When I realized....um I live here

This has been another crazy week. We have survived two weeks of school! We are finally getting a routine down and the "mission trip" feeling is wearing off and it's starting to really be real that I'm living here and will be here a long time. It's a really weird feeling thinking that this is my life now. Laundry, grocery shopping, doctors, transportation...even in the simple things my life will be very different for quite a while.

This week we had Open House night for the parents. Families got to come see the school and meet the teachers. I was pretty intimidated by this, but it was amazing the hospitality and love they showed me. The parents are very aware that the majority of the teachers are from the States and leave a lot to come teach their kids. These parents are involved in their child's life and care about their education, but it is also deeply evident that they're so glad we're here. I felt very welcomed and like they supported what I'm doing. I met several of my students' parents and siblings. It was really interesting conversing in Spanish with them and seeing my students with their family speaking their native language. It was cool how much they owned the classroom and were excited to show their parents their desks and all of our classroom routines.

some of my kiddos finding books.

This week was also the start of my Spanish lessons! I am meeting with a Spanish teacher two times a week. This is going to be one of my favorite things I'm doing here. We are trading languages: he's teaching me Spanish and I'm teaching him English. We meet and speak totally in Spanish and I explain English grammar concepts in Spanish the best I can. It is extremely difficult explaining English in English much less in my second language. We've only met twice and I have already been incredibly stretched as an English speaker and a teacher. Hopefully I can be as good of a teacher as he is to me.

I came across this verse this week...

"However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace."

Acts 20:24

I've barely been here four weeks and it's really easy for me to forget the real reason I am here. Yes, I'm a teacher and I have never-ending lesson plans and stacks of papers to grade and tests to write, but when I return to Texas in June I am a missionary. I will always be a missionary no matter where I'm living or what I'm doing. I'm getting to the point where I am tired and the year ahead seems long but it's GOOD because I am here for Him. I sleep very well, but I am excited to get out of bed in the morning. I am filled with the joy of the Lord and He makes every moment of every day great. 

Every Friday my 3rd graders read to the 1st graders. They're very proud of this.

I am still so grateful and humbled for this opportunity. As I hang out with fellow teachers I am in awe that the Lord dropped this job in my lap. These teachers and these people are amazing. They have incredible servant hearts and I'm incredibly blessed just getting to be around them much less poured into by them. 

Yes, they're this cute in person.

Thank you for your prayers and support. Thank you for reading God's stories through my blog. If you ever have any questions or would like me to get pictures of something specific I'd be more than happy to! Love you all! 

Back to this huge stack of papers next to me needing grading....

Yesterday we found this great coffee shop. It had a beautiful courtyard, Guatemalan hot chocolate, and we had the place to ourselves. This is Sean and Devin.

Dad, look who we found!

Where God's presence is shown through good friends

What a week! This last week was the first week of school and we survived almost hiccup free! I have 13 students and they are so much fun. They all have precious accents and speak fairly good English. They absolutely love and excel in math, science, and Bible. Reading and writing is difficult for them because of the language barrier, so that will be a huge thing we will be working on this year. It is so crazy being a real teacher. This is the absolute best school I could possibly imagine working for. They truly believe that Guatemala will one day be changed because of these kids and we all work for that. It is amazing having a united goal educationally and spiritually. I spoke with my boss for almost an hour in her office the other day just about life and what God's teaching us. What a blessing I get to do that with my principal! 

These are some of the teachers on the first day of school at our bus stop. Don't worry I changed shoes once I got to school.

Yesterday, my three close friends, Liz, Devin, Sean, and I all travelled to las Fuentes Georginas, which are some hot springs about thirty minutes away. We travelled on a chicken bus and then paid a man to drive us up to the top of the mountain. We happened to discover a waterfall with nobody else there. It was a GORGEOUS set up. The waterfall was cold water, but the natural springs were right next to it and were perfect hot tubbing temperatures. We explored, hiked, swam, and as usual laughed a lot. We ate lunch next to the steamy spring and it kinda reminded us all of a scene from Jurassic Park. On the way home we rode in the back of a pick up truck and had a total blast. 

This was our hot spring we had all to ourselves!

That building is where we ate lunch!

Devin, Sean, me, and Liz in front of the waterfall next to our hot springs.

The four of us driving down the mountain in the back of the truck. Don't worry mom and Gramma, it's legal here.

Many people have been asking me how I've been doing. I'm still doing great! I'm still just in awe that I'm here. God has just grabbed hold of me and been taking such good care of me. Some of my biggest fears in coming down here have been instantly taken away. Fears of finding friends, finding a church, finding community, and of how teaching would be. I know that I'm not even three weeks in, but I am still stoked and honored to be here. I have made some incredible friends. We discussed yesterday how crazy it is that we've only known each other a couple of weeks. I know that it's not if the hard times will come, but when. I know I will get home sick eventually, but I will never stop being grateful that God has planned this life for me. God has given me an extraordinary life here. Please pray for my students and that I would love them WELL every minute of everyday. I'm already getting to have dinner at one of my student's family's restaurants tonight--how sweet is that?!?

Where God speaks ALL languages

Hello all my dear friends and family. I have been in Guatemala for almost two weeks! Orientation is over. Curriculums, lesson plans, and classrooms are done. All we need now are some kiddos. Tomorrow is the day! So much has happened this week, but school finally starts tomorrow and I feel more and more blessed with every minute to get to be here and love on these kids.

Xela is unbelievably beautiful. God's beauty is so evident everywhere you look. Blue skies, huge plush clouds in the mornings and then loud, powerful downfalls in the afternoon. 

