A Long Short Week

Even though Thanksgiving isn't a holiday in Guatemala, our school is generously allowing us to miss classes Thursday and Friday without having to make up the hours. So, we are meeting up with a bunch of other IMB people at a house near Lago Atitlan. (I understand this lake is beautiful but toxic, so I guess I won't be packing my swimsuit for this trip.) So, that makes this a 3-day school week. In reality, though, the week has been pretty long for me.

Sunday my friend Audra and I attended a baptism with my host family. My host dad's sister's daughter's baby was being baptized in a Catholic mass in Antigua. After the mass, well over a hundred friends and family squeezed into a rented bus for the drive up the mountain to the indigenous village of Santa Maria de Jesus for the fiesta. The family has very little, but they went to great effort to host a nice party. They had emptied out one of their 2 rooms to fill it with tables for serving dinner and had set up a bunch of plastic chairs outside for the rest of the guests. They had even fixed up walls of sagebrush to provide shade around the yard. I can't imagine the hours the women must have spent preparing the special dish of pepian and making thousands of torillas. They also served rum and Coke. Every time another round of rum was offered and Audra and I politely declined, my host mom felt the need to explain that our religion didn't allow us to drink. Of all of the party guests, I had the honor of being seated next to an elderly drunk man who kept pulling on my arm and talking to me. The fact that I couldn't understand a word he said didn't deter him from continuing to try. It was definitely an experience!

Last week ended with plans for me to take a test this Tuesday afternoon. (Our school has 2 books that they use for teaching Spanish, and to move from the first to the second you have to pass a 2 hour written test.) Imagine my surprise Monday morning when I get to school and our director Benjamin tells me that my test has been arranged for THAT afternoon! Monday morning my tutor Miguel worked hard to help me review and then encouraged me to be calm as I entered the test that afternoon. Then he read Phil. 4:13 to me and promised to pray for me at 2:00. I had to rush home after class ended at noon and tell my host mom that I couldn't wait until our normal 1 pm lunch time because I had to be in Antigua at 2 for the test. She hurried to cook and I ate quickly and ran off to catch a bus.

At that point, my stomach was beginning to feel a little upset. By the time my test ended at 4, I had cold chills and was extremely sick to my stomach. I didn't eat anything for the next 24 hours, and then my host mom kindly prepared very mild food for me (like vegetables WITHOUT fat added! and then soup for the next meal). My stomach is still unsteady but improving. Hopefully it won't be a problem on the 2-3 hour drive to the lake tomorrow morning or during our Thanksgiving dinner.

The good news is that I passed my test and officially started book 2 this morning!

Have a great Thanksgiving with family/friends, and remember to truly give thanks to the One who gave us everything!

Tikal Trip, Part Two

By the time we left Tikal (around noon), I'd had plenty of exercise and had definitely used muscles that weren't accustomed to being used. We stopped at a nearby 30 minute canopy tour of which several members of our group took advantage. On another day, I would have enjoyed that. Then we went back to our hotel for a quick lunch and refreshing minute in the pool before hitting the road to return to Rio Dulce. By the time we reached Rio Dulce, it was already dark. The only way to reach our destination for the night, a town called Livingston, is by taking a boat down the river for about an hour. There are no roads that go there. So, there we were, piling into this little motorized boat called a lancha. We were going pretty fast in spite of the dark, and a couple of times we had to swerve or slow down abruptly to avoid obstacles such as another boat, fishing nets, etc. By the time we docked at our hotel, my hair was thoroughly ratted and plastered back. Quite a site! We stayed in little cabins with mosquito nets over our beds. We had to take the boat a few more miles down and across the river to reach the main part of Livingston, where we had a less than exciting seafood dinner. We explored the town a little in the dark, and it was very interesting. It was like being in a different country because it is so remote. It is on the banks of the Caribbean Sea and was therefore settled by people from Africa. Even the language there is different. The atmosphere is very laid back, kind of like a mix of reggae and hippie environment.

Sunday morning we road the boat down the Rio Dulce and into the Caribbean to reach a place called 7 Altares. On the way, we actually got to see dolphins in the sea! Seven Altars is comprised of a series of small waterfalls leading into small pools of water. Unfortunately, our timing wasn't right to see much in the way of waterfalls as they haven't had a lot of rain lately. It was still very pretty, though.

We had to do a lot of climbing on rocks beside the water, which was a bit challenging for me, but I made it. Finally, we reached the last pool, where we swam. I think I am the only person in our group who didn't jump from the big rock down to the water, but I was convinced that I would have slid off the edge if I had tried.

After we cleaned up a bit, it was time to begin our journey home. Of course, the first leg of the journey was the hour long boat ride up the river to Fronterra. This time, though, we could actually see to enjoy the beauty of the river and all of nature surrounding it.

This is not the most flattering picture of me, but I am going out on a limb to post it because it is my only picture with our new friend, Cecilie. She is from Norway and is currently studying at the same school as us.

