Life in Guatemala Part I

The culture here in Guatemala is very different from the US obviously so I figured I'd dedicate a post to some of the things that I've noticed and seen in the past three weeks.

1. The driving is reckless but not at the same time.  The main road out here is two lanes, sometimes with a dotted yellow line and sometimes a solid or double line.  However, that doesn't really mean anything. They pass in the opposite lane whenever they want. While we were driving to and from the baby rescue two weeks ago, our driver was weaving in and out like you wouldn't believe.  There were a few times where I thought we were going to crash but he got back in our lane just in time. Even though we would be going at least 80 to pass them, he always used his blinker. I'm writing this in the bus and we were just passed by an 18 wheeler. It's crazy.

2. Related to that is the choice of vehicle.  There are so many motorbikes which are ideal if you think about it. They're good for getting around the mountains and the curves but are also cheaper than a car and get good gas mileage. I've seen 3 people riding on the same bike.  It is legal to sit in the bed of a pickup truck too. Ive seen some with more than ten people.

3. Everyone is very hospitable. There was a group from Liberty University that was at HOL for a month and is now staying with host families for another month. One girl I talked to said that her family essentially told her mi casa es tu casa. The mother said that they don't have much but there is a lot of love and that's what matters. They are so willing to share what they have even though it's not a lot.  Everyone that we've visited while evangelizing has always welcomed us in and given everyone someplace to sit. Related to that, everyone always says hello to each other.  If you pass them while walking, it's usually hola or buenas and a wave and if they'll honk to say hello in a car.

4. We've been eating a lot of rice, beans, some sort of meat, and corn tortillas. This is the standard meal for everyone.

5. On the way back from the baby rescue, Hugo asked Connor if he was married and had any children. He doesn't of course but that prompted a discussion at dinner about marriage.  Most girls in the villages get "married" soon after they are able to have children. However, they don't really get married in the sense that we think of with the big wedding.  It can take years for them to get their papers that say they are officially married so many don't even bother. It's more of an agreement per se. Many times the father/husband is not in the picture.  They don't really understand the idea of being able to provide for their family and not having children until they are able to do that. They also don't really understand how they get pregnant.  Health education is really lacking here.

6. They cut the grass and weeds at the side of the roads with machetes. It's actually rather effective.

Baby crocodile on a leash

7. The villages are a lot safer than the cities because everyone knows each other and many times are related.  The houses are all colorful.

8. The women carry baskets of things on their head. It's a rather impressive feat.

The cattle coming home through the village

9. To use less water and to prevent problems with the plumbing, you have to throw your toilet paper in the trash. I have finally gotten used to it.  It only took three weeks.

10. Guatemalans are short. I tower above everyone in the village.

The river by Los Limones

Also, a somewhat related side note. I am going to come home with a southern accent.  There are a lot of groups from the South here.  Last week, we had Louisina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and South Carolina.  Jill, the other girl in our room, and Tanner are from North Carolina and they have some of the most southern accents that I've ever heard. I'm already saying y'all again.

I found a German!

The world just keeps getting smaller and smaller.  I keep meeting people with mutual friends or something else in common.  Last week there were two guys here that are good friends with one of my counselors from Csehy.  There's a group from Liberty here and we have quite a few mutual friends through Csehy. Yesterday, I met a guy from another group that lived in Germany for 12 years and went to Black Forest Academy, where I know some people.  I had been joking last week that I wish there was someone that spoke German or French so that someone could understand me since my Spanish is not getting me anywhere.  Unfortunately they left today so we won't get to talk anymore.  It's crazy how I've been running into people this far away from home. 

Sunday was a relaxing day for all of us.  After church where we sang and danced to worship the Lord, we had lunch and I took a nap in a hammock for three hours.

On Monday, our supervisor asked us to organize the back part of the office which has a bunch of filing cabinets and boxes and bags and is just a mess.  We spent all day going through the cabinets and pulling out donations, art supplies, office supplies, old electronics, and hardware to put in boxes.  Although when we put everything back, it looks just as messy as when we started, you can actually find things now.  One cabinet is dedicated to labels and shipping envelopes and another is solely for office supplies.  After dinner, we had a devotion and worship with the volunteers.  It finally stormed for real.  You couldn't hear anything.

