San Pedro Fail.

          Just wanted to share a story about the adventures of traveling through Central America. Tuesday afternoon, Travel Buddy and I set off on our journey from Antigua (again) to a village on Lake Atitlan called San Pedro. It should be about a 5 hour bus ride. San Pedro is the last stop of many villages on the lake for the bus driver, and as we approached, there was obviously some situation causing a traffic issue.

         

Keep in mind, the inhabitants of this bus were as follows: two fellows from Spain who spoke very little English; 5 guys from England who spoke literally zero Spanish (one of which had a broken foot), and David and me. The Spanish guys helped for a few minutes, then disappeared. David and I struggled for a while to figure out what was happening/translate, and basically figured out that we were going to have to walk (bags and all) up a small mountain from San Juan to San Pedro. So, we collected our things (and the crippled guy), and set off on our journey.

Turns out there was an argument between the tuk tuk drivers in the two villages, during which one set of drivers got angry and decided to make their own road block. It consisted of wood and burning tires. (A tuk tuk is a miniature form of public transportation). Basically, we walked to San Pedro, found a tuk tuk, had them take us to the school, and everything worked out.

That is how 7 hours, some broken translations, one killer hike, a road block, and a tuk tuk ride later, these two exhausted gringos finally made our way into San Pedro. It was worth it though, because this is where I studied with my teacher today:

Semana Santa

        Last week in Antigua, I was able to participate in the 2^nd largest Holy Week celebration in the world. It was unreal. All week long there were reenactments, displays and processions (which are parades where men and women dress up in special costumes carry platforms with different scenes that contain Jesus or Mary around the city). People spend hours before hand preparing the streets with “alfombras,” (carpets made of grass, pine, flowers, and colored saw dust) for the procession to walk over. People came from all over to pay their respects to our Lord, and to thank Him for the beautiful gift that differentiates Christianity from other religions-- Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection. Processions and displays happen every day in different locations all over the city. There is a constant reminder of what Holy week means to us.

One of the processions. 100 men carrying this platform.

Alfombra made of flowers.

          By the end of the week, it seemed like we had all seen about 10 processions. Some friends here and I stayed up late Thursday night to watch people prepare for the huge procession that begins at 0400 Friday a.m. We didn’t make it that long, but we watched people work tirelessly over their alfombras all over Antigua. Friday night, we happened to leave dinner at the time that one of the large processions passed the restaurant. It was raining and cold, but still there were thousands of people packed into the street to watch the procession (and the marching band that followed in their rainjackets). This particular procession was special because it was symbolic of Jesus’ funeral march. It was incredible. The music played by the marching band was amazing, and there were probably thousands of people lining the dark, rainy streets with candles. Christian or not, it was a sight to behold.

Procession in the rain, so Jesus has a rain jacket

         

          Semana santa (Holy week) is such a huge cultural experience here, and since I’m not Catholic or Latin American some of the tradition is lost on me. With that being said, I am SO glad that I got to experience it here. I was amazed constantly by how intently everyone devotes their time, energy, and resources to thanking God for His gift to us, and I was able to see some very beautiful art in the form of colored sawdust and very temporary displays in the streets. So, thanks Antigua, I will probably never think of Easter in quite the same way as I did before.

Distractions

I'm not positive that I'm actually learning a great deal of Spanish, but I am having a blast trying. Here are some of my favorite distractions:

Roommates and the family we're staying with.

Field trips, like this one to the coffee museum.

The next set of roommates.
(Yevginey?-New York, Joel-Michigan, David-AL, Peter-Denmark)

Volcano climbing.
(With David and Joel)

I think my favorite distraction is speaking in English so that I can hear all the other accents. That is strange, but every one else sounds so great! Alright that's it for now. Miss everybody!

Language School Sneak Peak

This week, Maria (my teacher) and I get to have our lessons on the third story of the school, AKA: the roof. It's great because it's quieter and because there's a pretty amazing view of Guatemala. It's bad because your flashcards fly away into the streets of Antigua, or because this happens:

We then spent about 15 minutes laughing and trying to put it back together before the owner of the language school came up there to see what we were doing. We finished our afternoon classes in a coffee shop...

