This is it

Now that we are home, all I seem to think about is when I will get to return to my other home in Guatemala. Someone said that in Guatemala, they work to live, in the U.S. they live to work. How true that rings. There is a different feeling between my two homes. I love them both but crave the simplicity of Guatemala.
I never, ever thought that I could live for three months with  no hot water, no microwave, no dishwasher, no washer or dryer, being dependent on bus schedules, watching the miserable dogs, and not being able to put used toilet paper in the toilet (learned that one the hard way), BUT I did. I would do it all over again, a million times! I wont miss the bugs, the garbage, or being charged double because I´m white. I will miss the food, the markets, the simplicity of life, the beauty, the language, trying to beat the record of fitting nine adults in one car, being close enough to walk anywhere, people watching in the park, bumpers falling off cars when they drive over a bump, the unity the people have and shared with us, the freedom to drive down a one way street going the wrong way or even on the sidewalk, or to hang out the side of a bus. The thing I will miss the most  (by far!!!) is the people. I will miss being greeted by a kiss or handshake by everyone I come in contact with, the way they made us feel so welcome and special everywhere we went, and the lifetime friends we have made.

Antigua

Last Wednesday morning, Ben and I left Xela early in the morning. Saying goodbye to Lily and her family was one of the most difficult things we have had to do. They have been our family while in Guatemala and we definitely did not want to leave them. They were incredible examples to us and will always be considered part of our family. After the tearful goodbye we headed on bus to Antigua. Antigua is a beautiful, old colonial town. It was warmer there than in Xela, had a ton of tourists and very pretty but we still prefer Xela over Antigua. 

The whole town was filled with the old colonial buildings. Alot of the buildings are not in tip top shape because of some earthquakes but you can still get a pretty good idea of how they looked.

This fountain was in the middle of one of the markets. Beautiful!!

Ben in front of one of the old churches there. 

This is the fountain in Central Park. I dare you to tell me that is not hilarious!

On Friday we headed to Guatemala City to spend the night because our flight left early on Saturday. We got back a bit early so we headed to the temple to do a session. It was a small temple but very beautiful. 

After the temple, Lily's dad picked us up and gave us a tour of the city. The city was a much nicer city and more modern than I expected. Our tour lasted for about two hours. Remind you that we had never met Lily's dad, he had no idea who we were but didn't think twice about picking us up and spending his night giving us a tour. After the tour, he took us to his home, where Lily's mom had made us dinner. I tell ya, these people take charity and kindness to a whole new level. Dinner was great and Lily's mom even made me arroz en leche because Lily had told her how much I loved it. mmmm. The picture above is the main church in the city, right in front of their central park. 

This is Lily's Dad, sister-in-law, brother, mom, us, sister and nephew. 

Saying Goodbye is hard to do...

Today was our last day at the academy. We leave tomorrow for Antigua then to the city to fly home on Saturday. Man oh man, talk about a rough day. It started when we were leaving the academy this afternoon. We wanted to leave fairly quiet so we went around to the students, shook hands and headed downstairs to say adios to the employees. Well, when we were down stairs all of the students in that class came down and each took a turn expressing gratitude and best wishes. Tear.

Here is the morning class we have worked with. To all you ladies out there, if any of these young men catch your eye, let me know and I will hook you up. They are all QUALITY. I look horrible in this picture because I am an emotional wreck but I am smiling because there is someone in the world that is shorter than me (yep, that would be Russell next to me).

We then headed home because Lily had a special lunch planned for us. We had a BBQ because Ben has been talking about how much he has missed the summer BBQ'n.

It was a great lunch! Can't even explain how much I am going to miss Lily and her family. I will be accepting any donations from people who would like to help bring them to the states to visit. 

Later this afternoon, three of the employees from the academy took us out for hot chocolate. Geez, it is so hard to say goodbye. I have really grown to love these people. Each one of their stories is so unique and amazing. Their trials are so different than ours. Their stories have opened my eyes to the many blessings I have.

