The chapters that follow...

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page."
St. Augustine

This quote has been haunting me as of late as I have been trying to make a decision about next year. Yes, I am traveling but according to this, I have just turned the page and I’m looking at the second chapter. So, what does the rest of the book hold for me?

As I write this, I find myself at a place that I have become very comfortable. I am sitting in the window seat of the ‘little room’ coffee shop. Yes, this coffee shop is very different than most in the states. First of all, everyone smokes. This took some getting used to since I recently moved from Austin, Texas (a clean air city) and wasn’t used to all of the smoke. As I look out the window, four gringos are sitting just on the other side, enjoying their mojitos and a delicious looking brownie.

I came here this evening to try to find some sort of clarity for next year. I have been trying to convince myself that staying here another year is the right thing to do. And I know that if I did make that decision that I would also make a decision to be happy here. But I can’t help but ask myself, What else is out there? What would I miss that I haven’t yet experienced? I have recently got in touch with an old high school friend that has done more traveling than most people could do in two lifetimes. After exchanging a few messages with him, I realize that there is a lot more out there. I know that my experience here next year would be totally different but what about my original desire to see the world? What about my plan from 4 months ago before receiving the call about Guatemala and the same plan from the previous year before I tore my ACL? Has my timing just been off? Is now the time to take the plunge one more time? I would love to believe that once I travel to a few places that I will get this itch out of my system but I know that the more places I go, the more places I will want to go. So, when is enough, enough? How do you know when you should ‘settle’ in the states? Or do I have to ‘settle’ in the states? And what does it actually mean to ‘settle down’? These are the questions that are running through my mind.

I was cruising the internet this evening and randomly searched for volunteer opportunities in Africa. There are quite a few possibilities out there and I haven’t even scratched the surface. Please pray for me and clarity in this decision. I appreciate all of you more than you know!

Liz

Playlist:
Let It Be by The Beatles
Song of the South by Alabama
Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffett
Think It Over One Time by Robert Earl Keen
Little Moments Like That by Brad Paisley
Oklahoma! By Original Film Cast

Oh, The Place I could go!

The internet is down for the second morning in a row, thus, the second day in a row for a posting! I figured I would hash out my options for next year with all of you!

Option A:
Stay in Guatemala. Teach fifth grade. Maybe live by myself so I can have an extra room for visitors (that means that you, yes you, have to come visit me and stay in my extra room). Continue the adventure and see all the places that I won’t get to see this year (ie, Tikal, Antigua, ect.). Play basketball for the Xela women’s team. Eat fresh veggies. Be daring. Be alive. Be happy.

Option B:
Move to DC. Get a sweet job with a non-profit or on the Hill. Live with my sister and Charlie (at the beginning). Explore DC. Learn lots about the US and the history of the US. Ride my bikes. Eat food from the states that I miss (ie. Mexican food, Sonic, Bueno, Thai food). Meet lots of young people from around the country all in one place! Be daring. Be alive. Be happy.

Option C:
Explore the world. Be a nomad. Sleep where my head finds a place. Visit Europe and Asia. Climb mountains. Ride on trains. Meet other travelers. Spend part of my savings. Eat strange and wild food. Be daring. Be alive. Be happy.


I’m sure there are other options out there and I would love to hear any suggestions that you may have! And I also know it’s a little strange to say that I miss American food and then I went and listed a bunch of international food…we just have a really good selection in the states!

Okay, hopefully the internet will come on soon so I can actually post this!

I miss you guys. I miss home. I miss Oklahoma and I even miss texas (a little). But with that, know that I am happy here and I am slowly making it more home like! Come visit me if you get an itch to travel!

Blessings,

Liz

Playlist:
The Quick Escape by So Long Goodbyes
Just a Dream by Carrie Underwood
Morning Yearning by Ben Harper
Untitled Hymn (Come to Jesus) by Chris Rice
We Love You Jesus by Shane and Shane

chicken bus adventures

At a Super Chivos futbol game with some of the girls I work with.

