each other and moaned. So, then began the task of "deeting" our room. aka, spraying every object that was in the room and around the room with 80% deet, and spraying ourselves with 40% deet. we spider/scorpion checked the beds, and then timidly climbed in. i think because we were so worn out, we just fell asleep without even a second glance of everything.

SATURDAY:
Woke up at...8ish, to our precious little bug hut for our 9am tour. Proceeded to the bathrooms (surprisingly clean) and prepared for our day. We were told to leave our bags in our "room", so we just tested the limits of a 3rd world country, took our cameras & money and left our stuff. Got on a big bus that took us to the jungle. legitimate JUNGLE. we started out the tour by giving our bags & cameras to a little man behind a desk that was supposed to be the "office". stripped down to our bathing suits and shoes and proceeded. 1st adventure, TUBING down the river! I was soo excited to do this! on the way to the tubing start, there was a rope swing. so, i jumped on it and swung! SO.MUCH.FUN. seriously, best thing. you fly out like 70 feet from the bank and about 10 feet in the air and then just jump off! ahhh! so then, went on to tube! so, while we're walking to the tube place, we had to walk over all these rocks, don't worry, i'm about as coordinated as my mother, and 6 steps in, the bottoms of my tennis shoes were a liiiiittle slippery. i WIPED OUT. i have a very very bruised tailbone. my tour guide very sensitively looked back at me and said "you ok? ok. bien, get up, vamos" so, i "vamos-ed" then, got in my little black tube, and FLEW down the river. the current was sooo strong that we seriously had to struggle so much to stop ourselves at the place where we were to get out! then, after all our tubing, we threw our tubes at the office, and hiked up a little ways to the CAVES. i can't believe it, i went caving! we were given candles at the entrance, and lit them, then jumped in. we swam/walked through the caves, and had to climb up some ladders to jump off rocks and slide down natural waterslides. (keep in mind, that all of this is done holding a candle because we're in a very very small cave" it was SO much fun. the only frustrating part was that you couldn't see in the water, and all of a sudden, while you're swimming, you just run into rocks. therefore, i have bruises and scrapes all over my legs. i was thinking of how much all of my clemson friends would freak out excited for this! they would have LOVED it. maybe i'll bring them back??? :) the cave tour was probably about 2 hours, and when we got out, we were so grateful for sunshine! by the time we were done with the cave, we went to get our bags, and walk up the hill, where we grabbed some lunch. there were some local women there cooking for us, and we had fried chicken, rice, tortillas, beans, and water. after lunch, we began the HIKE. it was the most intense hike i've ever gone on. we went STRAIGHT up a mountain that was about 7,000 ft in altitude. me & rebecca stayed in the back because i could barely use my right leg thanks to my little stumble earlier in the day. also, it was POURING rain at this point. don't worry, i fell 3 more times along the hike. everyone did though, it was sooo slippery. once we made it to the top, there was an INCREDIBLE view of the natural pools and all the mountains! (check facebook for pictures!!) then, we had to go back down. almost as painful as going up, except it wasn't raining! once we got to the bottom, we had about an hour to just swim in the natural pools. oh my word, HOW. GORGEOUS. i have someee, pictures , but i'm sure they won't even give it justice. the water was clear, and there were little fishys in it that i had a blast trying to catch with my hands! at 4 we boarded the bus, and headed back to our lovely lodge. i can honestly say that NONE of us were really looking forward to sleeping there again, but we tried to make the most of it! NOTHING WAS STOLENNNN!!!! we got back, took ice cold showers, and dried off. the weather there was sooo hot & humid & we were so grateful for it because it's typically so cold here! after our showers, we grabbed supper at the hostel. the cooks had a little buffet put together, and i got a pork chop, puree (mashed potatoes), steamed vegetables, and the YUMMIEST bread ever. it was so sweet & soft! we ate by candlelight and then played cards outside after supper. the hostel employees announced a bonfire & music down by the river after supper, so we just walked down there & enjoyed the warmth of the fire & listened to some latino music & hip hop. by about 9 we were whipped, so we climbed up the ladder into our cozy little bug box & re-deeted ourselves, and climbed in bed. Rachael & I were sharing a room, so we laid there & talked for awhile. at 6 this morning, we woke up dying because we had to use the bathroom so badly. so, we suited up with raincoats (it was POURING outside & kind-of dripping through our corn husk roof) and walked to the bathroom. halfasleep. then, came back & slept for about an hour and then woke upp for our shuttle back.

SUNDAY:
got on the shuttle, proceeded to driiiiive the long long way back. STILL longing & hoping for mcflurries. did we get them? negative. we got to stop at a liiiittle nicer of a gas station this time....this one would be like a restaurant/gas station COMBO. THERE WAS ICE CREAM!!!! we decided that ice cream would be the best lunch possible. it was, no worries. we got back on the bus, and drooove for about 4 more hours. driving for that long on a little bus just about did it for my poor little tailbone. it was a bumpy ride. finally, the bus dropped us off in the town of San Lucas, where we had to walk about 40 more minutes UPHILL to the Oasis. We had all of our stuff, including a giant trashbag full of all of our wet clothes. We switched off carriers, and HAULED it up the trail. Longest walk of my life. I thought we would never get there. we did we did!!!

now, we're finally HOME :)
warm showers & a good supper of eggs & tortillas. it's really good to be back.
i'm sooo thankful for the time that the Lord has allowed me to be here! i've gotten to experience so many things that i wouldn't have ever gotten to do at home. pray this for me this week-that I'll be able to really be the fragrance of Christ to all that I interact with.

