Well, ironically after writing a blog about the importance of being busy, this weekend did not serve to confirm that notion. Luckily, our week was busy enough to make the lazy weekend more acceptable; our schedule shifted a bit with the introduction of our new yoga classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. As I wrote last week, Brooks came up with the idea to teach a yoga class at our gym after realizing how few gym classes are available here in Huehuetenango (our gym only has aerobics classes). He asked the girl at the front desk if it would be okay for him to start teaching a class (he may have fibbed a bit saying he had taught before – he has, but only to small groups of friends), and she asked her boss and came back later with an enthusiastic yes. Brooks and I prepared a routine last Sunday, and Brooks spent the afternoon before the class looking up words in Spanish that would be helpful when trying to lead the class. While this was a new endeavor for both Brooks and I, we were excited as well as nervous when Tuesday evening came around. We both put on our best professional faces (signs posted around the gym said the classes would be taught by a “professional instructor”. What? Where did they get that idea?), and we cheerfully greeted everyone that came upstairs. We had a few people in the room close to 5pm (when the class started), and the rest came upstairs in a loud Guatemalan mob after Brooks made an announcement that there would be a yoga class starting. The whole thing went surprisingly well, with Brooks describing every move well, and myself being able to finish the routine while still properly demonstrating everything. And the loud group of Guatemalan men that came up were mostly quiet by the end, with only a few grunts and loud laughs still reverberating. And by Thursday, or class went even better, with more and slightly quieter participants, and Brooks feeling even more confident in his Spanish. It’s definitely a different experience, and very different from the calm and peaceful yoga I have done in the past, but I am so thankful for this new opportunity and the gift it is that we can share with our community here in Huehue.
On Friday, we had a normal morning of breakfast with our family, going to the gym, and hanging out before lunch with our family. Brooks and I decided to change our usual routine of spending the night at the orphanage on Friday to spending the night on Saturday, giving us Friday nights to spend with our family, and time to rest up before having a sleepless night at the orphanage. So Friday, we decided to visit the orphanage as normal in the afternoon. That afternoon Brooks and I again sat down some kids to write their pen pal letter to the States in one of the small classrooms at the orphanage. It has been pretty rainy here in the afternoons lately, and at one point about five kids and myself were stuck in the classroom, which had a metal roof, listening to the rain relentlessly beat down on us. One smaller boy was trying to talk to me, and they were all trying to ask questions, and I really couldn’t hear anything. Some braved the run outside after they had finished their letter, but most waited out the rain, which was some of the strongest rain I have ever seen in my life (and I’m from Oregon). After our visit at the orphanage, Brooks and I got a ride from a very kind orphanage volunteer to Paiz (the grocery store), where we bought the makings for another fruit pizza. Brooks and I enjoy surprising our host family with desserts and food, which, although they are motivated by wanting to give to our family, may actually be more for us than for them; we really miss our American food. After buying our ingredients and walking home, we set away making the giant cookie for our fruit pizza. Unfortunately we needed some ingredients from Sheny’s kitchen, so we told her to close her eyes and we snuck behind her and grabbed some stuff to bring back to Cony’s house with us. There I mixed together the cookie dough, feeling like I was on a cooking show the entire time; Cony was watching intently and asking me to describe what I was doing so she could write it down to later make a fruit pizza at her work. Brooks chopped up all the fruit, and then we brought over our giant raw cookie and the toppings, put it in the oven, and made it ready to enjoy with our family. It was a delicious dessert, and we invited Cony over to eat it with us, having a good night of sitting around the table and chatting. After dessert, Brooks and I went upstairs for our traditional Friday night movie, watching Catch Me If You Can. Brooks only made it through ¾th of the movie, falling asleep somewhere toward the end, but because I hate not finishing movies I stuck it out to the end.
The next morning Brooks and I awoke early to take a walk on a nearby hill with our host cousin, Yessi, and her cousin, Tania, who has been living with the family the past couple of weeks. It was a bit foggy, but the view up the way was still pretty, and the fresh air was a nice change. We ended our walk with Tania and Yessi running a few laps around a soccer field, and then laughing all the way home about a joke Brooks had made about Tania looking at his butt. I helped set up the table for breakfast, and we enjoyed a delicious pancake breakfast with the family. After that Brooks and I each went to our rooms to rest, read, and write. We met up right before lunch, organizing our Pen Pal Program more; we are currently working on rearranging pen pal assignments to make sure every child has at least one person writing to them, and we are getting really close to that goal. After doing pen pal business, Brooks and I went downstairs for lunch with the family, slowly realizing that our plan to go to the orphanage that night may not work out; heavy rain was again falling outside. We went back upstairs, putting together more pen pal stuff, and then tried to brainstorm what we could do that night instead of going to the orphanage. It like we were the two kids in the Cat in the Hat book, desperately trying to think of something to do so we didn’t have to be bored stuck inside. Unfortunately, we realized, a) we don’t have a car here and walking in the rain is no fun, b) there is nothing to do in Huehue (no bowling alley, no movie theater), and c) we don’t have very many friends to hang out with here. We tried to call our friends Linda and LynnAnn, missionaries from the States (and our only friends with a car), but found out that they were in Antigua for the weekend. After that failed attempt, we watched a couple episodes of Arrested Development (which I got Brooks to admit he thought was funny. Success), and resolved to go downstairs to play Jenga (Brooks had somehow discovered the family owned Jenga). We ended up playing in the living room where the family was watching Home Alone 2, and in between games and turns (Tania joined us for the 2nd and 3rd game) we watched the movie with them. Although it was dubbed in Spanish, luckily it was at the best part where little language is needed, when the bad guys are getting beat up by all the falling paint and electrified doorknobs the kid rigged for them. It turned out to be a very enjoyable evening, and I think the combination of watching Home Alone (a nostalgic childhood movie, not to mention a movie about Christmas, which always gives one good feelings), playing a game, and just hanging out in a living room with a family was exactly what Brooks and I needed. We finished the evening by eating dinner with the family, and going upstairs to watch The Chronicles of Naria, Prince Caspian on Youtube. Thank goodness for Youtube. Brooks and I have already run through our movies as well as the movies of Linda and LynnAnn, and we both had just finished reading the book and were excited to see the movie again. In a country without Netflix and Redbox, Youtube and pirated movies have saved the day multiple times.
