February 22, 2014 – Translation: The Weekend!

It being Saturday here in Nebaj, I was able to “sleep in” until about 8:30 when they called me for breakfast (since I went to bed around 8 or 9, that’s definitely sleeping in haha). I was supposed to go on a hike with a few other people from SEC but knew I didn’t have the strength to go hike for a few hours, even though I had been really excited about going, especially with the prospect that we would stop at this cheese shop run by an Italian family in the mountains. So not even my cheese obsession could get me out of the house for this excursion. But I was feeling much better. Breakfast was “mush” and they put corn flakes in the hot cereal, but I can’t stand mushy cereal, so I just put some on top to be polite but ate the corn flakes as quickly as possible so they wouldn’t be too soggy.

It was a very nice and lazy Saturday. Feliciana does laundry on this day and insisted on doing my laundry for me whenever I needed it so Claudia came downstairs with a bucket and told me to put my dirty clothes in there and they would wash them. I didn’t really have a lot of dirty clothes, and the other day when they told me about laundry day, they seemed shocked and a little confused when I told them I didn’t really have any dirty laundry for them to do. But I guess I’m used to waiting at least a week or two to do laundry because we do it in a washing machine, where here it’s more ‘clean as needed’ because they do it by hand. Also, apparently Feliciana is very good at doing laundry. Anna told me a story about a student who did her home stay here and was shocked by the fact that “Feliciana got stains out from my cloths that had been there since 7^th grade!” Kind of ew. But also impressive.

At about 10:30, Feliciana came down to my room and brought me pan de trigo. This is when I finally looked up trigo, and realized it means wheat and I literally just started crying and also started praying for my health because I can’t bear to saddle them with another food difficulty because of me. So once I was done praying for strength, I took a bite and didn’t look back. She also brought me tea and I made sure to wash the bread down with plenty of liquid. An hour later, I was still feeling okay, but it’s the following hours that I was really worried about.

After spending plenty of time typing up my blog entries onto my computer from my journal, I finally got all caught up, and just in time to rest and read a little before lunch. At lunch Feliciana asked what religion I practiced – I’m sure she’s been curious, since they always say “vamos a horar(sp?)” (Transl: let’s pray) and I pray. I told her Christianity and tried to explain what kind of church I go to in the states, but after awhile, like many things, I think things just got lost in translation. But they invited me to go to church with them on Sunday. I happily accepted and they asked if I wanted to wear the traje tipico de Nebaj (typical outfit from Nebaj), which I quickly said yes to, and they clarified I didn’t have to if I wanted, it was just an option, but I still said that I wanted to. I couldn’t tell if they were just being nice or if they thought I owned nothing more than sweatpants and a sweatshirt since that’s the only outfit I’ve been wearing for the past couple days since I’ve been sick hahah… Oh well! Claudia ran downstairs to grab something and brought back the contents of the outfit, which included the skirt, the belt, and the pullover shirt. I’m curious as to what I’m supposed to wear underneath, but I guess I’ll find out tomorrow, as long as I’m not cold, since I’ve been pretty cold since I got here, because I’ve spent so much time indoors. After lunch, I went back down to my room and just wrote in my journal. I’m definitely going through a range of emotions, seeing as when I get sick in the states I’m such a baby, and here I have no mom or friends to take care of me. But I got worked up enough to wear myself out and took a nap. I woke a few hours later, feeling much better about myself, and not the pouty baby I’ve been for the past couple days. But I was still not feeling 100% so I just kept resting in bed and decided to read a book. A little while later Feliciana brought me an apple, and the second I took a bite, the waterworks started again. I don’t know what it is with food and me right now, but goodness, you’d think I was sacrificing a life every time I tried to eat something.

A little later in the afternoon, Anna stopped by and brought me saltine crackers and Gatorade. I wish I could actually eat the crackers (since they have gluten), but I didn’t have the heart to tell her, and I also kind of wanted to try the crackers, since I had already eaten the bread and nothing too horrible happened. But I also knew better than saddle my stomach with another issue at that moment, so I decided those would have to wait. She also brought me movies and a book, to keep me company, and said I could sleep in tomorrow and come to “stove day” in el centro parque later than the usual 7:30 am on Sunday. Then she helped me with my “internet stick” and offered to help set it up at the store or on her computer. (So hopefully I will be able to be on my blog, actually sending these out soon! And if you’re reading this that obviously means it worked or I figured out another solution!) (Update: that took a few more days haha…)

At dinner, Feliciana told me they were having all the family over the next day, as a sort of “Welcome to Guatemala” party for me 🙂 SO sweet… And I went to be excited for the SEC “stove day” in the parque the next day, and then lunch/party with the family, and then church in the evening.

M.