Vale La Pena

Hola Amigos!

I am currently studying in Cafe Nor de Sur and just got done playing with the grandchildren of my host family. They are absolutely adorable and make me so happy and excited to be working with children these next fourteen months. Their names are Andrea (9), Jemena (5), and Andres (3). Andrea and Jemena love to sing and so I have a couple videos of the two of them singing songs both in Spanish and in English (the lyrics arent all correct but its too adorable because they love trying to speak to me or sing to me in English). They remind me so much of myself when I was their age. I havent been feeling so well the past two days and so I was attempted to take a nap earlier this afternoon and awoke to Jemena singing as loud as she could. It made me so happy. Andres is probably one of the most adorable little boys I have ever seen. He has these big brown eyes that just make my heart melt. Today he was really sad about something and so we were watching a tv show called Charlie and Lola (I used to watch this show when I would babysit and it is by far my favorite kids show on tv because the two characters have British accents and so it was really funny to watch it in Spanish)... I started to rub his back and he just grabbed my hand and gave me a huge smile.

So I realized that I havent posted a blog in a long time and there has been a lot that has happened since I last posted a blog. For starters, Emily is returning to Xela tomorrow and beginning school on Thursday. I talked with her yesterday and she said that she is feeling 100% better which is really good to hear. Im really proud of her for making the decision to return despite the horrible experience she endured while here in Xela for a mere 3 weeks.

In the afternoon, after classes, the school (Sakribal) has activities for all of us to participate in. Last week we were able to attend a ballet with individuals with special needs and it was very interesting! Most of the ballet incorporated individuals in wheelchairs and there were a couple tricks done that were absolutely amazing! It was a beautiful experience to witness.

Last week my community members and I heard about this group called Quetzaltrekkers. They are a group of volunteers that lead hikes to raise money for a school and hogar here in Xela. The hogar is for children who are abandoned by their families and living on the streets. There are currently 20 kids at the hogar and a very long waiting list of kids wanting to live in the hogar. The Quetzaltrekkers also volunteer at the hogar and school. Every Wednesday night the kids from the hogar and volunteers go to a caged in futbol field to play. I went with my community member Tom to play this past Wednesday and had an absolute BLAST! All the kids are so much fun and watching the Quetzaltrekkers interact with the kids got me incredibly excited and encouraged me even more that Im doing exactly what Im supposed to be doing.

My community members and I had a few hikes we wanted to do and so we wanted to do them through the Quetzaltrekkers since the money is going to something we{re all very passionate about. This past weekend I had the opportunity to climb Volcan Tajumulco (the highest point in Central America) with four of my community members, the Quetzaltrekkers, the three girls from the hogar (ages 12, 13 and 14), and some individuals from all over the world (Israel, London, Guatemala and India). We began our hike on Saturday morning at 10:30 AM (after getting up at 4 AM and taking 2 different buses to the volcano). We hiked for seven hours up to our campsite where it was about 25 degrees. There we had dinner, hot drinks and went to bed around 8:30 PM. At 3:30 AM Saturday morning we all awoke and began climbing the rest of the way up the volcano in the dark with flashlights and headlamps. At points we were even climbing up on our hands and knees. At one point, I stopped to take a break with my community member Erika to wait for the rest of our community members and it was a beautiful site! We were above all of the clouds. We could see the lights of the town below us with a layer of clouds in a way protecting the cities below. Above us were a countless number of stars. This was the most stars I had seen since our Schoen family trip out to Montana and close or possibly more to the UDSAP backyard. I couldnt help but stand there and thank God for the beauty he has created for us to enjoy.

