Weekend in the Big City

David and I took a trip this weekend to Xela, the second largest city in Guatemala. It's not really a "big city" by US standards: no skyscrapers, no public bus, no yellow taxis. But it seemed like a big city to us. After 3 months in rural towns and villages throughout the lake region, we found ourselves walking the streets of Xela, staring and pointing at glimpses of home. It was our first time in 3 months to see a traffic light, to enter a mall, to go into a Wal-Mart (yes, a real Wal-Mart), to eat ethnic food (how I've missed curry), or to eat at a McDonald's. The funny thing is, that when I was living in the states I pretty much tried to avoid many of these activities: I'm not a huge fan of Wal-Mart, I really don't like McDonald's that much, and I rarely enjoy a trip to a mall or huge shopping center. I don't know why I was so excited to take part in these activities in Guatemala. I guess it brought me back to a little bit of home, although seeing Mayan women dressed in traditional traje walking passed a GAP store was a very weird sight.

None-the-less, we took advantage of our time in the big city and even watched a movie in a real movie theater. The movie only cost $3.25, but the popcorn was way overpriced (just like home!). The mall food court had a Subway. I was so, so excited. It really did taste just like Subway back home, even with the Southwest Chipotle sauce. I was very impressed. And attached to the mall was a huge Wal-Mart. I walked in and was immediately struck by the huge-ness of the store and the aisles upon aisles of stuff. We have a Dispensa in Pana and it's actually owned by Wal-Mart. But it consists of 4 aisles and a fresh fruit section about the size of a walk-in closet. And that's big for Pana. So walking into the warehouse-sized Wal-Mart was surprisingly foreign to me (considering this is what I was used to back home).

Of course, it wouldn't be Guatemala without armed men standing around in the middle of the park, protecting something...

We enjoyed the Christmas decorations a lot. Wearing t-shirts and sandals does not feel like Christmas time for us Indiana folk, so seeing a huge Christmas tree in the central park helped.

Sunday we took a break from the mall and Wal-Mart and enjoyed reading in the Central Park...

We ate Xela's famous xeca con frijol (sweet bread with black beans in the middle - this picture is for you Carolyn!)

And we ended our time in Xela with lunch at McDonald's. It was expensive (compared to most of our meals for around $3 or $4). And David thought he ordered chicken strips, but it didn't really turn out that way...look of disappointment:

Notice how small the drink and fries are? We were like, what? Where's the biggie size?!?! ( : 

It was a fun trip with a few luxuries from the states, but it was good to get back home...

Q of D

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things."

       -Robert Brault

Happy Thanksgiving! (and Q of D)

Here we are, in Guatemala, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  


"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."  ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy


Enjoy your day and really soak in the moments of fellowship.


And as for the day after Thanksgiving, allow yourself to be free from the stress of shopping with millions of others by starting your Black Friday online with www.buy-it-forward.com, where the deals are and in alignment with the holiday spirit of giving.

Meet Santiago

We have been living in our current home for nearly 3 months.  It has had it's share of hardships (including: cold showers, mold, smelling water pipes, lack of insulation, no screens on windows), but there has always been one consistent thing that makes us happy to live in the home.  And that happy thing is the landlady's maintenance man, who works in our courtyard 4 days a week.

Can you tell why we like him so much?

He is the most friendly guy to interact with.  He has a positive attitude and is a very hard worker.  He only has a few teeth.  He doesn't speak Spanish fluently, but only his native tongue.  He is always very grateful and appreciative of Jenny and I.  We give him lunches from our kitchen several times a week.  One of the main reasons living in this home is difficult is because of our landlady.  She is very controlling and doesn't treat Santiago well.  When we give him lunch, he has to hide it from her because she considers him her work and doesn't need us to interact with him.

We have been able to locate a new place to live, starting early December.  It became a difficult decision (whether or not to move) solely because of Santiago.  We are currently working on arrangements with his schedule to work it out that we can still see him on a consistent basis.  But we feel that since our house was not very good quality, and because we didn't want to support our landlady for being disrespectful, that we needed to transition when we get the chance (plus we've been told that our landlady has a history of kicking tenants out with no warning...which actually happened last month with our Guatemalan neighbors with the two small children...we are now trying to support that family by having the mother do our laundry every week).

Here are pictures of those kids.  We miss them too.  Actually, when we decided to move here it was because of the closeness in community to the Guatemalans, so now that they have been taken away from us we feel our home is to be made elsewhere.

Full Immersion

As many of you may know, there is a Guatemalan family that Jenny and I have been connected to for several years now that has been of special interest to ours.  In the past year, especially, given the nature of their year-old daughter who suffers from severe dietary restraints and is now considered a 'miracle' surviver.  Anyway, we don't live close in proximity to the family, but we visited with them last weekend in their hometown and stayed the night at their parent's home...meaning we finally fully immersed!

It was great to visit with the family and see the baby:

We brought some games and played Phase 10, dice-style:

I got to practice my Spanish.  The visiting turned out to be quite the family reunion because most all of their  relatives live in the same area.  It was very comforting to be around multiple generations...there will never be any replacement of our own family, but it was very nice to be welcomed in and treated so nicely by this family:

Jenny learned how to make tortillas from scratch, which is the custom here for all the women:

And notice how we simply put a chair in front of the open flame oven to prevent the baby from approaching it!

