Guatemala: Flores - Host Family

***I'M HAVING TECHNICALLY DIFFICULTIES LOADING MY PHOTOS HERE IN FLORES. I'LL TRY ANOTHER INTERNET CAFE NEXT WEEK. OTHERWISE...THEY MIGHT HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THE NEXT TOWN WHICH WILL BE LATER NEXT WEEK.***

I arrived in Flores Guatemala on Wednesday afternoon. I was greeted at the airport by Anne, who is the German girl who runs the school (the teachers are native Guatemalans). They dropped me with my host family. My guate mom, Zoila, made me a dinner of: black beans (pureed), scrambled eggs, fried plantains and tortillas. They family didn´t eat with me...I guess they ate later. However, Zoila sat and talked with me (Spanish only) while I ate and later called her husband David in to talk. He was very excited to talk (Spanish only) about American things: sports, weather, politics...he even asked if I liked Obama or McCain. He keeps up on world news by watching CNN (in Spanish). He sits about 3 feet from the TV. I'm not sure if he just likes it that way or if he can't hear or see very well.

I wasn't feeling well after the flight, so I went to be early. My room is quite nice, much nicer than I expected. I had been informed that most homes in Guate are much different than those of the US and Western Europe that many consist of one room that are divided by plywood not going to the ceiling. However, this is a big 2 story house with a kitchen/diving, living room, bathroom with shower (no hot water) and what appears to be 4 bedrooms but I can't really confirm that without snooping. I have a large room with a balcony and a TV. The floor is tile, the walls are stucco. The floors in the living room and kitchen/diving are concrete. There is no sink in the kitchen, but it's in an open breezeway between their house and the one next door (which is the house of David´s parents). They also have a computer and internet in their home (2 kids in college and 1 in high school). Although I don´t use the computer...but bought 20 hours in an internet cafe for $7US.

The second day I come home from school at 1pm for lunch (3 meals/day are included in the home stay). Oscar the 15 year old son who only talks if I directly ask him a question shows me downstairs to lunch (the mother works). He gives me the plates, tortillas, lettuce and CHICKEN. I figure he either didn't get the vegetarian memo or maybe they think chicken is part of my diet...yikes. So I tortillas with lettuce for lunch. When I go upstairs I tell Oscar (Spanish only) thank you for the food. I didn't eat the chicken because I am vegetarian. He smiled.

I had a headache all day. I think because of the flying and the change in climate. I was sort of just feeling out of sorts yesterday and a little bit down. I wondered if I´d be eating only lettuce tortillas for the next week. However, when I got home at 6pm I went to the kitchen to find Doña Zoila and she was making tortillas. I asked if I could help. She showed me how to take the ball of dough and make it into the flat tortilla to cook. She can make them super quick. I on the other hand was very slow and could not produce a good-looking tortilla. But she fixed them for me. She asked about the 'soup and rice' and me not eating it for lunch. I told her that I didn´t see it. She said Oscar was supposed to show me the rice and the vegetable soup. :) Leave it to the 15 year shy boy to only show me the lettuce and chicken. She was worried that I didn´t like her cooking and I was worried that I was only going to eat lettuce. We had a good laugh. Dinner the 2nd night I had: Veggie soup, black beans (pureed), 1 fried egg, rice and tortillas. I'm definitely not going to loose weight this week.

I showed Zoila pictures of my nephews, my parents and a picture my friends and I mountain scootering at Snowbird (this was the only one I had to show the Utah mountains). We had a good conversation then I went to bed early because despite 2 tylenols in the morning, 4 Ibuprofen at lunch and 2 more tylenols at dinner...I still had a headache. But I am feeling much better today. And for lunch Zoila had made me spaghetti...which the night before I had told her it was my favorite food. Mothering is definetly international. She´s making sure I´m well feed and looked after.