Here
is the continuing story of our mission trip to Guatemala. . .
Friday (7/26/13)
This morning
I woke up with an upset stomach. I think that any weight I gained on the trip is
probably gone now. :-P
I came down
to do my devotions and some journaling. Mr. M was up and I talked with him a
little bit about my mixed emotions. He said that probably wherever I go on a
missions trip, people will want me to stay, and that I may have some difficult
decisions to make in the future.
We enjoyed a
simple breakfast before leaving for Antigua. Unfortunately G and A were sick,
so we won’t get to see them. L They are such a joy to be around. G
makes you smile every time her bubbly laughter comes out. They both have such a
passion for the Lord and serving Him.
We got on the
bus, and I plunked down in my usual spot (the second row on the left.) The
drive to Antigua was pretty! The mountains and volcanoes are gorgeous.
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Getting closer!
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The first
place we went to was Cerro de la Cruz, where a cross overlooks the city of
Antigua and the big volcano. It was breathtaking! I really want to climb the
volcano now. J
We took lots of pictures and looked around.
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Ben and me with Pastor D and his wife,
O (the founders/directors of Fellowship Guatemala.) The volcano behind us is Volcán de Agua.
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With Pastor A and his family (he runs
the ministry at the school and the opportunity center.)
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We walked
back over to the bus and left for lunch. We drove up one of the smaller
mountains on some cobblestone switchbacks. The place where the restaurant was
located seemed to be part of some hotel or resort.
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Driving up to the restaurant.
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We passed
lots of Picasso-style art pieces, aviaries, gardens, and avocado trees on our
way. The restaurant had a great view of the mountains.
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I think it’s safe to say this is an
example of a bad parking job. J
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I sat at a
table with four of the Guatemalans and Ben. It was fun. J D let me use his iPad mini to post a
picture to Instagram.
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Ben and I waiting for our lunch.
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For lunch I
ordered lemonade (it’s actually limeade), and a pizza called Medio Oriente. It had curried chicken, Kalamata
olives, peppers, and other stuff on it. I also tried some of Ben’s Margherita
pizza and M and S’s French fries. All the food was great!
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My pizza!
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After lunch,
we started playing a game called 1-10. A dare is made to one person, and those
two people count to three and then say a number between one and ten. If they
say the same number, the person has to do the dare. M had to hug a waitress, H had
to hug a waiter, and J had to walk into the kitchen and ask for the bathroom. We
were all in stitches!
We left the
restaurant and started driving towards the market. We had to park several
blocks away and walk.
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Walking to the market. Yes, the
sidewalks are narrow. J
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We arrived at
the market and scattered. Ben and I went with M (one of the translators.) It was
pretty crowded and had lots of narrow aisles. I felt like we were going in
circles inside a cave! Everything looked pretty much the same.
We bought an
angry bird hacky sack and painted yo-yo for Josiah. For the twins, I bought stationery
made from recycled paper and flower petals. I had already bought coffee beans
from Pastor D for Mom and my grandparents. Our translator knew one of the
t-shirt guys, and he gave me a good price on a shirt for Dad. I bought a little
painting and a little nativity scene for the missions shelf. For myself, I
bought a pair of pink jade earrings made with sterling silver. M knew the
vendor, so I got a very reasonable price.
When we
finished, we waited at the front of the market for the others. Finally, we
realized that they were waiting around the corner.
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Waiting for everyone to arrive outside
the market.
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Once everyone
made it out of the market, we walked to the square. It was beautiful and made
me think of the square in our town. J We went into a really nice coffee shop
for a snack.
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The square in Antigua.
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One of the
first things I noticed was my name on the menu! They had a drink called Bianca
Mocha! I thought that was cool. But I ordered a strawberry banana smoothie. J (I’m not a coffee drinker.) I sat
with Mr. B and his boys. Mr. B had a tiny little cup with double espresso in
it. The boys had caramel macchiato frappes and let me try some. I was happy to
stick with my smoothie. J
Once we all
finished, we met up by the fountain in the square. We took a group picture
before walking a block to meet E who was bringing the bus over. We pulled out
around 5:30 p.m., so I was expecting to see more traffic on the way home. We
kept up a pretty good pace for about the first 30-45 minutes. Then we hit
traffic. We tried to make the best of it. We watched “Facing the Giants” and
half of “Courageous’ in Spanish. Some of the kids played with some phone app
that was a form of charades. I played for awhile and then went back to my seat
and talked with others.
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Just the beginning of our traffic
woes. By the time things really kicked into gear, it was too dark to get good
pictures.
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Most of the Guatemalans
said they had never seen traffic so bad, which made me feel better. J At this point, we had only moved
about 3-5 miles in one hour. We were sitting surrounded by buses with lots of
diesel fumes pouring into our open windows.
We sat so
long that I looked out the window and saw Pastor D and F (a translator) buying
food and drinks in a little store! Things continued to go from bad to worse. A
ton of buses kept trying to cross from the side streets. It doesn’t seem there
are any laws about right-of-ways. So whoever was the pushiest, won. I could
have sworn we hit a bus at least once.
We saw one
fresh accident that was blocking two lanes of traffic, but it definitely wasn’t
the main cause. Later someone said there was a demonstration going on because a
part of the city had no water. Whatever it was, we didn’t get back to the
mission house until 8:30 p.m. This traffic experience was right up there with
Haiti!
Somehow S and
N made it through all that traffic to the house in time to have dinner with us.
J
Tonight M left us stew and rice. It was good, especially after waiting so long
for it!
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Now this here is some chunky soup! J Just the way I like it!
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After dinner,
we had a couple of different things going on. Most of the adults were in the dining
room with Pastor A and his wife, presenting gifts to them. Some of the young
people started a game of spoons in the kitchen. I sat with F, his wife, D, and
S at a table in the front of the house.
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Presenting some of our gifts to Pastor
A. I’m going to miss them so much! We had to say goodbye to them tonight.
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I jumped into
a few rounds of spoons before I went into the living room and played with K,
the four-year-old. We played catch with her angry bird hacky sack. We started
hiding it and she would say “Donde esta
pajarito?” She wouldn’t let me stop once we started playing!
Saying
goodbyes were hard. L
We knew we’d see most everyone in the morning, but it was still hard. It’s
amazing how quickly you can bond with people. Everyone here feels like family
to me.
It was really
late, but we still had our debrief time. Pastor D and O stayed again. Tonight,
Pastor D went around and told each of the students what he appreciated about
them. By the time we finished our debrief it was almost midnight. There were no
updates or card games tonight. Everyone went straight to bed.
To be continued . . .
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