Boot Camp

The past five days group was at a missionary "boot camp" at a small town called twoetuacos ( spelt wrong, ill edit it later). We got up at 5:3o Thursday morning for the three hour drive. I didn’t realize how high the elevation in Antigua was, until we drove east. We drove down hill for hours. First through the high mountains with all the trees and then though the low valley. As we got out of the mountains, it became hotter and hotter.

The area is covered by these high, steep ridges and valleys, and the town is located on the top of one these. The amazing thing is that people farm the sides of the valleys. The local joke is that if you drop your harvest, it rolls into your neighbors’ field.
So we spent the first three days starting construction on a family’s house. No one has cars, so it was a good 45 min walk to the construction site. It was hot and humid and digging trenches in the sun was exhausting. We were building a bathroom, kitchen, storage area, and digging a 12 foot deep septic tank for a family. I figures it would be no problem to get at least the trenches and the septic tank finished by the time we left, but you can only work so fast in that heat.
They warned us that if we weren’t always drinking water, we would get sick, but two in our group didn’t, and it wasn’t fun. We were up at 7 and working hard till 4. We would be in bed by at least 8:30, but usually earlier.
So on Sunday, we had a three mile hike into the next town to go to church. I felt kinda embarrassed when I showed up to church dripping in sweat and dirt, when the rest of the people we all dressed nice and clean. The whole thing was a little surreal, but on the way back, we stopped off at the Rio de Flores and I was baptized.

Somehow, Al, the missionary there, heard I wasn’t baptized and asked me if I wanted to be. At first I said no, but later it seemed like a good idea. I figured God had already called me to Guatemala, so why not a baptism. Don’t worry, Dave took hundreds of pictures.
After that, Juan Carlos came, picked us up, and we went to an island called Las Lisas, on the coast, almost in El Salvador. We walked onto a wooden ferry that took us to our hotel on the beach. It wasn’t fancy, but compared to where we were the few night before, it was amazing. We spent that night on the beach playing football and stuff, couldn’t go in the water because of the rip tide, but it felt good to be on the ocean.

The next morning some of our group woke up early to watch the sunrise ( not me) and we spent the morning boogie boarding and swimming. We really didn’t want to leave, but we got back in the van, and drove the three hours home just in time for another long Spanish class.

The entire trip was amazing. Made me wish I was doing more missions work here. Its hard to go back to studying when I know I could be back there getting stuff done, but maybe ill come back.

Dont ever drink the water

They warned all the students down here to not drink the water, and not to use anything but bottled water to brush your teeth. I figured that I usually have a strong stomach, and so when I ran out of bottles water at my home in San Pedro, I used some from their tap.
I really regret that.
So I haven’t really eaten anything over the past couple of days, and what I have eaten doesn’t stay down. The problem is that on Thursday the group is leaving for a mission’s boot camp near El Salvador. We’ll be hiking through the jungle carrying building supplies and building a bathroom for a community out there. I was really looking forward to this trip, but now I don’t know how I’m going to survive it. I’m praying that ill get better soon and get back my energy back.

Orphange

Friday is usually our missions day, and this time we went to an orphanage. The whole facility there was really impressive. 400 and some kids from a few weeks old to almost 20 all live on the one campus that holds schools, trade shops, clothing exchange warehouse, dentist, physiatrists, physiotherapists and a lot more. While they do a great job providing for the kid, their admitted problem is that the kids, especially the young ones, don’t get enough one on one attention. Which makes sense when there are 4o kids in preschool and only 4 or 5 adults. So we went up and got to play with them. At first the kids were a little shy, but by the end we each had a small pack of children wanting to play. It was hard to leave, but we all have the option of choosing to go back as our ministry site. I still haven’t decided where ill go.

Its been a while

January 15 – 20ish
hey yall
its been a while since my last post. I've been living with a family in San Pedro, so it was hard to get to a computer. Living in the Spanish homes was a great experience, but i have to admit that its really nice to be back home. I was surprised how hard it was to live with so many people and not being able to communicate properly. Usually after a lot of grunting, hand motions and some clever impersonations, we could understand each other. I'd love to tell you how many people lived in my house and what their names where but i have no idea. As far as i could figure out, three families and a bunch of friends all share houses, babysitting and cooking together. So it was always a guess as to which house to go to for food. At night I would go to bed and there would be a certain set of people in the house, and when I woke up there would be another set. They tried to tell who everybody was and which kid belonged to whom, but i never did figure it out.

The house was about a 15 - 20 min walk to the school, and we had to make three trips back and forth a day, which usually was a good thing because on the way is a place called a paneria. They sell these fresh baked pastries called pandulce that works out to 15 cents Canadian each. I might even gain some weight.


So we also finished our first week of regular school at the campus. In the mornings we have New Testament Survey class which has been interesting, even though i've already covered a lot of it in high school. Then we would go home for lunch and come back for Spanish class. Spanish has been slow going, especially since were working through a program called destinos. We start with a half-hour movie about some really hip 90's soap opera that teaches the very basics.

Yesterday we learned to count.

The class has been great for my self asteem, but other than that….

