It´s Wednesday, about 5pm, and most people in the states are probably getting home from work...swinging by Cub foods to pick up pumpkin and cranberries and other Thanksgiving-ish foods...going home..making pies...(or, thats at least what Karsten and I always do; stay up until midnight (or later) watching movies in the family room while the pies cook.
Do not fear.
I, too, will be heading into town after work today to buy Thanksgiving-esque groceries.
(I, however, will be wearing a t-shirt and flip-flops, with a sunburnt nose from the lunch hour in the 80 degree sunshine.)
Not at all trying to brag here; although I DID here that its snowing quite a bit in Brainerd, I would much prefer Thanksgiving with snow to Thanksgiving in the tropics. It just doesn´t FEEL right. It´s very strange. And, whats more, to be working tomorrow, a normal day, 8-5, helping coordinate the Doten family, while thinking of everyone sitting around the table in sweaters in MN is even stranger.
I never thought that Thanksgiving away from home would be a little sad, but, alas, it is!
Luckily, us Americans in Guatemala are all feeling the same, and we plan to make as festive an occasion out of this situation as we can.
Tomorrow night, after work, we´re all getting together for a nice big meal--not the traditional Thanksgiving meal, however, because that´s what we´re doing on Saturday at Common Hope. However, tomorrow cannot go uncelebrated, so we are having some barbequed chicken and pumpkin pie.
Pumpkin pie courtesy of me.
AND the current biggest cause of my stress.
Is it weird that I wake up feeling stressed out about pumpkin pie??
(YES)
I will explain tomorrow why exactly pumpkin pie is leaving me stressed out. Basically, if you thought finding canned pumpkin in Guatemala is easy, you´ve got another thing coming for you.
But more tomorrow :) Gonna dart off to the Antigua grocery store before it gets too dark.
Love to all, and a very merry Thanksgiving! I will write more tomorrow about pie woes. (And no, Dad, the stress is not caused by the fact that I do not have an horno.)
:)
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
¨Christmas¨ en San Rafael
On Friday, a team of 6 of us went to our satellite site, San Rafael, to deliver Christmas gifts for the children and Christmas food baskets for the affiliated families.
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, instead of trying to describe the experience, I will let you see for yourselves.
Below: A little girl proudly holding her Christmas gift, a Barbie doll.
Above: A little boy holding on to his and his brother´s new toy cars.
Above: Such a big ball for such a little peanut!
Below: All the girls, (this one was about 7) who´s moms didn´t come (sadly it was many) hauled their Christmas food baskets home on their heads.
So precious.I abosolutely fall in love with the kids out at San Rafael everytime I go.
These are the same kids who asked for beds and sweaters for Christmas a few weeks ago when we went to sign them up.
Sometimes its hard to be excited about choosing between a car and a puzzle when you´re hungry and cold.
But, seeing the looks on the kids faces when they picked up their gifts, they definitely were excited. Maybe it made the hunger go away for a little while :)
Either way, it was an amazing day. (Despite exhausting)
Friday, November 12, 2010
One month and counting...?
I feel like I say this everytime I blog...but I SERIOUSLY cannot believe how fast time is flying. October came, and went, (felt like June the whole time) and now its already almost mid-November?? Where the heck is time going? I swear, I am stuck in an eternal June-feeling time capsule. In MN, the months are marked by typical weather patterns. September means indian summers, chilly nights, fall leaves. October means chillier nights and Halloween costumes, and November means turning on the heat in the Blarneystone and the first snows of the year.
However, in Guate, there are no such time markers. Which is why I feel like I am in a June time capsule. Anyways, I am not complaining, cause I love the sunny weather! However, I am also looking forward to coming home in just 29 short days. It will be nice to have a ¨reality check¨ to make sure my mind knows its December and Christmas and not summer.
Speaking of which...I also cannot believe its only one month until I come home. Has it really been almost 6 months already? Time is flying way to fast for my liking.
November at work has been filled with graduation events for our affiliated children; (school year in Guate is January through October) so we are putting on all sorts of events for our high school graduates. Its a big deal to graduate high school in Guatemala. Only about 25% of kids who start 1st grade graduate from h.s. Yeah.