Andrea, Alex, Saul, Ben, me. Such incredible people. Some day when you are bored I can tell you each of their stories. Pretty amazing. Saul was made bishop while we were here. He is one of the happiest people I have ever met. He always has a smile on his face, has a great laugh and doesn't take offense to anyone. 

Well, like I said, we take off early in the morning. After that, I am not sure what my internet access will be like but I will definitely post again asap. 

Our weekend

We spent a good chunk of our weekend just enjoying as much of Xela as possible. It was our last weekend here and the thought of leaving is heartbreaking.

Much of our time was spent sitting in Central Park, people watching. That has been one of our favorite things to do in our spare time.

We have been eating as much of our favorite foods as possible too. This is Ben at his favorite taco stand. I have been eating as many pupusas as possible to last me. mmmm, I love pupusas.

On Saturday morning we went to The Baul. It is a park overlooking Xela. It was so pretty up there and a great day! The best part is when we found these....

Giant slides!! Holy crap, you want to talk about fun!! Ben was brave and went first.

Here I am, screaming the whole way. What a blast! The only bad part of the journey was when ... 

we left the park and ran out of gas. At least it was beautiful scenery!

Random

Last night we had three guys that are here from St. George to help build the temple. They are finishing the inside of the temple tomorrow. They brought pictures that they had taken of the inside and so we got a sneak peek, which was awesome. It was fun to hear their stories and challenges (there were a ton) that they experienced. Most of them have been here for a year and are excited to get home to their families.

Today was my last day of Spanish class (tear). The school had a big presentation for me, gave me a diploma and we all had cake. It was so fun and so nice of them. I am going to miss school so much!!! For those of you who speak Spanish, talk to me in Spanish when I get home! I might give you a blank stare, like I often did with my teacher, but please don´t give up on me.

I can´t believe this is our last weekend here (many tears). I´m really having a hard time with it. I thought that by this point I would be ready to get home, but I am SO not. UGH. I have been living a totally different life down here and I´m not ready to return to the daily grind. I guess they say that ¨all good things must come to an end¨. I just hope that someday I will get to return to this great place.

Some fun pictures..

Ben and his friend, Chancho.

This is the town, Zunil (where we were dropped off to go to the Georginas). I love this picture because you can really get a good look at the way these people live.

The other night, Lily and Fernando took us to Central Park, where the best pupusas in the world are made. Heaven on earth. If you know what they taste like then this picture should make you drool.

On Sunday, we went for a walk around the neighborhood with the kids. This is Ben and Isa....clearly they do not like each other. :)

The corn stalks here are all muy grandes!!

Sebastian petting a street dog. The majority of the street dogs here are just looking for a little love.

Isa falls asleep at the dinner table EVERY night. This girl can literally fall asleep anywhere.

This pic is a little blurry but fully demonstrates how different the driving laws are here compared to home. This couple has their tiny toddler on the front of their bike! The baby is left to fend for herself on the bike because her parents weren´t hanging on to her. Common occurrence here

This is a strange fruit that I tried called, Granadilla. Also known as Boogers by the youngsters. It looks like boogers but actually tasted quite good.

This is our buddy, Edwin. Isn´t he a doll? If I could pack him up along with Lily and bring them home then I would be the happiest girl ever. Today when I walked into the academy, Edwin said, ¨Hey Freak!¨. Hilarious because he really doesn´t know that that could have been offensive.