Ephesians 5:1-
"Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us, and gave himself for us as a fragrant offering to God."

tomorrow i get to work a full day at school & then experience what "Tia-ing" is all about! i've been assigned a house to live in tomorrow night & take care of the girls while their Tias are at a sleepover! We're going to have an early supper & a movie night at the Oasis. THAT should be an interesting blog. :)

miss all of you!
xoxo

spanish spanish spaaaanish

hi hi hi! i am verrry excited right now becauuuuse, today was a fabulous day! i decided to skip breakfast and sleep in, so i was able to eat a really yummy poppy seed muffin to get my day going! the power went out at about 10 last night, and didn't come back on until about 10 this morning, so i was running on about 2 days of no showering. hooray! so excited that this happens all the time here...eek! i came to work, and i had the best day of work ever!! i started off by tutoring Wendy, and she was doing SO.WELL in all her work! yayyy! and then, after Wendy, I was assigned to help teach a math class for what would probably be about 3rdd grade in the states! multiplication, and metric system conversions. LOVED it! Then, after that I began working on our school gradebook, where I was just entering all of the grades into the system. I went with Anita to teach the Kindergarten math class today too! Ahh, we taught the class and the teacher a lot of good games to help the kids memorize their addition and subtraction, as well as count up really high! i wrote alllll of them down so i can bring them back to my block & student teaching classrooms! after teaching, i came back and did more gradebook work, until lunch! i have eaten SO.WELL today! yummm, we had zucchini that was cooked in this yummy soup-like sauce, and some chopped up beef in there as well, with a cucumber salad, and cantalope!

after school, we had our 2nd futbol practice of the season. i am back to being terrible. i didn't get scored on this time, but ran up and down and up and down and up and down the field sooo much. of course, they decided that I should defend Doris, the #1 player. BAD IDEA! all of the Oasis girls get such a kick out of our lack of talent playing soccer. so, we laughed at ourselves most f the game, but only lost 2-1!

I did some laundry after soccer practice, and it's really nice to have clean clothes!!! I even used the dryer this time so that it didn't take 3 days to let my laundry line dry! (good idea, huh?) i decided that while the power was on, i would take a shower and get nice and clean! no spiders this time! after my shower i took a little power nap, and then went to supper. I saw what was on my plate, and I was afraid I wasn't going to like it, BUT. guess what?? I did! It was "dippy eggs" (over easy, for those of you who have never eaten eggs with me) covered in salsa, and tortillas to dip with and beans! I've discovered that the beans and tortillas aren't so bland if you cover them with all of the other food that is on your plate! I ate every single bit of it (except the whites, because I hate the whites). Then, after supper, I played a few rounds of cards with the girls, and then had devotions with the whole house! The Oasis is reading Proverbs together this month, so each night they read a different chapter. Tonight was Proverbs 17. As we were reading, and I was at a little lack for understanding, I caught onto vs. 22.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones"

What an incredible verse to remember! While I'm here, it is so important for me to remember to be cheerful in all tasks. No matter how hard it is to understand, speak, or any sort of task pertaining to school, I must remember that the Lord calls me to glorify Him in all I do, and if I don't have a cheerful heart and a willingness to serve, I will not be doing so! :)

tomorrow is a short day of work! at 2:30, rebecca, sarah, rachael, and i will be leaving for the weekend! i won't be posting tomorrow night or saturday! we're going to a place called Semuc Champey. It is 8 hours northeast of the Oasis. There is incredible hiking, lake swimming, laying out, tubing down the river, and much relaxation to be had! We are very excited about our adventure and have set it all up through a travel agency! This whole excursion, including all our transportation and lodging is only costing us $88! We should all travel here more often!! :) I can't wait to share with you details of the trip, so prepare for a long post because it will be TWO days worth of adventure & fun!

the pawleys team left this morning at 6, and i'm already missing them! they were so much fun to have here, and i'm at a loss for being entertained! last night, i watched a movie with alex, ned, zade, and kacy, and we all snuggled up on the couch and talked and scratched each others backs! agh! what a deal! i heard that they made it back safely, and i hope that they'll keep in touch this summer too while i'm still here, living the dream!

i miss everyone so much! i hope that things are going well for ya'll, and that summer is treating you well. I hear that the weather is unbearably hot at the beach, and I'm a little jealous. It's a bit chilly here all.the.time. I am currently wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt in CENTRAL AMERICA!! what the heck???!! not okay with me.

ta-ta for now! hasta luego!
have a great weekend!
tienen un gran fin de semana!
-betzabeh-

no hay luz.

almost didn't think i was going to get to write this today! we haven't had power here at the oasis for about 12 hours, and it JUST came back on about 45 minutes ago! how wonderful! just to give you a glimpse of what life is like here with no power: no bathroom using, no showering, no hot food, no computer for translating, no lights for seeing. (great for nap taking though!)
this morning i got up about 5:50 again, and i made my way over to breakfast! we had eggs with tomatoes in them. not my favorite, yet i was starving, so very edible. i topped it off with a Chewy bar. good choice betsy. pat on the back. then headed to work, where my day consisted of tutoring, and TEACHING MATH. who would have ever thought??? but, I.LOVED.IT. seriously, it was so much fun to teach them. I focused one-on-one with a girl named Aldi, because she was having the most problems with the workbook & there were two other teachers in the classroom. she was learning multiplication, so i got to try my hand at explaining that! "Hay dos groupos de cuatro-cuanto en total?" before lunch, we had about 30 minutes of down time, where all of us 4 interns were exhausted, so, we decided it would be best to sit in the office and sing every song we knew, and accompanied it with the G and F chords on the guitar (those are the only two that anyone knows). lunch was very mediocre. wasn't impressed, yet, again, i ate it. hungry hungry hungryyyyy todos las dias. then, after school, the rain, and the lack of light just made me want a nap, so, i slept for 2 hours! hoorah!

