PICTURES!!

So, Kevin promised pictures exactly a week ago, and I'm just now getting around to doing it!  Things work a little more slowly here in Guatemala, especially in the valley.  We are finding that our computers are the last places we find ourselves, and our work has shifted to more manual and interpersonal labor instead.  We are taking a break again in Coban this weekend (only for a night) at Hotel Don Francisco.  The people who work here bend over backwards to make us feel at home and welcomed here, and it's very nice to be in a place where the meseros in the restaurant know my kids by name.

Even so, we had to pull ourselves away from the valley this morning.  The kids, especially, are forming good relationships with the other children as was predicted, and it made us a little sad to see Enebol's face this morning as he realized we wouldn't be around today.  One of the community coordinators, Roberto, has invited all 8 of us to his home tomorrow for lunch.  He said yesterday that we would have meat, which is humbling when you realize what cost it is to he and his wife to prepare a meal with meat for us.  In short, we are building relationships in the valley, and we are humbled by the welcome we have received thus far.

Also as predicted, our car has become a very popular item. Last week, the kids, Cata, DeeDee and I ventured to the market about 20 minutes from our house. We parked the car and walked around the market for awhile, and when we returned to the car, it was completely overflowing with people wanting a ride up the mountain!! DeeDee shared the front seat with a lady who, we discovered at about halfway through the trip, had a live chicken at her feet that she had bought at the market. Yesterday, we went to the river (currently my kids' favorite thing to do, plus it gets boots squeaky clean!!) to collect some rocks for our garden. A sweet family stopped at the river and asked for a ride up the hill. When we said, "15 minutes", the reply was, "no problem". And if you know the hill I'm referring to, I'm sure you can understand why they were content to wait. Their sweet daughter, Anna Maria, helped my boys find snails in the river, and I wish you could've seen the smile on her face as she hopped into the back of the truck with them for the ride up the hill. At the end of our ride, her mother pulled an orange for EACH of us out of her bag as a way to say thank you! It brings tears to my eyes to know how generous so many people are in the valley with the little they have. It also makes me feel guilty about the many times I've found myself being selfish in times past.

I have to take a moment to give a shout-out to Cata as well. For the many of you who know her, you know what a gift she is to any family who is fortunate enough to have crossed her path. She is already the most popular person in the valley as well! When we walk down the road, you can hear almost everyone we pass say, "Cati!!". We've told her that she could be married three times over if all the men hadn't married at the age of 16 :)! We simply couldn't be doing what we're doing without her...I believe this with all my heart!

And finally, drumroll please! The pictures!





Los trabajodores

Cata doing laundry

Me helping Cata do laundry...hee hee.  She can do twenty pair of socks in the time it takes me to do one!

Using a handsaw requires extreme concentration!







Zaac doing some masonry work

Kris and Ben polishing off one of our favorite meals that Cata makes: Chow Mein!

Bananas from one of our banana trees

 Cata's Cafeteria

 Our Pila

 Kevin's and My bed

 

The kids' beds

 Kevin skyping with a bunch of curious onlookers surrounding him

Our Shower...we're living in luxury!

 A typical morning view

Our bathroom

Our clothes dryer

Our garden in progress.

On Elections and Relocations

Sorry it's been a couple of weeks, but Ginger's last entry was good enough that there probably wasn't much to say for a while anyway.  If Blog frequency is proportional to Blog quality, you can expect another entry in a few hours.  Actually, you probably can regardless because we have some great pictures to dump out of the camera.  We have been in the Ulpan Valley for a week now, and it's a little bit of a stretch to say that we are getting settled in, but home is where family is, and home is most certainly where a well-functioning latrine is.

We wrapped up Qeqchi school in Antigua, and toward the end of our time there, we really began to feel like we didn't belong there, and that's probably accurate.  However, after a few more weeks in the Valley, spending some time back in Antigua with friends and family will be a welcome change-up.  It has taken some time to get our internet up and running at our house in the Valley, but we think we're getting close to having things figured out.  It's still strange to me that we live in a place that is an hour from the nearest electric lines but has cell phone and internet service.  Our little solar power system gives us ample light to run a few light bulbs and recharge a few phones and computers, and apart from that, we really don't need anything else.

Last week was tense here in Guatemala, as it was election time.  Historically, elections haven't been very peaceful here, as many times people opt to select leaders by bullets rather than by ballots.  This time, however, it really seemed pretty calm.  Without exception, the millions of candidates' signs all made hollow-sounding promises to the Guatemalan people: "You deserve better!" "Security and employment" "I am a patriot" "Total change" and so on.  And in a country where half of the children suffer from malnutition, all of this seems pretty empty.  Come to think of it, they all sound like promises we've heard in the US, and those all sound pretty empty too.  It's just reinforcement that the mechanism for improving things in Guatemala and in this world will not be a political one.

