El Fin: Home!

I'M HOME!  Here's an overview of my last week or so


Semilla (A seminary in Guatemala City): 

We spent three days debriefing before flying home.  I finished up the last few things I had for school, so I didn't have to worry about any of that once I got home.  All of us went bowling one day as one last activity before going our separate ways for the summer.  Our last day there I was the first time I was completely sick of eating rice and meat for just about every meal.  I just couldn't do it anymore.  I'm super thankful that didn't happen until my last day in Guatemala!


Travel Day: 

We left Semilla at 8:30 on Wednesday morning, and said goodbye to Sydney who will be staying in Guatemala working with SI as summer staff for a few more weeks before she heads home.  It was weird leaving her there.

Our flight left Guatemala around 12:00, and we got to Miami around 4:30 because of the time change.  After going through customs, I ate my first meal back in the States.  I laughed at myself as I was eating because I had fried rice -rice and eggs, what I had been eating for the last 4 months! It was so good though!  It felt weird to order in English and when the guy took my tray I had to stop myself from saying, "Muchas gracias!"

My last view of Guatemala.

We got to MSP around 10:30 where my mom was waiting for me!  We stayed in a hotel in the Cities that night, and I was so excited about the carpet.  Mom just didn't understand what it was like walk on carpet for the first time in four months!

Thursday-BETHEL & SAUK CENTRE:

On Thursday I stopped at Bethel and had lunch with my roommates.  There was a few minutes where we were actually all in the room at once, something that rarely happened first semester! 

My wonderful roommates:  Kate, Stephanie, Amy, Me, and Megan!

Next was Sauk!  It was SO good to be home!  Sophi (my dog) was SO excited to see me.  She wouldn't leave me alone and kept wimpering at my feet. 



Needless to say, it's great to be back home, but I'm already feeling the more fast paced, hectic life of being back in the States. 

Random Moments with my Host Family

-On Saturday Leah, Antonieta, and I went to watch Kevin and Jeffery play soccer.  It was so much fun!  They played Buena Vista at the big soccer field.  They looked all professional in their uniforms.  They both played the entire game, and I definitely felt like the proud big sister watching them.

Jeffery (left) and Kevin (#3)

-Later Saturday Leah and I went to watch Sydney play soccer on the little court close to Cafecito.  To our surprise, about half way through Antonieta shows up to play.  She is GOOD!  I was so impressed with her.  I guess all the times their family plays soccer together really pays off!  It was so much fun to watch her.  She scored 3 goals!

Antonieta!

-Justin.  There are no words to describe Justin.  Two of the SI site leaders have nicknamed him “terremoto” (earthquake).  It definitely fits him.  He is always running around and always talking.  He knows two words in English, stinky and crazy.  He is always telling Leah and me, “Chica crazy!” or “Chicas crazies!”  After I found out about his nickname,  I started replying with “terremoto!”  to which he responded, “Terremota!” (girl earthquake!)  He’s priceless!

-One of Justin’s other favorite games is to take my water bottle out of my backpack and run.  One day, I used the clip on my backpack to clip my water bottle to my backpack.  When he tried to take it, he couldn’t.  It was pretty funny watching him try!

-Wilmer.  Wilmer is the definition of the perfect big brother.  When Antonieta and José weren’t able to be at breakfast and one of their family members was there to get breakfast ready, Wilmer made sure we prayed before breakfast.  Other times when we’re talking at the dinner table, and Justin is having his own conversation, Wilmer will try to get him to behave. 

Kevin, Wilmer, and Jeffery

-When Leah was in Antigua one weekend, so it was just me in our room, I was talking to Antonieta in my room after I got home.  Wilmer came in and made sure that I got home safely. 

-One night Justin was giving me a hard time about something, and would not leave me alone about it.  Wilmer took care of him for me.

Justin and Jeffery

-Leah and I helped Antonieta make a cake for the Mother’s Day celebration at Justin’s school.  We had a lot of fun making it with her, and according to José it was the best cake he’d ever had.  Leah and I think it was because he had it while he was working in the fields, everything tastes better after you’ve been outside working in the heat all morning.

Leah and Antonieta baking the cake in Antonieta's cooking school!

-One night Leah and I were doing homework in our room and Wilmer comes and says he needs a little bit of help.  He was finishing up his Mother’s Day gift, and he couldn’t get it wrapped with what he had.  He figured us girls would be able to help him out.  He was slightly embarrassed to ask, but it was so cute.

My host parents:  Antonieta and Jose

-One morning after I was done praying for breakfast, I looked up and Wilmer was smiling at me.   He says, “Muy buen español.”  He told me my prayer in Spanish was perfect, and that it was so much better than the first week I was here.  Praying in Spanish does not come easy to me, so to have him say that to me meant a lot.

