Let the fun begin!

    As mentioned in our last post, the past month or so has been full of meetings, program planning, stratergizing (theres a George-ism for ya), and basically working on the 'boring' behind-the-scenes stuff that makes an organization run. Since Barb and Gerry came we've been focusing on getting them acclimated and ready to take over the show when we leave in July. Although that type of work is never officially over we are happy to be moving to more of the fun stuff in the ministry! We had a great debrief of sorts with Barb and Gerry last Thursday where they basically encouraged us to put away the computers and work on what is most important in our last two months...the relationships. They have a lot of experience with this having been missionaries in the Congo before coming to Guatemala. The gist of their very wise advice was that yes processes are important but its the people and the moments together that you will remember long-term.
    So as our first order of fun business, we decided a dance party would be the most appropriate - of course! We mentioned a while ago that we have started tutoring a group of about 10 junior high students who are in their first year of school in the big city. This is a huge transition as the schools in Yalu SUCK! The kids have really struggled but praise the Lord we are starting to see improvements little by little - especially in the ones that faithfully come to the tutor group. As an incentive to get all of them to come, all three days we are there we started taking attendance. Unfortunately teenagers are too smart for their own good and they decided that putting a little white dot on an attendance sheet wasn't good enough for them. In a moment of weakness it might have slipped out that I would make them cookies if they all had perfect attendance for one week - whoops! Well it finally happened this last friday and to celebrate we had a little dance party. At first the kids weren't so into it but as you guys know...its hard to sit still once Gregg starts dancing.

The kids had a great time once they got over the initial fear of having to compete with Gregg's dancing! Plus there will be homemade chocolate chip cookies tomorrow, so really, everybody wins.

Grado A fue Pan Comida

Gregg passed his level A test! Bravo bravo! Ahorita onto Grado B = past tense, irregular verbs, and lots and lots of vocabulary! Usually it takes students 3-4 weeks to pass a grade but Gregg did it in less than 3! Muy inteligente :) We are both improving poco a poco each day. Orginally we made a rule that we couldn't speak English to each other between 7am and 7pm but that lasted about 2 days before we wanted to kill each other (translation: Kelley wanted to kill Gregg). So now we have adapted the original plan to a more realistic and sanity friendly one. Between 7-7 we try to speak solo Espanol as much as possible but if someone doesn't understand or doesn't know how to say something we don't make a big deal out of it. Definitely mejor! Besides its not like we aren't speaking enough Spanish already :) Right now we are in school 4-5 hours/day, then do homework for 2-4 hours, then talk to our house family only in Spanish during all three meals. A mi, esto es suficiente! 

For passing his test Gregg got his first Guatemalan gummy worms. This is pretty much that only thing he's been craving from the States so I searched and found the only store that sells them in Antigua. Its hard to go from eating something almost everyday to never! 


Well vamos a estudiar! (we gotta go study) We'll be back this weekend though with a more thorough update. Love and miss everyone!