La primera dia

So far...loving it. :)

We slept in a bit this morning and then headed out to Dona Luisa bakery.  It's right off the square in Antigua and has amazing bread.  12 cinnamon rolls, 3 crescents, 1 loaf of banana bread....less than $6.  Can't complain.  On the way we passed a little old woman who was no taller than Grace.  She stuck her hand out and at the time we had nothing to give her.  On the way back we opened the cinnamon rolls to give her one.  She smiled with all of the 3 teeth she had. :)  We saw her two more times today and both times she gave us a big wave.  Really trying to make an effort for random acts of kindness.

We left the bakery and stop at the Bodegona on the way home.  We grabbed an eclectic mix of  food.  Thankfully I threw 2 31 bags in before we left home for hauling groceries.  In retrospect I should have grabbed more.  We picked up some milk, ham, pasta, rice, cookies....Tim got a 12 pack of Brahva.  It was as much as we could carry.   When we came home, the kids jumped in the pool for awhile.

We weren't home very long before we had a knock on our window.  It was Mayda!  Last year when I came down to build houses for a week, Mayda prepared all of our meals.  She's coming 3 nights a week this month to make cena (dinner) for us.  She gave me a big hug....and then proceeded to ask me a lot of questions in Spanish.  I think I got the gist of most of what she said.  The kids told her they wanted pollo, arroz, carne, no vegetales!  Jake asked for a hamburguesa.  She said no hamburguesa y no pizza.  Then she told me she'd just chop up the vegetables very small so the kids didn't even know they were eating them.   Cracks me up.  She left and came back about 30 minutes later with the food for tonight, mangos, lichees, paper towel and toilet paper.  She figured we would need it.  It's nice to be taken care of.

We ventured out again to get phones for the kids.  I waanted them each to have a phone that they carry on them.  For Christmas this year we did the 'Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to see'.  Their something  you need was a spi belt.  It's a belt they can carry around their waist to hold a little phone.  The phones were $12 each and include 80 minutes.  They are ecstatic and want to know if they can use them in the United States.  I also picked up a SIM card for my phone so I can use it in Guatemala.  I have google voice so that my US number works for   calls/text when I'm on wi-fi, but the SIM card will let the kids call a Gauat number to reach me if I'm not at home.

On the way to the market there was a kid selling videos on the street.  10Q for each video.  Since we can't understand anything on TV, we thought it might be nice to have a movie or two.  he assured me they were in English as well as Spanish.  he was right for half of them.  That still means I only paid $3 a movie.  The kids got pitch perfect 2, Cinderella, McFarland and Kingsman the Secret Service.

Jake found a yankee hat for $5 at the market and then 10 manzanas( apples) for $2.50.  he also picked up a passion fruit because he had a friend tell him they were good.  He is ALL in on this trip.  I love that he is so ready to experience it.  It's fun to watch.  Lily picked up a bag of fresas for 75 cents.  It needs to be disinfected but it was crazy cheap for the amount we got.  Pineapples are only $1.  I might not leave.  Ethan found some beats headphones in the market for the low low price of $20.  I'd say they are knock offs but who cares?  He said the sound quality was good...but is waiting before deciding to spend his money.  The last thing we got was journals for all 4 kids.  Then we came back to hang out in the pool.

We just finished dinner.  Mayda made an amazing pollo con salsa y arroz.  The kids all ate every last bit of it.  They couldn't stop talking about how good it was.  We got to sit and eat as a family as well...which never happens.  Maybe that's why I like it so much down here.  We get to live the way we are meant to....not the way we overschedule ourselves to.

Kids are in the pool again and tomorrow they start Spanish school.  It's been amazing.