Weekend Wanderings

I feel like this past weekend just flew by--¨is it already Monday??¨--I found myself thinking last night, along with the quick annoying Sunday night thought of--¨Shoot I never cleaned the bathroom¨.
As much as I love my job, and everything about it, I also am a HUGE fan of a couple of things:
1) Alone time.
2) Time to just BE in my house (there always seems to be something to clean or do)
3) Time to catch up on life (whether it be cleaning, cooking for the week, grocery shopping, or sleeping)
And these things seem to happen most on weekends, which is why I cherish them!
However, with a packed weekend like this past one, I find myself on Monday morning with thoughts of ¨crap, never cleaned the bathroom.¨
I have found that it´s easier to have jam-packed weekends when you live with Mom and Dad, because you don´t have to maintain a whole house (and cook) all by yourself.

However, having more work during the week is worth it when the weekends were as fun as this one.
Friday night: Dinner party with Shelly, Maura, Kevin, and David. We cooked them a delicious meal of appetizers, soup, salad, bread, and special K bars! Mmmm. After dinner we played a few card games and stayed up late just hanging out and playing games. And eating. Ugh we ate SO MUCH! But it was so delicious. It was the first big multi-course homecooked meal we´ve made since being here. Que rico!

Saturday: Shelly and I took Maura (Mo) into Antigua and shopping to the market. Her first experience of the crazy latin-american markets! It was (finally) a sunny afternoon, so it put us all in good moods as we strolled from table to table in the market, without a rush. We also discovered Q.4 ice-cream cones at Pollo Campero, the Guatemalan equivalent of KFC, which is located right next to the open-air market. The ice creams definitely have become a market tradition. It´s necessary to have a little something to lick on on sunny market days, as you´re walking around shopping for fruits, veggies, soap, rope, etc. And for .50 cents? Please.
So after we did about 3.5 hours of meandering and bargaining through the market, we decided to retreat, market bags full of oranges, shelve brackets, soap, scrub brushes, sunglasses, and pineapple. (You really can buy anything at the market.) We went to El Zapo y La Rana (The Frog and The Toad!) for dinner for pupusas, a typical Guatemalan food. They are corn tortillas stuffed with melted cheese and an assortment of beans, chicken, veggies, or whatever else you would want inside. Definitely delicious. My favorite was the black-bean-and-cheese. After that, we headed home, 8pm, tired, and after a successful day at the market.

Sunday: Woke up to sunshine, yet again! YEsss. I scrambled out of bed to hang towels out in the sun, since sun is such a rare thing these days. (My life is pretty much DAMP. Towels never dry. For this, I am ever excited when there´s sun and I happen to be at home) After that, I made a delicious egg scramble with broccoli, onion, ham, and cheese and cooked myself up a delicious Sunday morning breakfast. After breakfast, at 10:30, me, Shelly, Mo, Rui, and Rocio headed out to climb a mountain. Being 5 girls, we thought we were pretty safe, but we decided to take Rocio´s 2 dogs just in case. We packed water bottles and sunscreen and headed out! 2 hours later, we arrive. With very tired legs and nalgas (bottoms). It was honestly a 2 hour hike straight up, and its a good thing I walk an hour everyday, cause if not, I think my legs would be a little more than sore today. However, we made it to our destination, just in time for the rain, which started about 2o minutes after we arrived. On the top of the mountain, at a place called Earth Lodge, La Raiz, my favorite Antigua band friends, were playing, so we chilled for the afternoon and listened to my amigos and their amazing band.
At about 3:30, we jumped in the back of a pickup for a ride back down the mountain, because it was raining and verrrry chilly. And not to mention we were a little tired from the hike up.
When we finally made it back, wet, cold, and tired, my hunger pains took over my need for a hot shower, so I dropped everything and made pancakes. Slices of banana in the pancakes made for JUST what my stomach was craving, delicious banana pancakes. While I was enjoying my solitude and pancakes, however, and contemplating cleaning the bathroom, Mo called and asked if I would go to church with her. I agreed, since I had yet to try out church in Antigua. The last service I went to, in Xela, wasn´t the most exciting thing ever, so I was kind of reluctant to go through it again, but I figured, ¨why not? Antigua is like the church capital of Guatemala, so it HAS to be better.¨ Luckily for us, we seemed to have found the ¨contemporary service¨ at 6:30, because they had a choir, keyboard, and drums, and the music was great! It was WAY better than the other service I had been to, and despite the fact that I cannot say the responses yet in Spanish, it was still an awesome experience. We went in the main Cathedral in Antigua, and it was ABsolutely beautiful. Absolutely. All lit up with candles and big beautiful flowers...it deserves a picture, next time I go.
After walking back home, stopping for a lollipop on the way, it was about 8, and I was WAY too exhausted to clean ANYthing, much less the bathroom. I did manage to shower, since I didn´t have time between the hike and church (EEW I know right) but after the shower, watching a movie on my laptop and a cup of hot chocolate beat cleaning the bathroom.
(Well, half of a movie. I started to fall asleep at about 10:30, so I had to shut off Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler (great movie so far, The Bounty Hunter,) in favor of sleep.