FHE

Last night we had FHE like we do every Monday night with Lily and her family. Isa (Lily´s 5 year old) invited the next door neighbors (who aren´t members) to join in. They invited us to their home and Fernando gave the lesson. Their home was SO nice. They are both doctors and have a 4-year-old son. The walls were white!! I haven´t seen white walls in a home down here...ever! I was just starting to get used to bright green, pink, and orange (I really have become quite fond of the colors). It was a great lesson on faith and the family loved it. The wife, Isabel made some snacks after and I ate it all. To not accept food down here is pretty offensive to the people so you eat what you are given. I did not want to offend these people at all so I got stuck eating some nasty chicken. I now regret it because I didn´t sleep all night from a horrible stomach ache and still am struggling. Oh well, I will live.
This is my last week of Spanish school. Last week was supposed to be my last week but I signed up for one more so that I could take advantage of such a good learning environment. I am taking more hours too. I still struggle with talking but can understand so much more than when I first started!
I´m sure some of you have been wondering when we are going to Honduras (because that was part of the original plan). Well, we aren´t. They needed our help here more. I am a tiny bit disappointed because it would have been cool to see somewhere new but I love it here so much that I don´t mind at all. The academy currently is on a rollercoaster of change. It has been interesting to watch it develop and change and grow. My favorite thing about the academy is, of course, the people. When the students are using the interactive computer to talk it cracks me up to listen to them talk. Right now, one of the students keeps repeating, ¨I am not happy¨ and I love it. My favorite is when the computer makes one of the guys say, ¨Hello, my name is Maria¨. Can´t really describe why it is so great, I think it just makes me happy to watch them progress.
I hope that all is going well for you all at home!

Las Fuentes Georginas, San Marcos and San Pedro

This past weekend we first headed to Las Fuentes Georginas. The Georginas are some mega hot sulfur pools way up in the mountain. We took the bus, which was by far the scariest bus ride my whole time here, and got off in Zunil, a small pueblo. We headed up the road thinking it wasn´t too far. We heard there was a bus but thought it would be nice to walk. Two hours later, we realized it wasn´t as close as we thought and the bus passed us when we were about 5 minutes away. Needless to say, we made it and were ready for a hot soak. It felt amazing. There were three pools-hot, warm and cool. The hot one was SO hot that it was impossible to get it. When it came time to leave, of course there was no bus. We were offered a ride by two college students and jumped on the opportunity. It´s funny because I would NEVER  feel safe bumming a ride from someone in the states, but it feels perfectly safe and normal here. They were really good kids and gave us a ride all the way back to Xela.
The next day we headed to San Marcos/ San Pedro. It is really one city that is divided by a street. The peeps in San Marcos hate the people of San Pedro and vice verses. It is weird because it really is one city. We went with Fernando, Lily, Sebastian and Isa. The other kids did not want to come. We went on a major shopping spree. Not exactly what you are probably thinking. There are bunches of hole-in-the-wall places that have used clothes from the states. It was like a glorified D.I. or garage sell (my favorite!!). We got a load of clothes for less than 15 bucks. Awesome. Nothing makes me happier than saving a buck.

This was on our forever long walk to the Georginas. It was absolutely beautiful. There were farms like this all over the place.

It was a busy day for the farmers and we saw a lot of this.

Beautiful, eh? See that white pipe under the bridge? Those were all over this mountain because they have the hot water in them (that they get from the volcano) to transport to the pools.

This is the hottest pool. Notice that nobody is hanging out in there? Nobody wanted to cook themselves to death! 

This is one of the nice shops in San Pedro. Most of the shops just had big piles of clothes that you had to dig through. Well worth the deals we got.

This is Ben at the market in San Pedro where we had lunch. He is sporting one of his new jackets that he bought!

Public building in San Marcos. It looks really cool in person, I promise.

See those brown logs sitting on the table? That is sugar! They use that kind of sugar in everything down here. Stacked against the wall are blocks of the stuff wrapped in dried leaves to help dry it out. It tastes amazing.

Even cookie got something from the shopping spree!!

Pictures

Some local indian girls. I love seeing the little girls dressed in the traditional clothes.

This is a traditional indian man. You don´t see too many of these guys anymore but when you do, it rocks.

The %&$")/! motorbike. Look at it!! Such a P.O.S.!!

I took a walk past the temple the other day to see how it was coming along. Man, they had made a ton of progress since I went there last.

Isn´t this picture awesome with those twirly clouds behind it?

