Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Message from Allison

This photo is of the students before they left the "safe haven" of Clinica Ezell. This photo was taken before the students knew what adventures and fun were ahead of them. Allison is kneeling on the front, left side.........the following message is from her.

I am a senior exercise science major at Harding University and my minor is in Spanish. I graduate this coming December and plan to attend Physician Assistant graduate school afterwards.

So far I have loved my time in Guatemala. One of my favorite things about the whole experience is actually getting to live with a family. My first night here my mom invited me to us the tuj. I had heard about it but had never seen one. It is pretty much like a sauna that they use to bathe in. Ours is made of adobe bricks and it is large enough to that you can sit down. It is heated with firewood and then they bring hot water in to bathe. My mom told me they usually have three kids in at a time. I decided that the next time they use the tuj I wanted to give it a try.

When I first entered, the heat kind of shocked me. It was difficult to breathe but I got use to it. It was definitely a nice change from the cold we have here. I think my family was excited that I used it because they kept asking afterwards if I liked the tuj.

The next night was another fun one with my family. No one in my family except for my dad had eaten pancakes before so I decided to give them a try. For me, it is difficult to make pancakes back home so I knew that making them here would be an extra challenge. It actually turned out to be a great experience. I made the first few and before I knew it my oldest two sisters who are 13 and 12 were wanting to give it a try. Their pancakes definitely turned out much better than mine. I was flipping my pancakes with a spatula and spoon while they were managing a clean flip with a spoon.

The whole family ended up loving the pancakes, especially my 4 year old sister who ate 4 mini ones. The only surprising thing about the experience was when my mom got out a type of "salsa" to have with her pancakes. It turned out to be ketchup and it was pretty funny to see some of my family dipping their pancakes in it.



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