The only downside to the weekend?
Didn´t get the bathroom clean.
BUT it is a sacrifice I am willing to make. (Name the movie, someone, anyone)

Finally Friday: And I received letters!!

YAY its finally Friday...it has been the longest week, ever. Tuesday at the migration office seems like ages ago. (The latest with that--Tamalyn told me that if the President doesn´t pardon the fine, Common Hope will get a lawyer involved. So I feel a lot better after talking to her)



Anyways, it has been a long and frustrating week indeed. (The majority of the frustration was on Tuesday, but it just set the dynamic early for the rest of the week.)

The other frustration was coming home Wednesday to a house full of gas. Somehow, at breakfast in the morning, (despite the fact that I ate cold cereal) I somehow bumped the gas knobs on my little Coleman-like appartus from which I cook, and it was on ALL DAY, proceeding to leak gas into my house. When I came home from work, I almost doubled over, and thought something had died. My first instinct was to call my father. Hahah imagine that. 22 and still calling Dad when something happens. Unfortunately, his cell was turned off (imagine my surprise). (Ahem.)

So I called a Guatemalan man friend who told me what to do. (Open up ALL doors and windows, and don´t light a match or cook to save your LIFE)

So I ate peanut butter and ice cream for dinner. Luckily, the only thing seriously damaged from the gas incident was my plant. He was looking a little....green...this morning. (Well, brown, actually).

But that was the only thing damaged, so I am lucky. I am going to make sure to NOT accidentally bump ANY MORE of my burners. Or perhaps disconnect my gas tank when I am not cooking. ARGH.



On another happier note, I GOT 2 LETTERS TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!! One from Mom with 2 lovely photos to hang on my wall (the one of Mom, K, Aunt Karen and I I hung up at work) and the other of the family I will hang up at home! Lovely pictures, although we are looking quite... red. Must be the camara. Usually we are not so tomato-ish. Shelly told me ¨you look like your mom!¨ And I said ¨ that´s funny, everyone tells me I have my Dad´s head¨ And then upon another look, she said ¨You look like your Dad too.¨ And then ¨Well, you just look like your whole family!¨ Haha.

My other letter is from DANI!!!! It is the most beautiful homemade card I have ever seen! I wish I could show everybody :) It is seriously beautiful. 2d and everything. I am going to put it on my wall at home. Thanks love I loved it :)

That´s all for now folks....I am leaving work shortly. Happy friday to all--we´re having a mini dinner party, and I am making HUEVOS DIABLOS (deviled eggs haha) and Mom´s fresh salsa! MMMMMMMM.
Love to all in MN!