-One morning Wilmer was praying for breakfast, and he started the first four words or so in English.  Leah and I both jerked our heads up and looked at him shocked.  He said he was just kidding and continued in Spanish. 

-One night Wilmer walked into our room to tell us goodnight with Justin asleep in his arms.  It was so precious.  They must have been watching TV and Justin fell asleep, so Wilmer was putting him to bed.

-One night there was a bug in the sink, and I decided that since we have brothers now, we would make them kill it.  I had killed enough bugs in Antigua.  It was now their turn, so we asked Wilmer and Jeffery to kill it for us.  They laughed at us, and then pretended to throw it at us before putting it outside.

-I found out Kevin is SUPER ticklish!  I started tickling him one day, and he was squirming like a little boy!

-On our last day we our host family drove us out to their farm.  We didn't even know they had a car!  It was super fun cramming 8 people in the little car to see their land.  Jose, Wilmer, and Kevin had left at 4:30 that morning to go and water all the lettuce, by hand!  Jose built a soccer field there for the boys.  It was super fun going to see it with them.  Leah and I felt like we were part of the family as we were all in the car driving with the windows down and the music up.

In a few months, you may be buying this lettuce from Wal-Mart!

Jose

-Instead of eating at Cafecito for our last meal in Magdalena, Antonieta asked us if we wanted to eat lunch with them.  We had chicken and rice.  It was so nice to eat one last meal with all of them.

All of us except Jeffery:  Leah, Wilmer, Kevin, Justin, Antonieta, me, and Jose



Trabajo Social in Pictures

Here's some pictures from my time working with Nic in El Gorrion:

Learning how to wash clothes in the river.

One day we organized all these shoes, they were donations.

Helping the dentist check the kids teeth at the school.

Me and Lizbeth

Emily and I in jail at the Monroy Mother's Day celebration.

The river

All of us crammed in the back of Marcos' car:  Emily, Kate, Sarah, Me, and Laura

Dona Estela and Me

Dona Reina and Me

Me, Nic (our site leader), and Emily

  

Nivia and Me





Evelin

Sponsoring a child is something that has been on my mind on and off for several years.  It’s something that you hear about a lot, but one of my doubts was that I never really knew where the money when and what was done with it.  After working with SI and spending time at the school in El Gorrión as well as working a couple days with Nivia who is in charge of the child sponsorship site, I decided that I wanted to sponsor a child in El Gorrión.  I saw the benefits of other sponsors and know that the money is being used for what it is supposed to.

I helped Nivia wrap birthday gifts for the kids being sponsored, and that was the first time I really realized how special of a program this is.  Nivia knows all of the kids by name, and she specially chooses each gift for each child.  There was one time when I had mixed up the shirts and didn’t know who they were for.  I asked Nivia, and right away she told me which shirt was for which girl.  It showed me that she didn’t just buy the same outfit for every kid, but she put time into picking out each birthday gift.

 I knew that it would be a big commitment to sponsor a child and that there might be times when I am unable to cover all of the costs, so I asked my parents if they would be willing to help me out when I needed it and they said that they would.  I talked to Nivia about it, and she helped me pick out a child.  We were going through the list of kids who aren’t sponsored, and she told me that Evelin had just lost her sponsor.  I remembered Evelin from school.  I was drawn to her at school because she was quiet and reserved, a lot like I was and am.  Because of that, I would look for opportunities to talk to her and hang out with her. 

Evelin and I during my time at the school.

On the last day of sites we went to the little tienda that Evelin’s parents own right outside of the community center, and I told them that I was going to sponsor Evelin.  Then we went to their house and I met the rest of Evelin’s siblings, Danielson is 10 and Yasmin is 4.  Evelin remembered me from the school, which made me happy.

We stayed there for probably about an hour talking.  I learned a lot about the family and Evelin.  Evelin’s parents used to run the little tienda at the school, but about three months ago they started the tienda outside the community center.  They sell chips, snow cones, tacos, tostadas, and other little snacks there.  They have a talking parrot and several dogs.  Evelin likes school, and her favorite subject is English.  Her favorite color is pink, and she likes cats.  She gets along well with both of her siblings.  After being there for an hour it was so obvious what a good big brother Danielson is.  It was precious watching them interact. 

It was a super great opportunity to be able to meet her family and visit her house.  I am blessed.

Last Week of Ministry Sites

Wow!  I can't believe that I am now finished with ministry sites.  The time has flown by.

