Christmas, Spanish, Residency, and Tea Parties

We have Christmas decorations up!! This is my absolute favorite time of the year! I love the decorations, lights, music, and almost everything else about it (I just really miss having snow)! Andi survived back to back Christmas Tree days with me. The day after Thanksgiving was Brubaker Christmas Tree Day and then we joined my family for Fulp Christmas Tree Day! It was so much fun... but Andi might feel differently ;) 

I have been working on my Spanish on my own just through talking to friends, books, and online resources. I am feeling pretty good about how I am doing, but I still make plenty of mistakes. I didn't want to pay for more Spanish classes (I took classes after my family moved here in 2011) because I felt that more grammar work wasn't what I needed. I talked to a friend and we are getting together once a week for a language exchange. I am helping her with English and she is helping me with Spanish. We just talk with each other and help or correct when we say things incorrectly. It is a really neat opportunity for me and I am really excited about it! Hopefully this will help me become more comfortable speaking Spanish.

Last month, we began working on residency stuff for Andi and began the work for my name change (I am already a resident). This past Thursday, we went into the city for another appointment with our lawyer. After signing some papers, standing in lines, paying a fine, getting pictures taken, and lots of confusion (Andi and I were confused... not our lawyer), Andi is officially "in process" now and my new passport is off getting the residency stamp! The appointment only took about 1 hour and 45 minutes! This is amazing for the immigration office in Guatemala and for everything we had to get done! YAY! Pray that the rest of the process goes smoothly.

Andi and I have been having different members of my family over to our house a few at a time to hang out and play games. Last week, it was Kimmie's turn. She came over and we had a tea party (well, it ended up being a coffee party) and played some games, but we didn't let Andi join because it was a girly party. It is so much fun being able to spend time with family like this!

We are starting to look for a vehicle now. Because of road conditions all over Guatemala, there are certain things we are looking for in a vehicle. This means we can't just go with a cheap little car. We already have some money put aside for a vehicle, but we will need more than we have at this point. Please be praying with us as we look for the right vehicle for us and pray that God will provide the money. If you would like to help us out, you can give to Hope for Home and designate it to "Brubaker vehicle". Thank you!

Krishauna and Andi 

I love my job!

Can I just take some time to brag about my student for a little bit? 

As I shared in a past post, I am teaching a young man in my parents’ home. His name is Cesar (he goes by Checha) and he is 18 years old. As far as we know, before I began working with him in September, he never had any formal schooling. He is smart and very anxious to learn, but he hadn’t been given the chance to learn so he lacks many of the basics. 

Touchpoint addition

I go to Hogar de la Esperanza to work with Checha one on one for 2 1/2 hours three days a week. We have been doing touchpoint counting (dots on the numbers that the student touches and counts to figure out what number it is) to work toward addition. Just this week, we started addition and Checha is doing great! We have spent the majority of our time working on identifying letters, tracing them, and listening to the sounds each letter makes.

Writing name on iPad app

At the beginning of September, I evaluated where Checha was to know where to start. He knew most numbers 0-9 and all basic colors and shapes, but he could only identify four letters of the alphabet. After really working on learning letters for a month, on October 5th, I tested Checha and he knew six letters (only two more than a month before). I felt extremely discouraged because we had been working so hard with so little progress. I was trying everything I could think of to help him, but nothing seemed to be working. Teachers often see students struggling, but it is important to try new things and not give up. We kept working together. Checha worked on his own when I wasn’t at the home. After lots of work, on October 31st, he knew 13 letters! He learned 7 letters in 26 days and since then, he has learned a few more. He also is working to write his name (picture shows his progress). I am so proud of Checha and how hard he is working!

Who says those with disabilities can’t learn?! THIS is why I am in Guatemala.

Leading up to Thanksgiving, my family has a thankful tree that sits on the kitchen table. When someone thinks of something they are thankful for, they write it on a piece of paper and clip it on the tree. Checha asked someone to help him write one. His paper says, “Thanks for school”. How exciting is it that Checha finally gets to have an education and that he realizes how blessed he is to have the opportunity to learn! 

Thank you for your prayers and support!