We continued to hike up the volcano and got up to the top just as the sun was rising. Sunday was my 22nd birthday. Now, I dont know how many people get to begin their birthday at the top of a volcano watching the sunrise but I felt incredibly blessed...blessed to be experiencing that with my community members and some amazing people from around the world. Here is a snippet of what I wrote in my journal that day...¨We made it to the top and I sat on a rock, that was the highest point of the colcano and just sat and looked at the sun as it was peaking over the mountains. What an amazing way to spend my 22nd birthday! I couldn{t help but sit there and thank God for this amazing life He has blessed me with. I feel so blessed for my family, friends and this opportunity to get to travel such a beautiful country and experience moments like watching the sunrise from the top of the volcano! Thank you Lord!¨

After this occurred, Ben (the guy from London who was also celebrating his birthday taht day and had packed a six pack of beer in his pack to drink at the top of the volcano) asked me if I{d like to have a celebratory drink with him. So we did as the sun was rising at 5:30 AM. To all my fellow FLYERS, it reminded me of opening the hills. HAHA we were opening the volcano.

This experience was quite possibly one of the hardest things I have EVER done. Hence the title of this blog, ¨Vale la Pena¨... ¨worth the pain¨. This site was worth being sore the past two days in places I didnt even know could be sore... I havent had to mentally overcome something that difficult since competing in my first Olympic distance triathlon dehydrated. It was worth EVERY bit of pain to witness such a beautiful part of God´s creation.

Also quick side note to my fellow MET loves... I hear ¨OLE, OLE, OLE, OLE¨ almost every other day and it reminds me of all of you. So you´re all here with me whenever I hear it on the radio as I´m listening to the futbol games with my host mom, Aury. ;)

Well, I got to get home for dinner! I´m going to update some pics from the Volcan Tajumulco trip hopefully tomorrow. Keep in mind, these pictures don´t do the real sight any justice!

Hope you are all well! Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes! It was wonderful to receive emails from so many loved ones when I was so far away from everyone.

God bless.
Love,
Kate :)

Poco a Poco

Hola Amigos!

Sorry I havent posted in quite some time. It´s been a bit difficult to find time to post all I want to share.

Wednesday, this past week, we went to Fuentes Georginas for the school activity. Fuentes Georginas is an area with three different hot pools that are filled by the natural hot springs up in the mountains. It was a very relaxing, peaceful and definitely needed trip.

On Thursday, some of my friends and I went out to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We were all really craving pizza so we decided to go BIG and ordered about 3 BIG pizzas between the five of us to try three different kinds that sounded delicious. BAD IDEA. We all ate WAY too much and it was food that we werent used to and honestly now, we werent sure if it was washed correctly.

Friday, the next day, I felt INCREDIBLY sick and ended up leaving school at 11 AM to head to my host casa. Once I got back to my house I layed in bed and started to receive chills and began shaking and apparently, according to my host mom, I was pale and had a fever. I took like 3 different medicines and was in bed from 11:30 Friday morning till 11:30 Saturday morning. I was in bed for an entire 24 hours and it was a looong 24 hours. I cant remember a time when I was ever that sick. I had plenty of time to think about everything going on and so it was a barrier I had to mentally overcome as well. My host moms favorite phrase through all of this was [poco a poco] meaning little by little and telling me to take it slow and not get frustrated with slowy getting better. I was still a bit under the weather on Sunday but I am feeling WONDERFUL today and eating a normal diet!

Also, if anyone has an opportunity to watch the movie, Motorcycle Diaries, I HIGHLY recommend it! I watched it on Saturday in the school since I was still not feeling well and wanted to get out of my room in my host house.

This weekend three more of the Amigos de Jesus community members got into Xela. Their names are Ritamarie, Chris and Erica. It´s been fun having some new faces in the group. We are the only students at Sakribal right now so its cool that we are able to have some good community time.
This weekend we´re planning on climbing Volcan Tajumulco (the highest point in Central America, 4015m) to watch the sunset Saturday evening and the sunrise Sunday morning! I´ve been looking forward to this hike for at least 4 months since I had heard about it from my friend Mike who studied in Xela last summer. I CANNOT WAIT!

Hope you are all well! God bless you.

Love
Kate

´´Oh the Places You´ll Go!´´

Wanted to upload some photos for you all!

Photo 2: A picture taken from a bridge.... thanks to my new camera i was able to zoom in a LOT!

Photo 1: My view from Cafe Norte Sur (North and South) on the roof.

K thats all for now.. it takes a while to upload pics and im getting kicked out right now of Cafe Norte Sur!

ENJOY!