This is a picture of the group gathered around the table in the kitchen.  It was fun to teach some of the adults some English words. The moms particularly asked us how to say "she is sleeping", because the daughter was sleeping on her mother's lap.  The food was filling, but not provided with the typical table manners as what would be expected in the States.  For instance, there was a jar of salt in the middle of the table and people would lick their fingers and dip them into the jar to consume the salt with their food (fyi keep in mind that for many impoverished families living in this part of the world, a typical meal is made up of only tortillas and salt).

The homes are most commonly built with cement blocks, so no insulation, etc.  Here's an image from above the homes.

The terrain is very mountainous and beautiful.  We went for a walk with the family to their old house.  Along the way we got to play with the younger kids and listen to the stories of the adults when they were kids.  When the family left their old home they abandoned it (didn't try to sell it or anything).  So when we stopped by it, they went in and, much to our surprise, there was still a lot of stuff inside!  The family actually took out some clothes to take to their current home.

The girls were just so cute!

  

We miss you all very much, and hope all is well with your current endeavors.  The first few months so far have been full of many great experiences and humble challenges.  We are thankful for the interactions we have here and are so glad we're able to stay connected to you all even when we're not close in proximity.

F of D

In 2004, a lab at a university in Texas received a $6 million federal grant to breed radioactive armadillos for possible use in warfare.

Technology: Everythings Amazing, Nobodys Happy

Check out this funny clip of a comedian's take on technology.

I love his humor, but his message can actually be taken very 'deep'.  What does make us happy?  

For another humorous resource, check out the White Whines list, which is a collection of "First-World Problems" (i.e. which cell phone to own, etc) that are pulled off of Twitter and Facebook posts.  The term "First-World" plays off of the "Third-World" problems (i.e. poverty, hunger, etc).  Read the site, it's hilarious...such as the comment by one person saying, "iPhones are so affordable poor people have them now...My phone is plain and common.  About ready to switch carriers."

...it sure is enlightening to compare those "problems" to  those experienced around the world, in the Third-World.

Happy Birthday David!

I'm a little late in posting, but wanted to share a little about David's birthday. First of all, the occasion brought us our first package in the mail - and it only took 8 days! I'm not going to lie, we were both really excited to unpack the goodies that David's parents had sent.

It was basically David's birthday and Christmas all at once. It was so fun getting little pieces of "home" sent to us. I was especially excited about the chocolate (M&Ms here cost $1.50 for a small bag) and David was most anxious to eat his fruit snacks (yep, he loves them). It was great to even get little things, like Jell-O and different types of tea and even Nutella (I won't even tell you how much Nutella costs here). David also got a great birthday card with pictures of autumn trees to remind us of the beauty you Indiana-folk are experiencing. Sigh, I miss fall. The birthday package was a wonderful gift for David (and me!) and we are portioning the goodies (or at least trying to, the M&Ms were gone in two days).

On a previous trip to Lake Atitlan, David and I had visited Santiago, a small Mayan village that we really enjoy. So, for David's birthday he wanted to go back for a weekend trip. We wanted to go on David's birthday weekend, but because of the flooding and being sick, we had to postpone the trip for the next weekend. I'm so glad that we did because the weather was perfect. It was so nice to walk around the market and do some touristy shopping in the sun, with no rain. We're definitely on a budget while living here in Guatemala, but we really wanted to stay in the Posada de Santiago because we had heard it's a great hotel with great food...and even a hot tub (in Guate?! Really?!). My parents put us up in the hotel for David's birthday gift and we enjoyed great food, real coffee (not instant!), the hot tub, and even canoeing. It was a wonderful get-away and we were fascinated by the beauty of the lake.

For David's gift from Santiago, he decided he wanted to get a traditional Mayan "traje" or clothing that the Mayan men wear. Each Mayan village has their own traje so that when someone is walking down the street you know where they come from by the color and/or design of their clothing. In Pana, you definitely see more women wearing traje than you see men. So when we were in Santiago it was such a treat to see so many men wearing traje. They were just so cute!

Now, just to clarify (in case there is any confusion) those are the Mayan men above. Then there is my 6'3" white, blonde husband below. Don't they look so similar?! We're still searching for the perfect hat. ( :

You may not be able to recognize David these days. Besides the Mayan traje, he's also growing out his hair and wearing it in a pony tail. It's weird for me to have David ask me for a hair tie in the mornings. I don't even know what to expect in the coming months!

Of course, we had no idea how to make the traje fit David, because the pants are actually quite huge. It's a one size fits all type of thing. Luckily there was a kind Mayan woman at the store who just wrapped her arms around David's waist and folded up the pants and tied the belt for him. We're still figuring out the belt part, but there are plenty of Mayan women around in case we need more tutoring.

We had a wonderful weekend experiencing a smaller village and the Mayan culture. The views of the lake were breath-taking, and we were reminded once again how privileged we are to be living here in Guatemala and experiencing a new way of life. I am so grateful for my wonderful husband and that we can celebrate life together!