I read something the other day that said your work expands to the amount of time that you have. If you have a week to do a project, it will take you a week to do it. If you have half a day to do the same project, you will get it done in half a day.

With this being said, I believe that the longer you anticipate something, the excitement grows with each passing day. We have Semana Santa (Holy week that serves as spring break) in a week and a half. I feel like I have been waking up each morning counting the days until I get 9 days of rest and relaxation with my dad, step mom, and some wonderful friends. I am absolutely ready to hit the beach and explore the underwater world while receiving my certification in scuba diving. We are going to Roaton Honduras for the week of March 15-22. I am very excited about this time!

Since I last wrote, we had our staff retreat. We went to this place called Irtra. It is paid for by the Guatemalans with some of their tax money. It was beautiful! It is a complex that includes a water park, a theme park and one of the nicest resorts I have ever been to! The resort consisted of four different hotels with three pools, a workout complex, golfito (miniture golf), boliche, (bowling), tennis courts and many restaurants! There were peacocks, parrots, and wonderful landscaping.

The next weekend I was all by myself all weekend because the rest of my friends were in Antigua at a missions conference. I wasn’t able to go because I got here in January and the hotel was already full. I spend the weekend exploring and expanding my knowledge for this area. On Friday, I went to one of my kids birthday parties. Let me tell you this, the Guatemalan culture knows how to throw a party! There were horses, a huge piñata, a trampoline, and a moon bounce. The girl who was turning five, had a three tier ‘my little pony’ cake. It was quite a production! On Saturday, I got up and decided I was in need of an adventure. I looked in my guidebook and found a little town that sounded interesting: Momostenago. The town is known for the wool products that it makes. I was aware that the market days were Sunday and Wednesday but I figured I would still be able to get some cool stuff. I headed to the terminal (which I had never been to) packed on a micro bus. I will explain more about a micro in a later post…they are pretty entertaining! They let me off at a market that is known for pickpockets so I took my backpack and made it a front pack. As I was wondering through the market, I realized that I had no idea where the buses were. After cruising around for 15 minutes, I decided that I would just go home and call it a short lived adventure. I was heading out and passed a few buses and the drivers said, “Donde?” I replied and they pointed me in the right direction. When I arrived in the real terminal that was full of brightly colored chicken buses, I found someone who took me to the Momos bus. I boarded the bus and was off! When the attendant came by to collect our fairs, he asked me where I was going and I told him. He informed me that the bus I was on wasn’t going to Momos, it was going somewhere else! He told me I could go to San Franciso Los Altos and wait for another bus there. I agreed but was a little nervous about switching buses. They let me off in SF and I stood on the side of the road for 20 minutes waiting for the next bus to come by. Finally, a bus came that was going to Momos and I boarded with enthusiasm! Once I arrived, I walked around and figured out that there wasn’t much for me to see there ☹. I consulted my guide book and it said that I should walk to the edge of town and see ‘Los Riscos’ so I went. They were pumice formations that were caused by erosion. They were kind of cool but not cool enough for a 2 ½ hour bus ride! I walked back to town and caught the next bus out of town. I made sure it was a direct bus to Xela. I had to wait 30 minutes for it to leave and a group of 4 teenage boys came and sat next to me and tried to talk to me. They got a kick out of my lack of Spanish! Needless to say, it was an eventful day but I was very happy to get back to Xela!

Sunday, I got up and went to the Artesian Fair that is in town once a month. I got the most beautiful quilt that is made out of the dresses that the indigenous women wear.

Other than that, things are going well. We finish up our quarter next week. It amazes me that I have been teaching for ten weeks! I can hardly believe that my time here is half way over. The decision of whether or not to return in hanging in the air and I will decide by the end of March! I will keep all of you informed!

Hope you all are doing well!

