Well, we've set a date for our departure and have arranged lodging for our first week in Antigua! We'll be leaving Portland on July 12, 2008. We've also been trying out some Spanish at the dinner table and in the car with tapes and CDs. We understand each other, but that's with a vocabulary of about 5-100 words, depending on who's talking. We're counting on immersion in the language to really help us learn.

We're still searching housing and schooling options and working on visa information. The biggest concern is not with arrangements on the Guatemala end, but on the Camas end. So if anyone knows of a responsible, clean person or family who wants to rent our house for the 2008-2009 school year, send them our way.

We hope that some of you are already thinking about how and when you'll come visit us. We can't promise housing until we know what we've got, but we can promise us! Please don't schedule your visit for September or October, as we'd like to preserve those months for settling into our new school and work routines. I imagine it will be a little stressful. And bear in mind that we will be actually living there, not vacationing, so if we can't join you on all your explorations, we will at least point you toward the best spots we know of.

We're getting excited as the time draws nearer!