Things I love this week....

 
1. Los mercados!!

2. Xelapan- This is a local bread shop. It is the only business in Xela that is a chain that I have seen. There is a Xelapan on every main street. They have every kind of bread you can imagine. You walk in and are handed a basket and tongs to walk around the store and pick out any bread your heart desires...


3. Hermana Olson. She is my missionary friend. She cracks me up! She is from California but her family just moved to Riverton. We are definitely going to be friends when she gets home.


4. The fact that cheese (the normal kind) is really expensive here, so Ben doesn´t eat it. :)


5. I eat a sucker everyday-they taste extra incredible here.


6. My Spanish school. I love it this week, other weeks I don´t because I´m frustrated, but this week is good.


7. My buddy Edwin always says ¨freak¨ in English. I wish you could hear it.


8. The fact that it is the rainy season here. The weather is just perfect, not too hot, and not too cold.


9. This city has so many traditional Indians that live here. They wear the most beautiful, colorful clothes ever.

Other stuff...

Well, I was so excited yesterday to tell you all about ITRA that I didn´t even mention the rest of our weekend. On Friday, we took an 1 1/2 bus ride to Reu, which is near the ocean. The bus ride was not bad, thank goodness! We met up with Nester, the guy who is in charge of Cause For Hope in that area. He took us to 3 businesses that have received loans from CFH to check on how business is coming along. The first stop was a store that makes copies. Yea, doesn´t sound that exciting but they had an excellent location near a university so they have a lot of students who need copies. They used their loan to buy a copy machine. The next stop was a little store. They used their loan to buy product. I was surprised how many products they had to choose from. Most tiendas down here don't have much. The last stop was great. We met a family who ran a little store that sells hair accessories. The store is in the front of their house. When we got there they welcomed us into their home. I was trying to count how many people lived there but I lost count after 5 kids and 9 adults. Before they received the loan from CFH, they lived in a one room home that had dirt for the floor and plastic for the roof. They have a much nicer home now but it still does not compare to a home in the states. They were such nice people and so grateful for the loan. The opportunity of receiving a loan down here is not an easy thing to come by. The people who receive one seem to know how lucky they are and feel super blessed. I love the opportunities that CFH has provided the people, its amazing to see.

Last night, Ben and I went to the home of a family in our ward. Talk about (another) very humble home. They invited us over for FHE. They were so fun to be around!! The Dad busted out his guitar and played for us and the kids (4 teenagers) were a blast. The mom, Jacquelyn hugged me so many times that there was no way I could have left there not feeling loved. For dessert, Jacquelyn made popcorn,  boiled some green apricots and made some juice. I am pretty sure that the juice was cough syrup. I kept trying to gag it down and every time I looked at my glass, it seemed fuller! Ah!  Amazingly, I survived. The message of FHE was about charity. It was great to hear their stories and perception of charity. They talked about how true charity is giving something away that is a real sacrifice, not something you  would give away anyways. It was a good reminder.
I hope that all is going great at home. We are almost down to our final month-my time here has flown!! I feel like I have only been here for two weeks, not two months! This has been an amazing experience!

Move over 7 Peaks and Lagoon!!!

That´s right, we hit up ITRA, the biggest water park and amusement park in all of Central America. Lily and her family had been talking this place up, claiming that it was rated one of the top parks in the world. Well, I now believe them. It was INCREDIBLE!!! You would never know that either park was there because it was smack in the middle of the rain forest, you can´t even see it from the parking lot because of all of the trees. We went with Lily and the fam to the water park first. It was so beautiful; it was worth going to just to see the surroundings. The slides were unlike any I have ever been on....so stinkin fun!!! I wish you could all experience it. We hit up every slide, every pool, and right when we were going to start round two, it started to rain. When I say rain, I mean pour!!! You haven´t been in a rain storm until you have been in the rainforest (they don´t call it that for no reason). The good news was we were already in our swimsuits so getting wet didn´t matter, it didn´t last too long, and it was a warm rain.