“You don’t get through things, you grow through things.”

Buenas Tardes Amigos!

Well, yesterday was possibly my hardest day here in Xela. As I´ve mentioned in previous posts, Emily has been very sick since last Wednesday. After lots of hospital tests, tears, and decisions Emily is on her way back home to Minnesota today. It was very hard to say goodbye to her but we all knew it was for the best. Emily is now able to recover with her family and friends back in Minnesota. It was too hard to feel so helpless while she was here. Too hard to watch her struggle and be in such pain. But she is now feeling better and on her way to a comfortable recovery! Thank you for all your prayers!

It was very beautiful because before the four of us (Emily, Regina, Tom and I) left the hospital last night with Em, we sat around her bed and all prayed together. Prayers for Em´s continued strength and wellness, prayers for focusing more on Spanish here and just overall strength while experiencing this AMAZING but difficult first week with Em in the hospital and now returning home. It was beautiful and a moment I will never forget.

Yesterday, on our school activity, we went to Zunil (a town right outside of Xela). There we went to see Sansimon (also known as Mashimon or Maximon?). If you have the opportunity, look this thing up... its basically a puppet that some Mayans consider a saint. It goes from house to house to live with people and people offer it whiskey, cigarrettes, sacrifices, etc. Probably one of the CREEPIEST things I´ve EVER seen. It is not regognized by the Catholic Church and is considered witchcraft by most Guatemalans.

Today I am doing very well! Spanish class today went splendidly and I´m looking forward to getting some homework done tonight and studying as much as possible after our activity to a nearby market!

PLEASE send out your prayer requests! Would love to hear from some more of you!

Also, a shoutout to Franz, Monica and Drew who helped make yesterday a wonderful day!

All my love,
Kate :)

The Magic of La Luna

Hola Amigos!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend thus far! A quick shoutout to my little bro, K-man (Keegan)... K-man, as many of you know, is eight years old and this morning he competed in the Sylvania Kids Triathlon. Kman, I´m soo proud of you and I plan on getting more minutes tonight to call home and hear how it went! Also, Daddio- hope you´re getting pumped for your triathlon tomorrow morning as well. Good luck and I cant wait to hear how it goes! :)

So like i mentioned in the last post, on Fridays Sakribal has a potluck dinner for all the students and teachers. Last night was SO much fun! WE had guacamole, frijoles, frutas con chocolate, empañadas, an Israeli dish (unsure of the name, but was delicious!), and a bunch of other amazing food. WE all sat and ate together and apparently on Fridays before dinner, anyone leaving the school and not returning the next week ¨graduates¨ and receives a diploma. Then after dinner, the student puts their handprint in paint on the wall of the inside of the school and writes their name next to it. Eugene is leaving on Monday and so he received his diploma, gave his speech and left his handprint. After dinner we had some salsa lessons. It was a lot of fun! Carlos, one of the teachers, is a world champion salsa dancer so he teaches us all his moves! :)

After dinner, I asked all the students to join me at La Luna for some of that delicous chocolate caliente. All of the students came and so the eight of us sat around and enjoyed some hot chocolate and conversation. I got to learn a lot about some of the students that I dont know as well. Lewis and Nicholas are both older and have come to Xela for language school. Lewis is teaching English in Mexico and Nicholas is teaching spanish in the US. Both are dealing with extreme changes in their lives and so it was really interesting to hear about their challenges as well as the wisdom they´ve learned from those challenges. It was the perfect evening and amazing how each person opened up and we all just discussed our fears and dreams. It was really encouraging because everyone at the table was at least a few years older than me and encouraged me with the fact that I will never regret this experience and that I´m going to gain and grow more than I can imagine.

Earlier in the day, Regina and I walked around Xela and explored some of the bookstores in the city. All the bookstores are really cool and all contain used and traded books. I picked out a book, recommended by Eugene (he actually sold it to the bookstore I got it from), called ¨Streetkids from Brazil¨. I´m really excited to start reading it today... one of the other bookstores is also a cafe, ¨North and South Cafe¨, and yesterday Eugene showed me their rooftop which has a beautiful view of the city and is very peaceful. Looks like a great place to read and also to be my future studying location. I´ll have to take a picture of the view sometime.. although it won´t do it justice.

