We´ve arrived!

So far so good! Traci and I got to Santiago after a pleasant day in Guatemala city. We met the MCC country reps, and 3 SALTers that will be in Guate for the year. Turns out one of them will be living in Santiago, and was THRILLED to find out she wouldn´t be alone here.
Our house is called Las Milpas, (spanish for The Milps). Just kidding, it´s a local word for cornfields, which we are surrounded by. It´s about a 200 yard walk down a trail off of a side road- lots of fun carrying our luggage! The house has beautiful gardens, fruit trees, and a pretty good view from our bedroom. There have been volunteers from the hospital living in the house for the past 3 years, but most only stayed for a month or two. This was painfully obvious when we arrived- there were a lot of random things broken, or in disrepair that nobody bothered to fix because they wouldn´t have to deal with it long. We´ve just been getting settled, making long lists of things to fix or buy, and walking around the city. It´s changed a lot in the past 3 years, but I´ve been able to reconnect with my old host family, and several other locals I learned to know well while I was here.
On Sunday Traci and I leave for Quetzaltenango (AKA Xela) to start our two weeks of intensive language study. We´ll be living in separate host families so Traci can really be pushed to learn, so please keep us in your prayers! It´s been very tiring to transition into speaking spanish all the time while working through our job descriptions, and taking care of the house. We should have better internet in the next two weeks, and will try to get some pictures up.