The area we organized

Tuesday morning we finished organizing and then in the afternoon we went to a village to pass out TOMs.  After the kids get a ticket, they get in line for the feet to be measured with this foot template thing.  Then they go receive their shoes and they get their feet washed too.  It was a lot of chaos since people were everywhere and the line was more of a clump.  The village was pretty well established.  It had fields and greenhouses and although the houses were mud huts, they were clean.  They even had a stereo and sound system.  It was still cool to be able to provide these kids with another pair of shoes.  When we gave out all the shoes, the kids sang two songs for us.  One little girl grabbed the microphone when they were done and said "Gracias por mis zapatos!" She was precious.      

Making a foot template

      

On Evangelizing and Religion

The other day, my dad sent me an email asking what the people here believe.  It really depends.  Some are already Christians and many villages have churches.  The church I went to down the road last week was small.  There were probably 20 adult attendees not in our group.  However, they were well established.  They took the children out for Sunday School during the sermon.  In the village where we planted trees the first week, they had a church but not everyone that we talked to attended it.  I wasn't part of the evangelizing team since I was digging holes but from what I overheard, those that didn't know Jesus were open to it.  I'm not aware that they followed another religion; they just didn't believe in anything.  We introduced them to the idea of a relationship with God, gave them a Bible, and encouraged them to go to church and talk to their pastor.  Our mission is not to shove the Gospel down their throats and tell them that if they don't have a personal relationship with God, then bad things will happen; rather we want to show them God's love through service and go from there.  We can't fulfill their spiritual needs before addressing their material needs.

Because every post needs pictures.... I found Kinderschokolade here!

The kids that we've led VBS for are very excited about Jesus.  El Mitch already has an Awana-type program in place.  I was told that a church from somewhere in Pennsylvania has adopted the village and started the program there.  They even raised funds to send a staff worker down and provide them with these textbooklets.  When we went there for VBS, we led some songs and then they sang ones that they had learned for us.  On Saturday, we went to Pueblo del Rio to do another VBS and they had a blast.  They did skits, played games, and colored.  I was at the craft station where they decorated a paper plate that had Psalm 139:14 on it (I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul know right well.) A lot of parents were at that one too.  Eventually there was a braiding station because Nina started braiding a girl's hair and then everyone else wanted theirs done too.  

 

This morning we went to church in Llano Verde, the village adjacent to the Hope of Life campus.  They were bigger than last week's church.  They bring the children down from the orphanage and a few elderly and special needs kids as well. They had a band playing the songs and we all had lots of fun even though us Americans didn't know any of them.  The natives got really into it and you could see that they were excited for Jesus.  I got the impression that it was contemporary nondenominational rather than a specific denomination.  During lunch, a few of the Liberty students were talking about their host families and they were saying that there is a Catholic church and a Jehovah's Witness church in the area as well. 

Playing Pharmacist

Much frustration with this post. I had it all typed out with pictures and then turns out it never saved. Mer. This week there were two teams here doing medical and dental clincs.  On Wednesday morning I helped with dental, basically just organizing the papers, checking which kids were and weren't there and playing with the kids while their parents were getting their teeth checked.  After lunch I went with the other group to a village where we held the medical clinic.  I manned the "pharmacy," which was two tables of medicine and wound care materials.  They had two doctors and a nursing student and translators for each of them.  The nursing student was in charge of triage and then sent the patients to one of the two doctor stations.  A lot of the patients were older women that had pain in their joints which mostly came from wear and tear so we gave them some vitamins and ibuprofen.  We handed out a lot of child's tylenol as well.  By the end I got pretty good at guessing what medicine the doctor's needed based on their symptoms.  The other half of the team cleaned feet and passed out TOMs to the kids.

The pharmacy

Patients seeing the doctors

Picture by Rachel Yowell while she was passing out TOMs

When we got back, we had the second half of the soccer tournament that was started last week.  Nina, Emily, and I got there a little early but once the kids from the orphanage came down, we were bombarded and were surrounded by them.  During the second to last game it started pouring so we decided to embrace it and get soaked.  It was Emily and Steve's last night so before heading back we went to the bakery and bought at least Q120 worth of goodies.  We polished off a good bit of it with some coffee after having a late dinner at the rancho. 

Om nom nom

On Thursday we went to El Oasis, a village along railroad tracks.  It is probably one of the most unique things I've seen while here.  Instead of being in a gridlike pattern like most of the villages I've been to so far, the houses/huts in this one run in two lines parallel to the tracks.  They have built these carts to use the tracks to their advantage.  To carry big jugs of water from the well to their respective homes, they put the jugs on the carts and push them down.  When we arrived, a bunch of kids put all of our boxes and equipment on the carts and pushed them to where we were having the clinic.