Something I recently thought about... I´d really like if you could all please post (in comments, possibly?) some prayer requests. It means a lot to have all of your support so i would really like to have some things that I can pray for specifically for all of you. So please post those.. that way all who look at this blog are able to pray as well. If you don´t feel comfortable posting, please feel free to email me at kteddingfield@gmail.com

Again, thank you so much for all your comments and posts on the blog. It means a lot!

Love,
Kate

Chocolate Caliente en Cafe La Luna

Hola Amigos!



It´s hard to believe I´ve been here in Xela, Guatemala for 6 days now. So much has happened in that time that the days all feel very long. I want to first apologize for this blog because Í started language school on Monday and since then have learned mucho Espanol. However, my mind is constantly thinking in Spanish now so it feels like my English has already suffered some.



I love my host family! It´s just Aury, Ernesto and I in the casa. Aury is an AMAZING cook! My mom is also a wonderful cook so its nice to be eating well here in Xela. I don´t starve thats for sure. I´m working on trying to get Aury to understand that I want less portions. Most meals, she gives me just as much food as Ernesto and sometimes more! I don´t want to be rude and i hate wasting food but I´m trying to eat less on my plate each day or just ask for smaller portions. However, when i ask for smaller portions she only takes a tiny bit off the plate. So we´ll work on it... poco a poco.

As I mentioned earlier, I started language school on Monday (August 3rd) here at Sakribal. My maestra (teacher) is Sylvia and she is wonderful! She is very upbeat and beaming with energy! She makes each class really enjoyable because we not only study words and have a regular class at times but we also will get off on tangents and talk about random stuff so I´m learning a lot about her and vise versa. I love the personal attention that Sakribal gives to all their students!



Today Sylvia and I went for a walk, during class, to a nearby church (iglesia) to pray. Apparently every Thursday people go to church to pray for the sick. Sylvia and I went to pray because my community member, Emily, is very sick right now and actually in the hospital.

WE´re not sure what is wrong with Emily at the moment but we think she might have amoebas or worms in her stomach causing her to be very sick and she actually had to have a colonoscopy (spelling?) today.



We sent Emily to the hospital yesterday, during classes, and so after class Regina, Tom (two of my Amigos community members), Eugene (another student at Sakribal who lives with Emily in her host house and is from Israel), Lewis (student at Sakribal) and I went to visit her in the hospital. In the hospital room we all talked about ourselves, Tom played the guitar and sang and we talked a bit about Amigos de Jesus (the program I will be serving at starting in September). It was a wonderful time and as I looked aroudn teh room I couldnt help but be thankful for my current family here in Guatemala. It was wnderful to know that if it was me in that hospital bed every single one of those people would be there as well in a heartbeat. What a beautiful thing... people who were complete strangers to me a mere six days ago now feel like family.



I went back with Eugene to a cafe called ¨La Luna¨. Part of my homework (tarea) yesterday was to go to ¨La Luna¨ for a cup of their delicious chocolate caliente. Great homework, right? Needless to say, Eugene wanted to help me with my ¨homework¨. In ¨La Luna¨ Eugene again is from Israel and Spanish is the fourth language he is learning. He already knows Russian, Hebrew, English and some Spanish. He is currently traveling Central/South America and began his travels in San Diego where he bought a motorcycle by which he travels. Needless to say, he has some pretty amazing stories.



Eugene and I talked about our families, friends, reasons for wanting to travel Central America, and faith. Eugene is an atheist so we had some awesome conversation! He was curious on why I´m Catholic so I told a few of my own stories about my faith, experiences, and desire to serve. He posed a few challenging questions for me to ponder about my faith so it was a really life giving and bountiful discussion.



Every day, at around 3 o´clock, Sakribal has an activity for all teh students. Today we have salsa lessons here in the school so I´m getting ready to head to teh other room for that. Every Friday, the school has a pot luck dinner where each student cooks something with their teacher and brings it to share. Sylvia and I tomorrow plan on going to the market tomorrow during class to purchase some strawberries, pineapple, bananas, mango and chocolate to make chocolate dipped fruit. I´m really excited becaue its basically just a big fiesta and time for us all to hang out, eat, drink and dance!