after that, i took some time with the Lord, and really just wanted to see what he was trying to teach me lately. I came upon Isaiah 55:8-
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and neither my ways are your ways." declares the Lord"
such an incredible reminder that nothing is MINE. all my actions, thoughts, words, TODOS, is from the Lord. I must remember all the time that I need to be following, and in His will, rather than trying to control everything myself. (habit, i guess)
that was so awesome to be reminded of. everything that happens to me is of Him, rather than of me.

tonight, dinner was EARLY. we had crunchy tortillas for supper, covered in salsa and grated cheese. YUM. it's one of my favorite meals here for sure. then we had our last devotional with the Pawleys team. We sang a few songs, and then Eric spoke. Rebecca, Rachael and myself translated. Yes, it took the THREE of us. It's okay-we're just getting started!!
i'm already really sad that they'll be leaving in the morning! it has been such a blast having people here to play with and spend time with other than the interns and the girls!

pray for strength and alertness tomorrow. i need to be wide awake for my day of work, and not struggling like i was today!

it's been POURING outside for about 15 hours now. i am wet. and cold. it's awesome. i think i might make a slip n' slide one day soon and just embrace the rainy season!

i'm so excited to hear from all of you, so don't hold back! :)

todos mi amor <3

SWEET.TEA.

today was a goooood day! oh wow. soooo good! i woke up again, 5 minutes before breakfast, and had PANCAKES!! hoooraayyyy! with maple syrup. the Tias were so excited that i ate alllll of my food, and i was excited because there weren't beans on my plate! i came home and went back to sleep again (all this pawleys stuff has made me stay up late hanging out!), and then was at work by 730! i started my day off tutoring Candy. she was doing pretty well today, but just tends to get so distracted. it's hard to work with someone like her because i never feel like she is making much progress. then, i came back to the office and translated some papers for sue & anita, and then made some lesson plans for my afternoon session with Wendy. during break time, i took advantage of being outside because it WASN'T RAINING! after break, i decided that it was so nice out, i'd take Wendy to do her tutoring outside. We did most of her written work with sidewalk chalk, and she decided that i would look good with a chalk makeover. so-i got eye shadow, blush, and some green on my nose (zinc maybe? keepin me from skin cancer??) she did really well with all of her work today, and i was so excited because she can now move to the next level for the literacy! with all of my office time, i was able to catch up with thomas & brendan! i was sooo excited to really talk to them and hear about their summers! friiiiiends! I MISS YOU!

i told ya'll i was teaching english today right? well, yes, rachael and i took the challenge at 215. it went so well, most of the girls in the class are really anxious to know english, so they do really well with their workbooks. we decided it would be a really good idea to just have them sing some songs in english. justin beiber? shakira? hannah montana? selena gomez? they LOVED it. apparently we are the BEST teachers now. solid.

before english class, melanie took us into town to exchange some more money for Quetzales. Also, I bought DOUGHNUTSSSSSSSSSSSSS and MUFFFIIINNNNSS! america america!

after school, the pawleys team and the interns played with kids allllll afternoon. the loooved them. and their little lice filled heads, love their hats! lice lice lice go awayyyy! me, zade, alex, ned, and kayla walked in a thunderstorm to the tienda and got yummy little snacks and drinks! such a good afternoon treat! although the rain was really nice, i decided a shower would be better, so , yet again, got in and killed spider #3 of this trip! he was a quick little booger. didn't like him at all.

good news. the girls at the oasis have decided that everyone has to have a boyfriend or girlfriend. so, i have been paired up with alex. better news. we've known each other for 4 days, and apparently we're already saying the "L" word. the girls are enamored by us, and make us hug like it's our job. the other girls are also matched up with other team members, and theyre all so excited to create fictional relationships for us.

so. the BEST part of the day. my tia was gone tonight, so all the girls were kind of distributed among the other houses. therefore, i was able to eat with the team. first, they pulled out the lasagna. then, the salad with RANCH. and then..................... SWEET TEA. i almost cried. seriously, happiest moment ever. WHAT.A.TREAT. i am so content now. wahhhh. me guuuuusta te con azucar! now, i'm just hanging out with the team, and we're planning to play spoons tonight!

i'm really happy about the way this week is going, and i can't believe it's already TUESDAY!

hope everything at home is going well! tomorrow i tutor again, and it's back to the bodega for cleaning! hoorah!

love to allllll. :)

puppets puppets everywhere

today was well spent! woke up conveniently at 5:55 for my 6 am breakfast of cereal! it was a warm milk-ish drink that was on the cereal, so i didn't really like it, but i forced it down! then i came back and slept from 6:30-7:20, where I was perfectly on time for work at 7:30! Power naps are a beautiful thing! Today at work, I tutored Candy and Wendy. Neither of them were having super great learning days, but I tried to work with what I had and help them along. After tutoring, Sarah and I set to work on the Bodega, which is basically a huge attic above the Red House. It holds ALLLLL of the donations that Kids Alive Guatemala gets. fyi-if you're thinking of donating, we DONT need pencils or beads! We got through all of the school supplies and arts & crafts today, it took about 4 hours to do inventory and organize! INSANEEE. While we were inventorying bibles, a little black spider friend decided to come out and play. I think he was out for revenge for his brother that I killed in the shower, so I killed him with a broomstick. sorry little guy! so then, rebecca and rachael joined us for organizing, and we found probably 15 different puppets. so, of course, we had to play with them! we decided to put on a puppet show for ourselves to the Sound of Music soundtrack. We BRAKED for lunch (i'm thinking of mrs. bitsy's billboard!!), and had some spaghettis-esque thing, with salad and apples! i put RANCH on my salad. best thing ever, and the apple was just like heaven to have fresh sweet fruit! yumm yummm yummm!! after work, all of the staff sort of hung out in the office and just talked. Then, around 3, we went back to the Bodega for about an hour, and then I went outside and played soccer! (still not good). but, i mostly watched. then, got a shower. PERFECTLY hot water today, so i decided to take advantage of it and just linger for about 20 minutes. it probably wasn't the most economically friendly thing, but i do feel genuinely clean, finally! i also got to hang out with two of the pawleys girls a bit and chat with them! it's still the nicest thing to have their familiar faces! (anyone wanna come down and visit in a few weeks?? give me another dose of this???) after my lovelyyy shower, i went to supper with my Gold House girls. we had beans & tortillas. hoo-rah. we also had fried plantains! i tried to eat a tortilla filled with beans and then reward myself with a plantain so that i could choke them down! i felt like i was bribing myself!! here's some good news. 8 out of the 10 girls in my house have rampant head lice. YESSSSS. so, as paranoid as i've been, i've had lice checks each night, and i try to wear mousse everyday. but, you can't let that rule you around here or you won't have any sort of relationship with the girls at all. tonight i pulled my ipod out, and we all listened to some justin beiber, hannah montana, and high school musical soundtrack. this is the time that my love for disney channel helps so much! they all love their music and will sing it and dance around like crazy!! we had so much fun, one night next week, i think i'm going to host a dance party for them so that we can just be silly!

