Forgotten Adventure

Another early time with God (this feels great), then it was off to the shower. Edgar picked me up around 9am, and then I got some email answered in the office before going to help Margarita in the kitchen. Whew, this is fun work, but it’s really hard not to nibble on everything while we’re cooking. Mmm… It’s always fun to laugh with Margarita (head chef), Muriel (the tortilla maker), and even the more reserved cleaning lady/dish-washer (whose name escapes me at the moment). On Thursday, I get to learn to make MOLE! WOOHOO! I got to eat some great lunch as payment for my work, then answered more email before heading back to the kitchen to help cook dessert (postre). Afterwards, I did some more blogging, then worked on some lessons. I won’t bore you with more details, but I had a little adventure at night, when Edgar forgot that he couldn’t pick me up today (and forgot to tell me that). Luckily, Estuardo’s Bible Study was rescheduled, so he came back to the church and helped me find a ride with one of the song-leaders who were meeting at church that night to practice. We grabbed some Chinese fried rice from the place across the street, then chowed down and had a great conversation while we waited for our rides to be ready. I really love how spiritually minded the brothers and sisters are out here. They constantly think of the unseen, and refer to the scriptures often with such a confident belief that I see how little I have truly put my trust in God’s promises. We made it home safely, and I have one more great adventure to add to my experiences here. ¡Hasta luego!

Happy B-Day, Jar-Jar Bro!

It’s my brother Jaron’s birthday today. Happy B-Day, Jar-Jar-Bro! How young are you now? I won’t give it away to the whole world, hehehe. I have to say how great it’s been to get to know you more the past few years. You’ve been a great friend to me, and an inspiration. Thanks for continuing to strive to be a better man, and for always supporting my dreams and giving me encouragement to keep up the hard work. You’re an incredibly talented man, and a dreamer. Thanks for sharing your passion with me. It’s contagious. I hope your birthday is special, memorable, and filled with hope for your future. As for my day, it was pretty relaxing. I wanted to call my brother, but didn’t have the right number in my planner. Without internet access today, I’ll just have to wait until tomorrow. So, I just did a lot of planning, organizing, preparing, and chatting with friends I could reach back home. Wow, I miss everyone more and more.

Running and Babysitting in Guatemala

Today was the great race for HOPE Worldwide. Well, it was only 5k's, but the jog definitely made me remember how much more I need to exercise. Gelion (the brother I met at the wedding) came and picked up Elizabeth and I at 7 am, and even supplied us with some Gatorade. I regretted drinking it all when I then had to answer the call of nature after we'd parked. Gelion and I ran to a nearby McDonalds and made it back a few minutes before the race started. Luckily, they gave the women a few minutes' head start (so I finished somewhere in the middle of everyone), and they supplied us with Have you ever wondered why we call babysitting, "babysitting"? The oddity occurred to me again when I tried explaining the term to Evelyn, whom I'd be helping watch her friend's children for the evening. Well, after a good service at church, we headed to watch the rug-rats, and had a pretty good time, though I was feeling extremely low on energy. It was pure self-denial to play games with the kids and try to understand what they were rapidly trying to communicate with me.

Una Bida (A Wedding)

August 4th, 2007 (Saturday)

Today, it has been 6 years and 6 months since I became a Christian. I had an incredible time of prayer in the fresh morning, gazing at the clouds as they shifted and danced in the sunlight. It had rained during the night. I love the smell after it rains...

Later in the afternoon, after some much-needed down time, Evelyn picked me up with the girls to go to the wedding happening at 3pm. It was nice to see a wedding from a different country and culture. It was similar in tradition to ours (lighting the unity candle, having special songs sung, exchanging the vows and rings, etc.), but it was about 2 hours long. Whew. There were about 5 or 6 special songs sung to the bride and groom by friends, and a few more played over speakers. I'm sure they were just building the anticipation...hehehe.

Anyway, it was fun, and afterwards, we all crowded downstairs to pig out on mini keish and other assorted finger foods. There was a toast with champaign, and of course, the tossing of the bouquet...

I CAUGHT IT!! Not just once, but TWICE (I guess they throw it three times in Guatemala.) So, it sailed right to me the first time, the second time it hit the ceiling and a little girl picked it up, and the third time it came right to me again. All I had to do was snatch it out of the air. If that's not fate, I don't know what is... Well, either fate or the fact that I was a good 4 or 5 inches taller than everyone else. Muah ha ha. STILL...I've never caught the bouquet before, and this had a special significance to me in light of some specific prayers I had this morning about my future. My awe of God soared to a new level.