November is also filled with Christmas gift-ing to our affilated families. As I wrote about last week, we let each child elect their toy of choice (between a few options, of course, based on age,) and then a few weeks later, hand out all the gifts, as well as a Christmas basket of essential food items for the families. Its BUSY.
Also, the 21st-27th, the family of a board member is coming down, not as a Vision Team, but a Discovery Team, so although it doesn´t quite require as much from me, I am still planning their activities and will be busy with that.
What else is new...I´ve been sick this week, since Tuesday. Ick. Mostly just flu/fever, but this morning I woke up with ¨animalitos¨ in my stomach, bubbling all over the place, and decided to hit the clinic for antibiotics. Hopefully will be feeling less gurgly by tomorrow!
The joys of Guatemalan life. (ha) Not sure what I ate, but something decided to infest my stomach. It will be such a joy to be in the states, not having to worry about which ¨street foods¨ might get you sick. (All of which I eat, anyways, here, because I am usually pretty good with sickness)
Anyways, that´s the latest, hard to have exciting stories when you´ve been sleeping all week, sick. And, therefore, behind on work! Gotta go. But love to all in MN :)
However, in Guate, there are no such time markers. Which is why I feel like I am in a June time capsule. Anyways, I am not complaining, cause I love the sunny weather! However, I am also looking forward to coming home in just 29 short days. It will be nice to have a ¨reality check¨ to make sure my mind knows its December and Christmas and not summer.
Speaking of which...I also cannot believe its only one month until I come home. Has it really been almost 6 months already? Time is flying way to fast for my liking.
November at work has been filled with graduation events for our affiliated children; (school year in Guate is January through October) so we are putting on all sorts of events for our high school graduates. Its a big deal to graduate high school in Guatemala. Only about 25% of kids who start 1st grade graduate from h.s. Yeah.
November is also filled with Christmas gift-ing to our affilated families. As I wrote about last week, we let each child elect their toy of choice (between a few options, of course, based on age,) and then a few weeks later, hand out all the gifts, as well as a Christmas basket of essential food items for the families. Its BUSY.
Also, the 21st-27th, the family of a board member is coming down, not as a Vision Team, but a Discovery Team, so although it doesn´t quite require as much from me, I am still planning their activities and will be busy with that.
What else is new...I´ve been sick this week, since Tuesday. Ick. Mostly just flu/fever, but this morning I woke up with ¨animalitos¨ in my stomach, bubbling all over the place, and decided to hit the clinic for antibiotics. Hopefully will be feeling less gurgly by tomorrow!
The joys of Guatemalan life. (ha) Not sure what I ate, but something decided to infest my stomach. It will be such a joy to be in the states, not having to worry about which ¨street foods¨ might get you sick. (All of which I eat, anyways, here, because I am usually pretty good with sickness)
Anyways, that´s the latest, hard to have exciting stories when you´ve been sleeping all week, sick. And, therefore, behind on work! Gotta go. But love to all in MN :)
Friday, November 5, 2010
Food for thought...
Food-related things that I like, and things that annoy me. Drafted mentally while eating breakfast, cooking dinner, and doing other cooking-related activities, mostly on 11/03/10.
(Read to the end for REAL food for thought.)
We’ll start with the things that annoy me, to get the negative part out of the way.
1) Having Corn Flakes as the only affordable cold breakfast cereal in the country. I am not kidding when I say this. Corn flakes is THEE breakfast cereal of Guatemalans. This lack of affordable alternative options forces me to get creative, of course, (corn flakes with granola, corn flakes with bananas, corn flakes with strawberries, corn flakes with granola AND bananas, which seems to be the winner,) but it sometimes makes me look up at my gigantic box of CORN FLAKES on my shelf and sigh. (This took place this morning, during breakfast.)
2) Another breakfast item annoyance/slight cause for alarm: Guatemalan milk, which I’m pretty sure is powdered, you buy warm at the grocery store. Which is fine, because powdered milk should be fine at room temperature, right? It’s just like pre-mixed powder and water. The thing that causes my slight alarm is that after no more than 2 weeks in the refrigerator, the milk goes bad. Yes. Can some science-y person explain THAT to me?? Maybe I am missing an essential step in the milk understanding process, but it sure seems to me that if you can buy it warm, it shouldn’t go bad COLD in your fridge 12 days later. Hmm.
