6/16/09-6/19/09

Tuesday 6/16/09
Today we cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned, then did a little homework. What a fun life. Not much different than in the states!!
Today was also a music day. Alysa decided she wanted to try to play the piano. I worked with her for a little while and then let her loose. She sat at the piano and practiced the same two songs forever!! She was doing such a good job! She wasn't very happy when I had to leave to teach piano lessons and I had to take the books with me!!
I taught the Orellana boys again but this time at the church so they could play on a piano instead of a keyboard. After their lesson, I spent the next 1/2 hour working with the chorister. After which, I spent another hour with the choir. A bunch of the choir members want to learn to play the piano. They said they'd help me with my Spanish if I would teach them to play. The bishop also came in and said that they were going to try to get some more copies of the 'Keyboard Course' that the church has. Even though I know it will be very tough to teach a class in Spanish, I am kind of excited to see if I am up to the challenge!!


Wednesday 6/17/09
This morning I was enjoying that fact that we can have a warm shower ....we are so lucky. I wonder how many people even have running water here. The people working on the new houses have a little make shift shower. Just one of those random thoughts that I have here!!
Remember how I never knew that dust bunnies really existed until I came here? I also never knew that dogs really chased cars. There's no greater adrenaline rush than to be driving down a street and to have a big dog all of a sudden jump out barking and running straight for the car!!
Today is also Father's Day here. Yes, on Wednesday!! Chris was a little bummed because he couldn't take a guilt free nap after church!! The kids were able to make him some cards also.
We went into school today to decorate but the classrooms still weren't painted or ready to decorate. I decided to work on a couple other projects. One involved laminating some cards. I was exposed to a new way of laminating here....you take clear tape and tape layers over the paper and then cut them out!! What a long process!!
Today I felt like I was doing a pretty great job of communicating with people. I am definitely making a little progress. Morgan and Cole still amaze me with how quickly they are learning. Morgan's confidence level is much higher than mine!!
My visiting teachers came again today. The little mayan lady came also. Her name is Emiliana. She usually comes to choir but has to walk so I have been taking her home afterwards. It is hilarious trying to figure out the directions! Sully and Lily had asked me to show them how to make pizza so we did that tonight. They made me do the directions in Spanish. I was able to do about 1/2 of it!! Afterwards we all ate pizza for Father's Day!!
Here is a link to a news article about the temple. It was from March and the groundbreaking.

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/56789/Work-commences-on-Guatemala-temple.html

Thursday 6/18/09
I figured that the classrooms wouldn't be done again so I didn't even go into school. Instead Cole and I emptied out Chris' change dish and loaded everyones pockets with money to go to the market. All the kids and I ventured to the market. Morgan was wanting to make tacos for dinner so there were some things that she wanted to get. The kids really had fun using the money in their pockets to buy stuff. They also had to help carry everything!! All of the kids did a great job and everybody had a great time. On the way home, we stopped to get some tortillas at the tortillaria. Morgan and Cole went in and ordered them all by themselves.
When we got home, it was a family event to assembly-line clean, sanitize, rinse, dry, cut, and freeze/store everything. The kids were so excited to make chocolate covered frozen bananas!!
I had an extremely humbling experience tonight. I went visiting teaching with Lily to a long rectangular house that was hand build out of wood. The front of the house was a little store. Dividing the store and the rest of the house were a bunch of sheets hanging. Inside there was a bedroom, a makeshift kitchen and a little mainroom with a bed in it. I later found out that the long rectangle was divided into three homes. The first was the mom/dad and a daughter. The second was their son and daughter in law and their children. The third was their daughter, son in law, and their kids. All of the walls were made out of either sheets or cardboard boxes. The roof was a bunch of tarps and the floor was cement. The kitchen appliances were probably from the early 1900's!! It was so cold in the houses and I would be shocked if there was any running water! There was even a chicken walking around in the last house! The last two houses had clothes lines going across the entire house with clothes drying. I felt so incredibly spoiled! The father of the family is one of the choir members. He was the man that was helping me read/pronounce the words to the songs. The daughter works in the snack shack at the school and the wife I had never met. I didn't know any of the people in the second house either. In the third house, I knew the mom and one of her little boys. At each visit (each visit lasted forever!!) Lily would give the message and talk forever then she'd have me attempt to read a quote and then share my testimony in Spanish. The first time caught me so off guard that I couldn't even think of anything to say in English!! The 2nd and 3rd times I was pretty impressed with myself!!
After we finished up those visits, we headed over to Vilma's house. (The lady that came over last week with the three girls). She is a really neat lady. I was once again humbled by the living situations. The front room had a bed in it and nothing else. It amazes me at how little people have but yet they are so happy. I sometimes think that we get so obsessed with "stuff" that we loose sight of what is really important. It also makes me really want to help people but I don't know exactly what it is that I can do to help.
Morgan's tacos were soooo good tonight. I don't know if it was just how fresh everything was or just that it was so late and I was starving but it sure was delicious!!

Friday 6/19/09
I finally got to finish up the classroom today. It took about 30 minutes!! All the teachers were in a meeting and my kids were driving me nuts so even though I felt guilty, I left after a little while!
As part of the deal with us being here, we have to get a temporary resident visa. It has been a huge ordeal trying to get everything taken care of. Today we had to get everyones pictures taken and get fingerprints. We were hoping to do the fingerprints at the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala City next week but Chris called and they said they couldn't do it. They told us to go to the police station. So, after getting home and hoping to get some projects worked on, Chris called and told me that he found a place that would do it and that we needed to come down and meet him. Unfortunately it was down in the city center where I have never driven before (with good cause!!). The streets are cobblestone and tiny (they're more like alleys than streets). They are also usually one way but you can't always tell which way. It is so claustrophobic and there is no way to judge where you are at because you can't see anything past where you are!! That doesn't take into consideration the crazy driving here, the horrible unexpected holes in the road and the four tired kids whining in the background. By the time we found Chris I was in tears. That was probably the worst experience that I have had here in Xela!
Once we found Chris, he helped us park and then we went for a little walk to the fingerprinting place. Along the walk, Chris stops and starts knocking on some huge random black door. They open the door and a bunch of police officers let us in. We are then lead down a hallways to a little room. Along the way we see a bunch of men in a "yard" area. Come to find out that this is a prison!! We got to go to the prison check in room where they do the mug shots and finger printing!! Oh, how I wish I had had my camera with me to take pictures holding up the identification numbers!! That would have been a great joke to play on everybody!! The guard did Chris' finger prints then mine and then he decided to go take his lunch break and leave us all sitting in the little room waiting for him to come back to do the kids. When we did finally finish, we all left with black fingers since the only thing that they had to wash our hands with were old pieces of newspaper!! It helped a little but that stuff was so sticky!! I sure hope that I don't have to go back there any time soon!!