After we changed, we went to the amusement park. I felt like I was walking into Disneyland and almost jumped for joy. The scenery was just amazing. We hit up a couple rides with the kids, rode on the bumper cars and checked out the jaguars. We finished all that up just in time to see Alux Nahual, a big time band here in Guatemala. Lily and Fernando were like little kids, they were so excited! We got really close and were rocking out until the crowd got a little hairy. We stepped back a bit but it was still totally awesome! My favorite part of the whole concert was watching Lily sing her heart out to every single song. When someone got pushy around her kids she would hit them with her umbrella. Hilarious. The band was there because it was the parks anniversary. After the concert they lit off fireworks. Ben and I felt like that was our Independence Day celebration, even though it was the wrong date and wrong country. We totally forgot where we were. It felt like we were in the states again. It was an absolute blast.

This is the entrance to the water park. Isn´t it beautiful?

This is one of the crazy slides. The red and blue tube shoots you out and you go flying up the ramp on the left. when I rode it, I was sure I was going to go straight over the top of the ramp, but I didn´t.  

I still can´t even believe that there were slides smack in the middle of so much green. One of the funniest things about the park was seeing what the people wore. If they didn´t have a swimsuit, then why not wear a bra or pajamas? There were oogles of men with mustaches in speedos. Just picture that in your head for a minute and you know it was a good time. 

Second row from the top is Ben and the boys. I got sick just watching them.

Here a pic of the guy who plays the electric cello and the singer in Alux Nahual. 

Rock on!

Here is a pic of the crowd that was behind us at the concert. Yes, we were the only white people in the whole park. 

Georgy, Lily and Juanfer singing with the band. They LOVED the concert!!

What we do....

I have received a couple emails lately from people asking what exactly it is that we do down here. Makes sense, I haven´t really talked about it much. The organization Cause For Hope opened up an academy down here that teaches English and computer skills. The purpose of the CFH opening the academy is to generate money that will provide for the loans that CFH gives out. Have I lost you yet? CFH gives out microloans to people that have businesses down here. Anything from a tortilla shop to water purification and everything in between. Right now, all the money that is given as microloans are from donations given to CFH in the states. CFH hopes that eventually it does not have to rely on donations, but it could self sustain by the academy´s profit.

So, Ben and I work at the academy, teaching English Monday-Thursday. Ben works from 8:30am- 5:00pm. I get there at 12:30 after my Spanish classes and finish up the day with him. On Fridays we are scheduled to go with the people that run CFH in this area and check on loan recipients and meet with people who are interested in receiving a loan. So far, we have not gone with CFH every Friday, but we try. It´s a sad gig seeing these people with businesses that they want to succeed so bad (mainly so they can feed themselves) but might not have all the right equipment.

Saturday and Sunday are our free days to go explore, which we usually do. This Saturday we have an exciting adventure planned!!! It´s a secret though-you will have to wait until Monday to find out what it is. I can tell you that it is the last thing I EVER imagined doing here....EVER!! I´m amazed that it even exists here!

As for this evening, we are having the sister missionaries over for dinner like we do every week. One of the missionaries is new, as in this is her 2nd week in the mission. She is kind of strange because she is terrified of Ben. We eat dinner with them and then Ben is supposed to help this missionary with her English and the other missionary helps me with my Spanish. She really struggles looking at Ben, let alone practicing a foreign language with him! I wish you could see it in action.

Anyway, have an awesome day!

My brain is toast.