3) Cheese. CHEESE. It is ridiculously overpriced here, and buying a block of sharp cheddar is like unheard of unless you’re one of the top Guatemalan 2% elite who own 75 percent of the wealth in the country. (Yes, I had to throw a political factoid in there) (And yes, it is true)
Anyways, I have been without good cheese (a staple in my diet) for WAAY too long now. I have these wonderful basil and sweet pepper crackers that Best Buy left for me, and they are sitting on my shelf SCREAMING cheddar cheese. Sigh. Oh well, one month and counting until all the cheese I want! Cheddar, extra sharp, please.
4) I dislike my complete lack of cooking utensils. I TOTALLY took the invention called a “garlic press” for granted for waay too many years. Whenever I find myself in the presence of one in the future, I will be sure to point out clearly to everyone in hearing range the brilliantness of the invention. (For now, I sacrifice the permanent smell of my hands for yummy tasting food)
5) I dislike my totally-inefficient-1976-ice-box-freezer-refrigerator. Just to give you an idea of the age of this baby: He is olive green. That right there I think speaks to his age. Unfortunately, he is NOT one of those “oldies-but-goodies” that was built more sturdy back in the day than the stuff they make today. He is, to put it simply, a piece of crap. Worthless. The freezer doesn’t work to save its life, and is forever getting too frozen, freezer-burning all of my frozen food, and then getting so much freezer-burn buildup that the little icebox door doesn’t completely close. Therefore causing a water buildup on the ceiling of my fridge, which drips down conveniently onto my food. I’d say my food is usually more wet than dry, so I quickly learned to keep important things sealed in containers with lids. Egg cartons, pretty much useless. They should make plastic egg cartons….
Yes but anyways, inventions aside, you can see how much frustration my fridge/freezer holds for me. I have always taken for granted having DRY food in my fridge! What a blessing to have a working refrigerator.
Well, now that I’ve done enough running of the mouth about things that irritate me in Guatemalan cuisine, let me move on to the more positive end of the spectrum.
Things I Like. (Generally about food and cooking. Since that’s the track we’re on tonight.)
1) I like buying strawberries for .75 cents a pound at the market.
2) I like buying blackberries for .20 cents a pound at the market.
3) I like living across the street from a bakery and buying $1 fresh strawberry tarts for dinner.
4) I like treating myself to a cup of the richest, real-est, chocolatey-est hot chocolate I have ever tasted on Friday or Saturday nights with my movies. It’s the kind you stir in a pot, melting a disk of chocolate into water and milk. Mmmmm there are no words to describe its sheer deliciousness. It reminds me of that Johnny Depp movie, Chocolat.
(Sidenote: don’t worry all, some of that will definitely be making its way
into my suitcase for Christmas.)
5) I like attempting to make Guatemalan dishes, (i.e. guisquil, arroz con leche, etc,) failing, and then taking my failed attempt stories to my boss Rosy at work the next day and ask how I can better make such and such. (Rosy is a wonderful and patient woman, who I think quite enjoys my stories and futile yet earnest attempts to be more Guatemalan) Next on my list for perfecting is Atol de arroz y leche, a delicious hot atol-y rice-y drink with cinnamon and sugar. (Yes I know that “atol-y rice-y drink” describes it perfectly.)
6) I also like sitting down to a bowl of steaming homemade spaghetti on a Wednesday night with a candle and Neal and Leandra to blog about my food frustrations. (I am an old lady, yes I know.) My spaghetti sauce, made without a recipe, with different Guatemalan vegetables cut up into it, is one thing I can make that turns out every single time without failure. Whenever I have extra vegetables in my fridge, I just buy tomato paste and make a delicious vegetarian spaghetti sauce that is like half sauce, half vegetable soup.
7) What else do I like….oh yeah, I like not having an oven.
OH WAIT, THAT’S NOT TRUE! I really REALLY miss having an oven, and when I find all these Betty Crocker online recipes for pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cream cheese bars, I salivate jealously and growl at my inbox. Not fair, Betty. You should know I don’t have an oven, so STOP SENDING ME ADS FOR BAKED GOODS AND CASSEROLES, DAMMIT!