CLASH with Migración

I am still so livid right now that it might not be a good idea to NOT blog. But I will try my hardest to limit the expletives and insults to Guatemalan systems.
Went to immigration today in the city to renew my visa....aaaaand renew I definitely did not do. When I went to pay the fine (Q30, because I was 3 days past the 90 days mark) they said that I couldn´t pay to renew my current visa stamp because my arrival was not documented in their system. In fact, my last 2 comings-and-goings to the country were not documented in their system. What the crap says I, not in their SYSTEM??? So how ever did I leave in January and come back in May and not be documented?? Apparently I have been living illegally in Guatemala since December 27th, 2009, which is my last ¨registered¨ appearance in their system. AND, apparently after 90 days, they charge you a fine of Q10 a day. So I owe Migration Q1,510.00, of my own money, for something that THEY messed up.
Here´s the thing that really gets me: I HAVE the stamps in my passport. One on January 3rd, exit Guatemala, and one on May 24th, entering. How they don´t appear in the computer but appear on my passport?? IS FREAKIN BEYOND ME. And how migration can´t just ADD the two entrances to my record, transfer from paper passport to computer? IS ALSO FREAKIN BEYOND ME.
But no, the head of migration, who I talked to, is ¨only a person, not a machine, and the machines won´t listen to a human being¨. (Oh, really?? So NObody has access to change this database?) I am SO frustrated.

Their best solution was this: ¨Ok, ma´m, you can pay the fine now, leave the country tomorrow, and after 48 hours return, and you can stay here another 90 days! That would be the quickest and the fastest way to resolve this :)¨ Smiley face.
Yeah. That´s what I´m gonna do. Pay Q1500, leave the country, stay there for 48 hours, when all i SHOULD have to do is pay Q30, renew my visa for another 90 days, and go on my merry way. If they thought I was gonna be like, ¨oh, ok, smiley face, that sounds wonderful! Smiley face¨ they had another thing coming.

Sooooooo what I did, with the help of our driver Mauricio, who took me to the city, is write a letter to the President. I explained the situation, gave him photocopies of my passport and stamps, and turned it in with the fine I owe migration. (Obviously, I didn´t turn it into the President himself, hahaha, but the Secretary to the President´s office). They are going to look at it, and within 10-15 days, contact me telling me how much of the fine they will lift. They thought I would only have to pay 25% of it. But 25% of a fine that is not my fault in the first place??? That is 25% too much, my friends. Also, between now and the 10-15 days that its in limbo, I am still going to be charged the accumulating late fee. (its currently been 3 days past the 90 day marker so I owe Q30, and after 10 more days I will owe another Q100)
Its just so much inequity that I don´t even know what to do with myself. I was SO so so so frustrated I don´t think I have ever been this frustrated in my life. Certainly not about something this ridiculous. MAYBE when I found out we were moving to Brainerd.
(Hahaha)
But while in the stupid unrelenting unkind migration office, I kept thinking, ¨if this was in the states, somebody would just click a few buttons and apologize for the error...¨
Seriously Guatemala.
I am SO unlucky.

Doing the wash, Guatemalan style.

In an attempt to become less-gringa and more Guatemalan, (and to stop hauling my laundry to and from work once a week) I decided to try to wash clothes the old-fashioned way--in the outdoor pila. (Well, for some like me, its the old-fashioned way, ´cause I feel like Laura Ingalls Wilder, but many people in Guate still wash like this, and that´s just how its done.)
Anyways, I have this outdoor sink, called a pila, and it has one side thats a big basin, and the other side has ridges to scrub the clothes against. (A picture is soon to follow)
My general thought was to fill the side with the ridges with water, add soap, and then scrub the clothes up and down on the ridges. Sounds easy, right?! I mean, how hard can it be. Or at least so I thought.
First problem: The tub doesn´t fill with water, because its cleverly designed with a slight tilt and a drain hole. Without a plug. So all the water runs out. No problema, I say, and wad up a sponge and stick it in the drain hole. (Turns out sponges absorb water, so little by little, my water did end up draining out) But a tempoary fix, to say the least.
Second problem: The soap I had was designed for machines, not pilas, so it was a powder. Turns out you´re supposed to use these hard balls of soap to scrub the clothes, not add powdery-like-machine-soap to your sink stopped with a sponge. So I had bubbles everywhere, and was trying to scrub my clothes on the ridges amidst the bubbly mess.
I found out today, (upon asking my boss just how exactly Guatemalan women wash clothes) that you:
1) put the item of clothing in the pila on the dry ridges part (which I did not do)
2) throw a bucket of water over it (did not do)
3) scrub soap back and forth on clothing over the ridges using the round ball of soap (definitely did not do)
4) rinse item of clothing in faucet (DID do!!)
5) scrub back and forth over ridges with water to remove soap (ALSO did :)
6) hang on line and enjoy. (plan to do with much more enjoyment next time)

At least now I know for the future. Probably would have been a smarter idea to ask how to proceed BEFORE doing it, but of course, I didn´t, so had to find out on my own. It was an experience, to say the least, and I can´t lie, I felt like Laura Ingalls Wilder. My idol from like 2nd-7th grades.

