I´m not dead

hey
I just want to say that I am still alive. We left whitworth at 430 on friday afternoon and arrived here in Xela (the coloquial name for quetzaltenango) at 8pm central time on saturday. so yes, that does mean that we were traveling for something like 25.5 hours. it was really great. I am staying in a home stay with a family here in xela. the mom (se llama Flor Maria) is really cool and reminds me of betty power. it is fun. she is a really good cook and she is going to teach us how to make the guatemalan tamales that we have had a few times. I am living with Jeremy Mohlinaro and Ryan Sabata. some of you know them. during the mornings, we have language school. we start at 8am and end at 1pm and do one on one teaching for the whole time. it isn´t as bad as it sounds, but it can be a little long. We do get go to on field trips whenever we want. in the afternoons, we have activities. today we went to the ome of a woman who makes chocolate for hot chocolate. it should be noted that the hot chocolate is SOOOOO good here. we have had a few free afternoons. yesterday Jer, Ryan and I went to this cafe that is on a balcony on the second floor of this building that overlooks the central park. se just sat there, drank hot chocolate, and people watched. It is really interesting to see how everyone interacts with each other. There are guards everywhere and they usually have shot guns or machine guns. so yea, we feel real safe!!! It is funny because we feel so much more educated because we speak decent spanish and are trying not to be obvious gringos, but it is hilarious to watch the other gringos. I am not joking when I say that yesterday i saw a dude who was a pale as printer paper, wearing black flip flops, blue board shorts, some crappy shirt, sunglasses, a black fanny pack and is taking pictures of EVERYTHING!!!!! we laughed pretty hard. Naturally we all have stories to tell. the other day, I almost got knifed by a drunk lady (mom, don´t worry, she was too drunk to find my legs), one of the guys on the trip got hit by the mirror of a bus, and we got hit on by some guatemala girls. needless to say, we are having a great time. Just to let you know, it is probably about 25 C (75 ish) in the day, and we have all aclimated enough to wear sweatshirts basically all day. at night it does get pretty cold (down to about 0) so we have to bundle up under the covers a little. Personally, I am doing ok. I am a little sick. I have been dealing with a really bad cough which has kept me up the last few nights. I think it is moving on because I am moving into the phlegm stage. also, I have a little diharreha. all is to be expected. well, that is about all i have to say now. We are heading out to go to the party at the central park to commorate the new municipal leaders who are taking their offices today (this is after the concert following the change of the president yesterday). But all is well. As for prayers, I would love some about getting completely healthy soon and that language school will become even better of an experience. thank you all for the prayers I have gotten so far and I´ll talk to you later.
Joe (guatemalanly pronounced jo-ay)