8) What else…there are so many things that I like, actually, that it would take way too long to mention. I guess one highlight in particular is coming home at night, and having nothing to do but cook and relax. (Sometimes, I am too tired to cook, but this week, for example, I am not too tired, and loving it!) I love making myself banana pancakes or omelets on the weekends at 9am and not having the looming stress or pressure of a full days work (homework) ahead of me. I love making weekend grocery trips for the week, and then having to go back into town at least once during the week cause I forgot something or ran out of milk. I love inventing my own new recipes when I am stuck at home without a cookbook. (Which is actually quite often, because I don’t HAVE a cookbook!) Ha.
I love a lot of things about cooking, living alone, and living in Guatemala. However, I would just like to point out one last thing. Though they may be funny (and actually quite frustrating,) my “frustrations” listed above are quite minimal. And I am very aware of this. Which is why I haven’t demanded a new fridge, or whined and complained about these things earlier. In the scheme of things (life) down here, these frustrations are so tiny that I’m actually embarrassed to write a whole blog post about them without commenting at the end.
Here are some of the things that keep me grounded, despite entertaining whimsical blog posts:
1) Spending the day on days like today working in San Rafael, our satellite site that is 100% indigenous, 99% impoverished, and 80% malnourished.
2) While working at said site, and helping affiliated children pick out their annual Common Hope Christmas gift, seeing little boys and girls in indigenous clothing cluster around the table, hardly able to contain their excitement at the prospect of choosing between a “muneca,” a “pelota,” or a “rompecabeza” (A doll, a ball, or a puzzle) for Christmas.
3) When asking one little boy of about 8 where his invitation was, (because all the children needed to bring their invitation in order to check them off the list) hearing his reply: “I lost it because I gave it to my dad and my dad was drunk, and who knows what he did with it.” The 8 year old had come alone, without parents, with his 2 younger siblings by the hand.
4) And last but not least….When I asked one little girl which Christmas gift she wanted, (a ball, a doll, or a puzzle,) hearing her answer: “ No es possible una cama?”…….(“A bed isn’t possible??”)
These are true stories.
These are examples of the things that keep me grounded.
Enough said.
(Read to the end for REAL food for thought.)
We’ll start with the things that annoy me, to get the negative part out of the way.
1) Having Corn Flakes as the only affordable cold breakfast cereal in the country. I am not kidding when I say this. Corn flakes is THEE breakfast cereal of Guatemalans. This lack of affordable alternative options forces me to get creative, of course, (corn flakes with granola, corn flakes with bananas, corn flakes with strawberries, corn flakes with granola AND bananas, which seems to be the winner,) but it sometimes makes me look up at my gigantic box of CORN FLAKES on my shelf and sigh. (This took place this morning, during breakfast.)
2) Another breakfast item annoyance/slight cause for alarm: Guatemalan milk, which I’m pretty sure is powdered, you buy warm at the grocery store. Which is fine, because powdered milk should be fine at room temperature, right? It’s just like pre-mixed powder and water. The thing that causes my slight alarm is that after no more than 2 weeks in the refrigerator, the milk goes bad. Yes. Can some science-y person explain THAT to me?? Maybe I am missing an essential step in the milk understanding process, but it sure seems to me that if you can buy it warm, it shouldn’t go bad COLD in your fridge 12 days later. Hmm.
3) Cheese. CHEESE. It is ridiculously overpriced here, and buying a block of sharp cheddar is like unheard of unless you’re one of the top Guatemalan 2% elite who own 75 percent of the wealth in the country. (Yes, I had to throw a political factoid in there) (And yes, it is true)
Anyways, I have been without good cheese (a staple in my diet) for WAAY too long now. I have these wonderful basil and sweet pepper crackers that Best Buy left for me, and they are sitting on my shelf SCREAMING cheddar cheese. Sigh. Oh well, one month and counting until all the cheese I want! Cheddar, extra sharp, please.
4) I dislike my complete lack of cooking utensils. I TOTALLY took the invention called a “garlic press” for granted for waay too many years. Whenever I find myself in the presence of one in the future, I will be sure to point out clearly to everyone in hearing range the brilliantness of the invention. (For now, I sacrifice the permanent smell of my hands for yummy tasting food)
5) I dislike my totally-inefficient-1976-ice-box-freezer-refrigerator. Just to give you an idea of the age of this baby: He is olive green. That right there I think speaks to his age. Unfortunately, he is NOT one of those “oldies-but-goodies” that was built more sturdy back in the day than the stuff they make today. He is, to put it simply, a piece of crap. Worthless. The freezer doesn’t work to save its life, and is forever getting too frozen, freezer-burning all of my frozen food, and then getting so much freezer-burn buildup that the little icebox door doesn’t completely close. Therefore causing a water buildup on the ceiling of my fridge, which drips down conveniently onto my food. I’d say my food is usually more wet than dry, so I quickly learned to keep important things sealed in containers with lids. Egg cartons, pretty much useless. They should make plastic egg cartons….
