¡Soy Pura Guatemalteca!

After we figured out the house thing, we still had to pack all our stuff for Guatemala. When we packed to move, I tried to keep all the stuff we might need out of the boxes. We got back to Adam and Laura's at like 9:30 or 10:00 pm. Seth had to take back the Budget truck. So the packing was mostly up to me, which wasn't the best because, I had never been out of the county before, and I had lost the list of things to pack somewhere in the stuff in the storage unit. Now that I look back, I definately overpacked. I just wanted to be prepared. Seth maybe got 1 hour of sleep that night, and I stayed up the whole night. I finished packing at about 2:15 am, took a shower, and then we were on our way.

Bless Adam's heart, he took us to the airport at 3 something in the morning. You're the best Adam! We got to the airport, and no one was at the United counter. So we, and at least 15 other people waited until about 5 am for them to come and check us in. Seth and I made it to our flight just a few minutes before boarding time. We flew from Cleveland to Chicago O'hare, and when we got there our next flight was delayed for over and hour, and that meant we wouldn't make our flight from Charlotte, NC to Guatemala. So they put us on a different flight to Houston, TX on Continental Airlines. By this time I was pretty sure that our luggage was not coming to Guatemala with us, even though the airline lady said they would. We flew to Houston, bought me a ring to stand in as my wedding ring (because it wouldn't have been a good thing to bring my real one with me). Then we got on our flight to Guatemala. When we were flying over the country, I was amazed that almost all the cities and villages were built on top of mountains. Just about every inch of Guatemala that doesn't have a building on it is cultivated. Just about every hillside and mountain side had corn growing on it, or some other crop. Now that I have been here a while, I know that there are a lot of Guatemalans that are pretty much not afraid of anything.

When we arrived at the airport, we went to the baggage claim, and guess what! Our luggage didn't come. We waited there for 2 hours... no bags for us. That was the first time I got to practice speaking Spanish with a native Guatemalan. They understood me, and I was so happy about that!If we had left the airport, we wouldn't have been allowed to go back in. So, we then waited for the Anderson family, from Ashton, ID to arrive a little while after us. They are Leah Anderson's family. Leah and I were on the same Forensics (Speech and Debate) team at BYUI, and she was the one who told us about this opportunity. She has been in Momostenango, Guatemala since January. She is staying for a whole year. We we very happy to see her parents, Kathy and Steve, and their kids, Gary and Sally. I felt a whole lot more secure when they were there. We left the airport to find Julio Salazar, the director of the Rose Education Foundation in Guatemala who was going to be there waiting for us with a ride for us to Momos. Julio had been waiting for Seth and I for over 3 hours! That poor man. He was so nice, and wasn't even angry about it. He was just glad we were ok.

He put us all in a new, clean Microbus, with our driver, Luis. I asked them where the seatbelts were, and they said 'what seatbelts? People don't wear seatbelts in Guatemala.' Making the trek up to Momos was a very new experience for me. We drove through Guatemala City, which is crazy crowded and polluted. People drive like maniacs there! (I know now that it is actually the majority of drivers anywhere in Guatemala that drive like maniacs.) There were so many times when I had to cover my eyes because I thought we were going to die, or kill someone else. Thankfully we didn't, and now I am much more accustomed to the maniacal driving. We saw 3 gigantic volcanos on our way up into the mountains called Picaya, Fuego, and Agua. They were beautiful. Some of the roads were just like a giant minefield, covered in potholes as big as your car ,and 'derrumbes' or landslides. There was nothing keeping the mountain from falling on your vehicle. Some of the roads were so steep, I thought we would start sliding backwards, but we didn't. There are no street lights on those roads, and pretty much no guard rails, and yet, Luis still managed to go really fast. To me, it felt like we were going 60 miles an hour, but we weren't. I thought to myself, 'If my mom only knew what we were doing right now...' (Actually there have been a lot of times I have thought that, and those times are always accompanied by a lot of praying.) at 10pm, after 6 very long, dangerous hours, we arrived in Momos at our house. Although we got there exhausted, and with only one pair of extra clothes and a few necessities, we were so happy to be there.

The family we are staying with is wonderful! They were so inviting and kind to us. Mostly everyone was speaking Spanish really fast, which was difficult for me to understand, and impossible for Seth.

My first experience using a Guatemalan toilet was a little dicomforting. Now I am pretty much used to it, and not very grossed out by it. It is just the way they live. It is normal here to throw your toilet paper in the trash can after you finish with it. Let me tell you, this doesn't produce the best smell. But I am finding, that things here don't smell quite as bad, bugs don't scare me quite as much, and I can go to the bathroom even when I know it is not clean. When I am amazed, and somewhat scared of the happenings here, Leah always reminds me, 'You're in Guatemala now! This is another dimension!' She is right. In the States, only 2 people fit in a pickup truck - here 20 , only 50 people can fit on a bus - here 100, only 2 cars can fit on a 2 lane road - here 4, in the States you have to refridgerate your eggs, and all your vegetables - here you don't have to refridgerate them (I still don't believe that's safe, and yet I eat eggs here, and for some reason, they taste better here). Things that aren't sanitary in the States are sanitary here. I still panic a little bit when I see the way meat is prepared sometimes, and Leah tells me 'Sometimes you just have to look the other way. This is another dimension.' True story.

