Blog-worthy?

Ok, so I´ll try to update you on all that I´ve been up to this past week!  I always have a lot to say, so little time to say it...I already emailed my family a lot that´s been going on, so I will try to take what I already wrote and ´´blog-worthy´´ it.  In other words, make it interesting to read.  Not that it wasn´t already...oh what am I trying to say?

As I publish this, I realize that it is a really long post, so if you actually make it through to the bottom  you must be a true friend.  Or just really bored.  Either one.  ;)

In the near recent- if that is even grammatically correct- I have been having some stomach issues since Monday. I have no idea what I ate- not that it even matters this late in the game.  The bad thing is that yesterday I ate pretty much every kind of food when I should have been more careful, if I wanted to get better faster.  So today, my diet has solely consisted of bananas, water and Powerade.  Feeling better now! Not up to eating food yet...they ate tacos for lunch which I was really bummed to find out because I love tacos!  Oh well, there will be other days.  

Talking about other days, my days left in Guatemala are dwindling!  I can´t believe that it´s October already!  It seems just like yesterday that it was August and I was wishing that I could go home and November felt like a lifetime away.  God has really blessed me here.  I am glad I stayed.  Though, now that I stayed more time, it´s going to be even harder to leave all of the friends that I have made.  But I will try not to borrow tomorrows sorrows...

Spanish progress

Last Friday a family that used to go to the Ruano´s church came to eat lunch with us.  It was funny, I was soooo nervous because I had to sit down at the adult table (the kids already took up the other table) and I my hand was shaking as I set down my plate of food and I was thinking things like ´´What if they (the guests) try to talk to me?  What if I have to speak in Spanish to them?  They will find out how little I know!  Oh, no, don´t look at them!  Eyes down eyes down...´´  haha I´m so ridiculous.  It turned out fine, I got used to them and they were nice.  The father was actually from the States and was part Cherokee or something so he didn´t look gringo.  Anyway, I don´t know why my self-confidence is so low still with speaking Spanish.  I will be talking easily with Monica or my friends from the church, and an adult like Celeste´s mom or the Ruano´s grandfather will hear me and be like ´´Hey! You do speak Spanish and understand it!´´  And then I´m like ´´Shoot, they know!  I hope they don´t try speaking to me!´´  It´s really because I feel more comfortable messing up in front of my friends, people I really am used to being around.  Adults still scare me.  Oh, and kids I don´t know as well.  I guess basically anyone that I´m not used to yet.  haha.  But Sunday it was so cool, because there I was, sitting in the living room, having complete conversations in Spanish.  I was like ´´Wow!  I can´t believe this is for real!´´  Still don´t understand everything, of course, and some days I feel like I don´t know anything, but it´s encouraging moments like that when I realize how far I´ve come.  

Preparing for camp 

We have been busy this week preparing for the church´s kids camp this weekend.  I guess I didn´t really explain what the camp was very well before, because my family was asking me what it was about, so I will try to explain again.  It´s basically just a kids camp they put together for all of the kids that go to the church, since now it is their summer and school is finishing up this week and next week.   It´s just a one-nighter, but they put a lot of work into it!  You´d think it was a week long camp!  There are four teams of kids who compete with each other, it´s pretty intense.  Each team has four leaders, two boys and two girls.  I am one of the leaders for a team.  The theme for the camp is ´´Mas Que Vencedores´´ taken from Romans 8:37  ^´´But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.´´

Last Saturday I was at the church allll day because my group had to make the flag and other little things for our team.  Somehow we are going to attach these little foam people (that we all cut out by hand) and a foam Bible to the flag...I really don´t know who´s brilliant idea it was to involve so much foam in our project.  Wasn´t mine!  Anyhow, we had to buy some more foam Saturday morning, so Jose, Monica and I were walking around to different little stores, seeing what they had and we also bought some more sparkles and glue. That took a while, and then we returned to our little room with out windows to cut more!!  We were in the nursery in the church, it is tiny and isn´t ever used I don´t think.  But it´s sad because there aren´t any windows... my mom was thrilled to find out that we were using rubber cement for hours with only the door as ventilation...let´s pray that I am not completely brain dead.  But now, if I am, you all will know why.