Its another Blah day in the tropics

Yet another rainy, chilly, grey day in Guatemala. (Its really unfortunate living in the tropics and being paler and colder than people in Minnesota) (Really)
The past few days have been grey and dreary from dawn to dusk, making me NOT want to make the 25 minute trek to work in the rain. This morning I woke up to the sound of rain on the roof and a chilly chilly house...it was soooo hard to pull out of bed!! Veeeerrry slow moving this morning.
(This could also have something to do with the 2 hours we spent at the gym yesterday after work. My body is Punishing me perhaps.) Shelly and Mo, two coworkers, had been ever-so-kindly inviting me to the gym for a few days now, and I promised that SOMEday I´d go.....So yesterday was the day! I had not been to the gym yet, and actually only have been running outside once. (Haha oops...what happened to my college workout habits?) However, I will have you know that despite my complete lack of intense cardiovascular excercise, I have NOT been gaining weight, thank you very much, but rather losing it. C´mon people, I walk 1-2 hours every day. And I very much enjoy dancing on any given night of the week. My skinny jeans that only fit me FALL semester of senior year are now my regulars. Yess.

Anyways, I thought I´d check out the gym. Q. 25 for the day, so not a bad deal. We went to the 2 aerobics classes, Salsa and Step, and then halfway through Step, at about 7:45 at night, my body was like DEAR BRIANNA: FEED ME NOW OR DIE. SOooo I stopped. Shelly and Mo were die-hards, though, and finished the class! Despite the fact that we hadn´t eaten dinner. Impressive. Afterwards, we went to Café No Sé for a LARGE burrito, bowls of popcorn, and a beer. Relaxing (and delicious) way to spend a Wednesday night. Shelly and Mo are good company :)
Both from Minnesota, both around my age--Shelly graduated from Bethel, and Mo is a Bennie!!!! She graduated the year before me, so we have SOOOO much in common. It is SO fun for me to see someone else wearing the SJU sweatshirts and to talk about Senior year events and the Blarneystone and even Armajani with her. So fun. Bennies and Johnnies are everywhere I turn, I swear :)

On another note, this morning at work has been rainy yet eventful. Here´s the morning in a nutshell:
1) I have discovered Jesse Keller´s music myspace playlist, (No, I no longer possess a myspace, but it is quite the tool for musicians to post their songs) Jesse Keller + original John-Mayer-like-songs + playlist? Enough said. Enough to make the rainy morning more cozy. He is amazing.
http://www.myspace.com/jessekeller/music/playlists Check it out.

2) I spent the morning making ¨prank¨calls to reception in English---HR is interviewing for new receptionists, and one of their requirements is understanding English. So, in the past hour, I have received 3 phone calls from other reception staff in hushed whispers, asking if I could call and test the receptionist by asking something in English. Just now, I actually went down in person to ask the poor interviewee (in English) to talk to someone. When she responded to me in Spanish, I pretended like I didn´t understand and just smiled and nodded. Just to test her english. Haha. If she gets hired, and ever talks to me again, the poor girl is going to wonder how I learned Spanish so fast. HAhahaa.

3) I literally have nothing to do this morning. Except blog. And prank-call the front desk. I am still waiting on a few checks to go through until I can finish my budget from the last team....and I don´t have any planning to do yet for my OcTOber team...so, I am left to listen to Jesse Keller. And blog. Not a bad morning at work. Until the Pueblo Tour this afternoon, where I will go with Lys (another hospitality staff) and give people in Antigua a run-down of what Common Hope does and take them to one of the Pueblos we serve to give them a taste. Kinda cool, actually, but a LOT of information to memorize. I suppose I could rehearse that. (Nothing like talking to yourself in the office on a rainy day)

How quickly time flies...