Liz

Playlist:
Not Counting You by Garth Brooks
Milk and Cereal by ___________
That’s Just the Way it is by ___________
No Woman No Cry by Bob Marley
Fat Bottom Girl by Kevin Fowler
La Musica en mi by High School Musical (Spanish version)
Crashing Down by Matt Kearney
Be Near by Shane and Shane
Wrong Side of Town by Pat Green
Love Will Tear us Apart by Joy Division
I’m Slowly Turning into You by The White Stripes
Sleeping to Dream by Jason Mraz
Lifellight by Kelsey Weston
Austin by Blake Shelton
Red High Heels by Kelli Pickler
Enchantment by Corinne Baily Rae
Fireworks by the Neighborhood

...the normal life...

As I sit down to write this, I realize how long it has been and I want to start by saying sorry. I know that there are those of you who anxiously await my next post and you lose sleep wondering what I have been doing. Well, here it is! Okay, maybe that is a little of an over-exaggeration but it makes me feel better to think that I am missed!

Things in the third world have been, well, a little boring lately. That’s why I haven’t written, because I don’t feel like there has been much to actually write about. Then, yesterday, as I was walking home from tutoring ,I came to the realization that life hasn’t been boring, it has just become normal. The strange things that are done in the country are no longer impractical and crazy. They are a part of my everyday life. This consists of the internet going down in the whole city for a day, you know, no big deal, that’s just the way it works in Xela, it always happens. And then there are the dogs on the roof (I know I have mentioned this before), I mean, why do they keep dogs on the roof. And speaking of dogs, there is this dog that I pass 2-3 times a day. I have named her Chubs because, well, she’s fat (I think she is pregnant) and the thing is with Chubs, we are friends. And there is this other dog. He lives in a pen right by my front gate. Most days when I walk outside he has a hunter green sweatshirt on. Our normal conversation goes something like this, “Hola Perrito, Como estas?” I’m sure that one of these days, he is going to turn to me and answer. I think that will happen the day he is wearing pants. On Sunday, half of the city didn’t have electricity. And when I say we didn’t have electricity, I mean, for the whole day! And it was no big deal; everyone just went on with his or her lives like nothing was going on. AND THEN, there are these guys that come every Friday. They wear hoods that are either black or purple. Honestly, they kind of freak me out but I have done my research and everyone says that if we stay away from them, they will stay away from us. I hear they are from the national university and every year they collect money to give to the poor. The rumor is that they actually throw a huge party with all the money they collect. If Guatemalans don’t give them money, they come to their business right before Holy week and tag it with graffiti. But no big deal, it’s normal here! As I was walking home from school today, I realized that in some ways, Guatemala and China are very similar. Like, they both have people that walk around and sell random things. For example, I have seen the same pecking chicken game that Emily and I got for our stepfather in China here in Guatemala. So the question is, do they make it in China and send it to Guate or make it in Guate and send it to China. But, they are also very different. For those of you that have visited the Li River in Southwest China, you can imagine the complete opposite river running through Xela. For how clean the Li is, this body of water is just as dirty. It is worse than the run-off from the pig farms in Arkansas. I seriously have to hold my breath when I am near it. I also realized what a giant I am in this crazy place. When I am at the grocery store, standing in line, waiting to check out, I realize that I always have to duck to get under the special clearance of the week. But there are advantages to this, I can find people in a crowd. However, I have found myself being attracted to any man who walks by that is over 5’10” because that is tall in this country! Last Friday night we had a girls night and went to the mall. We also went to the local video casino where you can play on 5Q for 100 credits.(1USD equals 7.65Q) I got up at one point and decided to cash out. I felt like I had made quite a bit of money. When I realized that I was cashing out for 10Q (about $1.30) I felt ridiculous. I guess it was more about principal than the actually money I was winning…oh well, again, just something that is a little different about this place! (I just thought of something else that was really funny, but as soon as I began to write it, it completely went away…alas, I guess I will have to have a second addition of the normalcy of Guatemala!)