This is the view from the school's soccer fields on a clear day! The beautiful city of Xela.

We have had many adventures this week. We did find an awesome market called La Democracia. There are unending blocks of fresh fruits, vegetables, spices, as well as clothes, and bags, and anything else you could ever want to find. It is beautiful the way all these people work from sun up to sun down to support their families. 

Several booths in La Democracia.

A few of the teachers needed to make a trip to Wal-Mart (yes, there's actually a Wal-mart here!). However, the errand that is Wal-Mart is not as simple and convenient as we're used to. A trip to Wal-Mart requires riding in a mini van with 25+ people for about 20 minutes. People are hanging out windows and sitting on laps. AND, it is usually raining and flooding which is an added adventure. I'm not worried about hydroplaning or floating away though because we're pretty well weighed down. I pretty much am laughing the whole time because it's just extremely comical.

These are my wonderful friends/teachers, they had a London poster for free pictures! So of course the white people had to make a scene.

There are 3 forms of public transportation around here. The chicken bus...need I say more. Microbus...which is about the size of a minivan and it is more about efficiency than customer service. The micro will be maxed out yet they still stop to pick up more people! Finally, there are large yellow school buses we call Rutas. The story with these is, when they are too dangerous to drive in the U.S., Mexico buys them, then when Mexico is done, Guatemala buys them. These are very much an adventure as well. Life is never boring around here.

This morning we went to an amazing church. We went with our host family and the business manager from school. It was called Palabras en Accion (Words in Action). The service was about 2 and a half hours long, but so Spirit-filled. Ushers walked around scanning for those who needed Kleenex the whole service. It was amazing the way these people surrender and love God. They were crying out to Him the  entire time. One of the lines in the songs we sang was "todos lenguas" or "all languages." The God we worship in Texas, in New York, in California, Guatemala, Africa, China, is the same huge, powerful God. These people live their faith. Everyday they endlessly love and serve, yet they are the ones that feel blessed. We serve an international, multilingual, loving, eternal God.

Palabras de Accion. That concrete slab-looking thing is a waterfall. Hundreds of people were in here today worshipping.

Please pray for this first week of school! It will be crazy and new and overwhelming, but I only get one first day of my first year teaching. I'm ready to laugh at myself a lot. A very good chunk of the teaching staff are teaching for the first time tomorrow, so I know we would all appreciate prayers.

I will post even more pictures on my facebook so check that out too!

Nunca una vez,
Ms. Ellsworth

P.S. Karis, I found this on the church across the street! Even spelled right!

When you find yourself teary or speechless

I do not even know where to begin. I arrived in Guatemala yesterday (Tuesday) around 1:00 local time (2:00 central time). Instantly I could not believe the incredible hospitality of the people. A man in the airport told me I had just arrived in the best country in the world and I practically wanted to run out of the airport I was so excited. I hadn't even been in Guatemala for an hour and the new team of teachers sang me Happy Birthday (thanks to my Dad who e-mailed my boss, I thought I was going to get away with nobody knowing!). We then drove about five hours to our home city, Quetzaltenango (Xela for short, pronounced She-lah). We arrived at my host home and they had a small party planned for me--all the new teachers, a cake, and happy birthday again. It was an incredible treat and made me quickly feel like family and I felt very welcome. They take birthdays INCREDIBLY serious here.

This is the view of Guatemala on my flight as we flew in. 

My host family is amazing! There are tons of people at the house all the time--I'm honestly not real sure who even lives here! There's a grandmother, a couple teenagers, a few little kids--it's a blast. They don't speak English, but I'm getting plenty of practice on my Spanish. They treat me like and call me their daughter. I constantly feel so blessed. Just to help you picture the town, Xela is almost 8,000 feet above sea level in mountains and volcanoes (yes, we're right next to an active one!). Xela is small with very narrow mostly one-way roads. It's probably close to the equivalent of a large city's downtown, perhaps slightly smaller. It has almost a New York City feel with the hustle bustle and constant car horns. It is very handy being able to walk almost everywhere. My favorite part though is that the school is slightly out of town set on 9 acres of land. So, I also get to get out of the crazy part of town and just enjoy some beautiful green mountains. There is a bus that picks up all the teachers in town and drives us out there.

This is the hallway leading to my room. This is the second floor. First floor is living room/dining/garage (yes, where we ate cake was where the car was parked the next morning). Second floor is bedrooms and bathroom. Third floor is roof where you can see a lot of the city.

This is my sweet little room! I was so surprised and blessed to get my own room. Very nice to have my own space after long days at school.

This is the bathroom. Pretty nice except for slightly scary shower head conditions!

God is definitely providing quick relationships. This week is orientation for the new teachers and there are only about 8 of us. It's incredibly awesome hanging out with people that have the same heart for teaching as I do and that are also in the same boat as me--brand new place, no friends, no family. We are hanging out constantly and are bonding quickly. And it's a plus that we're all co-workers! 

God is incredibly real here. I am quickly learning to appreciate and soak in everything and get out of my American habits of being extremely "time-efficient" since I'm in a slower paced culture. I find myself randomly tearing up because I can't believe I am finally here and doing what I was MADE to do. I have just been walking around wide-eyed and speechless. I can't believe how good God is. I'm getting lots of time to reflect on every little thing that has happened in my life and see how it has brought me to this point. My prayers are just awe-filled silence right now. I'm praying that the newness and how undeserving I am remains at the forefront of my life here. I also pray for everyone I know in the States, that each of you would feel the divine peace, joy, and contentment one finds when they are obedient to God's calling in their life. I wish that for all of you! Thank you for the birthday wishes and the unending support and friendships I have in each of you.