Hoping for less wind tomorrow!

Estoy en Guatemala

        I am back in Central America! My week in the U.S. was wonderful, and so incredibly busy. I was able to see tons of people that I love, finish moving out of my apartment, go to my (pseudo)cousin’s wedding, and be part of the wedding of two of my best friends. After that whirlwind trip, I’m now in Antigua, Guatemala, to hopefully learn some more Spanish.

          Today was my second day of class, and I feel like it’s going really well. My teacher’s name is Maria Elena, and she is teaching me so much! We laugh a lot, which I love even though it is almost always at the expense of the dumb things that I say. We played memory yesterday with Spanish flashcards, so obviously what’s not to love?

Antigua is a very cool city. There is so much to look at! David Brown (friend from Huntsville) is here with me, and he is basically my English-speaking tour guide. We are staying with a Guatemalan family who cooks for us, and there are 3 other students in the house right now. There is a guy from Denmark, one girl from Germany, and one girl from New Zealand. They are some of the most interesting people I have ever met, and they have definitely given me the contagious desire to travel the world. (Which I suppose will have to wait until I have a paying job again!)

Ok, I just walked downstairs before I posted the blog and had to add this. As I walked by the grandfather of this house who was urinating in their courtyard area, I couldn’t help but wonder.. Seriously, do any Latin American men relieve themselves in an actual bathroom?! I probably shouldn’t put that on my blog… But it’s a valid question. 

2 Cor. 12:9

I can't believe I'm coming home tomorrow! This five or six week visit has flown by. I'm sad to leave, but I'm SO excited to be surrounded by people that speak English! And I'm already excited to come back and get busy again. I've had a couple of meetings and conversations with my "bosses" here, and I'm more excited than ever about the opportunities that God is going to open up. It has become more and more evident that I am unqualified for so many things that need to be done here, but I am so blessed that God is letting me be part of it! He tells us that with Him all things are possible, and I am so grateful for that!

I'm going to be redundant with these verses, but they're my favorite, and they're so so relevant for me. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 "But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest in me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."

Oh, and just for fun, here's a picture of my future baby translating genius:

FAQs

            Last week was good, and relatively uneventful. We had visitors from Huntsville, so that was fun. I redid the inventory of medications, and we reorganized the pharmacy in the MUR office. I’ve also had more free time for things like going to the coffee shop to get a smoothie. Saturday night we had a viewing (in Spanish) of the movie Courageous. (Of course it made me miss all McBrides. Hey, if yall wanted to come to Honduras sometime we could have a viewing of Facing the Giants with the “celeb guest” that plays Bobby Lee Duke!!:).

            Since last week was good but hasn’t given me a great blog topic, I thought I would go off most of the e-mails I’ve received and answer some questions about life in Hondo. So here you have answers to the FAQs.

-Favorite thing about Honduras: the weather, and how beautiful it is here; laid back personalities.

-Least favorite thing about Honduras: stray dogs. Hate them.

-The food: Pretty good! Although everything is fried, but I’m getting used to it. I can just feel my arteries clogging daily. I’ve eaten things called pupusas, baleadas, chilaquiles and other things I can’t remember the names of. Google them. Also, there’s a good chance most of that is misspelled.

- Spanish situation: Still working on it. Getting better, but I have a long way to go.

-Most ridiculous moment: the roommates having to teach me about the dish soap. It looks so different!

-Most stressful moment: Trying to learn to drive stick shift on a major road in Central America.. and stalling out through an entire green light. Oops.

-What can you pray for: Currently, patience. And learning Spanish.

-Weather: it has been pretty warm during the day, and slightly chilly at night. It’s starting to get pretty toasty though. March and April are the hottest months.

-Current entertainment: Yulema listening to music, singing along but changing the words (which she does often and is always funny). At the moment, changing the words to thank me for buying her a Pepsi, which she pronounces “Pexi.”

-What I miss the most: People, salads, and working in an environment where hand sanitizer is abundantly available. 

I’m sure there are plenty more questions that I could answer or random facts that I could share, but I can’t think of anything right now. I’ll try to come up with something more interesting for next time! Also, I can't fix the crazy indentation. Oh well, it's staying.