Anyways, im off for a nap in my hammock.

The pictures are of my family in San Pedro.

Im not sure how to say this...

Meet the new david.

sewing and volcanos

So its been a few days since I last updated this blog. I’m sorry about that. The internet down here is a little flaky, and when it is working, I’ve been lazy.

We’ve finished Spanish school on Friday. I’m happy cause it was really hard and stressful, but I also know that I learned a lot. If I had a choice, id keep going there, but… The other day I had some spare time and a couple of the girls taught me how to sew. I know, its not the manliest thing, even bordering on gay, but it had to be done. I’ve gotten patches of all the countries I’ve been to and wanted to put them on my backpack. After I bent 4 needles and was bleeding from both hands Im almost finished.

After Spanish school we spent some time in town again. A few of us were tired of shopping and had some time, so we decided to jump on the next bus we saw and go where it took us. We ended up in the little town called San Juan (the name of many other towns, hills and mountains) and walked around. We took pictures of this old cathedral and of some of the kids who kept asking for “foto, foto!”

On Saturday we had the day off. Bob had to go into a town called yipocapa, to see how the construction of a new school that pacific academy is funding. It on the side of an active volcano, and its deep in the forest, so we all decided to tag along. Not only we were in a van traveling up and down hills meant for trucks, on the sides of cliffs and dodging trucks coming the other way, but the van is a KIA. But juan carlos was driving so it was ok. We got some amazing pictures of the volcano exploding and of the cliffs and forest. At the school bob was in a meeting the whole time, but we brought out a football and played with some of the kids there.

Another thing I haven’t written about is the kids in San Pedro. Close by to us is a cathedral and a town square where a lot of the local people hang out on the benches or wash their clothes in the Pila. When some of us have free time we go there and play with a bunch of the kids and practice our Spanish. We climb trees nearby or play soccer or hackysack or whatever. Most of us, especially dave, have started to make some friends with them.
On Sunday we’ll be going to church again and on Monday we’ll start classes as a group and go to live with our Spanish family.

The weather here so far has been really disappointing. Its been cold and cloudy almost everyday. I’ve had to wear pants and a sweatshirt all day. I realize I cant complain much with Vancouver in a few feet of snow, but I hope we get some hot weather soon.

The picture is of the catherdial in San Juan and Volcano Agua in the background.

garbage fires

January 10, 2007

Woke up this morning to my roof full of smoke. It smelt like there was a garbage fire right outside our window.

When I looked outside, I realized it was because there was actually a garbage fire outside of my window. The construction site across the street was burning some old wood, grass and im not sure what else. jerks.

After breakfast we went to catch our bus by ourselves for the first time. It went well, except were weren’t excepting the bus to be so early. We weren’t even out of the compound yet when we could se a bus on the road honking like crazy. We didn’t except the bus to be 15min early so we assumed it wasn’t for us. Then some guy on a bike told us that the bus was waiting for us. So we ran for the bus and everything was good.

School went well, but actually learning for so long is really tiring. I was definitely looking forward to the end. We told the cooks the day before that we weren’t coming for lunch so we could go out and spend some time in the city. After walking around for a while we decided to go to a restaurant called loco monos (crazy monkey). For $3 each we got 3 giant plates of really good nachos. After that we got ice cream and went to the market. We wandered around for almost 3 hours. It was really cool to see everyone trying to use their Spanish. I didn’t feel that comfortable with speaking much- because usually it’s a 50 -50 guess of whether im right or not. Usually Dave or someone else would barter and ask the questions.

I feel frustrated because its not going as well as I hoped. I feel like I have re-learn every single thing, and its going too slow.

At night it was more studying and hanging out.

I guess I should explain that I have to keep a journal as homework for our cross-cultural class. I know that all I’ve given you is a basic time line of my days. Ill get into the more interesting things that ive learned in a blog soon. I promise

the picture above is the view from my hamock outside our bedroom. after spanish class me and the cat ussualy have a nap there.

Chicken Bus

January 9, 2007

Had another day of Spanish school. It went a lot better than the day before. I’m now learning new things and slowly getting somewhere. It is getting more difficult and studying is going to take longer.

Instead of Bob driving us, we took the chicken bus. It was actually kind of fun. The bus is all decked out with flames an stuff, and Spanish rock was playing over the speakers. It was pretty packed, 3 to a seat, and lots of people were standing, but that’s ok. Kind of made me feel like a local, but then again I was at least a foot taller than everyone else. We stood out a lot. Everything went smoothly because we went with Juan Carlos ( he’s one of the staff at fuego), but tomorrow well be by ourselves, so I hope we catch the right bus.

At night we started the relationship class. It was more like a small discussion than a class, and it didn’t take very long. The class basically tried to get us to think about how we can have better relationships.


I studied some more, played some midnight basketball and went to bed.

Spanish school

January 8th

Today was the first day of Spanish school. Other than having to get up early, I was really excited. It felt good to be finally getting somewhere. I like my teacher, but its hard because she speaks almost no English. Even the instructions are in Spanish. She also talks a lot about everything and i just listen. I was amazed how much I could figure out. I can comprehend a lot, but speaking is so much harder. It was a little frustrating couse we started from the beginning. We went over colours and days of the week and vocab. It was stuff I had mostly forgotten, so it was good to go over it again, but it feels like its going to be slower that I had first thought.

