Tengo Pulgas

That’s right. I have pulgas. Pulgas are fleas, and I have them. But don’t worry. I pulled out my pretty purple flea collar and put it in my bed, so I think I’m okay now. Things are going great here. I can’t believe it has only been a week and a half. I feel like I have been here forever. We have already been able to do so much. It’s funny because at first when I got here I would tell people my name is shearsty like it sounds, but they couldn’t say it. Then when I would spell it they would say oh....Kristi. So now I just introduce myself as Kristi. It’s a lot easier for them. I did my laundry on Saturday and man, I forgot how long it takes to wash things by hand. I also forgot how awesome it feels to wear stiff clothes when they dry. So I want all of you to take a moment of silence for me the next time you do laundry.


















Last Friday we went down to Lake Atitlan and took a boat out to a little community called Tzunana. We are going to teach nutrition to the kids out there. Most of the people only speak Kachekquel though, so it may be a little difficult. But it was an adventure getting out there. We were going to spend the night and hike a volcano the next day, but we got stuck in a down pour and decided to just go home. We couldn’t do an 8 hour hike all wet. So instead on Saturday (our day off) we went to Monte Rico which is on the southern coast. There is a beautiful black sand beach there. The ocean was a lot of fun, but super salty. Way saltier than Hawaii. But we had a good time. Some drunk guy thought it would be a good idea to try to swim drunk, but passed out. They carried him up on shore and started pumping his legs just like on the cartoons. It was awesome. So I ran over there hoping to use my life guarding skills, but someone finally realized that he was breathing and probably chest compressions wouldn’t help. He was just so drunk that he passed out. Don’t worry though. 45 minutes later he was back at the shore with a beer in hand. Smart. Yesterday we got English classes set up and put up fliers all around the town. They went like hot cakes. Everyone is really interested in speaking English and who can pass up free classes. Today was awesome. We went back out to Xetonox (shay-to-nosh), the community 


















that is trying to get water into the houses. They are so great to us. We shoveled dirt into bags all day so they could take it down to where they started to put in piping before they ran out of funding. The rain washed away the dirt so we needed to get more down there. The people there so love. We are the first foreigners there but they take such good care of us. They even made us lunch.......chicken and soup. I’m not sure how safe it was to eat, but we didn’t want to offend them. We’ll see how we all feel tomorrow. No. I’m sure we’ll be fine. We are kind of adopting this community. We are going to help them out in a couple weeks with nutrition assessments to see if any of the kids are malnourished. Well, I better get going. We need to go to the pharmacy before dinner. About half of us have come down with a wicked cold. I love you all!!!! Kirsti