tomorrow should be another exciting day! i am starting to teach an english class with rachael tomorrow, and we're really excited about it! it's 13-14ish year old girls, and we're hoping that they will be able to relate to us a little bit! i'll also be cleanin the bodega and tutoring again in the morning! wish us luck, it's a HUGE task!

hugs to the ocean!
-betsy

fuemos antigua! otra vez!

i want to start off by telling you about the strange ways the Lord uses to comfort me! this morning when i woke up, i just didn't want to get out of bed. i knew i was going to church, where i can sing along with the music, but the message comes, and i understand about 10% of it. so, it makes WANTING to go really hard. but, i got up, got ready, and walked the 30 minutes through San Lucas with the girls. So, we're at church...sing a few songs, and then I hear a familiar tune...

"Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. He's my savior, He's my savior, He's my savior, He's my savior. I surrender, I surrender, I surrender, I surrender."

I started to cry. Then, I looked at my watch, and it was about 9:58. 11:58 for those of you at home. The SAME time, that I knew all of you at the Chapel were singing the same chorus. At that point, I was sobbing in the church, singing these words that mean so much to me. The Lord KNEW I was missing home. Wishing I could just be listening to Pastor Shaw, and understanding what he had to say to me. It was the most incredible feeling of contentment I have ever felt. Just hearing those words, no matter if they were in English or Spanish, and knowing that my friends and family were singing them at the very same time, gave me so much peace. It was like the Lord was telling me, "Just ask. Ask me for help and reassurance that this is where you're supposed to be. Ask me to fill you with peace." And HE.DID. I was overwhelmed. Of course, then I had to explain to the girls in Spanish, WHY I was blubbering like a small child in church. They didn't quite get it. That's okay.

After church, I joined the group from PI to go to Antigua! Again! We drove down there and ate lunch at a really yummy place called "MonoLoco" aka. the Crazy Monkey. It was yummy! I had a chicken, cheese, bacon, and RANCH quesadilla! Que delicioso! After lunch, we all went shopping in the market again, and I was able to get some little string bracelets for the girls at my food house, and a blanket for me! It is blue, and it has hand-sewn people and flowers on it. Totally "presh" I can't wait to use it in my room next year! Then, we grabbed some ice cream on the way back to meet the whole group and waited in the park for them. While we're waiting, this group of firemen and their dalmatian are playing near us. After a lot of staring, the man fireman finally got up his guts to ask us for a picture. Mind you, we are all 5'7" or above, and are standing with a little Guatemalan man of Mayan descent in the middle of us. It was unbelieveably hilarious! The group then joined us, and we headed back to the Oasis. I got back just in time for my supper! I had pureed beans on tortillas, and cooked ham. It was actually rather good! I gave the girls their bracelets, and they all loved them! Jewelry of any sort is such a treat to these girls! They love it so much! I'm trying to give them a little special treat once every two weeks while i'm here, because I think it's important to show them that I'm thinking of them when I'm not with them!

Tonight I am uploading pictures from the weekend! The power goes on and off about every ten minutes, so I'm hoping that theey will upload rather quickly! I'm hoping to be able to hang out with the PI team tonight and play some cards and maybe watch a movie before having to go to bed early for school tomorrow! I also have to prepare some lessons for my tutoring! I'm currently tutoring 3 girls, Maribel, Wendy, and Candy. They are all on totally different levels, so I'll have to do 3 totally different approaches! Hooray!

I was reading before church this morning, and came across this verse. Many of you have been asking how to pray for me, and what I am in need of. This sums it up so perfectly!

Ephesians 6:19-
"Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given to me, so that I will FEARLESSLY make known the gospel.

Miss all of you so much!

vamos antigua!