This clinic wasn't as organized as the other one.  We were in an area with a dirt floor and a table that the doctors used to see their patients.  Our pharmacy was the boxes laid out on a 2x4 on cinderblocks.  We were still able to see plenty of patients though.  The most common problems were joint pain and a cough, which comes from the smoke that they breath in while coughing.

Add caption

The "pharmacy"

After lunch, we were supposed to set up a bunch of chairs in the new church but they hadn't arrived yet so we walked down the tracks and talked to and prayed with the families there.  A few of them hadn't gotten a chance to go to the clinic so eventually we put all of the boxes on a cart and turned it into a mobile clinic.  The chairs got there so we set them up and prayed over the church.  I also met the cutest little girl ever, Jacqueline.  She was absolutely precious.

Our little mobile pharmacy

Jacqueline

Friday saw more medical clinics, though a different one this time.  Rachel and I went with two doctors from Hope of Life, a few office people, and another team of doctors from the city to El Mitch, the village I was at for VBS on Tuesday.  In my room, we took heights and weights of the kids and then sent them to one of two clinics where they saw a doctor.  If they needed medicine, they could go to the pharmacy which was set up in another room.

Our room

For lunch we went to the house of one of the office guys.  They served us chow mein, so Guatemalan Chinese food.  It was probably the best thing I've eaten here.  We had frozen chocolate covered bananas.  We measured more kids in the afternoon and then headed back to HOL.  There was another cena tipica so lots of good food.

More noms

Please let me know if you have any questions about what I'm doing or Hope of Life or Guatemala or anything!  If there's anything else you want me to include, let me know that too!

Dental Clinic and VBS

This is week is already turning out to be different from last week.  On Monday I worked by myself sorting bags of clothes, shoes, art supplies, and toys that people had donated.  Then Eunice sent me into the Hope of Life Village to clean a building so another group could use it for a dental clinic.  A bunch of kids from the village just appeared and helped me.  There were so many of them that I didn't have anything to do so I just tried to talk to them but failed.  They laughed at me.  After lunch, I went back to the building with the dental team to assist them.  We swept and wiped everything down again since I had only gone over it quickly in the morning.  We were about to start setting everything up when the person in charge decided that it would be better to do the clinic up at the Rancho Taiwan because they would be too hot down there.  So off to the Rancho to clean tables for them.  They were waiting for bigger equipment to be brought in from another dentist so my work was done pretty early.  I had time just to relax and journal before dinner.  Afterwards we had worship and devotion with all the volunteers.

Connor and Hugo on a scooter

Tuesday was an exhausting day.  In the morning Connor and I went with Pastor Doug's group to El Mitch, a village about 25 minutes away.  To get there, we took this road that a mini van shouldn't take and we took it in a bus.  We got so many leaves inside.  The road we were supposed to take was closed because of construction so we had to take that little detour.  When we got there, we lead a VBS type of thing for about 70 kids.  Julio translated while they talked about Jesus and did a few crafts.  Afterwards the boys played soccer and I played pato, pato, ganzo (duck, duck, goose) with the little ones.  We stopped on the way back to get drinks at a stand on the side of the road owned by a lady who lives in HOL village.  I don't like coke so I decided to get something purple in a bag.  Drinks often come in bags; you bite off the corner and then drink out of it.  It tasted like any purple drink.  It also cost me Q2 which is about 26 cents. Yes it's that cheap.  Connor's coke was Q2.50 so 35 cents ish. That was in a little plastic bottle though.

The kids praying

Purple in a bag

In the afternoon, we joined a team from South Carolina and painted Causelife, the worship center in La Casitas.  We painted it a nice bright white.  I'm not the cleanest painter so I ended up with paint everywhere, even in my hair.  I accidentally backed against a wet wall.  Oops.  My favorite part of the afternoon was seeing Claudio again.  He remembered me after all the picture taking at the medical clinic last week and ran up to me to give me a big hug.  After a well earned shower, we had my favorite churrascos for dinner.  They are flour tortillas with rice, pork, cole slaw, and salsa. So good.     

Weekend Recap

This weekend was rather uneventful.  We barely did anything.  After sleeping in on Saturday, I cleaned and organized my little section of my room.  We headed down to lunch at around 11:30.  There were only five of us so the kitchen ladies just had chicken sandwiches and pasta salad.  After that, I got to work learning some Spanish.  I'm picking up on some words but I don't know how to put them together so I wanted to look up the different conjugations and grammar things.  I found a website (studyspanish.com) that has a bunch of units on beginner Spanish.  I read through a few of them and realized that I actually know most of the concepts because they are very similar in French, I just didn't know how it corresponded in Spanish.  In the afternoon we went to the baby center again and played with more babies.