When we returned to the church, after eating lunch at McDonalds, it was time for youth group.  That lasted from abut 3:30 to 5...then we had a group meeting for the camp.  Chochy reprimanded some people for not showing up for practice for their groups, and then the group that is going to lead the singing part at camp presented their songs and had us learn the dances to them, so that we can help the kids at camp.  That was really fun but was quite a work-out!  Everyone was super sweaty from dancing!  Some of the steps are taken from Chochy concerts, so I knew it already.  I really enjoyed it, I think the kids will like it too.  

Camp this weekend!

We have to be at the church at 7 on Saturday, then we leave with all of the kids at 8 and the car ride is about an hour, so they say.  I can´t remember the schedule exactly, but I know that we will be competing in games throughout the day Saturday, and my drama team presents our skit at 2 in the afternoon.  At 6:30 is a ´´Cena de gala´´ which is a ´´fancy´´ dinner that everyone has a date...unusual for me, but I guess it´s a normal thing for them, they have these camps and dinners every year.  After the dinner there is a bonfire, and then everyone goes to bed.  Monica and I will be in charge of the girls in our group, we will have our own cabin.  I was told that there will be about 6 boys and 6 girls on each team.  The ages range from 2 to 11, so I hope that we can handle it alright.  I´m sure it will be interesting.  Sunday we have to wake up at 6 and we have devotions early, maybe at 6:30.  Then it´s another busy day of games and dramas, skits and puppets.  When we get back to the church in the late afternoon, we do team presentations and then they announce the winning team in front of the parents.  It will be a late night Sunday, they say sometimes they don´t get home until midnight, I guess with all the clean-up and wrapping up of the weekend.  

I am excited to see what happens and how everything goes, after all the time invested in this up-coming weekend!  

VISA, Campamento

The water this past week was limited- the city was working on the pipes or something so all we had was our own water supply that we have in a tank in the back- we had to be careful with our water use and take quick showers.  Thankfully, we never ran out of water, and now it's back to normal.  Meanwhile, I learned to take faster showers! 

I went to get my 90-day VISA renewed last week.  Mr. Ruano took me on Monday to get it renewed, but when we pulled into the parking lot, the attendant informed us that the building was closed for the day, so we had to wait until Wednesday.  It was sort of complicated to get it renewed- I sure was glad I didn't have to do it by myself.  First, we went to the main floor, got a ticket number and a form to fill out.  Once out number was called, we went up to the window and showed them my form but were told that we needed to turn in a recent photo of myself, in addition to a copy of my passport.  So we had to go out of the building, down the street a little, into this little office where they took my photo with a digital camera and printed out 4 copies right there.  (So now I have three little passport sized photos of myself that I don't know what to do with...it turned out better than my actual passport photos.  Always when it doesn' t matter...sigh.)  Anyway, we went back into the Immigration building, turned in my photo and forms, and then were informed that I was in the country illegally by one day.  So that meant I had to pay a fine...a grand total of 10 quetzales!  About a buck and a half.  But it was more than just paying money.  We had to walk up two flights, turn in my license, get a receipt, go allll the way downstairs to the first floor, where the bank was, pay my fine and the fee for my VISA, get another copy done of my passport, go back upstairs and get my license back, go back downstairs where we first started, turn in everything, including my passport which they have to keep for 8 business day!  Whew!  And you thought that the DMV was bad....at least that doesn't involve going up and down stairs!  Oh well, I need the exercise haha. 

The days are counting down for the Campamento...I am in two groups.  One group is for a drama (there are 4 dramas) and the other is a team of kids (there are 4 teams).  I am on a team with Monica, Jose and Louis.  I'm excited, Saturday we went shopping to buy fabric to make our flag.  Since Monica's and my favorite color is green, of course our team color is green :)  We only have two more meetings until the camp and we still have to make our flag, make a uniform with a cape for one of the kids (I guess kinda like a team mascot) and finish up making our theme song.  We are meeting this Tuesday night to practice our dramas and make our flags.  I hope it goes well and that we get a lot done! 

