OBERWOTLE CREW

This is what happens when you try to drive on cobblestone....

Sunday

Sorry no pictures or anything, but last night I had a great time watching the Chargers-Steelers 4th quarter with my host family! It was very fun trying to explain football to them and watching the watch it with such confusion and curiosity. Before we turned on the game we had a great time looking at pictures of both families and also of former students that had stayed at their house. I think I'm going to start spending more time out of my room at with my family because it really is great practice for me!

My Talking Spanish Friend

Here are my attempts to get some video of my new friend. He doesn’t really have a name, but he whistles and talks to himself all day and it is crazy how much he sounds like a person. Obviously he talks in Spanish which makes him way cooler. This is the best I could do for video so far, I am trying to get a better one of him calling for “Mama” when he gets hungry. You can hear it pretty well at the very beginning of the first one.

The bird is an unbelievable whistler, and would have been a great addition at either APT 180 or 863.

Just ignore these if they aren't very good, it was hard to get good video of this guy.

Weekend at Atitlan

Here are a few pictures from me and Brian's day in Atitlan. It is basically a HUGE lake with different towns surrounding it. We stayed in the main town because we were only there for a few hours. It was a 2 1/2 hour bus ride which really wasn't too bad. Our main objective was to find the "zip line" that carries you through/over the trees and the mountain. We were able to track it down pretty quickly and had a blast there. We were very fortunate that the weather was perfect while we were on the zip lines, most of the afternoon was spent at different cafe's or shops staying out of the rain.

Me and Brian with Jorge our guide

who took the amazing video

All geared up

Panajachel-the main city on the Lake

Volcano on the other side of the lake

Sunday is a day where we are on our own for food and we made it a very "American" menu for the day. I spent the whole day with the 2 other Kids Alive missionaries here (Brian and Emily).

Before church we had breakfast at McDonalds (which had an amazing patio overlooking a volcano, fountains, free internet, and plenty of room?), then we went to church at a service that had everything in 2 languages which was pretty cool, but at times hard to follow. After church we met up with another missionary through Kids Alive in Guatemala and a few other people from church and went to Pollo Campero which was definitely on my to-do-list. It is basically a Guatemalan Chick-fil-a and is the most popular restaurant in the country.

We went to the market during the afternoon and I found an internet cafe to "watch" the Bears game, but it was a very choppy connection. That night we spent 3 hours at Subway just talking and hanging out. It was a nice relaxing Sunday.

Week 1 random pictures

I successfully finished week 1 of language training at CSA! It was draining but I definitely saw improvement every day and actually enjoyed class so I am looking forward to the next few weeks. Life is much more disciplined for me than back home, I am finally used to early mornings and early nights. Here are a few pictures from the week. It has literally rained every afternoon this week so the rain gear was definitely necessary.

I would also like to send a shout-out to faithful reader, commenter, and world-champion chess master Jeremy Schletz.

This is a "tuk tuk" which is essentially a taxi in

Antigua. I can't help but feeling that Kirk lived

in Antigua and drove these for a living in a past

life, it is just too perfect of a situation for him.

This is the huge mountain I see every day walking

to class.

Very fitting that I came across these hot kicks

while exploring the HUGE mercado on

Jeremy's birthday. If they weren't a size 6

you better believe I would have bought them.

Our definition of "rain gear" is very different. This is Paolla

(Elsa's grand-daughter) and her mom. As you can see I am a

large Guatemalan.

Last, but definitely not least, this is mi

"madre de Antigua" Elsa. She loves feeding

me and I love being fed so it is a great relationship.

She is great and I have loved getting to know

her and her family this week.

Estoy en Guatemala!

Just wanted to write a quick note saying that I am officially in Guatemala and everything is going great! I got in late Sunday night after a week-long farewell tour in Wheaton, and ate dinner and had coffee (a first...) with my host that night. My host is great, she loves cooking for me and she is used to having a lot more students so we talk a lot. Her spanish is very very fast but she is usually good about helping me if I am struggling to understand. I wake up around 630 every day and have breakfast at 7 and then out the door around 740 for school. School is great it is basically a 1 on 1 tutoring session from 8-1. It seems long and I was a little nervous about that but it actually goes by really fast. I can see a huge improvement already after a couple days. I come home from lunch, take a nap because by this point I am exhausted, and then head back to school to study/use the free internet for an hour or 2 before dinner at 6. Dinner is generally pretty long and after it I usually go to my room for the night and study/do homework, do my quiet times, and go to sleep EARLY. It is actually really nice to not have distractions and just be able to slow down at night.

Very long and narrow streets that all look the same...

There are 2 other kids alive missionaries at the school with me and they have been here for a week and were already way past my spanish level so it is good to have them here. We walked a little bit through the city and I bought a real cheap cell phone that is easy to use to talk to people in the states if they use a calling card. I am transitioning just fine and as long as I don't get sick or anything I think this is going to be a great 5 weeks in Guatemala. I am really wishing I was fluent, but realize that it is a process. Hopefully by the end of 5 weeks I will be good enough to communicate in the DR. Still working on getting videos on the blog, I am surprised enough that I was able to get pictures on here. It is really my first time having a camera, and today on my walk to school I decided to use it a little bit.

My school

Pray for:

- my transition to continue smoothly

- my allergies to stop acting up at the house and for mosquitoes to stop biting me in bed

- my spanish to keep progressing

- safety and health (my teacher told me that since it is a fairly small town the police have it under control and it is very safe, which was good to hear)

Email me at Kyle.Bradley@my.wheaton.edu I would love to hear from you.

September 20th!

It is finally official, I will be leaving on September 2oth to start the journey down to the DR. I will fly down to Antigua, Guatemala for 5 weeks and spend 5 hours a day learning spanish. It will be a great experience, I will be living with a Guatemalan family who hosts language students and be fully immersed in the culture there. After I finish in Guatemala I will then fly to the DR on October 24th and start with my Kids Alive responsibilities. I couldn't be more excited to go and I am so thankful to have raised enough support to be able to book the plane ticket.

I received a great update from the Kids Alive missionaries already in Constanza a few days ago and I am very excited about some opportunities that may be available there when I arrive. One thing they are hoping to do is to start a more organized basketball league which is something I would love to get involved with and I was praying that there would be some sort of opportunity like this in the town I will live in. I also had a great dinner with Lee and Nancy Lewis who served for several years in Constanza through Kids Alive and now live less than 3 blocks from my house in Wheaton! It was great to hear more specifics and details as to what I should expect when I get there.

Please keep praying for me as I finalize departure preparations and say goodbye to everyone in Wheaton. Also, send me an email at kyle.bradley@my.wheaton.edu if you would like to be added to my email list that I will start up when I get to Guatemala.