I can´t believe its already August 17th and I am nearing the 3 month marker of being in Guatemala. Time to make a trip to the capital to renew my visa! (Every 90 days it has to be renewed at the embassy, and every 180 days you have to make a trip out of the country for 48 hours or something) (so that means in November, Belize or Mexico here I come!!)

Time is absolutely flying. Especially when I look at the Vision Team schedule for 2011 (its already full) and can see my schedule for the next 9 months--it seems so short. I can already tell this ¨year¨ (which is already down to 9 months) is just going to fly.

The latest good news--for those of you who haven´t heard--is that I am now coming home for Christmas!! :) Mom and Dad and Karsten were going to come visit, so I wouldn´t have to be alone for Christmas, but upon finding out that there would be NOTHing going on around here for the whole month of December, (Guate pretty much shuts down and everybody spends time with their families) we decided to fly me home instead :) I couldn´t be more happy with the decision, to be honest. Thus far, I have yet to be homesick, but I can bet that by December, I will be ready for a little U.S.-fix. Starbucks lattes. The plush carpet on the floor of my home. Culver´s cheeseburgers. An insect-free house. Its the simple things :) But I am already getting excited to make a trip to the North Country, even though I will have to put up with snow and crappy weather. It will be ok, because I know it will only be for a month or so!

I have yet to finalize the dates, but I was looking at the calendar this morning, and noted that I have no Vision Teams between December 5th and January 13th. Ahhhhhhh I sense a nice long spell of vacations. I am going to start monitoring ticket prices NOW. (Now that my vision team left, life is back to normal, and in fact less than normal, as I don´t have a team until October)

Also, K I got your postcard today, from Pariiiiiis! Love it. I am going to tape it on my wall at home. (Also, people, I didn´t have to pay one cent for this, so send letters!! Cheaper than sending packages, which as we found out, I DO have to pay for) I love getting mail :) Thanks for the cool card Karsten!

I think that´s all for now...saludos from Guatemala, and can´t wait to see all your pretty faces in December :) (Blarney girls, reunion anyone??)

xoxo
-B

2nd Vision Team

While I have a quick moment of down time, I would like to tell the weeks events and the latest on-goiongs in the Common Hope world.

My second vision team has been here since last Tuesday, and they leave tomorrow! They stayed 10 days--longer than my last team, and they are 14 people--double the size of the high schooler team.

Needless to say, that made for more stressful planning, and a more stressful 10 days! However, this team is so easy going and so wonderful that despite the stress and exhaustion from being ¨on¨ and outgoing 24/7 for 10 days straight, I am thoroughly enjoying the time with the team. (It also helps that they are from a church in Mankato, MN, and some of the couples remind me so much of my own Grandma and Grandpa) Actually, as a matter of fact, there´s one couple that is so much like Grandma and Grandpa that if they lived in the same town, I´m just sure they would be friends! Its really fun :) Its just the ¨Minnesota nice¨thing that I really never noticed until coming down here and working with people from all different states. It is such a ¨type¨ though, the Minnesota type,--the golf playing, gardening, wine drinking, funky sock-wearing, cabin-ing type people. Pure Minnesotan. I love it. One of my favorite ladies, Lois, even has a pair of jingly socks with buttons dangling that jingle when she walks. She´s so great.

Anyways, me loving MN people aside, this team has been amazing. When they came down, 7 of the 14 were sponsors--but now, 12 of the 14 are sponsors :) Which is our ultimate goal at Common Hope--to find sponsors. And in Hospitality, that´s kind of our job--to create schedules and activities to expose the people to the lives of our families so that they too want to become sponsors. (Its too bad we don´t get commission for all of the sponsors that we get out of a vision team!) Although I really didn´t do much--yes its cool to say that on my team, 5 people became sponsors who weren´t before, BUT at the same time, its not our job to push sponsorship, so I never really did anything. They all just decided on their own.