Independence Day

For Guatemala´s 191st Independence Day we went to see the parade at the Capitol.  There were so many people at one point that we were seriously packed in like sardines.  While we were struggling to get past the bottleneck of traffic, I was thinking in my mind ``Don´t fall down or you will get lost under a bunch of feet and die...`` It was like nothing I´ve ever experienced.  We were on our tip-toes, we were so squashed and at one point the crowd started pushing and we almost all fell down.  There was a lot of shouting to get the people to keep moving.  So it was funny more than scary.  I´m just glad that we got past that and eventually found a good spot to watch the parade.  All the schools from Guatemala that had marching bands were represented in the parade.  It was funny because the family members of the students marched behind them, so there would be lulls in the parade were there were just a bunch of normal people walking by.  It was pretty cool to see all of the costumes and dancers.  I heard two songs that they play on our Independence Day- one of them was ``Johny Comes Marching Home`` and the other I can´t remember the name of.  I didn´t see any fireworks.

 Sunday we visited a place called Amatitlán- there is a lake there and we went with a group of friends after church, just for fun.  There was a looot of candy for sale, as you can see in the photo.  They sold little trinkets and stuff.  I bought some bracelets, but I didn´t really bring money so I couldn´t buy any more than that.  Though I got a new purse-it has the Quetzal bird and ``Guatemala`` on it.  Edgar (Monica´s brother) had me pick one out and he bought it for my birthday.

Loooots of candy...

The Lake at Amatitlán

L-R- Edgar, Dennis, Alan, Bryan, Chema (below), Diego, Rossanita, Kitty, Me, Chochy and Jose

  There was also a lot of food for sale, mostly fried fish and such, since we were right on the lake.  It had just rained, so there was a lot of puddles to avoid in the potholes.  After we walked to look at the lake, we went to look at the horses that were in the park.  They were for rent and everyone wanted to ride, but I didn´t really want to at first.  I had never been on a actual horse before, only on a pony a couple of times so I wasn´t too sure.  The workers of the horses were all right there, calling out for people to come ride their horse and they were kind of aggressive.  Before I knew it, this lady was like pushing me over to a horse and saying something to me in Spanish- I don´t even know what it was.  And there I found myself, on top of a horse, having no idea what to do.  The guy who helped me up told me to give the horse a gentle kick if I wanted it to go faster- I was thinking ``Yeah right.``  I thought that he was going to lead the horse around or something, because I thought he could tell by my face that I had never done this before, but no, the horse just went of by itself and I was left trusting that it wouldn´t freak out or anything. Thankfully, my horse was really tranquil and when I tried to make it go faster, wouldn´t budge.  Dennis and Bryan got their horses to go faster- it was really funny to see them go bumping around.  Afterwards, Edgar pointed out a wooden hand painted sign that was nailed high up in a tree- something about riding at your own risk.  Thankfully, no mishaps! I count it as a successful experience- my first horse ride ever.

Diego, Dennis and Bryan

Volcano

Yesterday the cousins got evacuated from their house because the Fuego Volcano was erupting. If you click on the link it tells you a little more about it- they had to evacuate thousands!  The cousins came yesterday afternoon, so we have a full house now- the three cousins, the aunt and Chochy´s mom.  We think we can see some of the erruption from the house- there are a bunch of clouds that look foggy and last night we could see a lot of lightning in them.  It was pretty cool looking.

I got to experience opening up a coconut with a machete yesterday afternoon.  That was interesting.  It also was my first time trying fresh coconut meat- it was really good.  At first, it´s disappointing because it´s not sweet.  But I decided that it tasted kind of like a nut, and I got used to the taste.  I also tried fresh coconut water, which I have had before because you can buy it in the States, but I didn´t like it very much.  Though it is definitely better straight out of the coconut rather then what you can buy packaged.  We worked really hard to get the meat out of the coconut afterwards, using knives and spoons.  It was difficult! I think I did two and half coconuts.  My hand hurts still- oh and I cut one of my fingers using the knife.  Haha, that´s the second time I´ve cut my hand in the past week- last week it was while cutting watermelon!  Last night Chochy boiled water, sugar, cinnamon sticks and added blended coconut and milk to make coconut ice cream.  Today she put it in little individual plastic baggies(that´s how they make their ice cream), so this afternoon it will be ready to eat.  Yummy! 