Sunday turned into another lazy day, with breakfast in the morning with the family, and then a morning of napping, reading, and writing. We had lunch with the family, followed by a few more hours of reading, studying Spanish, and watching a new episode of Modern Family online (which was SO exciting for me. I thought I would have to give up my fall shows this year, but luckily there are clever people out there that know how to put them online in a format I can watch in Guatemala!). By 4:30pm, Brooks and I headed out to church, with our bags packed for the orphanage. The past week Brooks and I had asked for song sheets at church so we could follow along with the words, because it’s really difficult to pick up words to songs in a second language just by listening. But as we arrived yesterday, we found that they had set up a white sheet and projector system, displaying the words to the songs. Although they only had the words to two songs printed on overheads, they promised to have more next week, and Brooks and I were blown away by the kindness in this gesture. We decided to leave church early, at 5:30pm, to head over to the orphanage with hopes that we could accompany some of the older kids to a Christian concert they were attending that night. But Telepizza happened to be on our way, and when I suggested pizza for dinner, we both couldn’t say no (which ended up being a bigger blessing than we had anticipated). After pizza we started our walk to the orphanage, and were met by the crowds and crowds of people going to the concert (it was held in a stadium on the same street as the orphanage). There was a line maybe three blocks long, and we kept looking down the line, hoping to find the kids and find out we could somehow go with them for free. We soon realized, though, that if we wanted to go we would have to buy an expensive ticket, and we resolved to just say hello to the kids in line and head to the orphanage to spend time with the younger children. We found out later that only six of the older kids ended up going, half of them having won first place in a contest the day before (Estela for singing, Ismael for dancing, and Roxana for Bible verse memorization). They were treated to the concert by a local pastor, each being allowed to take one friend with them. Brooks and I continue to marvel at the wonderful connections the orphanage has with the people in this town, and the generosity they show towards the children. This was an incredible opportunity for the kids, and such a kind thing for the pastor to pay for. Once we got to the orphanage that night, we organized some more pen pal letter stuff, and then hung out with the younger kids and babies. At one point Brooks had given the leftover soda we had from our dinner to four of the little boys, and as I walked in after they had finished drinking it (quickly), three of the little boys were jumping up and down with energy. It was a great night of crazy energy for the kids, because from there we went to the Kinders room where we had thought they were all sleeping, only to find them jumping between beds, running around, and being generally rambunctious. Brooks and I had a great time tickling them, picking them up and throwing them over our shoulders; I love times when the kids are super joyful and playing like crazy. After tiring myself out from throwing around kids, Brooks and I ran off to the baby room to say goodnight. They were all dressed up in their pajamas, and were so stinking cute. We both rocked some to sleep, played with some, and cuddled with some while watching part of a Spanish cooking show. After an hour in the baby room we finally made our way to the library, got out books to read to the kids, and went to our rooms for the night. I stayed again with the Niñas, and read them Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. Sometimes I lose their attention when reading books, because most of them can read themselves and are not entirely fascinated by someone with bad Spanish pronunciation reading them a book. But last night, for some reason, they were glued to my every word, crowding around and patiently listening to both stories. After reading the stories I always pass out the books to girls so they can read them on their own, so after finishing the two books I stayed on my bed, cuddling with the ones that had fallen asleep on my lap, and listening to another reading Cinderella again. It was a perfect night. We all got ready for bed, and I tucked them in and turned off the lights. Unfortunately, Estela was not back from the concert yet and was scheduled to return later in the night, and like most of the older girls does not seem to understand voice volume control when others around them are sleeping. She came back from the concert around 11pm, knocked loudly on the door, turned on the lights when I let her in, and decided to have a loud conversation with me about the concert. Estela is a sweet girl, and I really enjoyed hearing about the concert, but I felt bad for the younger girls that had already been asleep for an hour and a half. Finally, Estela turned off the lights, and the next interruption of the night was her phone alarm going off only an hour before we were supposed to get up. By 5:30am Brooks and I left the orphanage, and that was when I heard what a blessing it was that we had not eaten at the orphanage the night before. Brooks was staying in the room with the younger boys (with a medium-aged boys room connected), and he told me that at about 4am this morning all the boys began waking up with the strong urge to go to the bathroom. And unfortunately, some of the younger boys had not been quick enough, and had already gone to the bathroom in their beds. I don’t need to go into too many details, but he said essentially they had all gotten sick off of the food the night before, and many had either pooped their beds, or were waiting in a long line to use the already waste filled toilet. They were cleaning up and wiping off poop all morning, and when the boys were finally showered and in their school uniforms, both the toilet and shower drains had clogged, and a big, brown mess was left for some poor soul to clean up. I counted my blessings that I had not stayed in that room, that the Niñas didn’t seem to have had the same digestive problem, and that Brooks and I were already wary enough of orphanage food to choose to eat pizza instead. I certainly dogged that bullet, although poor Brooks did not. Luckily, he recognized it’s just one of those things one can either laugh at or be appalled by, and we both chose the former.
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