May 22, Santa Clara de la Laguna

Well here's my first entry from Guatemala I hope you enjoy:

Guatemala is such a beautiful country. Yesterday I made it to the little village where I will be staying. It was a beautiful experience coming here! This place is enchanted! The road which comes to the town winds through these steep canyon walls. The mountains are covered in many different types of trees. It reminds me of Jurassic Park, its beautiful! I know that I was impressed with Xela last week, but Santa Clara where I live surpasses all previous impressions I have had of Guatemala. I’m not sure exactly what it is about this place. It isn’t only the land itself but also the people, I have never seen a more humble people, the town seems almost untouched by foreigners. When we walk through the streets, this is very much apparent; everyone stares at us as if we were aliens. The people are not completely cut off from visitors from other countries since the village is located off a road which connects the Pan American Highway with the Lake Atitlan and the pacific coast in western Guatemala. I doubt I will soon forget how it was I felt coming and meeting my family. Miguel is my father and I have four brothers! Ha! What I always wanted brothers! And the family really treats me like family. They were very emphatic insisting that I was their brother, when I asked the father how many children he had, he said, “I had four, now I have five!” My mother is a sweet little K’iche woman who doesn’t know any Spanish any better than many Americans know Spanish (A few words here and there is all, plus words k'iche has borrowed from spanish)! K’iche is the primary language spoken here, although there are people who also speak Caqchikel, and Tzutujil. There is a little river which separates Santa Clara from Santa Maria La Visitacion where there are three other BYU students.
There aren’t any missionaries nearby, which surprises me because the church could easily have a decent branch or two in these communities and within a few years a chapel as well! I don’t know though maybe we’re going to be laying some groundwork here in our studies. Although we are strictly prohibited from preaching or anything, people are certainly going to find out that we’re LDS, which may be very beneficial when the missionaries do come. Quick comment on Guatemala and religion, there are a lot of Evangelical Churches here! Much different from Mexico, in Mexico it seemed like there were about the same amount of Evangelicals, Mormons, and JW’s; however, in Guatemala there are a lot more Evangelical churches although they are small, there is also a large LDS population here and JW’s? I still haven’t seen any, interesting.
Ok so I’m writing this on my laptop in my room, there aren’t any lights in this room and the only light that I have is from my computer, and a bug just crawled across my computer which kind of makes me feel uneasy (We've heard some pretty gross stories about bugs here) so I’ll make sure to put on plenty of repellant before I go to bed. My dad Miguel is going to get a light put in here this week which will be really nice. My family is so cool, my brothers are 8, 11, 14, and 16 years old. They are so cool! Everything in this home is so simple, it’s humbling to see but I think there is a beauty to it that escapes American society. Next to the home is a Corn Mill that Miguel owns. It’s a simple operation but it brings in enough money for the family to get by. The second oldest son drives around a “tuk tuk,” which is like this three wheeled covered motorcycle it's way cool, they’re used as taxis here. This brings in a little extra income for the family and he’s still able to fit in school. The mom takes care of the house and cooks and helps when she’s needed in the Mill. Also we don’t have a shower! Which might get really annoying later! Instead this family like many others in the community use a “tuj” I won’t explain anything more than saying that it’s a simple type of sauna (look it up online if you want to know anything else). I still haven’t used it yet but I will tomorrow, as well as twice a week for the duration of the next three months! I think this will give me a new appreciation for showers! We also just have a little wood burning stove to cook food on! It’s great, wood-fired meals taste good! Especially wood fired tortillas! I kind of feel like I’m going to be camping out the next three months, which sounds like fun, right? I hope it works out alright!
The people here are very curious to see these white people in their communities. They are very surprised when they see us walking down the street and even more surprised when we say, “Xeq’ij,” good afternoon in K’iche. I love it here! I know it’s not going to be easy living here and that there are going to be challenges but I think that this will be an experience unlike any I have ever had before and something which few people unfortunately never do! In America we sometimes think that we are so superior to people in other countries and cultures that we think of any travel abroad as a service we do for those people we visit as if we are there to grace another country with our presence while recognizing how much superior our own country, our own paradigm, and our own way of life is. Oh how shortsighted this self conception is. We, yes us great Americans have so much to learn from our brothers here in Guatemala and in all sorts of other places around the world. If only we would broaden our perspective a little more and if only we could see ourselves as members of a greater international family. We like to say God Bless America, but why can’t we sometimes say, “God Bless the World!”