Aqui estoy! Here I am!

Hola friends and family,
First and foremost, my apologies for being MIA. December was a crazy month…as is January. Give me a chance to explain, and share some pics.

The first week of December, I took off work to travel to the highlands and help my friend, Thea, with a girls camp she organized as part of her position with the Peace Corps position. I really enjoyed getting to be a part of Thea’s community – both where she lives and works, and the community she has found through Peace Corps. I ended up teaching basketball to the 30 girls at Thea’s camp. Running ice breakers, energizers, drills and games for 3 days reminded me how much I love coaching, and how I’ve actually acquired enough Spanish to do so.

Just 1 day after I got back from Thea’s camp, my brother, Kyler, arrived at the Guatemala City airport. Because Ky came a few days before my mom and Mickey, we decided to go on an little brother-sister adventure, although both of us prayed it wouldn’t end in one of us strangling the other. We traveled to backpacker’s paradise, Semuc Champey, and found ourselves inter-tubing down rivers, getting up close in personal with thousands of bats, swimming through caves by candle light, jumping off waterfalls, and discovering the turquoise waters of Guatemala’s famous limestone bridge. We came back to Antigua with some friends we had made, one of which included a parasite in my intestine (quickly eradicated thanks to host dad, Dr. Gustavo).

Then Mom and Mickey arrived. Then Mickey’s brother Jake arrived. Then Mickey’s sister Susannah arrived. Then our Chinese home stay fellow, Vic arrived. Together we navigated Antiuga’s cobblestone streets, enjoyed 2 for 1 Cuba Libres and humongous nachos at Monoloco, hiked one of the area’s inactive volcanoes, watched Christmas eve fireworks from our roof, sampled Guatemalan coffee and Christmas tamales, and we studied Spanish together too. One of the more memorable holiday moments was learning how to make hot fruit “ponche” (punch) at my Spanish teacher Brenda’s home for a Guatemala Posada—a reenactment of Joseph and Mary looking for shelter…imagine 40+ people holding candle lanterns and singing until they reach to their host’s home and are invited in for “ponche” and tamales.

After Christmas, Mom, Ky, Mickey and I joined my boss Alex and his wife for 3 days on the beach. We slept in a littler cabana together, played monopoly together, but spent the majority of days in the hotel’s pool drinking piña coladas, and/or walking off our big meals on the black-sand beach.

We got back to Antigua just in time to celebrate Mom’s birthday on the 30th. We ate at nice Guatemalan-French restaurant, had a drink after at gringo-famous Monoloco, and then pool enough money together to buy her an oh-so-special Guatemalan jade necklace.