Tonight I plan on going to visit Emily in the hospital, after salsa lessons, with Tom. REgina is already there and actually stayed the night with Emily in the hospital because she is a nurse and wants to make sure they are taking care of Emily.

I hope you are all happy and well! Thanks again for reading!

All my love,
Kate

Bienvenidos!

Hola Amigos!

After saying goodbye to family and friends at 5:30 AM, I have now arrived safely in Guatemala to begin language school tomorrow (Monday) at Sakribal.

Yesterday was an incredibly long and exhausting day. After landing in Guatemala City, my two community members and I (Regina and Tom), took a four hour bus to Quetzaltenango (Xela-pronounced Shae-la for short). It was not my first experience driving through the mountains of Guatemala but I was yet again reminded of the loco drivers that exist here...winding through the mountains without decreasing speed... loco. After arriving in Xela around 6:30 p.m, we took a taxi to search for our hostel. Our driver didnt know where our hostel was located so we drove around for quite some time in the dark trying to find it. After finding the hostel we checked in and went out in search for food. Sitting at dinner the three of us discussed how we´re all still kind of in shock of the fact that we´ll be calling Latin America our home for the next 15 months. Emotions were all over the place last night... excitement, nervousness, sadness... we were all so exhausted we couldnt completely register what was going on. It´s all still very surreal.

We then went in search of a phone card to call our families to let them know we had arrived safely in Xela. After about an hour and a half of searching for one in a town we had never been to before, in the dark, we had no luck. We went back to our hostel and asked the guy at the front desk who became our hero for the night. Not only did he go out and buy us two phonecards but he also came back and helped us to figure out how to put them onto a cell phone my brother Jake had given me to use in Xela. After the minutes were logged onto the cell phone we still couldnt figure out how to dial out to the US. After dialing about 5 or 6 times we finally realized that the country code was necessary and then proceeded to call our families at 11:30 (in the states) PM to inform of our success and safety. Needless to say... we slept VERY well last night-we all ZONKED!

This morning we woke up and went out in search for food then realizing that it was Sunday and most restaurants are closed. We went back to the hostel and Tom got sick so Regina and I went out looking for our language school (Sakribal). After finding Sakribal we checked in and then went back to grab Tom and all his luggage. Our host families were then called and picked us up at the school. So we went our separate ways to our casa´s that we will call home for the next 6 weeks.

I live with Auria (spelling?) and Ernesto. An older couple that is incredibly friendly and welcoming! Ernesto is wonderful because he is determined to help me learn as much Spanish as possible in the home. If I pronounce something incorrectly he is always sure to correct me and then teach me the proper way to prounounce it. AMAZING! Ernesto also has his own radio show and has an office upstairs from where he runs his radio show. Walking into his office and seeing all the shelves FILLED with different CDs of music was so exciting. My obsession with music will continue to be fulfilled!! :) Ernesto has also said that once I learn more Spanish he wants to put me on the radio show... but ONLY after I learn more Spanish... HAHA! It´s great though because he is very encouraging and patient... hes my buddy in the house.

Today Regina and I have just been exploring Xela. On the first Sunday of every month there is a mercato in the central park of the city. There have also been performers throughout the day! It´s been a fun first day in Xela! Today I´ve been really excited about all that I´m going to learn in language school in the upcoming weeks. Throughout the day we´ve been picking up different brochures of activities or trips we´d like to take part in while here. Basically i think right now I´m just enthralled by the culture and exciting opportunities that await me! Mom, Dad, Jake, Mol, Mike, Ben, and Keegan... this doesnt mean I dont miss you ;)
It´s Sunday night and six o´clock here in Xela, meaning its 7 in Toledo, OH which means that the Schoen family is currently sitting down in the Eddingfield living room for rosary which is a really beatiful thing to think of.

Thank you all for your prayers and support! I´ll continue to update this bad boy of a blog every week or as frequently as possible!

Love
Kate