First Day in Chicacao

Saturday, June 26, 2010, 10:40 pm

Made it to Chicacao! We wondered why Dany was covering our suitcases in the back of his truck, but soon we knew. It starting raining like crazy!! I can so see how this place has been flooded lately; I thought we were going to hydroplane a lot of times. Dany’s little girl and wife were in the car too when he picked us up from Antigua. Dany’s baby girl was all over the place, trying to crawl on her daddy’s lap and hang out the window while he was driving!

Well, we made it to Chicacao around 3 p.m. and they first dropped me off. My host mom Angelica greeted me at her gate in the pouring rain. I was surprised when she showed me my room - it was big! I was expecting a room with just a bed and room for one suitcase on the floor. Nope. I have a big room all to myself. A BIG tank of agua pura and a TV. Angelica is not married, and she lives with her father, Pedro, and her niece (Beli) and neice’s husband (Miguel). They all are so kind and keep telling me in Spanish, “We are your family. I want you to feel a part of this family now.” Beli is 29 years old and a few years ago had a kidney transplant. She has been married for 3 years to Miguel, who works at the clinic as a health promoter. I went into their room and just sat on their bed and chatted for a while. I noticed they had an old-school elliptical in their room and I asked about it. They said that they could move it into my room if I wanted because they don’t use it very much. Score! I also told them how I’m mad that I left my bilingual Spanish-English Bible at home. Manuel scrounged through his books and gave me a bilingual New Testament to borrow. He also gave a Spanish version and an English version of the book “Where There Is No Doctor,” because I was needing it. They are too kind already. Papa Pedro the grandfather is 72 years old and cute but I can’t understand him at all.

Angelica, my host mom, has been super welcoming. She has just talked my ear off today telling me about the past students she has hosted. She really enjoys hosting us. I hope the story she tells future students about me is good.  She already started on washing my dirty clothes from this past week in Antigua. She gave me an extra blanket for warmth. She told me not to be afraid at night if I hear a loud noise on the tin roof above me because it’s just a cat. She made me tortillas, chicken, and rice tonight, and asked me lots of questions about what I like to eat. She asked if I would like a formal breakfast (eggs, beans, and tortillas) or Corn Flakes and fruit. I opted for the second choice. She also told me that because of her and her father’s health, they don’t drink caffeine. So she drinks lots of decaffeinated coffee. Yikes! How am I going to survive without caffeine for the next 5 weeks?! I know she would buy me some if I asked; she already offered to. I’m going with her to the market tomorrow, so maybe I can pick out some stuff.

We had church tonight at 6. Macie’s host home is attached to the church, and Macie’s host dad is the pastor, which is great because it means I get to see Macie every time we go to church. And church is EVERY day. Macie’s got it pretty sweet too, with her own room, balcony, and internet access. But she can’t communicate with her host family very well yet, so that’s difficult. Her host mom and my host mom are sisters. Tomorrow we are having lunch together because the sisters wanted to get together. How perfect for Macie and me!