Bienvenedos(welcome) a Guatemala

A beautiful way to start our trip

Our new room on the left and our bano on the right

Our famalias casa

our famalias kitchen

WOW, well here we are. we have arrived in Guatemala. and WOW really is the only word to describe it so far. We had a fairly smooth transition from one airport to the next and even managed to make it through customs without getting arrested, lol.  If you did not get our e-mail from yesterday i will go ahead and fill you in about our casa and our familia. Our host familia picked us up from the airport in Guatemala city and brought us back to Antigua. Antigua is a descent size town with a outstanding mixture of old world and new. The streets are small and made of brick shaped stones, and the houses are very rustic and colorful. we went winding up some streets that a bicycle would be challenged to make it through up to our home. When we arrived our family built a new room and a new bathroom in one week in anticipation of our arrival. apparently they had many late nights working on it. We are amazed, and we feel so welcomed and privilaged. They built our room apart from the rest of the house so we feel more like we have some privacy too. but not too much. the neighbors walls are attached to 2 of ours and also the whole home design is completely open. So unlike america there is very little noise barrier. Here is a picture of our famalias casa with the rooms on the left and completely open on the right. they have 3 rooms, a tiny living room, a small bano (bathroom) and a good sized kitchen. We have had a few meals here now that are typical for Guatamala and i'm happy to announce that none of them are beans and bananas (yet!). lol We have also had a chance to look around the city a bit and it is a big mixture of poor and not so poor. in the central park here you will have a poor famila in old customary myan indian clothes and a familia in holister t-shirts and jeans. but no matter their status they seem to be a very content and easy going, happy people. we feel very safe and very excited to be getting to know the culture and the people. We are very excited to be here, it still feels almost like a dream, but i will tell you that after our first 4 hour class today we might be waking up a bit.lol Thank you all for continuing to pray for us, we know that God is still directing our journey down here and has a great plan for this adventure.We will post again soon so we can keep you up to date with all the exciting and funny things that are happening. Hasta Luego! Miguel y Shanin