Yes but anyways, inventions aside, you can see how much frustration my fridge/freezer holds for me. I have always taken for granted having DRY food in my fridge! What a blessing to have a working refrigerator.
Well, now that I’ve done enough running of the mouth about things that irritate me in Guatemalan cuisine, let me move on to the more positive end of the spectrum.
Things I Like. (Generally about food and cooking. Since that’s the track we’re on tonight.)
1) I like buying strawberries for .75 cents a pound at the market.
2) I like buying blackberries for .20 cents a pound at the market.
3) I like living across the street from a bakery and buying $1 fresh strawberry tarts for dinner.
4) I like treating myself to a cup of the richest, real-est, chocolatey-est hot chocolate I have ever tasted on Friday or Saturday nights with my movies. It’s the kind you stir in a pot, melting a disk of chocolate into water and milk. Mmmmm there are no words to describe its sheer deliciousness. It reminds me of that Johnny Depp movie, Chocolat.
(Sidenote: don’t worry all, some of that will definitely be making its way
into my suitcase for Christmas.)
5) I like attempting to make Guatemalan dishes, (i.e. guisquil, arroz con leche, etc,) failing, and then taking my failed attempt stories to my boss Rosy at work the next day and ask how I can better make such and such. (Rosy is a wonderful and patient woman, who I think quite enjoys my stories and futile yet earnest attempts to be more Guatemalan) Next on my list for perfecting is Atol de arroz y leche, a delicious hot atol-y rice-y drink with cinnamon and sugar. (Yes I know that “atol-y rice-y drink” describes it perfectly.)
6) I also like sitting down to a bowl of steaming homemade spaghetti on a Wednesday night with a candle and Neal and Leandra to blog about my food frustrations. (I am an old lady, yes I know.) My spaghetti sauce, made without a recipe, with different Guatemalan vegetables cut up into it, is one thing I can make that turns out every single time without failure. Whenever I have extra vegetables in my fridge, I just buy tomato paste and make a delicious vegetarian spaghetti sauce that is like half sauce, half vegetable soup.
7) What else do I like….oh yeah, I like not having an oven.
OH WAIT, THAT’S NOT TRUE! I really REALLY miss having an oven, and when I find all these Betty Crocker online recipes for pumpkin muffins and pumpkin cream cheese bars, I salivate jealously and growl at my inbox. Not fair, Betty. You should know I don’t have an oven, so STOP SENDING ME ADS FOR BAKED GOODS AND CASSEROLES, DAMMIT!
8) What else…there are so many things that I like, actually, that it would take way too long to mention. I guess one highlight in particular is coming home at night, and having nothing to do but cook and relax. (Sometimes, I am too tired to cook, but this week, for example, I am not too tired, and loving it!) I love making myself banana pancakes or omelets on the weekends at 9am and not having the looming stress or pressure of a full days work (homework) ahead of me. I love making weekend grocery trips for the week, and then having to go back into town at least once during the week cause I forgot something or ran out of milk. I love inventing my own new recipes when I am stuck at home without a cookbook. (Which is actually quite often, because I don’t HAVE a cookbook!) Ha.
I love a lot of things about cooking, living alone, and living in Guatemala. However, I would just like to point out one last thing. Though they may be funny (and actually quite frustrating,) my “frustrations” listed above are quite minimal. And I am very aware of this. Which is why I haven’t demanded a new fridge, or whined and complained about these things earlier. In the scheme of things (life) down here, these frustrations are so tiny that I’m actually embarrassed to write a whole blog post about them without commenting at the end.
Here are some of the things that keep me grounded, despite entertaining whimsical blog posts:
1) Spending the day on days like today working in San Rafael, our satellite site that is 100% indigenous, 99% impoverished, and 80% malnourished.
