Things I love this week....

1. Guess...........the markets of course!
2. Pupusas. It´s a traditional food from El Salvador. It´s kind of like a stuffed tortilla. Excellent.
3. Lily´s cooking. Oh my heck!! It is insaine good. I am making sure she teaches me as she goes so anyone that wants some Guatemalan grub when I get home, just let me know!
4. Black market movies. They sell movies here in the market that are illegally copied. They have a huge selection to choose from, including new releases. If anyone is looking for something special, let me know!
5. When the peeps practice their English with me. Cracks me up but I know I sound just as horrible when I try to practice my Spanish with them.
6. The crazy street dogs think it is a fun game to chase motorbikes. Yes, it freaks the crap out of me, but it is hilarious to watch (when it is someone else). Perros Locos!
7. Fernando´s laugh. I want to record it in case I ever have a bad day I can listen to it and it will cheer me right up!
8. Watermelon suckers. mmmm....

Celebrations and Safety Matters....

So when I wrote yesterday, I totally forgot that it was the 4th of July. So, Happy Independence Day late! Hope it was great for everyone! We didn´t have any big plans because, well, it wasn´t a holiday here but Lily surprised us with a BBQ! She has a traditional wood burning stove in her backyard so we roasted hotdogs, made smores and celebrated in style. She is awesome to do that for us. She is probably the most thoughtful person I know. It has been great living with her family, I am learning a lot from them (Spanish, new recipes and about who I aspire to be).
It is just another rainy day in Paradise here. It rained all last night (which is our favorite time for it to rain because then the street dogs don´t bark like crazy) but the bad thing about that is all the roads turned to mud this morning. Ben and I look like Dumb and Dumber on this little, blue, P.O.S. motorbike with mud splashing all over us. Lame. I wish that I had my camera to take a picture of Ben. He had so much mud on his face that he looked like the peeps down here.
Here are some pics from the past week. I am really upset because this stupid computer program won´t turn my pictures the right direction. I even had Edwin who is a computer whiz check it out and it was a no go. Sorry-you´re just going to have to turn your head. In some of the pictures, I would like to demonstrate the strong level of safety standards that the people adhere to.

 Here are the hermana missionaries. The one on the right is Hermana Ramos, the one that is afraid of Ben and the one on the left is Hermana Olsen, which is my buddy. We hang out with them every week. Yesterday we all got ice cream together. I think that Hermana Ramos is warming up to Ben a bit. It took a lot of work but she will finally talk to him.

Safety Picture #1- when it rains, put a plastic bag on your head. This is a cow lady in front of our house. Yes, people walk their cows like they are dogs down here.

This is Ben and the kids washing Cookie, the best dog in Central America. She is so affectionate; she gives us our dog fix since ours are at home.

This is when it rained last week. The street literally turned into a river.

Safety Picture #2- when they have jammed 30 people into one of the minibuses (a van) that doesn´t stop them from picking up more people. Unfortunately, we were those people last weekend. For about 20 minutes, we rode hanging outside of the bus. Freaking sucked-it´s not like they try to drive slower or careful, just their normal crazy selves.

Safety Picture #3- this relates to picture #1-when it rains, put a plastic bread bag on your toddler and a plastic walmart bag on your other toddler. We would HATE for them to get wet!

Lake Chicabál

This last Saturday, Ben and I headed to a sacred Mam-Mayan lake, Lake Chicabál. It is an old volcano that has filled with water. It is surrounded by a cloud forest in the rain forest. It is beautiful! The lake is closed for most of May so that the Mam-Mayan people may go there to worship and complete their traditional ceremonies. There are altars all around the lake and tons of flowers that people have brought and placed on the shore. There was a mysterious yet fascinating feeling at the lake. The rain season here has really picked up this last week so of course it rained while we were there but it didn´t stop us from having a great time! It was super foggy and everything looked really cool.
The worst part of the journey was the way home. We had to ride in the back of a pickup truck on a dirt road. Only problem was it was a VERY steep road on the ledge of a mountain and the road had turned to mud road from all of the rain. The driver was actually doing fine and going plenty slow but that didn´t stop the truck from sliding. That´s the closest I have ever come to having a heart attack.
The rest of the weekend we took pretty easy. Ben finds every excuse he can to ride the stupid motorbike. I need to take a picture for you all to see this thing. How it is still running is a miracle to me. We made dinner for the family yesterday-they loved it. The best thing about my weekend, by far, was getting to Skype with my nephew, Daniel. We are seeing and experiencing amazing things down here but nothing in the world is more valuable than family.

We saw this girl when our bus was stopped to pick people up. Can´t help but wonder if this is her food for the next month.

This is the start of our hike when there was still sun in the sky. It was so pretty!

This is the half way point when the clouds started heading our way.

Lots of water on the lens but this is us at the lookout over the lake. Uh, there is a big cloud there so we couldn´t see the lake, but it was cool. We took 700 stairs (not exaggerating!) down to the lake shore. Once we got there the fog was so thick that we could only see about 10 feet in front of us but we could still see enough to know it is beautiful!!

We´ve Moved!

Yep, we have moved locations! We decided it wasn´t worth paying the big bucks for living in a hotel so we moved in with Lily and her family (she offered). It will definitely be a louder and busier place then it was with just the two of us but well worth it. We love Lily´s family so much that the change wont be that difficult, for us at least-I can´t speak for them :) The only, real, real bad thing about this move is they have a scooter...........and they are letting Ben drive it. Now, in my opinion, Ben is not the greatest driver. On top of that, the way people drive here has me sure that something bad will happen. I try to not be paranoid but sometimes its hard. Ugh.
I have a nasty cold right now and approximately 5,000 bug bites from the nasty hotel bed. Gross, I know. Even though I am not in tip top shape, I absolutely love being here. If I don´t come home, you will know where to find me.
Don´t think I will have a chance to write tomorrow but want to wish everyone a HAPPY 4th of July weekend! Hope it rocks!

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!!