Krishauna

Shopping and cooking in Guatemala

Now that I am back in Guatemala, I can cook the way I like to... with fresh fruits and vegetables! It was hard while we were in the U.S. because these things aren't cheap, but here, it is one of the cheapest way to eat. Here are some average prices of foods we get (the exchange rate is about 7.50  quetzals for every U.S. dollar):

Sweet Bread

Potatoes - Q3/lb

Onions - Q4/lb

Carrots - Q1 for each carrot

Avocados - Q5 for 2

Bananas - Q5 for 6

Strawberries - Q5/lb

Pineapple - Q10 for a large one

Peppers - Q1.50 each

Tomatoes - Q3/lb

Zucchini - Q1 each

Sweet bread - Q1 for 3 pieces 

Tortillas - Q1 for 4

There is a tienda (these are small stores right on the street that are usually the front room of a house) right at the end of our street where we can go to get rice, beans, flour, sugar, ketchup, mustard, snacks (they even have real chocolate candy bars), drinks, fly traps (very much needed), and many other things. There are also at least 5 other tiendas on this one block so if one doesn't have something we need, we go to the next one to check. We can get fresh tortillas three times a day if we want (again, right at the end of our street). There are also small fruit and veggie tiendas everywhere. There are some things that we can't buy in these small tiendas so we have to walk two whole blocks  to the Bodegona (our grocery store). This is a new addition to our town in the past year. It used to be that we had to go a couple towns over for a real grocery store so this is a huge blessing. 

I could leave the house at 12:00, spend Q10 ($1.30), and be back at 12:05 with an avocado, a couple tomatoes, an onion, and 8 tortillas. A few minutes later, I am eating fresh tortillas with guacamole... Mmmmmm!

Here are some of the delicious meals we have made:

Baked oatmeal with fruit

     

Flautas

Grilled cheese and salad

             

Pollo/Piña stir fry

Black Beans and Rice

Chicken Tacos

Eggs, Strawberries, Toast and Coffee

  

Nachos

About three weeks ago, we were talking to some of our neighbor kids and invited them into our house. They played in the courtyard for a little bit, climbed our orange tree, and then asked for some oranges. We shared some with them and now, they ask for more every few days. We don't give it to them every time, but we decided to invite a bunch of kids over one afternoon. So this past Thursday afternoon, 7 kids showed up at our door. We taught them how to play Uno and we gave them juice and oranges. Some of the older ones are helping us with our Spanish and they are having fun practicing the English words they know. We have decided that we want to make it a weekly gathering. 

Andi and I also learned how to drive a motorcycle! We are still practicing, but it's going well.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge Chicago Cubs fan. Anyone who knows the Cubs knows that they haven't won a World Series since 1908. And anyone who follows baseball knows that the Cubs not only made it to the playoffs, but they won their Division Series and they are in the National League Championship Series this week. This is extremely exciting news!! So that means we are spending a lot of time over at my parents' house watching the games. Go Cubs Go!!!

We love our town! 

Feeling settled... kinda

It has been just short of a month since we left the U.S. and we are finally starting to feel settled here in Guatemala! :)

So we aren't repeating ourselves too much, here is a link to Andi's last blog post that tells about some of our adventures over the past month of being here: http://andibrubaker.blogspot.com

After multiple trips to Guatemala City, Chimaltenango, and Antigua to get all our furniture and other household items, we got to move into our house on September 7th. Since then, we have been figuring out how to adjust ourselves to this new and different lifestyle.

This is our kitchen (left). Like most Guatemalan houses, we do not have running water in our kitchen. Instead, we came up with our own makeshift kitchen sink (right). One large jug has purified water for drinking, washing fruits and vegetables, and cooking (if needed). The other jug has tap water in it. This is used for washing off hands while working in the kitchen, rinsing dishes that may need it immediately, and for any cooking that doesn't need purified water. You can also see here that we also do not have real cabinets in the kitchen. This means we need to check for bugs and dirt on the dishes and usually wipe them out before using them.

Our pila is outside off of our courtyard. A pila is what is used to wash dishes along with doing laundry. The middle section gets filled with water and is scooped out with a small dish into the sides where the washing is done. The left side has grooves on the bottom to use to scrub the laundry, but that is something I really don't like to do if possible (it takes so long) so my parents are letting us do laundry at their house using their washing machine for now. We will have to eventually decide if we are going to get our own washing machine or if I will get over my stubbornness and start hand washing our clothes.

Here is how we are supposed to get hot water in the shower. It is called a widow maker. It uses electricity to heat up the water right there in the shower head. So far, we haven't had hot water (or even warm water), but it hasn't been really cold water. You can step into the water without shivering, but it doesn't make you want to stay there for long. I got a little shock once when I tried to adjust it... I think I will just leave it alone from now on to keep from making it mad.

