estoy aqui. and now what?

hello everyone who happens to be reading this. :)
yesterday (seems like a lot longer) i woke up aroun 1:30, packed the rest of my things, and headed out to the baltimore airport. i met up with keri and erica (the two girls who are with me here) at the atlanta airport, and we got on our plane to san salvador. it was about a four hour flight. we met up with david and debbie hawk (one of the missionaries here) outside of the airport. we went out to eat for lunch and then travelled the rest of the way to jucuapa. erica, keri, and i had all gotten up super early, so we were rather slap happy, but all turned out okay.

what to say? goodness, i don't even know. we're staying with another missionary family who is orignally from honduras: miguel and vivian rodriguez. their two sons, sammy and timmy, also live with them. all of us are sharing room together, but now that we're organized, i think we'll be okay. jucuapa really just reminds me of a regular little town. it's a very lovely town. i do plan to get around to taking pictures, but this is only my second day here. we went to church yesterday and then ate supper at the rodriguez house. we had popusos for dinner--it's kind of like a corn tortilla with cheese, beans, meat, or a mixture of that. they were really good. :) i went to bed earlier than everyone because i felt completely out of it. i woke up at 6:30 this morning--two hours before i had to, but i was glad to have some time to think.

debbie and david talked to us about what we would be doing in the upcoming weeks. we'll be working at the church with sunday school, vbs, and the youth group. there will also be a few random projects we'll do. and we're going to be helping with the start of some rosetta stone english classes.

overall, everything has been going very well. the community here has been extremely welcoming. the rodriguez family is amazing, and i really appreciate the way they have welcomed us into their home. the spanish has been a little rocky for me. i find that i am fine as long as i am having a conversation with someone, but i don't always understand what people are saying around me or if they talk for a long amount of time. even so, though, i am so thankful that i have at least a rudimentary idea of what is going on. i can't imagine not knowing anything. and i've been proud of the fact that i am trying.

i do want to be honest, though, and say that thinking about being here for six weeks--now that i am here--is rather overwhelming. i get nervous that i won't be able to understand or communicate with people. and it's hard to be in a completely new situation. on top of that, all of us girls stick out like nothing else. i knew we would, but it is different to know something and then to experience it. i'm not really sure how to handle that. overall, i just want to have the right attitude as i am here. i get so nervous that i won't be able to understand spanish the way i should or that i won't be able to help as much as i should and so on. there's just a lot of fear and insecurity--like there is in most situations.

but i believe that God brought me here. i mean, seriously, i raised all my money in rougly a month. i just want to get to a point of feeling comfortable here. especially as i start going to the open marketplace down the road tomorrow. please pray that i won't withdraw in this new situation. i do know that i need to take time for myself to think and pray, but i don't want to run away from anything just because i'm scared. i appreciate all of you and all that you have done for me. thanks for praying for me. i have no idea what's going to happen in the next few weeks, but i know that i will do my best to submit to Him.

i love you all!