No entiendo.

Spanish 101: Lo siento pero no entiendo. Affectionately, I´m sorry but I do not understand you. Necessary terminology for our lives at Casa Guatemala where everything is more than we hoped and desired, though the language gap has widened somewhat, and we became slapped in the face with our thirty-something state of being. Their´s a shitload of young folks here, and along with that comes amazing 20 year old linguists with the energy and stamina of an everlasting gobstopper, and of course, the drama of the typical reality tv show. Welcome to our island.

We got off the boat first to find that we weren´t tucked way back into the thick of the jungle. But yes, we´re in the jungle non the less, where our nightly dinner bell is the howler monkey, our walk home in the dark accompanied by the largest fireflis in life- yes, the size of the usual american hummingbird. And yet, from the orphanage dock you can see others anchored, a few thatch grande homes, the whispering reed grass, the smoky mountains in the horizon, and still only a 10 minute launcha to town.

So, our new home, our cuarto is a coveted spot. Only 4 couple rooms total in the whole place and by the ill fate of a relationship we bequethed the room. It´s decent in size, we have some shelves, floorspace and a bed. There´s a kitchen, bathroom, shower. The only thing we want for is light. Though the house appears wired with bulbs in a few sockets, nothing was ever hooked up and so it is merely a tease. Candlelight is a delight, yet a full day of children and the flickering light sirens one to sleep way early. Now, if we were in the main volunteer house with over 35 volunteers, things would be different.

We´re the only married folks. Figure that.

Funny, only our first day at the orphange and already we find ourselves embroiled in controversy. Normally, new volunteers work at the back packer hostel for the first week, before being moved to the island, but there is a surplus of volunteers presently and the wait is longer. We`ll they granted us a quick pass because they need another nurse, and so that ruffled some feathers. Additonally, most volunteers at the orphanage live in this one overcrowded house sleeping on singlewide bunkbeds. Thirty five altogether. The other place to stay is a couples joint, which has four private rooms but nobody gets into there forever. Well the morning we arrived a couple became splitsville and they gave us the room but the others had moved their stuff out. Needless to say, we were making friends fast.

Anyway, we love our new digs and our new mosquito nets, though to be honest, the bugs have not been bad yet. It is the dry season after all, like it has only rained 48 hours straight, but hey, it was sunny when we got here. And so far our new roomates do not mind shacking with us long in the tooth folks.

Overall, the orphanage is overflowing with beautiful children that want to come up to you and hug you, hold you. We are still figuring out our place, our job and duties, but we think we are going to like it and maybe even love it.