Herninio!

That night the orphans had a pizza party so we went up and helped with that.  They had a few pinatas for the kids too.  They divided it up into big girls and big boys and the younger boys and younger girls.  The younger ones could barely swing the stick.  They were precious.  After serving pizza to the kids, we played with them.  I still could barely understand them and I didn't catch any of their names but we still had fun.  They just grab your hand and pull you somewhere or point if you're holding them.  It gets dark here super early, at about 7, so we headed back to the Mission House.  Julio got us cucos so we had that while we watched another movie.

The kids and their candy

Sunday we had breakfast and then went to church a few minutes down the road.  It was such a small church that we doubled the size of the congregation.  It was an interesting experience.  They started the service with a lady who prayed and sang some songs.  We didn't know any of the words so we just clapped along.  Their regular pastor was at a different church so Brother Benjamin preached.  Nina and Julio translated for us.  He talked about how we have to pray with faith and perseverance.  When we got back, we had lunch and then went swimming. 

The front of the church

For the rest of the afternoon, we just hung around and relaxed.  After dinner, we got a ride back up to the Mission House and had a bonfire and worshipped with the volunteers and translators.  We made s'mores with Chiky's, which are sort of like shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate.  They're delicious.  It was a great way to end the weekend and prepare for the new week with a renewed focus.  

Holding Babies, Salsa Dancing, and Planting Trees

 I can't believe I've already been here for a week.  Somehow it feels like I've been here forever but then at the same time I feel like I just got here.  I've adjusted into the lifestyle pretty easily.  Thursday consisted of painting a room at Kelly's house, the special need's house.  Since we were done pretty early in the afternoon, we played with the babies in the baby rescue center for a little bit and helped the nurses give them baths before trekking all the way back up the hill to shower and change before our fiesta.   The babies are sooo adorable!

Hard at work painting

Even the little ones are fascinated by cameras

They had a banquet of sorts for all the church groups leaving this week.  They served a bunch of food that we served.  After we ate, they did a sort of presentation where the girls from the orphanage sang and danced for us.  Carlos Vargas talked a little bit.  He is quiet possibly one of the funniest men I have ever met.  We also salsa danced for a little bit which was fun since I've never done it before.  It went pretty late so we all went to bed right after. 

Connor danced too!

On Friday they took us (our mini group, the Marist group, a group from Austin, TX, and another group from Tennessee) to Pueblo Moderno, a village outside of Zacapa, Zacapa.  The Austin group painted a house and moved in furniture.  Meanwhile, the rest of us split into 4 groups-- a translator, two Tennesseens, and two Marist/us.  Our job was to plant trees and evangelize.  They give us college kids all the physical labor so I planted trees.  We started by walking up to people that were outside their house, explaining who we were, that we were from Hope of Life, and asked to plant the tree on their property.  We planted these trees that produce breadfruit.  If you cook it, it apparently tastes like fresh bread.  While Steve and I dug a hole and planted the tree, Hannah and her grandmother talked to the people about Jesus with the help of the translator.  Once we had done 3 or 4 people saw what we were doing and starting walking up to us to ask if we could plant a tree on their property.  They were literally invited Jesus into their house.  The last one we did was at the pastor's house.

First tree planted!

I really loved today because we got to see how the people live.  I've noticed that Guatemalans are very hospitable.  They will always invite you into their home.  In this village, a lot of the "houses" were not much more than a hut made out of a combination of sticks, plastic, and metal.  The property is marked by tall sticks and sometimes barbed wire to make a fence.  They still invited Hannah, her grandmother, and Andrea inside and gave them chairs to sit on while they talked.  At the end of each little session, the girls prayed for them and also with them.  A few people would pray at the same time as Hannah which I found peculiar.  In the U.S, most of the time only one person is praying aloud.

A pretty good view of some of the village

Praying with the family

Once we finished planting our trees, we headed back to the meeting spot where a bunch of children came and asked for trees for their places too.  We didn't have time to plant them but we still gave them away.  As we were about to head onto the bus to pick up the painters and head to lunch, two girls came up to me and started talking.  One pointed down to her foot which had a quarter-sized open black sore.  I called Nina over since she can speak Spanish and is also a nursing student.  We found out that the girl had fallen and scraped her foot about 3 weeks ago.  She had been to the doctor 2 weeks earlier but the doctor just gave her a pill.  She had been cleaning it with water but the water there has parasites more often than not so it got infected.  We cleaned it up a little with alcohol swabs and covered it.  Unfortunately we couldn't take her to the hospital but we very strongly encouraged her to.  If she doesn't go soon, the gangrene will eat her foot and she'll lose it.