That being said, politics is important.  Not the "love me and elect me" type of politics, but the true Greek sense of the term that goes something like "the process by which decisions get made."  Understanding how decisions get made in the various communities in the Ulpan Valley is very important and very difficult.  Some interesting studies in other areas similar to ours reflect the fact that often the persons trusted the most in the community are not necessarily the "leaders" of that community.  Sometimes it's an elder.  Sometimes it's a mother of 5.  And sometimes it's just a guy who works hard and looks out for the needs of others.  Jesus referred to these people as "person of peace", and we know we have found some of those people, and pray we find more of them.  And in our more reflective moments we wonder if we're that type of person in our hometown.

The kids are making friends in the neighborhood already, and although the two cultures couldn't be more different, King of the Mountain is the same in every language.  As is making forts and putting mud in people's boots and constructing bows and arrows and all things kids do everywhere.  Yesterday, we were invited to a community-wide fiesta.  It was sort of a celebration of Guatemalan independence day, which was the previous day, but more an excuse to get together.  Independence day isn't really a big deal for the people up in this part of Guatemala, where they don't see themselves as Guatemalans much more than we see ourselves as Western Hemispherians.  They aren't militantly opposed to government here, and in fact there are a few signs (schools, roads, etc.) that some efforts are being made to improve their lives here, but election campaign signs of any sort are noticeably absent here.  The fiesta included music and dancing (my kind of dancing, where you pretty much just stand still) but it was interesting that the "treat" of the day was getting a soup with meat in it.  Meat is something that they rarely enjoy. 

Oh, and a little more Qeqchi sunk in than I thought.  They really seem surprised when they hear their language spoken by obvious foreigners - possibly as surprised as I seem on those rare occasions that they understand what's trying to be said.

Q'eqchi School and Ecclesiates

"I have seen what is best for people here on earth.  They should eat, drink and enjoy their work, because the life God has given them on earth is short....They do not worry about how short life is because God keeps them busy with what they love to do."  Ecc. 5:18 & 20

Q'eqchi class , to say the least, is a circus.  Knowing words in Q'eqchi and being able to find/use them in a sentence are two entirely different things.  You may know the word for "to have", but it's a game of find the peanut as you try to find it in a sentence.  If I ask the teacher to explain, the answer without fail is basically, "beacuse it just is".  I have found myself incredibly frustrated because I'm accostumed to being able to master anything I set my mind to master, but Q'eqchi is not one of those things I'm going to be able to...ever.  About a week ago, I decided to just have fun in my classes.  I'm trying to find joy in the work given to me.  My teacher enjoys life and her laugh is infectious, so we laugh quite a bit (I think mostly at my expense, but hey, that's ok).  Things have been much more enjoyable since I've taken this particular attitude, and I have found that I'm actually quite found of my teacher, Zoila.  At the end of each week, she gives me a test which is a lot like opening a box of chocolates.  In the words of Forrest Gump, "You never know what you're gonna get".  Without fail, before the test  Zoila asks that we pray.  We don't exactly pray together as much as we both say our own prayer aloud (very common in the Q'eqchi culture).  As I sat at the desk while we prayed yesterday, I was overwhelmed by a sense of how big our God really is.  Here Zoila sat, praying in a foreign tongue, but I knew she was praying for me because I heard my name mentioned in the midst of the Q'eqchi.  We were praying to the same God about the same thing but in totally different languages.  Then I thought about all the languages of the world and all the prayers that are offered at any given time to our God.  And we are really all asking Him for the same thing; for a tiny part of His kingdom to come here on earth.  I know that's what we are asking for in the valley...for the people there to be able to see His kingdom through us and that we will find joy in the work He gives us to do there.

And then I think about the people of the valley.  They don't have anything compared to what we are used to having, but they find joy in the work they do.  They, more than us, realize that life is short, and I think they have a better handle on what Solomon is saying in the midst of his cynicism.  Enjoy life!!!  It is a gift from God, and it is gone before you can turn around.  Life is hard;  the people in the valley know this.  They spend an awful lot of time smiling, though.  They don't have 401K's that are wrapped up in a failing stock market, or lots of electronics to maintain.  They have more time to eat, drink and be merry.  It's not a feast by any means, but it's what has been given them, and they are content in ways that I do not see in myself.

So, this weekend I'm trying to practice Solomon's words of wisdom.  There are sounds of my children playing happily outside.  There is the wonderful aroma of pepian wafting through the house, and there is the beauty of God's creation surrounding me on all sides.  I think I'll eat, drink and enjoy my work today.