antigua=best thing we've done so far! rachael, rebecca, sarah, and myself went to antigua! hooray! we walked the 40 minutes downhill to San Lucas where we met sweet, sweet Daniel, our cab driver. He drove us with ZERO gas in his car for about half an hour there. we were dropped off in the central square and spent our first 30 mins at the bank. waiting for me to get money exchanged. i got yelled at by the clerk because i didn't have my passport. whoops. who knew? but, i got money anyways. its my southern charm i suppose? then we wandered around the city looking for the market. annnnnnd we found it. boy did we find it. and all of its brightly colored ceramic and handmade craft GLORY! we shopped for about an hour and a half, and got severely haggled. "you want bag? i give you good price" (over and over and over and over and over) so then, our feet were tired so we began searching for FOOD. this took about another 45 minutes while we scampered around the city, we finally found a cute little sandwich shop thing thing and sat down. i had a ham & cheese sandwich (creative) with little hashbrown-ish things. we also watched the world cup. amerrrriiicaaaaa! rachael and i were really the only two who cared, but, we made it known. upon leaving our restaurant, we met a special old man and his "maybe we'll get married, who knows" woman. he speaks ZERO spanish and her english is about as good as those who work at El Cerro. they don't communicate, but, alas, they walked away hand in hand. presh? i guess some communication is louder than words? oof. then, because we hadn't eaten enough, we decided ice cream and people watching would be a fantastic idea! so, we went to Sarita (aka dairy queen) and got ice cream. As we walked to the park, it began to rain, so we sought shelter under a special tree, which will forever be known as "Shelter Tree". As we sat and stayed dry, we got AGAIN haggled for scarfs, bracelets, and hair wraps. yes, hair wraps. after telling them "no gracias" for about 30 minutes, they finally vamoosed and bothered someone else. we then went in search for a place to watch the game (me & rachaels idea of course!) and found a little pizza place with good coffee and a stellar tv! (tiniest bathroom i've ever been in also-similar to those on an airplane) after snacks, we walked (in the POUNDING rain) to Melanie's house, where we were able to get dry, watch movies, play games, bake cookies, and eat cold McDonald's fries. AMERICA! we left Melanie's and began the trek back to the Oasis. Don't worry, we're all still soaking wet. now, i must go make some easy mac to add to the PILES of snacks and junk food i've eaten today, to make up for the lack of solid meals and beans. seriously, no beans today. HOO-RAY.

happy weekending and all you chapel-er's please sing loudly for me!

"te amo mucho"--in the words of Tahnia.

~bets~

oof.

well, today started of rather nicely! actually, it was a TON of fun! we got to SLEEP IN this morning until 730! hoorayyy! breakfast was at 8, and we had really yummy yummy baked tortillas with pureed beans on them! (i'm not being sarcastic. i have found that i only like beans when they are not "beany" they must be saucy) then, we (interns) got together with the PI team, and helped them get prepared for their "field day". The girls came out about 1030, and we started to PLAY! the first thing that we did was an egg toss. you wouldn't believe how much these girls LOVED tossing eggs at each other. and cracking them of course! then we played a game where we had to run with a soaking wet sponge on our head from one bucket to another and drain it in the other bucket. (my team won. WOO HOO) the next activity we used GAK (all you PICCer's). we soaked a t-shirt in it and then we had to run to the bucket with the tshirt on and then spin 3 times and run back, take off the shirt, and then it was the next person's turn! and thennnn, after we were all grimy wet and gross, we played kickball with shaving cream, and EVERYONE was covered in it! the girls had a BLAST! we all went in and got showers and then met back up for lunch! the cooks had made us hamburgers & hotdogs-OHHH WHAT A TREATTTT!!!! I felt like a true american! after lunch, several of us interns and a few from the PI team walked up to the tiendas in the village and bought bottled cokes and some candy for the village kids! once we got back, my new roomie Sara had arrived! she is from pennsylvania, and is just here for the summer as well! she seems very nice-i don't know a lot about her yet except she runs. OOF. we spent most of the late afternoon just hanging out in the staff room because most of the girls were napping and watching movies. dinner was at 6, and Tia Daly fixed hot pocket like things with cheese inside and salsa on the outside! SO good! i will NOT be eating easy mac tonight! After supper, i played cards with the girls, and then we had group devotional and worship time with the team and all the girls-it went super well, 2 of the Oasis girls shared their testimonies (sorry, i can't repeat) and 2 of the PI kids shared theirs. after that, corbey announced that two of the girls would be leaving the Oasis in the next week. One of them is a girl in my house, Roxy, and the other is a younger girl, Blanca. Roxy is going to be a Tia at another home, and Blanca is being removed from the program for behavior issues. Don't worry, she will be well taken care of, and not put back into her home. this news was emotional for most of the girls, and there were a lot of tears. tonight is a quiet night at the oasis!

this morning i journaled about thankfulness. i am so thankful for the peace that the Lord has brought over me about this whole experience, i'm grateful for the friendships he has given me, and i am excited to learn what it is He is teaching me these next 8 weeks!
Lamentations 3:22-25
check it out! such a reassuring verse of faith and trust in the Lord!!

i am looking forward to tomorrow when sara, rebecca, rachael and i go to antigua! we have to leave the oasis at 8am in order to meet our cab driver in town at 9! we are very excited to go shopping and eat at some yummy restaurants! what a fun outing!

hope everyone is having a really good start to their weekend!

xoxo. b.

mom i miss you! :)

americans americans!!

today was a good.day! we woke up this morning and had....PANCAKESSSS!!!! no beans no beans!!! and then started my day off of school with tutoring 3 girls in a row. whew. exhausting-totally not in english, and all 3 are on completely different levels. oof. but then, in the middle of the day, while i was tutoring, and planning lessons, the pawleys team got here! HOORAY! It was SOOO good to see familiar faces and get to spend time with people i KNOW! After school, we had our 2nd soccer practice with the girls. i did warm-ups, and played an actual game. don't worry, my body will hate me for the exercise tomorrow, but it was FUN! i'm not as terrible as i was when i was younger and I even scored a goal! hooray!! i was also able to introduce a lot of the PI girls to some of the Oasis girls and show them around a bit! after soccer & playtime, i took my shower (FREEZING) today-not by choice. i thought i was going to cry it was sooo cold! no spideys though! then, i went over to my house for supper, and i had crunchy tortillas with some sort of brown saucy thing on top! ( i think it was refried beans, but they were so good!). after supper, i sat with two of the girls and tutored them in english. THREE SOLID HOURS of explaining the english language in spanish. i thought i would never speak actual english again!!! but finally, they finished their workbooks, and i felt very accomplished! after that, i walked over to the school, where the PI peeps were having worship. it was SO good to sing in english to worship the Lord! eek!
right now, i'm about to go meet rebecca and racheal in the snack room to have some hot chocolate and just chat! praise the Lord for sweet new & old friends all together!!