2) While working at said site, and helping affiliated children pick out their annual Common Hope Christmas gift, seeing little boys and girls in indigenous clothing cluster around the table, hardly able to contain their excitement at the prospect of choosing between a “muneca,” a “pelota,” or a “rompecabeza” (A doll, a ball, or a puzzle) for Christmas.
3) When asking one little boy of about 8 where his invitation was, (because all the children needed to bring their invitation in order to check them off the list) hearing his reply: “I lost it because I gave it to my dad and my dad was drunk, and who knows what he did with it.” The 8 year old had come alone, without parents, with his 2 younger siblings by the hand.
4) And last but not least….When I asked one little girl which Christmas gift she wanted, (a ball, a doll, or a puzzle,) hearing her answer: “ No es possible una cama?”…….(“A bed isn’t possible??”)
These are true stories.
These are examples of the things that keep me grounded.
Enough said.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Post Best-Buy life
Continued.
Above on the right is one of the kites flying, which takes many people to run to get it into the air, and a lot of wind. To the left are some examples of the beauty of the kites. SO. BEAUTIFUL. And so intricate. Family teams work on one kite together, (it takes anywhere from 1-5 months) and make the kites as a symbol to communicate with the dead up in heaven. A pretty cool tradition, if you ask me!
Here is the whole group in front of one of the kites. ¡Magnifico!
So, despite my post-partum depression on Saturday, I managed to relax on Saturday afternoon. Came home from work at about 1:30, sat in the sun enjoying the beautiful weather for about an hour, and then collapsed on my bed to think. (Time to think is something precious during the week of a Vision Team, so I finally had time to reflect on emails that my eyes read Wednesday, but my brain didn´t process until Saturday. It sounds sad, but its completely true! I´m sure those who are busy like me (Mom and Dad, who work like maniacs,) can relate.
Saturday, after hardcore relaxation, I wandered into the market with the intention of buying a new movie, and wandered back home with 2 movies, cilantro and avocado from the market, and a few groceries from the grocery store. Totally equiped to make guacamole. MMMM. However, when I got home, my body told me otherwise, (too tired to make guacamole) and Mo, Shelly, and I, (my Santa Ana neighbors) wandered into the plazuela of Santa Ana for a dinner of chalupas. (Yes I use the word ¨wander¨ a lot; I happen to like the word. It describes perfectly what we do. We wander into the plaza.)
After a late dinner (8pm!) I wandered (ha) back home to watch my newly purchased movie: Inception! It was wonderful. I loved it! I am going to have to watch it again, though, so that I can understand it better. And yes, Karsten, I own it, so you can watch it all you please. (So don´t buy it!)
Sunday, we went to Kevin´s grandma´s birthday party....whew what a full day. Birthday parties here are a big deal, they last from 10am to 10pm, with tons of food and games and etc. By the end of the day, I had a big headache, (which has more or less left; although today it seems to be back.)
Monday, All Saints Day, and observed Guatemalan holiday, we didn´t have work! It is a big deal in Guatemala, (kinda like Dia de los Muertos) and everyone goes to the cemetaries to adorn with flowers and spend the day with the passed and relatives and eating atol and tostadas outside the cemetary. We went to Sumpango, the town that´s famous for having the huge kites, and saw the f
estival of a lifetime. 
estival of a lifetime. 
Above on the right is one of the kites flying, which takes many people to run to get it into the air, and a lot of wind. To the left are some examples of the beauty of the kites. SO. BEAUTIFUL. And so intricate. Family teams work on one kite together, (it takes anywhere from 1-5 months) and make the kites as a symbol to communicate with the dead up in heaven. A pretty cool tradition, if you ask me!
Here is the whole group in front of one of the kites. ¡Magnifico!
November already?!
Wow I cannot BELIEVE it is already November. How time flies....
For all of my faithful blog fans, (yes I know it is throngs of people) (haha) I have to apologize for not writing for the past week and a half or so. Life has been busy!
For one, I had a team here, Best Buy. And everybody knows that when I have a team here, I have little time for much else. I usually make it home from work by 6:30 or 7 and collapse on my bed and stare at my ceiling. Usually the staring at the ceiling turns into staring at the backs of my eyelids, and I am sound asleep in bed, lights on, clothes on, by 8:30.