That night we just hung out for the whole time. It was nice to be done school at 12 and not have to do a thing after. Internet was finally working, so I spent a lot of time replying to all the emails and writing a bunch. It felt good to talk to some friends on e-mail. I never was able to talk to my parents, but ill try again later.

This is a picture of dave and his teacher at spanish school. From the rooftop where we study we can look down on the city and see the mountains. The view makes it realy easy to zone out on our teachers.

January 7

Hey guys
I’ve been here for a few days now and things are good. I love the place we’re staying at, love the city of Antigua, and can’t wait to start Spanish school tomorrow. We’ll be going onto the city for some intense one on one lessons. You won’t be able to read this for a while because our internet is down. Hopefully it’ll be running in the next few days.

Yesterday we went up to a town called Santa Maria and painted a new school for handicapped kids. The town is on the side of an old volcano and has the most amazing view of the valley.

Since today is Sunday, we went to church in the city. It is just a little room on the side of the road, with maybe 50 people inside.

Can’t wait to show you pictures of the volcano. It’s been really active lately. Every couple hours we hear this huge rumble. During the day I can see the smoke coming up from the crater and at night I’ve seen lava spraying into the air. Some people are thinking that its going to blow soon.

So, hope you’re all doing well and ill talk to you all soon.

antigua

January 6

So I’ve been here for a few days now all is good. We’ve had meetings and going through some student manual. Yesterday we took a tour of Antigua. It’s this amazing town with cobble streets and 500 year old cathedrals with gardens and water fountains. Feels like you’re walking in a postcard.

Wish you could all be here

planes suck part II

January 04 10pm
So we made it. I lied before when I said I was ready for more flying. I was stuck in the window seat with two loud and obnoxious and I think drunk Americans. The Guata airport was a little confusing and one of my bags went missing – till Dave found it standing on the other side of the room of the baggage claim.

I was expecting the absolute worst and was willing to live with it, but I was surprised how nice the city was. Its clean for the most part. There’re no shacks, not too many potholes and a total of 3 burger kings. It felt almost like a sunny whalley. Of course, I’ve only seen the nicest part of the country so far, but still…

Our first Guatemalan meal was chicken chow mien with sliced bread – not the re-re-refried beans I thought it would be.

Now that I’ve been fed, have a real bed to sleep in and had an amazing shower (which crystal would find a little scary – the showerhead is an electric heater which if we ever touch, me might get electrocuted) I want to crash.

sleeping in public

Woke up this morning on the floor next to Dave and Shawn and about 30 other people speaking really cool southern accents at the Charlotte airport. I opened my eyes and all these people were staring at me. Very creepy.

We met up with Michelle again, got some breakfast at the Great American Bagel. Slept some more in public and I feel ready for some more flying.

Thanks to the Charlotte Airport for free wireless.

planes suck

January 04 2am
Still on the plane to Charlotte. I tried to sleep a few times but then realized it’s not going to happen. So, why not write. A few hours a go I was all excited to be going to new places and to travel. But now I’d rather get it over with and go to bed. I’m half way though my second flight and still have one more to go- not including a 4 hour layover and the trip from the airport to the school. The plan it for me dave and shasn to catch some sleep on our next layover, but we don’t have an alarm. Hopefully we don’t miss our plane.

Breaking the law, Breaking the law

January 4 1:13 am.

I’m writing this while I sit on flight A17, leaving from Las Vegas and on my way to charlotte. Our layover in Vegas was about 4 hours, so we decided to go outside. Shipley told us that the airport was basically on the strip, and when we got outside the airport we could see the lights and a few casinos. It looked like it was just over this hill, but we couldn’t see any side walk. So dave got this great idea to climb this hill and go through some trees to see where we were. As we went climbing through these trees we saw a cactus. Of course we had to take pictures.

So we’re standing in these trees close by some road, still on the airport property when I said that we should probably leave before the cops show up. Then dave turns around and there are two cops pulling up beside us on the road. They got all pissed off, and told us we were lucky they caught us, and not the national security, because they would have brought us in for questioning. For cops, they were actually ok – even offered to call a cab for us. But we decided to leave before we started to laugh hysterically.

It took us only 15 minuets out of the airport to get in trouble with the law. I cant wait for the next layover.

Sin City

Hey guys. Im writing this as I sit in a plane going to vegas. I figured I should start this writing thing now, couse otherwise I never will.

We got up at 7:oo am to catch a 5:30 pm flight, which left us more than enough time to do nothing at the airport. My parents and some friends came with to see us off, which was very cool. After a little confusion at the check in counter, we got our boarding passes, said goodbye to our crew and went through customs. I didn’t even set off the metal detector this time.

While we were waiting we me up with Michelle hall, another student at fuego. Me and Dave played some need for speed. We got our food, and boarded the plane; which was only 15 min late. So, for now I’ll force feed myself some funky tasting nuts and watch Dave while he sleeps.

-cheers