(At the same time though, I can´t help but feel a little proud that five people decided to become sponsors while here. :) Especially when I received a congratulatory email from the Guatemala site director, Tamalyn)

For me, though, the most exciting thing is knowing that we have 5 more sponsors than we did just a week ago. At Common Hope, we affiliate the family regardless of whether or not the children have sponsors, so we are always always behind on sponsorship and finding enough sponsors to cover the costs of the services that CH provides them. And to see the faces of the little kids while translating sponsorship visits is priceless.

This picture was taken yesterday during the sponsorship visit of team member Kristy and her sponsor child, Adriana. Kristy has sponsored her for two years now, and they have been writing letters back and forth. Adriana is currently in 3rd grade and absolutely adores Kristy. It was a really special visit to translate :)

More on the team later....at this point, they´re still here and there is still much to do!

Happy Wednesday, love to all. xoxo

August 3rd

I am sorry I just absolutely have to document this situation. I laughed so hard to myself that I think my neighbors for SURE think I am crazy now. But its not my fault! I tried to call Karsten, but her phone was OFF! (Or without service) Soooo I texted her. But was left to laugh myself.
Here is what happened:
Here I am, in my kitchen, cooking myself a lil’ dinner, blaring reggaeton from my computer, windows wide open, just minding my own business. (Before I continue I would just like to say that probably my whole block thinks I am crazy, because of my music choices alone. Some days I am cranking out the Guatemalan beats, other days Jack Johnson, sometimes good ol’ Kenny Chesney country, sometimes bellowing Andrea Bocelli opera music, (which I’m sure REALLY throws them for a loop)…

But anyways. You get the idea. So now we have an understanding of why the lovely neighbs probably think I am some sort of bi-polar-musical lunatic. Now. This lovely evening, to put the icing on the cake, what song should come blaring out of my speakers after my reggaeton butt-buster but He Came Down. Yes people. HE. CAME.DOWN. I realize this is only funny to a select few people. (Ahem, family) But as soon as I heard the opening rhythm section, I was immediately reminded of my brief-but-spectacular cowbell-playing glory days and couldn’t keep in the laughter.

Unfortunately enough, my neighbors probably don’t understand my cowbell-playing glory days, and after the first “OHHHHH, he came down” or “WHYYYYY did he come” (combined with my hysterical laughter,) they probably thought I had permanently gone off the deep end.
But I just couldn’t help it. Thinking about Karsten and mine’s bomb-ass rhythm section at church….messing up the first time, on CHRISTMAS EVE, and poor Mom trying to fix the situation and coming in at like half tempo too slow….

Oh my gosh it was just SOOOO FUNNY that I couldn’t handle it. Maybe you had to be there….to hear the actual VOLUME that we’re talking here. This wouldn’t be a big deal if He Came Down happened to come on in my kitchen when only I was listening….but the fact that it was literally BLARING, throughout my entire house, makes it so much better.
(“WHYYYYYYY did he come”)

Of COURSE something would go wrong...

So, as I was all set to be 100% well and able to go pick up my Vision Team from the airport, of course the shuttle service calls half hour before they were supposed to come get me to report a strike on the roads to Antigua, making the road inaccessible.
Sooo, instead of going to pick me up, they just headed to the airport to pick up my team. Without me. And/or English speakers. Juan Carlos and Jose speak a LOT of English (sarcasm) so I am a little worried about my team communicating with the drivers! They told me they would make a sign (hopefully saying Common Hope instead of Fundacion Familias de Esperanza (the Spanish equivalent) and hopefully the team won´t be completely flabbergasted and frustrated.
What could I do, there was a strike!! (Apparently the artisans were protesting something or other?)
Anyways. They were supposed to land 20 minutes ago. Sooo I suppose I will call Juan Carlos in a little bit and see if I can´t get in touch with the team leader. :)
Hahaha of course something would go wrong. Heaven forbid Brianna be able to have a flawless beginning to her vision team.
But hopefully everything will work out! I am being positive. :) I can only hope that the road that was inaccessible WILL BE ACCESSIBLE by the time the team is truckin on back to Antigua.