This week in my Spanish class, I pretty much just stare at my teacher, unable to say anything. I think I have reached my max with Spanish words. It´s frustrating learning a new language. I don´t want to give up but I feel like it might be time to accept that I don´t have the gift of languages. Ugh.
Monday night we had a fun experience. We went to Lily´s house for FHE. It was her family, another family that had three kids and us. I was asked to pray (of course) and Lily gave the lesson. It was a good time. Lily made yummy food afterwards-she is an awesome cook! Lily´s husband, Fernando drove us home that evening and told an interesting story. He told us about three years ago when he lost his job. He said he remembered waking up one morning, looking at Lily and asking what they could possibly feed their kids because they had no food. Lily remembered that her mom had given them a box of brownie mix. They made the brownies and went door to door selling them until they had sold them all. They used the money they earned to buy food for the day. Can you even imagine???? Fernando said that when he went to church the next day that he had an overwhelming feeling that things would be fine....and they were. The amount of faith these people have, blow me away. The thing I extra love about Lily and Fernando is that they are hands down the most giving people I have EVER met. They would give you the shirt off their back to help you. They are such neat people to be around and learn from.
Last night, we went to our church because our friend, Bryan was being set apart as a missionary. He left today for Peru. I´m going to miss him a lot because he is the only person in our ward that speaks English. Down here, when they set someone apart as a missionary, it’s a big stinkin deal. The whole ward comes and they have a program and refreshments. Ben and I were asked to sing. UH, it went ok. Afterwards, everyone lined up to shake the new elder´s hand. I felt like I was at a wedding reception for a minute while I was waiting in that line. It was a good time.
The most frustrating thing about this place is the time system they run off. For example, last night at the church, the program was supposed to start at 7:00pm but didn´t start until 8:00. That is actually early for them-they usually start things 2-3 hours late. BUG ME! Oh well. I think I am extra bugged because I have gotten very little sleep in the past 3 days.
I have really enjoyed the experiences we have had the past couple days. It has really made me appreciate what I have and what I know.

Things I love this week....

1. The markets. Yep, this one will never change.
2. The fact that the peeps down here don´t need high tech gadgets to survive.
3. My friend Edwin (that I told you about last week). I practice my Spanish with him and he practices his English. I just love that he has a permo-smile.
4. Hot chocolate. I found a chocolate shop that is organic and family owned (5 generations)-Two of my favorite things. The hot chocolate is the most incredible stuff I have ever tried, hands down.
5. Being surrounded by green.
6. Everyone down here thinks my hair is blonde. Funny.
7. Instead of buying state of the art crap when they have a baby, they use what they have. For example, using a peice of cloth to strap your baby to your back, or using a hair clip for a toy. Great money saving stratiegies.

Have a great day!

Our weekend in pics...

This is our neighbor Alonzo. He is so cute. We buy him a sucker everyday and you should see him light up. We´re not sure if he has polio or m.s. but he has something that stops him from walking and moving freely. You wouldn´t know it by the way he treats people and the way he is treated. Everyone on the block takes good care of him and he repays you with a great big smile.

This is the one of the reasons we haven´t slept since we got here. These dang dogs sleep in the day and bark all night! The other reason is because the peeps down here LOVE fireworks. Not only do they love them, but they love to light them at 3am every single day. There was a big soccer game on Saturday between Guatemala and Mexico. Ben and I were praying that Guatemala would lose because if they were to win, the fireworks would be even worse than normal. It was Father´s day on Friday down here, which meant double the fireworks then too. We couldn´t take it two nights in a row! Our prayers were answered.

These are some boys walking down the street. All of the boys, girls, adults here walk hand in hand or with an arm around someone else. Love it. 

We spent some time in the Calvario hanging out, watching the goings and comings. Here is one of the local buses (also known as a chicken bus). There were so many people on this bus and they attempted to add more. Uh, not happening.

Flower and food venders, and a dog taking a nap in the street. There were so many cars, I was just waiting for that dog to get squashed. Thankfully it didn´t happen.

This little girl was hanging out near us. She had a ton of energy and was fun to watch. While we were at the Calvario, I decided it was about time to try one of the local´s favorite drinks. It was liquid corn with cinnamon. Even though I am a lover of corn and cinnamon, I didn´t last long. Blah!

We went for a hike with Lily and her kids to a mountainside near her home. It was steep but not too long. The view at the top was well worth it.

Look at these beautiful farms! So green and healthy!

Farm animals along the way. Apparently the red cloth that is on the babies neck is something they do to all babies down here (including humans). It is to fend off Ojo (the look) which is rumored to be some crazy disease. If you are unlucky and your baby gets Ojo, the only way to cure it is have both a pregnant woman and a drunk kiss your baby.

Ben feeding potatoes we found to the sheep.

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies and hanging out with the kids. They are loads of fun. Overall, it was a great weekend. How was yours?