We have a tin roof on our house. This is fine because we have quite high ceilings so it doesn't get too hot inside, but we have a couple fans that are on pretty regularly. One morning, I woke up suddenly to something hitting our roof. I ran outside to see what it was. Our next door neighbors were knocking Güisquil (right) off of the vine growing up the tree that hangs over our house so it was falling hard and hitting the tin roof. Not my favorite way to wake up. On the positive side, the rain sounds amazing on the tin roof! It can be difficult to have a conversation when it is raining too hard so maybe we should learn sign language :) 


Open air houses mean that dirt gets everywhere. We're still working on getting used to sweeping and moping more often to try to keep things clean. It also means we can hear everything the neighbors do. Sometimes is sounds like someone is walking through our courtyard, but we realize that they are in the next house over. They also like to blast pop and techno music. Keeping a fan running helps to block out some of this noise. 

Bombas (colorless fireworks) being set off during the night can be quite scary. Especially when it is coming from right next door and in the middle of the night. This was something I had gotten used to when I lived here before, but I am having to readjust to this again. 

Only in Guatemala... do you get asked by your neighbor to turn off the light in their property because the switch for that light is on your property. Now we put tape over that switch so we don't accidentally turn it on again.


These days, we are staying pretty busy.
Andi is taking Spanish classes for 12 hours a week (4 hours each day on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday) and he has homework to do after each class. Please pray that Andi will pick up the language quickly. While he is at class, I am teaching Checha (Cesar) who lives at Hogar de la Esperanza (my parents' home). As far as we know, he has never had any formal education so at almost 18 years old, he is learning to identify and write letters, addition, and other basics. I am very excited for this opportunity to work with him. He is excited to learn and even asks me to give him homework. Please pray that he will continue to be excited to learn and that he will not be discouraged through the time of learning the basics (he understands that he is behind for his age and this can be discouraging especially if he is having trouble with a concept). And pray that I will know when to push him and when to back off and give him a break.

We are also taking trips with my dad. These are ministry trips to different villages where we take wheelchairs, medication, and food to families and get to spend time talking to and praying with them. This gives us an opportunity to see different areas of Guatemala and seek God as to weather or not He wants us to move to those specific areas in the future. I was able to go to Jalapa (Andi couldn't go because he was sick at the time) and then we both got to go to Canillá, Quiché. These are really neat experiences for us. Please pray that we will have open ears and hearts to follow God's call no matter where He leads us!

Thank you for all your prayers!

Krishauna

A few years later and EVERYTHING has changed…

I haven't been the most consistent blogger... like ever. But I'm going to try (REALLY try) to change that. 

My last update was from November of 2013 when I was finishing up my time at Casa Bernabe. SO MUCH has changed since then and I don’t want to bore anyone with the whole long story so here is the very quick update of what has happened since November of 2013:

• 2014 - I worked at Hogar de la Esperanza while finishing my online classes. 
• January-May 2015 - I completed student teaching in Ohio and then I finally graduated!! I now have teaching licenses in special education and early childhood education. 
• April 4, 2015 - I got engaged to Andi Brubaker! 
• Summer of 2015 - I lived in Pennsylvania with my grandparents and got to spend time getting to know Andi's family. 
• October 24, 2015 - Andi and I got married in Guatemala and then we had a second wedding two weeks later on November 7th in Pennsylvania :) 
• Right now, Andi and I are living in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, working, and raising support so we can move to Guatemala in August.

Wedding photos!! 


Now, for a ministry update...

Everyone who knows me knows that I have been preparing for years to teach special education in Guatemala. That plan has not changed, but has expanded over the past year. Often, teachers who work with children with disabilities in Guatemala are not trained correctly or at all. I plan on building relationships with already existing schools to provide training for these teachers or help to get a special education program started. Hopefully this training will open up opportunities for more children to participate in school and provide a better education with the ultimate purpose of showing that God values those with disabilities and has a purpose for each of their lives.

Until we move to Guatemala, I am staying busy as a prekindergarten teacher while Andi and I are raising support. I am also really enjoying getting to spend time with all of Andi's family and my mom's side of the family who live in this area.

That's basically what's going on in my life. Hopefully, I will get better at this whole blogging thing so I don't have to do any more of these update posts ;)