Fireworks

I love to eat here. The food is absolutely wonderful. I don´t want to try to remember what I had for each meal, but the staples at the table are hand made tortillas better than any tortilla you have ever had and black beans blended into a paste and have way more flavor than I would think. The black bean paste looks like chocolate sauce and it is fun to imaging putting chocolate sauce on most of my meals. I usually smile while looking at it as I don´t want to laugh audibally and try to explain why I am laughing. Nothing is put in or on the tortilla. Instead the diner must roll his tortilla into a tight cylinder and use it as a utensil to push food onto your fork. One eats the food on the fork and takes a bite of their edible utensil. I have had eggs and hotdogs which was great and a kind of mashed potato with mango puree in it. Everything is made on the stove and leftovers are heated on the stove. This morning there was fried banana. Oh boy that was rico!

I can not tell you all how much your encouraging emails and comments have helped me. It is so encouraging to know that I have a whole community of people asking the God of the Universe to help me, protect me, and give me strength. I thank you all for caring and encouraging me, I love you all deeply.

Last night after I posted I took a nap and woke up to find my host family back from work. They were going to a Bible study and wanted to know if I wanted to go. I said yes and walked two blocks away from the house to a member of the Church´s house. We arrived and walked to the backyard of the house. It was a concrete floor between two houses. One of the houses and two blankets as doors and the other was just open. There were about four very old, wrinkled, and lovely people sitting near the open doorway, another older woman with a mentally handicapped son (who I could not stop looking at because the joy on his face was absolutely overwhelming and addicting) of about 14 years sitting next to her and two other women in their thirties one with a son who was about 8 years old. There were about 5 other empty plastic chairs that helped create the oval. The service began with a reading out of the Psalms and then acapella worship which was very moving. I immediately became choked up and felt the spirit of God in that meeting. The lesson was on worship and how we do it for nobody else but Jesus Christ. Ismael led the study which took about an hour, and an offering was taken at the end for the Fanta and sweet bread that was enjoyed afterwards. After worship at the beginning and end there was communal prayer where the members thanked God for whatever was on their heart aloud at the same time as everyone else. I enjoyed it. We left and went back to the host familys house where we had dinner and watched the news.

Today I woke up at around 7 to the sound of delicious sounding birds but also to Katy Perry´s Firework blasting from a couple of houses down. I laughed to myself and wondered to myself if she ever thought she would have her music playing in a small town in Guatemala. Another thing I wondered is if it would be possible for a swarm of mosquitos to consume the five or seven or however many litres of blood are in your body. I thought about how you are making more blood and how much they could suck up and the persons surface area and how much area each mosquito could safely take up. All this vanished with the smell of breakfast and I got up and showered. There is no hot water which is good because it makes my showers short and it very much cools me down and wakes me up. I ate breakfast, read the word, and read various emails and comments to encourage me.

I put on my khakis and button up shirt went and started to walk to the bathroom. It was the first time I pooped and I´m sorry if that is TMI but there is more to it than you get right now. I had heard stories from friends who went to Guatemala that when people poop they throw the used toilet paper in the garbage instead of into the toilet. I had seen the toilet work and it looked pretty powerful so I put it in the toilet. There was other toilet paper in the wastebin but I saw no poop on it. I also thought about what they could have possibly used the toilet paper for and decided that it just might be for wiping. So I wiped again but this time put it in the trash. I haven´t asked about proper edicit (spelling?) yet. Auto correct is off, so errors in my writing will not be seen and I´m not a big fan of editing.

I got to school at ten oclock and heard the kids saying It is the gringo, it is the gringo. So I walked in to the gate after a kid let me in and I said to him, Yo soy El Gringo. He smiled and I asked him where Senora Wendy is. He told me she was not at school yet  and so I just sat on a ledge and talked to some kids. A door next to me opened and some of the kids motioned me in. I went in to the classroom and there was no teacher so I asked what time Wendy came in and they said usually now. They also call me Senor Andres because Keaton is pretty hard to pronounce for a Spanish speaker. I told them I did not know how to start and I would wait for Wendy. They were the fourth grade class and asked me if they could play games and I said yes. One boy in the front row lifted his sleeve and flexed his bicep. I laughed and asked him if his name was muscles and if people called him muscles. He said no and put his face in his arms. I asked what they wanted to play and they said Football. One of the kids pulled out a GREEN BAY PACKERS football and threw it to me. That really made me smile. I told them a little bit about the Packers and taught them some english words like bee and fly and asked what they knew. It was great. This lasted for about ten minutes and Wendy never came.

One of them pointed at the clock and said they had recess now and I asked the quiter girls if this was true. They said yes and pointed at a schedule on the wall. I let them go and Wendy was sitting in the principals office when I left. It turned out that today was another day of just test taking and real school does not start up again until Monday. We  talked about the schedule and she asked me to talk to another teacher who is studying psychology. I said of course and we went up to meet her. This is how school works in Guatemala. There is gradeschool;  preschool through sixth grade
Then a general school (not military): seventh to ninth grade
Then there is a school where you choose a specefic path such as teaching: tenth to twelfth grade
After that if you chose teacher you can now teach in a school. Then you go to University while you are teaching. If you choose psychology in four years you have the credentials to be a liscensed psychologist and work in a clinic.

The lady I talked to was a year from graduating University. I tried to explain this to her that I am not nearly as close to her, but if she still had questions I would hear them. Just then Derida walked into the room and I explained this all to her and she translated it back to that lady. It was nice. Me and Derida left the room and she asked me how I was doing. I said great and that I felt a little overwhelmed with all of the talk yesterday. She said to not feel that way and that when I feel comfortable and ready I can do whatever I feel called to. It made me feel wonderfully at ease.

I came home, went on a jog and did some excercises but it was blisteringly hot. I took a washcloth shower and stood in front of the fan. Me and Franklin heated up some left overs on the stove and I asked him if he wanted to go over to the carpentry slash welding center for the teenagers and he said sure. We went there and it was closed so we walked back. I read some of The Pelican Brief and fell asleep. Now I am here on the computer.

A couple of things I forgot to write is that there are termites on most things wood in this house including the kitchen table. It was a bit odd to see termites on my plate, but decided to ignore it and a enjoy the needed protein. I honestly never noticed if I ate any, but if I did it wasn´t that bad. Ismael is finishing business school and I am not sure what the Mother is in school for but I helped her with her math homework last night. It was statistics. Franklin´s favorite television station is the Discovery Channel. Derida asked if I wanted to stay at their house for the weekend on the island of flores and I said absolutely yes. She said we could go swimming and do other fun things so I am quite excited for that. I am not sure what I will do tomorrow. I might go to the school to talk to people and practice Spanish. That is all. Thank you once again for all of your prayers and comments, I needed them.

Jesus Christ, I thank You for the community that you guide and use. Thank you so much for your presence in every corner of the world and for how the holy spirit has such control over all things. Thank you for the strength and encouragement and confidence you have given me and I pray that continues. I ask that You help me not turn from You when things become sour and help me to view those times as tests of my faith. I love you and pray that your love is reflected off of me and the other Christians here into the eyes of the unbelieving. Help me not to become prideful but stay humble knowing that all things are because of You.

Amen