Other than that, things have been normal around here. You know, the normal being hanging out with the girls, watching Grey’s and tying the shoes of my four year olds! We have our staff retreat this weekend. It is at a water park that is suppose to be really nice. We don’t have school on Friday so I am looking forward to that! I will try to be better about writing and keeping everyone updated! I need to know what is going on with you all as well! Don’t be shy with the emails!

Continue on the Adventure that God has set forth for you!

Liz

Playlist:
That Thing by Lauren Hill
You Can’t Hide Beautiful by Aaron Lines
Everything by Michael Buble
You Say by
I will wait on You By Shane and Shane
Waiting for Daylight by Rascal Flats
The Longest Time by Billy Joel
Roscoe by Midlake
Through With You by Maroon 5
Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell
Icky Thump by The White Stripes
Majesty by Matt Redman
What Goes Around…/…Comes Back Around by J. TImberlake

Links to pictures!

For those of you who aren't on Facebook, the links to all my pictures are below if you want to check them out!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2194258&l=335b0&id=9601504

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2193511&l=4a4fe&id=9601504

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2191867&l=f1f47&id=9601504

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2190509&l=cb96a&id=9601504

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2189236&l=08c55&id=9601504

The Joys of the third world money systems!

So, a lot has happened this week…and it’s not quite over yet…I guess we can see how this weekend goes! From the ‘Flouring’ event on Tuesday to a run around the city of Xela on Wednesday and then, tonight, I was able to test my American test system on how I can get information that I need…details to follow…

Let’s start with Wednesday. To be honest, Wednesday was a crappy day. My kids were a little crazy and they weren’t listening at all…it seemed that my patience had totally worn out. And that bad thing was that it was gone by 8:15 am! By the time they went home, I was totally worn out and I had all of my afternoon kids to work with. I was quite relieved when I was reminded that it was Wednesday and we had female staff Bible Study. We met at this cute café in the center of town and talked for a couple of hours. One of the girls was interrupted by a phone call that seemed to be rather important. The expression on her face soon turned to panic and she hung up. She said that it was one of our Guatemalan friends who called and he called to let us know that the bank we used was crashing. Are you kidding me? A bank can just ‘crash’ and take all your money? Well, I (luckly) had cashed my first paycheck so I didn’t have any money in my account at all but everyone else did. I covered the tab while everyone ran out to get there bank card and get as much money out as they could. Two of the girls went straight to the ATM’s while two of the other ones had to run home (a good 10 minute walk). By the time I had made it back to our apartments, I had pasted two of the girls I had been meeting with (both running through the cobblestone streets of Xela) and one of the other girls (who had been taken by surprise by the news and ran out of the house bra-less!) It was quite a site to see all this gringas (white girls) running around like chickens with their heads cut off! Seriously, where is FDIC in a situation like this. At this moment, I realized how many times I have taken the USA for granted. I mean, we don’t have to worry about our money just disappearing and dissolving into the bank owners hands…anyway, by the time I got back up to my apartment, my roommate was on her way out so I offered to go with her for moral support. We caught up with the other girls and found that they could only take out a certain amount of money per day. We still weren’t sure how legitimate the sources were about the bank rumors but we figured it was better be safe than sorry! By the time all the fiasco was over and all the girls had taken all the money out that they could (and they were now prime targets to be help up!), it was dark and we all needed to head home. One of the girls, Danielle, lives on the other side of town so Stef and I volunteered to walk her home. It was a nice walk. On the way back, we were walking along a very narrow road with narrow sidewalks (probably 2-3 feet) when a large moving truck was coming down the road. At the same time, Stef and I both flattened against the wall we were walking next too because not only was there a huge truck but the truck had huge mirrors that would have taken us out…we both looked at each other and laughed. Of course something like this would happen…I mean, we do live in Guatemala! Something else that I don’t think I have mentioned yet is the ‘logical’ place the Guatemalans keep their dogs. It is nothing to be surprised at to see a huge Huskey or German Shepard on the roof of a house. Yes, that is right, you may be walking down the road and hear a ferocious bark and have no idea where it is coming from only to realize that the dog is above you! It’s a little strange but it has become something that is now ‘normal.’

