Saludos de Guatemala, gente!!!

Hello, everyone!

I MADE IT TO GUATEMALA!!

I am hoping and praying that my friends and family read this and know that I am safe and sound.

I am staying with a couple in Guatemala City and plan to leave for language school EARLY in the morning. It is around 1 pm here, so I'm thinking that it is around 2 pm in Panama city, and 3 pm in Orlando.

The trip went well. I sat with a high school Spanish teacher on the flight here. He drew diagrams of different things and quizzed me on my Spanish. It was quite fun. He was impressed by what Spanish I did know. We were talking about "coditos" which is like "elbow macaroni" in the States. That's an odd word for a United Statesian to know. I explained that I once dated a Puerto Rican and that my nickname on the island was "codito". That made me miss Puerto Rico greatly. Every time I landed in San Juan the whole plane would erupt in applause...myself included.

One quote from my seat buddy: "Novios son los mejores diccionarios." Jaja.
"Boyfriends are the best dictionaries." I agree completamente.

After arriving, there was a wonderful woman waiting for me at the exit with a sign that stated "Cody Hudgens." I was MORE than overjoyed to see her.

I am now in my room, relaxing. I am going to take a shower, get my stuff organized, and rest. I have a roommate coming later tonight. She is from DENMARK. Odd, but I actually had a roommate from Denmark when I was in NYC as well. We are both heading to the same language school tomorrow.

This is quite the adventure/task/call. As I was flying from Atlanta, I still found myself saying, "what in the world am I doing here?" That thought was later reaffirmed when a very Southern woman asked me where I was headed to. I said, "Well, I'm moving to Guatemala to be a nurse for about six months." She then stared at me blankly and stated "but, why?...." lol, that was comforting.

One last fleeting thought, I lack a converter to charge my computer with. I will surely buy one within the next couple of days. I'm sure it'll be dead by tonight, so give me a little while to post my next entry.

I would like to put a quote on here from the journal Teen made me. It pretty much sums up what in the WORLD I am doing here.

It was written in Spanish, so I'll quote it as it was written, then paraphrase it my own words.

"En estos momentos es super importante recordar la razon por la cual viajas. No es para pasarla bien, no es para estar comoda, no es para una aventura. Es para servirle a Dios creador que quiere que tu seas una extension de su amor para aquellos que te rodean."

I'll close with the paraphrase.

In these moments it is super important to remember the reason for these trips. It's not to have a good time, not to be comfortable, and not for the sake of adventure. It is solely to serve our creator God who wants you to be an EXTENSION of His love to those around you.

And the church said....

Amen.