After three pieces of wedding cake (oink oink! What?...they were smallish-like slices!), the roomies and I went out with some of the guys to a quaint little street filled with art and knick-knack booths, and bistro-type cafes and restaurants. I ordered Tres Leches, which is a type of cake soaked in sweet milk (okay, I had a major sweet tooth tonight), and had a good time talking with everyone and laughing about whatever silly things came up in the conversation. I met a few more people who spoke some English, so that was nice. I think I'm learning to enjoy myself more with others!

And to think I was considering staying home today to rest. Thank you, Evelyn, for humorously rebuking me for "resting too much."

Climbing Pacaya

WOOHOO! All I can say is, BEAUTIFUL! I haven't heard silence like that, looking at landscape like that, since...jamas! (Never!) It took us about an hour and a half or two hours to climb to the base of the valcano, where I gave my lesson to the teachers (only an hour or so), and then another 30 or 40 minutes to climb up the volcano. We couldn't climb after a certain distance (about halfway up), since the rocks became more fine, and the danger more real. (Quite a few times during our rest near the top, we saw the volcano spitting out massive boulders which tumbled down the face to the ravine below.) ¡Chilero! (Cool!)

Climbing up and over those sharp, magma rocks, I could image how Frodo and Samwise might have felt on the cruel slopes of Mount Doom.

I was feeling a lot today, a wave of discouragement and negative emotions which almost stole my enjoyment of this wonderful experience. I pushed through the lesson with the teachers, at a loss for how to conduct my usual training in such an open, distracting place, but God blessed the effort and we had a good discussion and review of the main principles of using Drama in the classroom, and even an impromptu smelling exercise which everyone enjoyed. I really think the teachers are won over to the value of these methods! They're more and more interested in my lessons. I think I'm growing as a teacher, too, which helps a lot.

Did I mention I'm only eating fruits and vegetables today? (I've been feeling yucky eating all this fatty, greasy food, so I'm trying to get back into some good habits.) By now, I had eaten all I'd brought and was starving, which didn't help my emotional state. I just tried to keep my bad attitude from seeping out and spoiling a great day. Ugh, I hate it when I get in these moods. I noticed how I was isolating myself from everyone, choosing to walk on ahead of the group or lag behind to find solace and comfort in the solitude and the beauty all around me. I tried to tell Tania about it, but it was hard with the language barrier and the exertion of the climb, so I just tried to pray in my heart and keep my thoughts positive. Once we got as high as we could go up the volcano, Tania and I lagged behind and prayed. Actually, I went a little distance from her and had a private prayer with God while she had her own time alone in the silent magma wasteland. Praying helped a lot, and I got to express all the pain and emotion my heart ached to release. It was nice to be able to cry openly without worrying about anyone watching or overhearing my cries to God, especially looking out over such a special landscape. It was a beautiful moment. Unfortunately, once we climbed down the volcano, I felt the battle with the emotions resume full force. Satan knows exactly where to shoot me, and he wasn't sparing any ammunition triggering my worst fears, emotionally. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to handle this struggle more successfully and spiritually. For now, I'll just have to trust God's grace to overlook my immaturity, and put my hope in his power to change it. When we finally climbed down the mountain around 4pm, and hitched all the bus-rides back into Guatemala City, it was about 7:30-8pm. We had some Pollo Campero (I had frijoles y platanos), I felt a little better, and then everyone split up to take different buses home. I went with Edgar to meet his wife at the University, where they would take me home in their car. (It wasn't safe to ride the bus to my house that late.)

About an hour later, I said goodbye to Edgar and his wife, Alma, and gratefully entered my home to greet my bed.

Reillenitos at last!

Another great day in the kitchen of Comenzano ("Betsy King"). I learned how to make Reillenitos today, the GENUINE Guatemalan way. Woohoo! Yum yum yummy. And the ladies in the kitchen are so nice. They give me free lunch for helping them. No arguments there!

I'm learning much more Spanish, since I've been downloading pages from an online Spanish dictionary and reading them at home during my spare time.

Tomorrow, I'm going to give my lesson to the teachers at the top of the volcano, Pacaya! I'll try to have some pictures up soon. Ugh, time has been much shorter lately. This trip is going faster and faster.

¡Hasta luego!

¡Triple Saldo!

I'm into my second month here in Guatemala! I can't believe I'm past the halfway point already. It feels like no time at all, and so much time...at the same time. Hehehe.

I went to the HOPE school to do some more demonstrations for the teachers, and got TRIPLE minutes today for my phone. That means I got 3x as many as I paid for. I bought enough for the rest of my trip, which was about $70 worth. The phone company gave me a water-bottle and a t-shirt as gifts for my handsome purchase. Tigo souveniers! (Tigo is the phone company I have.)

Anyway, it was a pretty good day.

Running out of time, but I hope to add more later! ¡Hasta luego!