The bus we take everywhere

We stopped by Guto's, a restaurant in Zacapa (the capital city of Zacapa), for lunch.  They served us these delicious taco like things with pork and coleslaw.  We were all so exhausted from working out in the sun all day that almost everyone took a nap when we got back around 3.  After getting showered and cleaned up, we headed down to the baby rescue center and played with the babies for a little before dinner.  They were especially squirmy but still just as cute.

Herninio!

 After dinner, the pastor from the village came up to the Rancho to preach.  There were about 16 of us just sitting in a circle listening to him.  We started with some worship, led by Jill.  I think that was my favorite worship session ever.  It was so quiet and intimate.  We didn't have any words in front of us but we were all familiar with the songs.  The verses were quiet but then when the refrain came in, we were so strong and you could just feel the Holy Spirit flooding the place, just like in the song.  The sermon was interesting as well.  The pastor doesn't speak any English so Julio translated.  One sentence in Spanish, the same translated into English.  It broke it up a little but it really made you pay attention and remember what he was saying.  I was able to recognize some of the words in Spanish too!

Anna Paula

 We finished the night watching the movie Salt outside and then going to bed.  Saturdays are free days for us so we can do whatever we want basically.  We started by skipping breakfast and sleeping in.  We might head down to the river and the waterfall this afternoon.  

Communication

Tuesday we took a field trip with the Louisiana group to the Mayan ruins, which are about an hour away, closer to the border of Honduras.  We basically just walked around and looked at the ruins.  There were a lot of big rocks with carvings on them. There was also an arena where they played pelonta, some sort of ball game.  I have no idea how they got up and down those steps. Guatemalans are rather short and I was having a little trouble.  Along the path were mango trees but since they aren't in season, they have maggots.  Some tried to eat them before they knew this. This area is also apparently known for its jade so there was a little museum/store with jewelry.

Our mini group at the ruins

In the afternoon, we moved cinderblocks that are going to be made into new rooms for the older girls in the orphanage. It was hard work but I enjoyed it. We were all dripping in sweat by the time we were done so we went swimming before dinner. After we ate, we went to the orphanage to hang out with the kids for a little bit.  It was actually a little chilly out.  If it had been any colder, I would have needed a sweatshirt. We've been with the Marist College group a lot so we have some worship together before we go to bed.

This is only about half of the little pile that we moved. We actually did this times about 7.

The view from the orphanage where we were working

Wednesday we helped out at the hospital, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning the windows and furniture to get the first three floors ready to be open. After lunch, Rachel and I went to Causelife, the village started by HOL.  Two doctors were there taking heights and weights of the kids so we helped with that as much as we could with our limited knowledge of Spanish. The med student led a mini class on women's health that we sat in on. I understood the general idea of it.  Then we played with kids for a little bit. I put Claudio on my shoulders because he ran up to me and then when Rachel showed him the picture she took of us, he took it and started taking pictures of everything. He showed me his house and the puppies in front of it. The other little boy had a camera too and they had such a blast taking pictures of each other taking pictures. I think I used every single Spanish phrase that I know.

This is Claudio's house, which he very proudly showed me

Our little photographers

Claudio and his puppies

More kids! They all just want to take pictures.

Before dinner we went to a soccer tournament that HOL was hosting.  I thought it was just going to be a few games but they went all out.  The entire village was there and the teams had jerseys.  They're legit.  I had my camera out and one of the kids wanted to take pictures so he took it and then someone else got it and so many others too.  So lesson of the day: the best way to get pictures of the people in the village is to have a kid walk around with your camera.  Other than that, Rachel and I mainly played with the kids while the others played soccer. I learned my body parts again thanks to a little girl.  Also, there was a group of girls from the orphanage that had on cheerleading uniforms from Virginia Tech.  They were precious.

Anna Paulo, basically the most precious baby I've seen

Hugo, one of the translators, and Rachel

The men's soccer team

I think this is James?

The most valuable lesson that I learned today was that a lot of communication is nonverbal.  I already knew that from my gcom class but it didn't sink in until today.  I speak barely an Spanish but I was still able to interact with the kids through motions, facial expressions, and just showing them  love in general.

I have so many more pictures that will be up on facebook so look at those!