Internet al fin!

So the couple nights stay at the cousin´s house turned into almost a week...yeah I guess things change last minute like that around here.  Haha I was not expecting to be away that long!  Thankfully I had enough clothes.  The place that I was at was called Pantaleon, there is a sugar factory there and a river by the same name.  The neighborhood I was in was really nice and they had a ``club`` that had a pool with palm trees and all.  It was like I was on vacation all week!  It was unexpected for me.  I missed the rest of the Ruanos a lot, since only Rossanita went with me.  And when we came back this afternoon, I realized how much I missed the city and all the people!  Pantaleon is about an hour away from Guatemala City, it is sort of in the country.

The cousins have a maid who does all the cooking and cleaning, so we didn´t have to wash our dishes or anything.  Or do chores.  It was weird, because Rossanita and I are both used to helping out.  They always had a newspaper, so I would read that everyday and try to pick up new words.  During the day the cousins were at school, so Rossanita and I would go to the pool in the morning.  Oh, by the way, I named this post is ``internet`` because they didn´t have any internet at the cousin´s.  Not sure why.  So when I got home this afternoon and got to facetime with my family it was awesome!  We talked for an hour and a half...lots to catch up on over a week!

I´ve been learning how patience goes a long way...God always provides!  I am used to getting a lot of fruits at the Ruanos, because they go to the market close to their house almost everyday, but at Pantaleon, the market isn´t within walking distance and they get their produce delivered to them because it is so far away.  So I was like ``How am I going to live without fruit?`` but I shouldn´t have worried, silly me!  On Thursday, Rossanita went to visit the school, but I stayed home with the aunt.  We went in to town, a little town called Santa Lucia and we picked up a few things at the store.  She asked if I wanted anything, and of course, I wanted fruit! Guess what I found?  Guavas!  She was surprised, she said that it wasn´t common to find them.  Lately for some reason the markets don´t have them, and when they do, they do for only one day.  So I felt like God was just blessing me with them.  They were perfectly ripe, too.  We also bought bananas, only 4 though because she said nobody in her family eats them.  So funny for me, I can´t imagine not eating bananas!  They are like a staple for me.  It was probably the smallest quantity of bananas I have ever bought in my life.      

I almost forgot! I learned how to make tortillas! The little, thicker corn tortillas.  I have great respect for the ladies that make them now...it tain´t no easy task, let me tell ya.  But I managed to make a few actually circular ones that didn´t have holes in them, and I even managed to flip some of them with my fingers on the hot griddle!  Sucely, the maid at the cousin´s, taught me how to do it.  She kept telling me to not be scared, in flipping them.  I burned my fingers- that griddle was HOT!  It was fun.  I hope to find some Maseca (that´s what the flour is called to make the tortillas) in the US and make some fresh tortillas for my family.  There´s nothing like fresh tortillas, kept steaming hot wrapped in a towel on the table.  Mmmm.

So God totally dropped in my lap a witnessing opportunity.  It was a 16 year old neighbor named Carlos who had a Catholic background.  We started at first, talking in Spanish, but then I found out that he had been to the states a few times, once for 4 months, going to school there to learn English.  So he knew English pretty well, and he asked me to speak in English (because my Spanish was so bad, haha).  He asked me why I was here, and if I was a priest.  Yeah, a priest. Are there even girl priests?  I don´t know, maybe he didn´t know the word he was looking for in English.  Anyway, since we were talking about church, sort of, I asked him if he knew where he was going when he died, and walked him through a few of the 10 commandments.  I think he understood that he was a sinner but then he was giving me excuses, like ``Everytime I try to read my Bible, I just get distracted and watch TV or something.``  Pray that God will work in his heart, convict him and that he will be saved.  It´s out of my hands, God does the work, I am simply the instrument.  I am so thankful for the Way of the Master course that I had last summer, it is so helpful in sharing my faith!  I hope one day to be able to do it in Spanish.  :)

No big deal but...

A lot of things to blog about, so little time to blog!  I am leaving for a few days to go to the Ruano´s cousin´s house, about an hour away from here.  Probably won´t be on the computer until then, so let me do a brief highlight on what´s happened this week. 

Concert
I was in my second Chochy concert this Saturday!  The church we had it at was a lot smaller and wasn´t new looking like the church we had last time.  It was super hot inside because it wasn´t opened up like most buildings are here.  There was only enough room for the kids to sit or stand- the concert took up half the room!  I was the heart again- ``El Amor``.  I was so excited because this time, I took my time speaking my lines and I didn´t mess up!  Also, I was expecting to hear my voice over the speakers, so it didn´t scare me like last time.  

In good and in the bad
I had a couple bad days- just being really homesick and being tired of being here, but I hear that is normal...
I am doing sooo much better now.  Thanks to first, Bible and prayer time that God blessed me with and second, tons of encouraging emails that came all at the right time. It is so exciting to open my email and have so many to read! Lots of wise words were spoken to me the past few days- even Bryan told me ``Don´t be sad, enjoy your time here, because when you are in the States, you are going to be sad and wish you could be here.`` At the time, I didn´t want to hear that, but I knew it was true.  ``I love English so much!  The US is awesome!``  A little mini-bout of cultural withdrawal.  :) 

Amusement park
So I went to a Guatemalan amusement park!  Usually I am not scared on amusement park rides, but I wasn´t really sure about how safe they were, at first, so the first ride I was actually scared.  Scared for my life!  But nobody else seemed concerned, and they always checked seat belts before the ride, so I just trusted that God would protect me and stopped worrying.  There was a ride really similar to the log ride at King´s Dominion, and then there was a drop tower and a roller coaster.  It was a pretty small park, and there weren´t too many people, so we went on some rides like five times!  It was awesome.  There was this big group of gringos and so the group I was in was teasing me about asking them where they were from.  But then I heard them speaking, and it wasn´t English.  Somewhere in Europe, I knew. 
``Hey, maybe they are the Vienna Boys Choir!`` I joked, since I knew that they had come to Guatemala recently for a concert.  ``Yeah, maybe it is!`` the kids in my group said.  They were all getting excited about it and telling their moms that Rachel said maybe it was the choir, and I felt bad, like I had lied to them because really I had no idea.  But then, we had finished playing bumper cars and I asked one of the European kids where he was from, hoping he understood English.  ``Vienna, in Europe.``
``Like, from the choir?``
``Yes,`` he answered.
Whoa! I was like ``Guys!  It IS the choir!``
Later, there was another group from the choir and the girls in my group had me ask them in English for a photo- the funny thing was that the kid I talked to knew more Spanish then English, so I ended up speaking Spanish to him instead.
Yeah, so no big deal, but I spoke Spanish and played bumper cars with part of the Vienna Boys Choir.