The last week of ministry sites was really good.  On Tuesday Nic had some things to do, so Emily and I went with Nivia to Monroy, the school here in Magdalena to help with the Mother's Day Celebration/mini-fair.  It was a fun afternoon which included Bingo, getting put in jail and waiting for Becky to track down Nivia to bail us out!  One of the games at the school was if you were wearing the color that was called out, the kids could drag you into jail.  In order to get out you had to pay 1 Quetzal.  Emily and I both ended up in jail together, and neither one of us had money.  We had to wait for Nivia to come and rescue us!

The rest of the week with Nic went pretty well.  We created a survey because there is going to be a sewing class at the community center, and Nic wants to know who's interested and what levels they are at.  The challenging part about this is that no one wants to tell you they're not interested, so because of the culture everyone says they are interested in it.  There were some people who we could really tell weren't interested at all, and we tried our best to get them to say no they weren't interested.  That never happened though.

On Thursday we went on a site tour, so we were able to see all of the different sites.  I had been to most of them before; however, it was still fun to visit them all.

Friday was one of my favorite days of the week.  Although it was really hard to say good-bye to all the women that I have made relationships with during my six weeks at ministry sites, I was able to visit the family of a little girl, Evelin, who I will be sponsoring when I return home.  After working in El Gorrion, I decided that I wanted to sponsor one of the kids there.  I was talking with Nivia about it this week, and we looked through the kids who weren't sponsored.  Evelin had recently lost her sponsor, so I decided to sponsor her.  It was a really great experience meeting her family, too much for this blog post, so I will try to write another one about that soon.

Friday night we also had the banquet with all of the staff from SI.  It was a great night just to all be together one last time before we leave.  The highlight of the night was Jose's video of our semester.  It is so wonderful!  He gave all of us a copy of it, so if anyone is interested in seeing what we did this semester in video, ask to see it when I get home!

Another not so exciting part of this week was econ class.  We had class everyday from 2:30-5:30, and we also had to give two presentations.  Class wasn't quite as painful as I anticipated which was good, and now it's done which is even better.

This has been a really great last week here, and the weekend so far has been just as good.  Again, that's too much for this post so I'll try to write another one on that soon.  I'll also try to post pictures soon!

Tomorrow we leave Magdalena for Guatemala City where we will be staying at a semenary school there for three days of debriefing before heading back to the States.

Lake Atitlan

 This past weekend we went to Lake Atitlan.  It was SO pretty. Our hotel was right on the lake, and it had a big garden and hammocks! We didn't have a ton planned for us, so it was a nice relaxing weekend.  We got there on Saturday around noon, and on Sunday we went on a boat tour.  It was a really relaxing weekend before a busy last week in Magdalena.

This week our econ professor is here, so we have class everyday after sites for three hours.  The end is in sight.  I have one presentation, a test, a short paper, and a final project and paper left, and then it's summer break for me!  It kind of feels like I've already had summer for three months, except for the fact that I actually have had a lot of school work while I'm here.

9 days!!

License Plate Game Guatemalan Style

    Almost every driving vacation I have taken with my family, I've played the license plate game.  I decided to see which countries and states I could find while in Guatemala.

1.      Guatemala

                           

  2.      El Salvador

                               

3.      Honduras

                          

4.      Texas

5.     Washington DC

6.     California

7.     México

8.     Colorado

9.     Arizona

10.   France

11.   Alberta

12.   Arkansas

13.   South Dakota

14.   Oregon

15.   Nicaragua

16.   Illinois

17.   British Columbia

18.   North Dakota

19.   Utah

Things That Have Become Normal

•  Entire families in the back of a pick-up truck with their chuchos (dogs).
• 4 people on a moto.

• 23 people in a 12 passenger van.
• Being sold things through the window of restaurants while you're eating.
• The bus assistant riding on the steps of the bus with the door open while whipping around the turns on the highway.

• People riding on the ladder on the back of the bus holding a bicycle.
• Being offered shoe shine, flip flop shine, belt shine, and weed all in one breathe.
• Security guards in restaurants, banks, and delivery trucks with machine guns.
• Brushing my teeth with bottled water.
• Fireworks at all hours of the day...and night.
• Throwing toilet paper in the trash can.
• Having vegetable soup and chocolate cake for breakfast.
• Seeing a herd of cows strolling down the street.

• My 5 year old brother drinking coffee at 8:00 at night.
• Drinking pop out of a bag with a straw.
• Taking a shower and getting electrocuted; however, I have not experienced this.
• Car alarms at all hours of the day, often times set off by fire crackers.
• Men, and women, walking around with machetes. 
• The electricity randomly going off for several minutes.