First of all, three months ago on Friday Brooks and I left Portland, Oregon to embark on this adventure, meaning I have less than three months left here in Guatemala. I am experiencing a weird mix of emotions where I would like the time to slow down, and yet I am so excited and anxious to be back home in Oregon. It’s weird how normal this life has become for me, and while at the beginning of my experience I would have a million new observations to write about my time here, now everything seems strangely normal. I feel like I am just going about a typical routine, and I need to continue to remind myself that this experience is not normal, and to normalize it is to rob it of something. Although the novelty is gone, I hope the impact if this experience does not stop.
Tuesday and Thursday evenings we had our second week of yoga classes, which went well again. Our class attendance was a little lower this week, and ironically on Thursday there were more Gringos taking the class than Guatemaltecos. We started the class with three Guatemalan ladies, two American volunteers from Fundación, Brooks, myself, and a girl we chatted with after the class who ended up being from the States also. The class participants slowly started trickling away for one reason or another, and by the end we were left with one Guatemalan woman, the girl from the States, Brooks, and myself. We didn’t know if we should switch to giving our instructions in English, because it was so weird to be a in a room in Guatemala where the majority were English speakers. We found out later from talking with the girl, Mary Kate, that she had been living in Huehue about a year now, working with a company, and Brooks and I thought it was so strange we had not seen her before.
On Wednesday Brooks and I had a grand adventure, an adventure that could have been a lot worse without the help of our friends Linda and LynnAnn. Brooks and I had to renew our visas to stay here in Guatemala, meaning we had to leave the country and come back in again. Although they prefer if you actually leave the country in a plane or for at least 72 hours, we all were not interested in leaving Guatemala for that long. So Linda and LynnAnn picked us up at 8:30 in the morning, and we set out on a drive to Mexico, which is about 2 hours from Huehue. Originally, Brooks and I were planning to make the trip by bus, because we really had no other choice given our lack of a car. But luckily Linda and LynnAnn were getting close to needing to renew their visas as well, and generously offered to take us. This was a Godsend, because it would have been a terrible adventure for Brooks and I, trying to figure out the right places to go, how to cross in a taxi, where to find a taxi… We were eternally grateful for not having to figure this all out on our own. The drive to Mexico was quite beautiful, and when we arrived we had to drive to and get out at three separate points, getting different stamps in our passports and having our car sprayed with pesticides so we didn’t bring weird Guatemalan bugs into Mexico. Luckily the migration offices were feeling especially kind that day, and we got through without much hassle. Our only trouble came when we were five minutes away from our destination in Mexico, a WalMart in Comitán, when we were stopped by a Mexican police officer who said our truck windows were too tinted, and Linda was not wearing a seatbelt. If you know anything about Guatemala, you would understand that every third tienda is a “polarizado” shop, where one can tint their car windows, and Linda’s truck windows are tinted very lightly in comparison to Guatemalan standards. Also, in Guatemala it is rare to ever be stopped for not wearing your seatbelt; and even as we were sitting there talking to the officer, a truck drove by with about six people sitting in the truck bed. We quickly realized they had just spotted us as Gringos, and were trying to get some bribery money out of us. They took Linda to their roadside office, and basically told her just that; they wanted lunch and wanted her to pay for it. Linda walked back to the car, handed them a 100Q bill (about $13), and we were on our way without a ticket. We had lunch at the mall that contained WalMart, trying to kill just enough time to not be suspicious about going in and out of the country so fast. After lunch we did a bit of shopping, and loaded back into the car to head home. We stopped at all the same check points on our way back, and only were hassled a bit when the Guatemalan migration office realized how many times Linda and LynnAnn had crossed to renew their visas on the same day. They told them they couldn’t do that anymore, but hopefully they forget that warning next time Linda and LynnAnn need to renew their visas. After the drive home, we arrived back in Huehue around 6pm, and were invited to have dinner at Linda and LynnAnn’s house. They were too tired and it was getting late, so we decided to order in Chinese food, which was both delicious and reminiscent of the States. After dinner, we all enjoyed an amazing peach cobbler LynnAnn had made, eating while watching an episode of Friends. Brooks and I were so content. Thank the Lord for the gift of these two woman, because without them Brooks and I would probably be missing home a lot more, and would have had a frightening day trying to cross the Mexican border by ourselves.
Friday passed by normally, with a visit to the gym in the morning and to the orphanage in the afternoon. The orphanage was a crazy place Friday afternoon, because everyone was running around trying to get ready for the anniversary dance the following day. Brooks and I took care of some more pen pal stuff, and were quickly on our way home again before nighttime. We finished off the evening just like any good Friday with dinner with our family, and some treats to accompany our Youtube movie. This time we watched Frequency, a movie neither of us had seen in years, but realized was just as good as we had remembered.
