Meet My Friend Fred

Hola familia, amigos, and friendly readers :-)

This is my first attempt at "blogging" and I'm under all this pressure since Neil has basically showed me up with his ridiculously long and detailed posts, haha. Well let me tell you, it's cause he steals computer time EVERY chance he can get...go figure haha *I love you Neil*...

Anyhow, Guatemala is pretty great so far. I arrived safely on Sunday and met up with Neil and Pai and the rest of the crew already here. For those of you who don't know, my dear friends Nicole and Tommy lost their son Payton suddenly on Friday, May 23rd, and I was thankful to have the opportunity to delay my departure to be able to stay for the week and spend time with them and their children. Please continue to pray for Nicole, Tommy, and their children Morgan, Dillon, Tyler, and Ayden. I won't cover all that Neil has thus far, but basically we have been well introduced and taken care of by Craig and his wife Carmen as well as all of the friendly students that started before us. Lake Atitlan is beautiful, even despite the rain and clouds...there is a peace and tranquility about it that is truly unmatched. The people of Santa Cruz are wonderful, from natives to travelers to staff alike. Our hotel, La Casa Rosa, is quaint and welcomes us in with a beautiful lakeside tropical garden retreat. There is a cabana out front that I think Pai and I are going to use for yoga one of these mornings (when it's not raining). Speaking of Casa Rosa, the title of my blog references my pet spider, Fred. He is a huge creature (he's got to be like 2 inches in diameter, if that's how you measure spiders), and he chills out in one corner of my room up by the ceiling. One of the students here, Leanna, told me that he didn't move, ever...and that the guys staying in my room before me could attest to that. Well, I went on blind faith that night (or maybe I was just blindly tired), but sure enough Fred does not move but more than a couple of cm in any given direction. Plus i have yet to find any bugs in my room, so I'm thinking that Fred kills them all while I'm gone and now I have a particular affection for him.

The past couple of days at the clinic have been great. I will say it's been a bit difficult to jump back into the swing of studying....yes we have worksheets and homework very much reminiscent to 3rd grade, haha. But it's great..and it's why I'm here! Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll have learned enough that I can actually see a patient and take a full history.

Laurie (my classmate and friend if you don't know her) and her husband Jeremy just arrived so I'm gonna bounce, but I hope everyone is doing well, thank you for your thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes, and I will write more soon I promise!

Lots of love,
Kristen