the swing of things

     kaBOOM... popopopopopopop ka-BOOOOM.  This is a dramatic re-enactment of the sounds I woke up to this morning at 3:00 am.  It was followed by every dog in the city starting to whine or bark, and then more booms and pops spaced oddly at about every 10 minutes until about 7:00 am.  While my initial thoughts of 'Oh shit, we're ar war with Honduras!' would make for a much more exciting blog, it turns out that is was just another religious community celebrating their patron 'our lady of some miracle'. While this highlights how little I still know about this country, it also serves to illustrate the fact that I'm learning my way around little by little.  No longer will I hear those explosions in the middle of the night and fear for my life, just like I will no longer wonder what is at the other end of town (La Ciudad de Felicidad orphanage) or how much it costs to mail my computer charger home ($50!).  Everyday that passes I have a few less "first time" experiences, and become a little more comfortable here. 
     As of tomorrow I will be done working at the library where I have spent my first few weeks and met my first Guatemalan friends.  I'll be moving on to work in a clinic preparing for a group of doctors that comes to Esquipulas every year to give free medical services to the people.  I will also be beginning my first english classes for the community here next week.  I'm not sure what that will be like, so far we've just read through a few pages of an english primer with a monk, and he seemed like he wanted us to do that 5 nights a week.  While I'm here to help, 5 nights a week after working all day seems like a little to much for me. 
     We took a trip to an orphanage called La Ciudad de Felicidad (the city of happiness) the other day and possibly picked up our third project that we will work on while we are here. I was very impressed by this orphanage, and would like to write more, but as I'm sitting in the computer lab right now and don't have a whole lot of time, nor do I have a way to add pictures due to my battery-less computer, I'll dedicate a whole post to this place later. 
   For now, suffice it to say that I'm beginning to get busy with work, and I have developed the beginnings of a social life (I have taught cribbage to a few of the monks so we play nightly, and go out for drinks on Friday nights with my library friends) so I am beginning to feel more comfortable here.  I'd like to write more, but I find it difficult to come down to the computer lab very often, and cannot upload pictures, so until I get my computer fixed, the posts will be few and far between. 
I hope this finds all of you in good health and great spirits!