Car trouble

So yesterday we were driving Jose´s car home from the kid´s soccer and swimming training when all of the sudden Chochy pulled up onto the median.  I didn´t know what she was doing, when I realized that the engine had gone out.  Thankfully, we were in traffic so we hadn´t been going very fast, and we were able to come to a stop somewhat safely.  She tried several times to start the car again, but it wouldn´t.  The alarm went off and she couldn´t stop it.  We were only a block or so from their neighborhood, so when she called Mr. Ruano for help, he came on foot, along with Jose.  But before they came, a motorcyclist had stopped to help and got the engine running.  We thought it was better but when Chochy tried pulling into the street, it died again.  The boys got out and they all started pushing the car and eventually it was able to coast, since it was downhill.  Because the car wasn´t on, the only brake Chochy could use was the emergency brake which squealed like crazy and I´m sure was awful for the car. I was kinda scared that we would hit the car in front of us, but we didn´t.  When we turned into the neighborhood, they really had to push the car because it was a little uphill.  So we got home safely.  Feel bad for Jose though, not sure how fast the car will get fixed.

Right now I´m in the clinic but we don´t have any patients, so while we wait I´m blogging :)  I like going to the clinic, though this is only my fourth or so time.  I get to practice my Spanish with Kevin and Dr. Ruano.

 This Saturday is Guatemala´s Independance Day, so we don´t have practice for the kids camp, youth group or homegroup.  I asked if we are going to do anything, but it doesn´t sound like we are.  They have in past years gone into the city for the parades and marching bands, but Dr. Ruano told me that he doesn´t like to go because there are so many people and it is difficult to find parking- sounds like the 4th in D.C.  But I´m dissapointed becuase they only do fireworks for Christmas!  Well hold that thought- I just asked Kevin about it and he said that yes, they do have fireworks for Independance Day.  So I guess I´ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Chochy concert

Almost everyone on the Chochy team has a pair of Converse...mine are the signed ones with zebra laces :)

So I only uploaded a couple photos...I would post more but it is way faster to post them via facebook...sorry to all you non-facebook people. Both of these are from the first Chochy concert I was in.

Cumplo 19

Last Wednesday was my 19th birthday and my request was that we go shopping in the market :)  I really didn´t want a party even though they wanted to give me one, because it´s awkward to have a lot of people come for your birthday when you can´t really talk to them, right?  We went to El Mercado Central, where we had gone before with the Chantilly team in the beginning of August.  Wow, even though that was only a month ago, it feels like forever!  Anyway, I had a lot of fun shopping, though I am so indecisive...it´s worse in a market because you´re trying to focus on what your looking for amongst all these colorful things, you´re trying to make choices between items and you´re trying to bargain for good deals.  Oh, and on top of that I was trying to think money in Spanish, though most of the vendors know how to speak a little English.  I still have trouble with numbers in Spanish, and then it messes up my adding abilities when I try to switch over to adding in English.  Eventually, I made up my mind and bought a purse with hand-embroidered pink roses on it and I also got some earrings and scarves.  Pretty good deal-I got my bag for $5.  :) 

Annnyway...the rest of the day went as normal, we hung out at the house in the afternoon, I made a gluten free ``cake`` for myself, and then we all went shopping for groceries and the boys got some new soccer shoes.  When we got home from shopping, I helped a little to prepare for dinner by making guacamole.  We were going to eat taco salad.  Rossanita had finished cutting up the other vegetables, so we went upstairs to watch TV and wait to Chochy to call everyone to dinner.  I checked my facebook and email, responded to the birthday wishes, and still, no call to dinner.  It was 8:30, not very late for eating dinner around here.  I thought, ``Oh, she´ll call us in a half an hour or so.`` But then I heard her and Mr. Ruano practicing their song for the kids camp, and still no dinner.  Finally, at 10 minutes before 10, Chochy called me down.  ``Feliz Cumpleaños Rachel!`` shouted Kitty, Gaby and Monica as they jumped out at me.  They all gave me a big hug and then I heard firecrackers in the front of the house and Alan (Kitty´s boyfriend), the other Alan, and Edgar (Monica and Gaby´s brother) came in.  So it was a good sized party, they invited only people that I knew pretty well.  It was awesome! I was so thankful to be able to spend my birthday with all of them. 

Even though I can´t eat gluten, they had to buy a cake so that I could blow out the candles!  And, what´s a party without cake?  Dennis J. tried to face-plant me in the cake after they finished singing- that was funny.  You could see my teeth marks in the cake, but it all got eaten anyway!