tomorrow will be exciting! we have field day with the girls, and then my new roommate sarah comes! i am sure she will be such a blessing!

xoxox.

dia cuatro es muy llovando.

hi hi hi! well, i am sick of beans. seriously, if i see another bean i might scream really loud. this morning, i woke up ON.TIME. and had breakfast with my house. we literally had BEANS. thats all. therefore, i found myself really happy eating a Chewy bar in my bed afterwards. breakfast is mostly quiet because its at 6am and i don't know a soul who is super talkative at 6am. soo, after breakfast i decided it would be a very good idea to just crawl back in my bed and sleep until it was time for school. and i did just that! it was incredible! so, then, today at work we started off the day with a bit of tutoring. I first tutored Wendy, who is a PRO at math. the girl is 5 and she can add better than i can. (no joke) thennn at 830, we had a staff meeting. staff meetings will be something that i'll need to attend while i'm here and they are really actually very fun! this month, the staff and girls are studying Proverbs, so first order of business was to read chapter 9. of course, we read in spanish, but its easy to do that, when it's already translated for you! thenn, after that, Corbey talks about how that chapter applies to life in the Oasis currently. They talk about issues and things that are going on with each girl & how they can change or improve them. The best part was that Corbey isn't ENTIRELY fluent yet, so he spoke in English, and Melanie translated-so. i definitely got the whole scoop, not just bits & pieces. Then, everyone goes in a circle and says prayer requests. After that, the whole group breaks up into groups of three or four to pray specifically for certain things. This is such a blessing, nothing in this atmosphere gets looked over, and is always fervently dealt with through prayer first!
ok so anyways, after the staff meeting, i tutored Candy-she is still struggling so much. It's hard to see that much confusion on her face. She is 11 years old, and this is her 4th year repeating kindergarten. so, after being discouraged, i came back and did some more office work, mostly filing and double checking grade reports. at lunch, i sat with several Tias and the other intern Anita. Oh.my. Who would have thought that we would have CHOW MEIN for lunch here??? not me. it was actually very good, &&&&&& there was...you guessed it...FRESH WATERMELON! yummm. after lunch, i came up and did moreeee office work. i actually was kind of bored today because i got mostly everything done pretty quickly and then was left with no assignments. whoops. we worked until 330 today, and then it was my responsibilty to take pictures of all the girls and their houses for their latest support cards. what a challenge! i first went into the "gold" house and the girls were ready for me in hats and sunglasses. they looked so stylish! (pictures soon to come!) so, we took goofy pictures and they had so much fun. i think i might suggest a fashion show tomorrow night after supper!! so thennn after all that ( i got 3 houses worth of girls photos taken!) we had devotions. this is where all of the girls gather together and 7 of them lead worship (acapella) and the one of the Tias or Corbey leads them in a devotional. Tonight, Tia Carla talked about "magic healing" and she used an illustration with a band-aid, and then followed that with some scripture. She basically wanted the girls to know that the Lord could be their healer on the inside and on the out. so awesome. about 14 of the girls came forward at the invitation, but apparently that is quite normal. a lot of "commitment" without actual commitment. the most we can do is just hope that they all mean it, and reinforce it with our encouragement and prayers!!
after the devotional, i went back to the gold house with the girls and ate supper. good news, i had beans. and ham and eggs all mixed together! que delicioso! after supper, i decided it would be a good idea to give the girls some silly bandz. they're obsessed. seriously, the LOVE them. they play with them in fictional stories, and named them. the Tias even wanted one! The girls taught me a super fun card game, in which i'm SURE we're going to play every night now. hoorah!

we got DESSERT tonight. Tia Jose (pregnant & so cute) brought us all "galletas" (cookies) and fruit jelly aka jello. except this jello is in a little tiny plastic cup. look on my facebook. i'll post a picture!

tomorrow should be really fun! i'm excited because i'm going to start cleaning out the Bodega, which is where they house all of their extra supplies and clothes! I'm going to organize it so that it can be used as a "tienda". ALSO the Pawleys Island team comes tomorrow, so it will be really good to see so many familiar faces! i absolutely cant wait!!!

rebecca, rachael & i have started to make travel plans for our weekends, and so far theyre looking really fun! eek! more details to come on that soon!

adios muchachas!

third time's a charm eh?