(I am an old lady, I know.)
Then I wake up (before my alarm) at 6:15am, with a mental to-do list repeating itself in my head. Sometimes I even dream about work. (Last week I dreamt I had a conversation with Louise about who was going to lead the final reflection, and I woke up wondering if we really had the conversation or not.) Haha. But this only happens when I am really busy!
Luckily, however, when we have a team here like Best Buy, I also wake up excited to go to work. They were a truly fantastic team, and their energy and enthusiasm just radiated around Common Hope, and rubbed off on me. I thoroughly enjoyed every day with them. Saturday morning, after seeing them off from the project site, I was actually sad to see them go. Such wonderful people and a wonderful week. I always enjoy working with people who really ¨get it¨ and go back to the states changed people. I find myself thankful once again that I have the fortune of living down here and working for a whole year, with the ability to help so many people make life changes and leave Guatemala different people.
Even at 22.
I always feel a little silly teaching people about Guatemala, and calling upon my own life experiences to help them process what they´re experiencing. However, living down here really does give you a different perspective, and I absolutely love sharing with others what I have learned in my now 9 months total in Guatemala.
(Okay, personal reflection aside haha!)
Anyways, the team was great. They built a house and a HALF, they worked so fast in construction. Below is the team and the affiliated family outside the house they put up.
For all of my faithful blog fans, (yes I know it is throngs of people) (haha) I have to apologize for not writing for the past week and a half or so. Life has been busy!
For one, I had a team here, Best Buy. And everybody knows that when I have a team here, I have little time for much else. I usually make it home from work by 6:30 or 7 and collapse on my bed and stare at my ceiling. Usually the staring at the ceiling turns into staring at the backs of my eyelids, and I am sound asleep in bed, lights on, clothes on, by 8:30.
(I am an old lady, I know.)
Then I wake up (before my alarm) at 6:15am, with a mental to-do list repeating itself in my head. Sometimes I even dream about work. (Last week I dreamt I had a conversation with Louise about who was going to lead the final reflection, and I woke up wondering if we really had the conversation or not.) Haha. But this only happens when I am really busy!
Luckily, however, when we have a team here like Best Buy, I also wake up excited to go to work. They were a truly fantastic team, and their energy and enthusiasm just radiated around Common Hope, and rubbed off on me. I thoroughly enjoyed every day with them. Saturday morning, after seeing them off from the project site, I was actually sad to see them go. Such wonderful people and a wonderful week. I always enjoy working with people who really ¨get it¨ and go back to the states changed people. I find myself thankful once again that I have the fortune of living down here and working for a whole year, with the ability to help so many people make life changes and leave Guatemala different people.
Even at 22.
I always feel a little silly teaching people about Guatemala, and calling upon my own life experiences to help them process what they´re experiencing. However, living down here really does give you a different perspective, and I absolutely love sharing with others what I have learned in my now 9 months total in Guatemala.
(Okay, personal reflection aside haha!)
Anyways, the team was great. They built a house and a HALF, they worked so fast in construction. Below is the team and the affiliated family outside the house they put up.
The house to the left is the model that Common Hope makes. As you can see, it is made out of fibrolite, and is not meant to last forever, only about 10 years, but is meant as a stepping stone for families, to get them off the dirt floor, out of the rain, while they can work for themselves to one day establish a nicer home.
During the week, Best Buy also brought us:
-Trainings on leadership and teamwork for our IT staff and others,
-Trainings on how to speak in public and give an effective Powerpoint presentation to our managerial staff,
-Shared information, techniques, and games with CH psychology department
-Painted partner school, public elementary Santa Catarina--the entire school!
-Activities with the daycare and the library group on shapes in English and Spanish
-Creative t-shirt activity with our Youth Group (children at risk of falling out of school)
-Sponsorship visits for 3 new children!
Also, when we went to visit Mayan Ruins on Sunday, a town called Iximche, we had the privilege to see a chicken get sacrificed. It was some of the Mayan rituals/celebrations that they are doing more of now, because December 2012 is the big change/¨end¨ of the world, so the Mayans are practicing rituals more often. And, lucky for us, we got to see a real live one. Which included chopping a chicken´s head off and spurting its blood over the fire. YUM. (Sarcarsm. But, it was a good experience at least!) More later, I´m off to lunch!
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