Two Brown Birds

On Monday I went on strike from the motorbike. I decided to walk home instead of ride the bike because I hate it. I also didn´t want to ride the bus alone in fear that I would communicate incorrectly. The only thing is that now that we live with Lily, the house is much further away from our past hotel. So, right as I was enjoying my walk it started to rain, like always these days. I went inside of a mini-mall and decided to study and hang out until the rain chilled out a bit. As I was sitting there I noticed two brown birds about three feet away from me, both the same size, but one light brown and the other dark brown. As I watched these brown birds I noticed that the light brown was flapping its wings like crazy in a nervous or hurt kind of way. The dark brown bird was going around picking up crumbs and feeding them to his friend. I was kind of shocked to see that because most animals care about feeding themselves first (unless they have babies, which this wasn´t). I almost started to cry at the charity and love this bird was showing it´s friend. I then realized the symbolism these birds played in my life! When I came to Guatemala I was hoping to be the dark brown bird that would come to this country and help all the light brown birds in need. Boy was I wrong. It has been the complete opposite. I have been a helpless little brown bird since I arrived and the people have been the dark brown birds. I have been taken under the wing of these people, been taken care of and loved. The people here have helped me to realize the person I am and the person I want to be. I have so many faults that I want to and hope to change (stating the obvious, I know) and I feel like this journey has helped me begin that process. I regret not being more of a dark brown bird but hope that the things I have learned here will help others down the road.
What kind of bird are you??

Fun weekend...

We had a great weekend! Hope the same for all of you. On Friday we went to Panajachel/Lake Atitlan again. We loved it so much the first time that we wanted to go back and spend more time exploring. It is much warmer there than in Xela and we were also in need of some heat! The only bad part was, of course, the bus ride. Not only is the bus ride bad enough, but when you add that I was up the entire night before, hugging the toilet because I ate salad (I really, really miss salad!) it was not pretty. I think I can confidently say that that was the worst bus ride of my life. BUT, it was so wonderful when we got there!! We stayed in a bungalow that was surrounded by beautiful gardens. Loved it. Once I could stand up on my own, we went for a little walk. When on the walk, we ran into a Turkish man who had been living there for the past two years. We ended up talking to this crazy guy for 45 minutes. He really was crazy but he said some thought provoking things. He kept talking about how addiction will ruin your life. The three worst addictions are consumerism, drugs, and sex. It was a conversation I will never forget. On Saturday we got up early and took a boat ride around Lake Atitlan. Talk about perfect. The scenery was amazing and the temperature was perfect. I could have stayed in that moment forever. We got off the boat in San Marcos de la Laguna. It is a tiny lake town that was AMAZING. We decided that is where we will live when we retire. It was warm, beautiful, so friendly, and no pollution!! There is only one dirt road that passed through the town (we only saw three cars the whole 4 hours we were there) and the rest of the town has beautiful foot paths everywhere. We ate a delicious breakfast there and then went exploring. I have been craving retirement ever since! Once we returned to Panajachel we had another amazing meal and spent more time exploring. On the way home I experienced the second worst bus ride of my life. It started to DUMP rain. We had a bus driver who was, at the most, 14 years old. The mountain literally was falling into the road. The four lane highway turned into a two lane river. The driver kept texting and talking on his phone during the madness! Don´t be surprised if when I get home I never ride a bus again!

Lake Atitlan and two of the surrounding volcanoes.

Can you imagine living here? Oh, man it was beautiful!

Delicious breakfast. No, I do not eat the benedryl cream but it goes with me everywhere. Side note: I had to take a bleach bath and wash myself in anti-flea dog shampoo the other day because the bugs will not leave me alone!!! Disgusting, I know.

This is one of the foot paths in San Marcos de la Laguna. Gorgeous, eh?

We met these kids in San Marcos de la Laguna. For their pure entertainment they were throwing a rock at a can sitting on the wall. We gave it a shot and were horrible. This girl did not miss once! Pretty impressive.

This was a sign in the garden at our hotel. Pretty funny!!

Field Trip!

Today my Spanish school took me on a field trip to Copavic, a glass factory in a nearby town. It was facinating! I never realized how cool glass blowing is!

This is my teacher, Claudia, giving the glass blowing a shot. She is such a fun teacher and she speaks in a way that I can mostly understand (I think that makes me like her extra).

This guy is using scissors to cut out any dirt or bubbles from the hot glass.

They keep the finished product in this fire pit for three days to cure.



You would never guess that this fireball would turn in to a giant twisty vase. It was incredible to watch the transformation.