ahoy! (that's not spanish-it's pirate. don't have a reason, just liked it) today was scrumdiddilyuptious! oh my! seriously, day 3-couldn't get much better! so, i have been switched from eating my meals in the Blue house, to eating in the Gold house. So, this morning was supposed to be my first morning with them, but guess who forgot to set their alarm for AM? MOI! sooo. yes, overslept first breakfast-good impression huh? instead, i just spend a little time with Jesus (much needed)and then got a shower. 1. i told you about showers before, very hard to work with. well, this morning our water pressure decided not to work, so i had a dripping scalding shower. i'm still not completely sure that the 2in1 shampoo is completely out of my hair. whoops. :) so then, as i'm drying off, i notice this sweet little black thing with 6 legs on the side of the shower. a SPIDER. ewwwww. i graciously took his little life with my shampoo bottle. lo siento little spidey! soo, then after my shower, i got dressed for my day and started out by going to the Gold house and apologizing to my Tias for missing breakfast. It wasn't easy telling them I overslept, but this is how it went: "Hola. Lo siento, SIENTO sobre el desayuno. Me despierta tarde. Ooof. Lo siento. La cena a 6? Gracias. Buenas dias!" (Hi, i'm sorry, SORRY about breakfast. I woke up late. Ooof. I'm sorry. Dinner at 6? Thank you. Good day!--that was for you Mrs.Pam!)
Anyways, after that, I came to school, where I began the day tutoring! Hooray! I got some teaching action! I spent half an hour with Candy, and tutored her in math and reading. We went over vowels and counting. Then, I came back to the office and did paperwork. Math here is stressed very seriously, and it's important that the girls are able to add and subtract proficiently (no fingers allowed), so I made speed-drill sheets. Ya know, those papers with 100 problems on it that you have to answer in a certain amount of time? I hated those. But, I made em. I did that for probably 4 hours. Then, we had lunch! YUM. We had a typical Guatemalan dish, Pancillo and its basically chicken on the bone, and potatos in a spicy gravy sauce, rice, tortillas (DUH), and watermelon! again! hoorayyyy! so after lunch, I had to tutor Wendy (YES! MOM, YOU'RE HERE!!!) Wendy is EXCELLENT at math, but a little slow with her vowels and blends, but overall, was very good for me! Then, I came back to the office and did more lesson plans, games and speed drills. I never want to see another flashcard in my life. wowwwzah!
Soo, got off work at 4 and then headed to my house for a little siesta (nap). Slept for about an hour, and then it was time for supper! The Tias had fixed scrambled eggs, beans, tortillas, and leftover lasagna.Oh my. If you can't guess, I'm sitting with a bowl of Easy Mac at my side. But then, after dinner, I got to play with the girls in my house! Oh my! I.LOVE.THEM. They are all between 5-12 and are the most precious things on the planet. We danced, and sang, and gave piggy back rides. I also got my hair fixed. I am almost sure I am going to have lice. Sweet. Maybe not though, cause my hair isn't clean from the drippy drip shower. hmm. :) But then. Sara, Wendy and I (I felt like I was at home!!!!) began to play UNO! (I REALLY felt like I was at home!) Mallory, don't worry. They ain't got nothin' on ya! You're still the international Uno champ! We had fun though-they don't have an entire deck of cards, so we played with about 20 and that made the games quick! Tonight, they also discovered my Silly Band, so now I must bring over a pack tomorrow at dinner time, so they can pick which ones they want!

I am ever so blessed by the love and grace of Christ. Today when I woke up, I was so nervous for some reason. I just prayed and prayed for strength and endurance. I read Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!"
I am so blessed to know that verse by memory, and I can't even begin to tell you what amazing things happen when you continually pray that over yourself throughout the day!! Mmm. The Lord truly has blessed me in so many ways!

Gracias por tu amor!

~betzabeh :)

segundo dia es fantastico!

Buenas Noches blog followers!
Day number 2 went very well! Today was my first day of work, and we got to happily wake up at 5:30 to eat breakfast at 6am! This morning, I was eating breakfast in the blue house, and Tia Karen made beans, sausage, and rolls. Needless to say, I ate the sausage, roll & came back to my house for a complimentary Chewy Bar. Beans & I just aren't agreeing these days! After breakfast, I came home (next door)...by the way, I live in the Green House-Casa Verde-anyways, came home, got dressed for school, and then took a 15 minute power nap before I had to be at the school (3 doors down)at 7:30. Started my day off with a GIANT (200+) stack of papers that I had to hole punch and file. Holy.Cow. It took me 2 hours. My fingers were sore & christened with paper cuts! For lunch, everyone eats down in the Cafeteria of the school, where the cooks fixed us hotdogs in sauce (basically beanie weenies) and rice and tortillas and FRESH WATERMELON. I.was.in.heaven. Everything was so yummy! Then, back to work. After lunch, I began working on an activity book for some girls in Kindergarten (Prepa) who are a bit further a long in their classes. So we did some extra math, writing, and reading for them to do independently. Racheal and I worked on that all afternoon, until 3 when school got out and we were "off". So, Racheal, Rebecca, Antia and myself walked to downtown San Lucas. It's about a 40 minute walk, and halfway there, I realized that I had ALL my money (Quetzales & Dollars) with me. So, we weren't turning back, so I took $350 and put it down my pants. NO ONE was goin down there for it! We got down to the Plaza and went to a Paneria which is a bakery. We were able to get muffins, donuts, and other pasteries. YUM! I am going to eat my muffin for breakfast tomorrow!! Then, we found an ice cream shop. OH MY HEAVEN. Strawberry with rainbow sprinkles CAN be obtained in Central America! Delicioso! Then we began our 40 minute hike back to the Oasis and made it just in time to play with all the girls post-homework. So, I swung with Maribel, Maria, and Jazmin. Then, I started to play soccer with Belin(Bell-een)and Karla. Well, we played hard. Untilllllll Belin tripped and fell and I had to take her inside with her skinned knees and bandage her up! It was very hard describing "tripping" to her Tia in spanish. (I don't know that word). Thennn we just hung out and colored with some girls before supper time. Tonight was the June celebration for all the girls born in June. There were two cakes, and we had a big plate of lasagna! Maria and Maribel saved me a seat next to them, and I was able to meet two other girls, Kati and Kayla that I hadn't met before! They are 14 and are super super sweet girls! Very talkative! Then.... IN WALKS CORBEY! Ah! So good to see a familiar face! He was very very tan from his vacation and looked so happy to be back with all the girls. Everyone got up from the table and yelled "Tio! Tio!" They were so excited to see him! Hooray!

I am so glad I'm here, and I can't wait to see the ways that the Lord reveals himself to me throughout the next 8 weeks! I can already see where he is giving me peace and calming my heart each day when I wake up! He has provided me with such good roommates and friends here who are fun to talk to and learn from!!

Now, I must go. My roommates are waiting for me, where we will watch Alvin & the Chipmunks in spanish....should be rich.

Todos mi amor!

oh. PS. remember how i told you about Betsy being a girl here too...well, I found out that the PROPER spanish name, that Betsy is short for, is NOT Elizabeth, but Betzabeh. So, I would like to be called that from now on please. Thank you!

