Aaaaahhhhh, the delight of walking along these narrow cobblestones streets with the warm sunshine on our faces… This city of Antigua continues to charm us, and we are discovering more new paradises each day. It is so much fun to walk along the streets and look in the doorway – from the street it looks like a normal, every-day, not-so-great doorway, but one look inside transports us to a paradise that we think must be like heaven!! There is one place, called la Santa Domingo, and oooooh my word, I have never seen anything soo beautiful in all my life!! There are massive, giganimous ruins of an ancient convent built in the 1600s, but it’s grown up with splendid vines and flowers, the work of an Italian architect still apparent in the acres of ruins. It’s now a fabulous hotel, actually, former president Bill Clinton even visited there. For the whatever it’s worth department. 
Santa Domingo is absolutely gorgeous, and I think that’s one place where we were all very silent because we were speechless with the beauty. If any of you all come down here, we will take you there with pleasure, and plan to spend all day there with a book and our journals… I love that place – it gives my heart time to think and process…
Spanish classes again this morning. Honestly, my tongue is actually SORE from trying to pronounce all these new words!!! My entire mouth aches after my class, and I take a break from studying for part of the afternoon so it has a chance to relax again. 
This language is so beautiful though… We’re already meeting people in the parque that we recognize from being here a few days, and it’s so much fun to try to talk with them, even though our vocabulary is rather limited at this point. The funny thing about Spanish is that your tongue has to come out pretty far between your teeth – when speaking English people normally try to keep their tongue hidden, for the most part, when speaking. But to pronounce words, our tongues have to be out most of the time. Feels really wierd at first, but everyone around is has their tongue hanging out too, so…. 
Tomorrow we finally get to move into our permanent room… Poor Kris has moved 3 times already since she’s here, and will have moved 4 times altogether in one week by the time we move in to our rooms. It’ll be good to get settled and not live out of suitcases as much…
This cafe is fabulous down here… Not exactly a Starbucks taste, but it’s so delicious. Our school offers free coffee during lessons. 
cariños,
clarita <><
Anywho, we are learning much espanol – our vocabulary increases by the day and it really is thrilling to finally ask for a ‘cafe con leche.’ K, that is a really big joke between the three chicas, that’s all that Hana can say so far, so we hear that phrase all the time. 
Wait, she’s learning to say ‘un kilo de tomatos’ also…
All of us piled in a litte carro with Dad hunched in the trunk and chugged up the mountain a few miles to the orphanage. She will be in charge of five little babies, from what we understand, and they are the darlingest little hunchkins!!! She was falling in love with them already by the time we left, and the rest of us can’t wait to go see her, hopefully this weekend… Dad left early this morning, which was very sad as well. I feel rather vulerable without my dad’s protection, but I know it will be a time when I see God as my Guardian in a bigger way than I’ve known before…
The neon nights are flashing through the doors thus doing strange things to my eyes…. 
It hasn’t erupted lately, just smokes a lot.
