Allow me to reintroduce myself, my name is Xela Lopez.

The month of November was an absolute whirlwind. It was kicked off with my birthday on the 5th, which with much thanks to my roommates, friends, and the cantina (local drinking hole) across the street from our house, was celebrated in style. We had a house party on the 6th (sidenote: our couches are STILL outside from this) and then my mom and brothers arrived on the 9th for a two week visit to Guatemala. They were the best guests I could have asked for as countless times I had to run off and do something work-related while I left them to explore Xela, the Lake, and Antigua on their own. Jamil and I picked up a group of Habitat volunteers on the 19th (the "Reflections" group aka best group we have had!) and were with them about ten days (including sharing an amazing Thanksgiving dinner with them), and were back in Xela this past Sunday night just in time for the annual Habitat Spiritual Retreat which ended Wednesday afternoon. Today I am proudly not going in to the office (which of course means I was awake a 5:30 am) and it feels like the first day all this month where I have a moment to gather my thoughts... and unpack!

Maybe you were all a bit surprised to find the words "Spiritual Retreat" in my first blog entry. Definitely not something you would expect myself to attend. Although not completely my scene and at times I feel a bit uncomfortable when the clapping and singing has gone on for longer than thirty minutes, it overall is a really nice event that Habitat puts on as a way to thank the staff for another amazing year of work. For most of the employees, a vacation throughout the year is almost impossible as the jobs, although fulfilling, can be quite demanding and consuming. This retreat is one of the only times over the year that everyone is together with no work burdens and can simply share time together. Having said that, we were sad that Josue, more commonly know as "El Patron" (a blog entry on him will be coming soon...) was not in attendance because of work he had to take care of in his area called Solola.

Two highlights for me from the retreat sadly (but not surprisingly) have nothing to do with the Pastors and the speeches we listened to. The first night was the "Cultural Night" where each affiliate is supposed to give some sort of presentation whether it is a skit, a song, a dance, something along those lines. One department was waiting for the music to begin for what could best be described as a terrible attempt at mouthing the words, when I thought it was an opportune moment to go and quickly say bye to a friend sitting a few rows in front. I got up but the music was taking longer than expected to start. Someone on seeing me get up said loudly, "Vamos Ellie!" and in true Guatemalan style (when in group settings here, you often might be confused and think you are back in high school, or even elementary school. EVERY time a cell phone went off at this retreat, half the group would loudly say, SHH! which in my book, only makes it that much louder and distracting.) everyone joined in and before I knew it the entire salon was chanting, "Vamos Ellie!" I did not handle this well and could only shake my head to clarify that I was not going on stage to join them, and sat in the first open seat I could find. It was pretty hilarious though. This moment, however, was definitely topped when after dinner Jamil and I discovered the play ground. We decided the see-saw was a good choice and quickly realized it is a lot more dangerous than we remembered. This didn't stop us from jumping up each time it was on our side, sending the other person practically bouncing out of their seat. Practically bouncing out until Jamil actually flew and landed pretty much on top of me. Once I knew he was ok and had no injuries, we had one of those laughs that makes your stomach hurt and you have tears pouring down your face. All in all a really great retreat.

I should mention that recently added to the List of Awesome Stuff was next year at the retreat Jamil and I want to show up to the final dinner in formal wear, aka myself in a ball gown and Jamil in a suit/tuxedo, preferably accompanied by a hat and cane. Let the Paca shopping begin!

*For anyone in need of a reggaeton song, may I suggest "Danza Kuduro" by Don Omar. (Diwy, this might be the new Nina Bonita!)