Saturday I woke up still feeling sick (I had started coming down with a cold on Wednesday and it has been progressing), and after breakfast I slept the morning away, hoping my cold would leave me be. Brooks and I had lunch early, and headed over to the orphanage around 1pm to help get the kids ready for the anniversary dance. The orphanage was hosting a dance competition at the local mall, part in celebration of the 14th year of the Foundation, part as a fundraiser for the Foundation. Brooks and I arrived to all of the older children pristinely dressed in their school uniforms, with all of their hair done up just right. Some of the kids even had face paint on, which they wore for a Japanese dance they did at the celebration (taught to them by Yuka, our Japanese volunteer). Brooks and I found ourselves gravitating toward the baby room, as usually, where we found the only chaos in the whole orphanage. They were trying to quickly change all the diapers and dress all of the babies up in super precious outfits, while fighting with hunger and naps. At one point Brooks and I were trying to comfort about three babies each, trying to give them bottles without getting food on their clothes, changing any last minute diapers, and rocking the ones that just wanted to go to sleep. By 3pm we helped a church group load the babies into various cars, where we drove off to the mall so they could join in the festivities as well. I can’t even describe how cute it was to look into a car window and see about five baby heads popping up. Once we arrived at the mall (basically driving through a river, because it had just poured right before we left and there seemed to be no drainage in the streets), we unloaded all the babies and brought them upstairs, where some strollers and open arms were waiting to hold them. The event went by quite smoothly. Three groups from the orphanage as well as about five other groups from different churches all danced for the audience, and there were judges along the side deliberating on a winner (which we never actually found out who was the winner). At one point Brooks and I left to get snack for the kids, gelatin and chips, and after all the dancing was done, we were mobbed by kids trying to get to their snack. Brooks and I grabbed dinner at the Subway in the mall, and piled back into the baby cars. Although Brooks and I were not very involved in the planning of the event, it seemed as though it was a great success for the orphanage, and it was great publicity for them. As I’ve said before, it is great to see how the community of Huehue comes around the orphanage. Brooks and I joke that although most Guatemalans don’t know their landmarks (we asked three times in the mall where the grocery store was - that is in the mall - and got three different answers), most people we talk to know about Fundación Salvación, which is a really encouraging thing to see. Once we were back at the orphanage, Brooks and I hide away in a classroom to eat our Subway, and then emerged to chat with the kids, pick out our bedtime books, and got ready to spend the night at the orphanage. I stayed again with the little girls (I guess I’m afraid of change. Plus I can’t say no when they ask me if I’ll stay with them), and because my voice was going from the cold, I asked them to read the books to me. One brave girl, Sandra, trudged through reading one of the books, and the rest took the books aside and read to themselves or their friends. We all said a prayer together, I tucked them in, said good night and turned out the lights. It was a quiet night, and I actually got a lot of sleep because they let the kids sleep in until 6:30 the following morning, a real treat after all of the hard work they had put into preparing for the celebration.
Sunday Brooks and I walked home in the morning, napped until breakfast, had breakfast with Sheny, and each hung out and read until lunchtime. After lunch we were on our way back to the orphanage again, where apparently the party never stops. A church group was putting on an activity for the kids to celebrate “El Dia de los Ninos”, which we have heard three different stories about when the actual “Day of the Kids” was. It doesn’t really matter though; any excuse to have a party is a good excuse. They corralled all the kids in the main room, and had clowns (Guatemalans LOVE clowns), balloons and face paint, and put on a drama about taking away all the bad things in ones life, demonstrated through popping balloons. Although it was a little heavy for the kids (and boring), it was a good message about the saving power of Jesus. After that we all prayed in small groups, and then prayed for all of the workers at the orphanage. This was a very powerful moment, and so encouraging to see 80 kids with their eyes shut tight, praying for the women that day in and day out take care of them. The church group later gave the baby room a new washing machine, which we got to watch Migdalia, the caregiver in the baby room and someone very close to Brooks and I, open. After the washing machine was opened and brought to the baby room, we had pizza, soda, ice cream, a piñata, and more gelatin. Once the group was done and cleaning up, the kids continued to run around, punching balloons in the air, and playing tag with each other. It was one of the craziest I had ever seen the kids, and it was so good to see them enjoying life so simply after such a long and exhausting weekend. Brooks and I got a ride home with two amazing missionaries, Gisela and her husband Ubaldo, who offered to take us out to coffee some day. They are kind and wonderful people, and were actually taking home one of the babies, Florecita, to stay at their home with them that night. Once at home Brooks and I watched a little Arrested Development, ate dinner with Sheny, and figured out what we needed to do the following week. Ironically I had been getting bored here recently, feeling like my life here was too routine and predictable. But this weekend and the following week are proving to be quite busy, and I can look back on those days I thought were boring with calm appreciation.
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