It is funny to think back to the first night here. One of the volunteers showed us all her flea bites and said they live in her bed, so we should sleep wearing bug spray. We sprayed ourselves, and our bed down with bug spray. I am really glad Seth was with me. It made me less scared. We woke up in the morning, no flea bites, So we continued that practice for a couple weeks. Now, I just get in bed and fall right to sleep. I often say 'This country has sleepy powers over me!' It is so true. It gets dark at 6 or 6:30 pm. So it just makes you think it is like 10 pm! It is usually so cold too, so I just want to curl up in my bed under the covers. It is about 70 degrees F during the day if it is sunny, but if it rains, or is at night time it is usually between 40 and 50 degrees. I was definately not prepared for that! (I assumed that Guatemala would all be subtropical and hot all the time.) In the mornings, when I walk to school I can see my breath.

The beds here are either made with springs that stick into your hips and back, or wooden slats with a thin matress on top. Fitted sheets are rare. The first week it was tough to get used to, but now I am just thankful to have a bed to sleep in and a somewhat warm room to protect me from the cold and rain outside. It is amazing what living in a 3rd(ish) world country for 4 weeks will do for your humility level. I find that most of the things I used to think were necessities are actually luxuries, and they are very rare here. And yet, people get by just fine, and many of them are very happy. They are happy becuase they have their families. They love and treasure one another. Everything is about families. I love that part of this culture. They feel so blessed if they get to have a highschool education. Some families that have 6 children have to try to get by on less than $100 a month. It is a whole different world here. I am very grateful to have been able to come here and see what it is like outside the comfortable American bubble, where some people have hardly anything, and they still share with you what they have. There is much about this experience that has changed me for the better and I am grateful. I am glad that, even if only for a short time, I can be here teaching these amazing children. I truly believe that the only way to break out of the cycle of poverty is education.

Coming back to the story, when Seth and I got there, it was 'Semana Ferria' or Fair week in Momos. Every year, each town has a fair. It is a week long, and there are tons of vendors everywhere crowding the streets with their stands with tons of food and toys, and other things. There are tons of people in the streets, and the center in the town has flags and streamers waving. They have music, and dancing, and people that dress up in costumes of animals like monkeys and cheetas, and of Guatemalan and Spanish men who do a dance that is a reeactment of the indiginous Mayan people taking their independence from the Spaniards. They do the Fair Week to honor/worship one of the Saints, or a couple of them. It was kind of confusing because they were doing Mayan sacrifices for Catholic Saints....

We went to our school MesoAmericano. It takes about 15 minutes to walk there. On the way we saw where the old school used to be. Kathy and Steve Anderson took all their 5 kids down to Momos 7 years ago to teach at the school for a year. (Kathy got pregnant as soon as they got their, and they left when she was six months pregnant). They were very nostalgic about this dirt lot that was covered in garbage. I guess the old school was completely made of tin. Leah told us that they didn't really have school that day because they we practicing for the huge band competition they have every year during fair week. We came up to the school, and the music was so loud! (They love all their music so loud here!) We listened until they finished the song and then opened the doors, after they had finished, clapping. They looked at us probably thinking 'who in the world are these crazy gringos?' They said that every school has a band. They all have a ton of trumpets, a few trombones, a bunch of xylophones, drums, platic cow-bell type instruments, and some silver cylindrical rythm instruments that I don't know the name of. The night after we arrived, Leah's sister Katie and her husband Eric and baby Kate got to Momos that night. They had to come on a "chicken bus." (At that point, I still didn't understand why they called it that. Now I know that They pack about 4 people into a seat for 2, and have a lot of people standing up in what was at one time an aisle, before all the people got on.)
This is the city building in the town square.
Just in case you can't tell, the place was packed! It's just another dimension, with no personal space boundaries, and more people can fit in one place, than in the states.

Since it was Fair week, there was this huge band competition. It was so awesome! There were 8 schools that competed, Mesoamericano being the best, obviously. They looked pretty darn studly. It was way fun to watch the parade, and then the competition. We sat and stood on the roof of the municipal building.

The day after the band competition, we went to a place called Palá Chiquito, which is just a little ways out of Momos, where you can swim. We didn't swim because it was freezing, but it was sure beautiful!

I have a trillion more things to say about our Guatemala trip, and I am still here for 3 more weeks teaching English. I will catch up as soon as I can. And I will post pictures when possible.