Dia Uno

dio uno es completo. hoy fue muy muy divertido y ahora soy cansada.
there ya go. my spanish. wow! today has been great! such a good first day! i got to "sleep in" until 8:30 this morning, and woke up and took a shower! if you only KNEW what a hard thing it is to get the water temperature right. to ensure that you have hot water, you must leave the sink faucet running on hot the entire time you're in the shower, then the knobs are a little bit tight, so you have to fiddle with them until you get your desired temperature. basically, your shower is either scolding or freezing. i went with scolding this morning and it was a good decision. the air here in the mornings and evenings is pretty cool, so it feels nice to be warm straight from the shower. after my shower, i was asked to eat breakfast with Sara, my house-mate. the "Tia" (house mother) next door, had made pancakes for breakfast and shared them with our house! Luckily, Sara and I were the only ones up, so we got to gobble down the whole pile! YUM!! After breakfast, we went to Church at Iglesia Galilea. It was really really good. The congregation was super welcoming and kind. I understood about 6% of the sermon (they speak SO.FAST.) but the music was all familiar, so I was able to sing along. despues de iglesia, we came back to the Oasis and had lunch. Everyday, I'll rotate houses for my meals. Today I was designated to eat in the Blue house, and Tia Karen made fried chicken, and potatoes. I was SOOOO full after lunch and then it started to thunderstorm, so I decided to take a nap. Best decision i've made thus far. 3 hours later, I woke up, the sun was shining, so I went out to play. I met a lot of the girls that I hadn't met so far, and Maribel (6) and I decided that we were going to teach her how to ride a 2-wheeler. So, for two hours, we pushed and peddled and wobbled. We have much more work to do, but I think she is getting the hang of it!
The girls here really love to watch movies (kendra, corbin, you would be frustrated) so before dinner, about 15 of us snuggled into the Blue house to watch a movie. At 7:30 Tia Karen made supper. Ham sandwiches, crunchy tortillas with salsa, and rolls. (I'm still hungry, and am very seriously thinking about making some EasyMac for my dessert) They drink a TON of juice here, and it's all fresh. Very good, but I'm already longing for sweet tea, and I feel like I'm needing three times as much water as normal!
Oh! I have two intern friends right now, Rebecca and Rachel. Rebecca is from Iowa, and goes to school in Minnesota, and Rachel is from New York and goes to school in Pennsylvania! They are both really nice-I'm grateful, because we're all on about the same level linguistically, so I don't feel left in the dust during conversations!
Tomorrow is the first day of work! I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing yet, but I will most likely be in the school. We start our day at 7:30am. OOF.
Hope all is well in Amerrrrica!
Mucho amor,
Betsy
ps. OMG there is a girl at the Oasis named Betsy-it gets super confusing when we're in the same room, but it's really neat knowing that Betsy can also be a Spanish name! Coooooooooool!

home sweet guat

i have arrived!! there is a two hour time difference here, so i'm REALLY tired. i'm going to be brief but try to give ya'll as much info as i can! my flight from miami was really fun! i met a great family out of atlanta, who originate from guatemala, and were on their yearly vacation back "home". we talked the whole two hours and they tried to help me with some spanish (what a task!!)
we landed safely, and i quickly got through customs and immigration, gathered my bags and headed for the exit. i was being picked up by part of kids alive staff, but had never met, or seen her before. so, i was blind. so, i stood and stood waiting to see a little sign with my name on it...never saw it! i was TERRIFIED. i asked a little man if his phone worked internationally, and it did-so i called my mom. she didn't answer. i thought i was going to die on my first night!! LUCKILY the girl recognized ME and shouted for me. i made my way through the crowd and got in her car. it's about a 40 minute drive from guatemala city to san lucas, and i was able to see "typical saturday nightlife" (very much like the boulevard except in spanish)
we got to the Oasis (home) at about 9, and I got to my house! I live in the green house with 3 other interns and two "independant" girls (18 and up). I'm EXCITED. I met two of the other interns and they are GREAT. Rebecca and Rachel. I'm currently about to unpack and organize my life for the next two months! eek! Church in the morning at Galeleia with my new friends! Hooray!

welcome to miami, bienvenidos ami amiii.

hello friends!
well, last night, finished packing at 1:15 am, got up at 6 and have been on the move since! mom & dad took me to the airport in charleston, where sweet sweet andraya met us to see me off! don't worry, my flight WAS delayed. hooray! sooo i sat, and sat, and SAT next to a rather large man who snored SOOO bad. oh man. we finally departed at 12:30 pm (45 minutes late) and landed in miami at about 2:30! since i've been in miami, i have explored all 4 Duty Free stores on the D Concourse, checked out every restaurant menu to decide where to eat for supper, talked to some nuns-they were SO nice. and really excited for me to go to guatemala. i am surprised that they aren't sweating to death in their habbits because i'm in jeans and a t-shirt and am STRUGGLING.
i've got 3-ish more hours in miami and then will be REALLY guatemala bound! i'm keeping an eye out for famous people. sometimes in big cities, you run into them in airports. i passed a boy that looked like Justin Beiber, but after he passed, i said his name out loud and he didn't turn around. so its probably not him. unless he's just trying to be incognito. hmmm.

my mom sent me some notes for the trip. i LOVE them. today, she shared with me a note that she wrote for me the day i got accepted for this internship.

Psalm 139: 9-10--"If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast."

this provides me with such reassurance that the LORD has this entire trip in His hands. He has known the strengths and weaknesses that I will possess for the next 9 weeks, He knows the ins and outs of the program that I will experience. I am ENAMORED by Him. What a GREAT and MIGHTY God we serve, who knows our hearts and our minds and will strengthen and guide us through His plan for us. All we have to do is listen & obey.

:)
5 hours from "home"
love love love.

ps. i know when you're reading that last sentence, you'll think of the song "What a Mighty God we Serve"-so go on, sing it. out.loud. i just did.