Today was actually a pretty good day, of course it was only good until I turned into a complete idiot (Thank you Sarah Shenold and Cory Bigham for helping me clean up my mess!) But more on that in a little bit. My day at school went well. It was a typical Friday that was survived by the knowledge that it was Friday if that makes any sense at all. I went to the Mennonite Bake Shop after school (ohmygoodness, SOOOO good!) and headed to Dos Tejanos with the girls to wind down after a hectic week. After we left, we thought that a movie sounded like a great idea so we headed to the ‘mall’ and watched 27 dresses (very cute for a chick flick). We caught a taxi on the way home and by the time I reached into my purse to pull my keys out to unlock my door, I realized that my purse was a little lighter than it should have been! Crap! My wallet had fallen out when I paid for the taxi. This sent me into a fury of activity of calling people in the states to get phone numbers to the card companies that I had in my wallet (thanks Sarah for looking these numbers up!) and making all the calls I could from an international country. When I called Bank of America, the guy that was helping me must have been bored because he started up a conversation with me about what Guatemala was like and what vaccinations you needed to come down there. I was seriously laughing and Randi (one of the 6 girls) was cracking up because here I was, trying to protect my ‘life savings’ and this guy just wanted someone to chat with! By the time I had 2 out of 3 cancelled, I couldn’t get the other number to go through (sorry to all of you who I called but thank you to Cory Bigham for actually answering and helping out a TON!). Cory helped me out and made a local call or two and I think we have it all figured out now. So this is how I became an idiot this week…I have never lost my wallet before. I don’t know why I thought that doing it in a foreign country would be a good time to do it but I now have the training. Hopefully I won’t have to do that ever again!

(And Dad, do you really think that you could have a daughter go to another country and not lose something! At least it wasn’t my passport!)

So, now, looking ahead to my once clear weekend, I see visions of wallet shopping now on my list of things to do. As well as make a copy of everything that goes into my new wallet.

I hope that you all are doing well and that life in the states is treating you well! I have gotten a few updates and to those that are sick, I hope you and your family gets well soon and if any of you have been effected by the weather, I hope it is getting better for you! Take care and Find your own adventure where you are!

Playlist:
I know what I know by Paul Simon
Juicy Fruit by Jimmy Buffet
Your Love Is Amazing by Caleb Carruth
Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gangsta by Carter Falco (country version, you should check it out! It’s hilarious!)
Babylon 2 by David Gray
Summersong by The Decemberist
Shout Out Loud by Amos Lee
Mmmbop by Hanson
You Are Not Alone by Michael Jackson
Twisted Logic by Cold Play
First Breath After Coma by Explosions in the Sky
Great Is Thy Faithfulness by Leona Mitchell

Rubber Farm...

Well, I have a lot of cover and I don’t want to take too much of your time. This last weekend, I went to the rubber farm that belongs to the director of the school. It was such a neat experience. We learned all about the trees and how the latex is collected. I will put a few pictures up so that you can see what it is like. If you have any questions about it, please let me know. It is an extensive process. One of the really interesting facts is that all the rubber trees come from clones. All of the rubber trees in the world are clones for 13 trees that were decided to be the best producers in the late 1800s.

I learned a new costume of the Guatemalan culture last night. My roommate, Stefanie, and I were walking through the local park that was all hosting a carnival for Super Tuesday. All the children were walking around and running from eachother. Stefanie and I visited the local DVD guy and were browsing to see all the carnival food and activities. We passed a few children that were throwing flour at eachother and thought this must be something that the children do. It didn’t take us much longer to figure out that we were going to be targets of this flour throwing as well. Stefanie got it first and as I was thankful that I wasn’t a recipient. About 15 seconds later, a group of children came up and absolutely covered me in flour. Stef and I both broke out into hysterical laughter and this apparently called more attention to us and we became the main targets in this game for kids. We ended up running from the children and ran most of the way home, laughing the whole way!