She was the only person outside of our group on this trip, and we all had various opportunities to discuss God and beliefs with her throughout the journey. She asked a lot of good questions and is very open to hearing from us. She told us that she wants to read the Bible because she thinks it is a good model for how to live a good life but that she doesn't believe in God. At one point, she commented that she wished she believed because she thinks it would be better. The previous weekend, she went on a trip with a group of European non-believers. She continuously tells us how much she prefers our company. We love her very much and are praying for her. She asked us if we have really every experienced God in a way that made us know that He is real, because she said she hasn't. That is my prayer for her. Please pray that God will reveal Himself to Cecilie in such a way that there can be no doubt in her mind.

Tikal Trip, Part One

This past weekend we took an incredible 3 day vacation to visit some Mayan ruins and see some other parts of Guatemala. It was all so amazing that I want to share some of it with you. First, the 9 of us plus our guide and our driver met to leave at 4 am Friday morning. We stopped once for breakfast and once to see a Chiquita banana plantation. By noon, we had made it to our first destination. We looked down at Rio Dulce from a bridge in Fronterra and then visited an old castle, called El Castillo de San Felipe.


We really enjoyed exploring this castle. It is located where Rio Dulce and Lago Izabel meet, so it is very beautiful. After we explored, we had a picnic lunch beside the lake and then some people swam a bit.

At one point I was walking through a short, narrow passageway when a friend snuck up behind me, causing me to jump just enough to hit my head on the top. Oops! It is finally not hurting anymore.

After the castle, we headed north. It was dark before we finally made it to the island city of Flores, where we looked in shops and ate dinner. We drove another half hour out of Flores before stopping for the night. We were pleasantly surprised by our hotel. It was on another lake, had a pool, and was a very pretty place in every way. The only thing it lacked was hot water, but at least it wasn't very cold. We went out on the dock to look at the stars a bit before getting some sleep. We were supposed to head out at 5;40 the following morning. As we stepped outside, we were caught off guard by the sound of fireworks exploding and a band beginning to play. Once we realized what it was, we had to laugh at ourselves for jumping back around the corner! From there, we went to visit the Tikal Mayan ruins. There are 3-4 thousand structures there, but only around 800 have been excavated. (Because they are made of limestone, moss and plants and grow over them, making them look like hills instead of the ancient structures they really are.) Here is the first one we climbed. The steps were FAR steeper than I had expected.

The whole area is jungle, and the beaut of God's creation was breathtaking. I particularly enjoyed the sun rays that managed to burst through the trees.

We also climbed the tallest temple, but for this one they built wooden stairs with handrails. I think there were a couple hundred of these steps to reach the top.

Here I am standing on the top, with some of the other temples visible in the background.

We did a lot of walking, and in places it was somewhat difficult terrain. Most of the group climbed to the top of the steepest temple, but I was one of the ones who stayed on the ground because you had to climb a series of ladders to reach the top.


This area was essentially once "downtown" Tikal. Many kings and important people were buried inside these structures.

I found it very interesting to explore inside the dwellings.

I'm going to have to stop for today, but I will add another post soon to cover the remainder of our trip.

Refreshing Sunday

Sunday we went to a curch near Guatemala City with an IMB couple who live in Antigua. On the way there, they told us the story of the pastor of this church. He grew up in El Salvador and was very active in a guerilla organization. By age 17, he had already suffered a gunshot wound. Because he was so valuable to the logistics operations of the organization, he was assigned a bodyguard. He later married that bodyguard (they assigned a tough 15 year old girl who carried a very big gun). Eventually, he was caught holding hostages and sent out of the country. He was shuffled around quite a bit, but at some point he had a coworker in a sanitation job who witnessed to him. He is now a wonderful pastor and a testimony to the power of God to change lives.

It is hard to explain, but I was captivated by this congregation. I don't know how or when, but I believe that I will return there.

The IMB couple took us to their house in Antigua after church and encouraged us to make ourselves at home. The house was very similar to a US house, so it was an oasis to us! They fed us a wonderful meal with American food (roast beef, green beans, cheesy potatoes, bread, fresh veggies, brownies, and ice cream). It was such a refreshing afternoon.

This morning we were assigned new teachers for the next 4 weeks. Mine is a man names Miguel. His style is very different from that of Rosario, and I think the change will be good for me. Miguel seems to be very devout to the traditions of his Catholic heritage. Please pray for him to recognize the need for a personal relationship with Christ.

Tuesday Afternoon

Tuesday afternoon we went to a small daycare/school in our town to do an activity with the kids there. First, let me just say that we met 18 precious children there! One of the guys in our group had planned an activity, and it went really well. He told the creation story one day at a time. After hearing about each day, the kids drew a picture to represent that day. The rest of us were spread out among the kids to help them know what to do, etc. I was helping a little girl named Kimberly and a little boy named Mario. After my experiences with kids in Manzanillo, I am not surprised by how much I enjoyed this time with the kids. Right now our plan is to return there for more activities every Tuesday afternoon. I suspect at some time in my near future I will be singing some of those great songs I learned to do with the kids in Manzanillo, like "Padre Abraham!"