Ate some WEIRD food and then got a cat after I talked about How Are You Feeling in Reconnect

# $ paid for my cat- 14
# of cats I intended to get- 1
# of cats I ended up getting- 2 (got one now, the other is coming in 3weeks)
# of honey labels made before someone told me that I spelled Bee (in span) wrong and instead wrote ¨Pure Honey from Snow Peas¨- 100

Latest Nicknames- THe biggest guy at my work, I started calling him Shrek, so of course I in turn are now called Princess Fiona.

Funky Food of the Week- I ate Sheep at a funeral. Its actually not so bad. Tastes kinda like a combo of pork and beef. For lunch on Thursday, I had something really tough to digest. I had beans with pig skin and rice with some other part of the pig that I couldn´t identify and they couldn´t explain. I ate two bites to be a good sport and to give everything a shot but yea, not my favorite mystery meat.

Love the Lord your God, walk in all His ways, obey His command, be faithful to Him, and serve Him with all your heart and all your soul -Joshua 22:5

Practical Life Lesson- Washing your clothes in the rain only ensures they are that much cleaner. Its drying it in the rain that proves to be the tough part.

Ok! Name is not Gringa! So I was in a community helping some people fill little bags with soil to plant seeds for reforestation projects and the little kids were the movers between the people that were packing the bags and the people that were lining them up to be seeded. Well, every time I would give them a bag they would take it to the guy that was working with us and would say something along the lines of {This one is from the Gringa! Its not very good is it!] Even though they were joking and laughing about it, they were ragging on my bag filing skills! So had a lot of fun and in the end whenever they said Gringa! I would yell back and say Chapin! Which is the Guatemalan term for someone from Guatemala.


Scary Moment of the Week- So I was in the car with my project director and site mate the other day on our way to a community and a big truck went to make a u-turn not seeing us coming and ran into my door with the front of the truck. Gracias a Dios that no one was hurt. My window imploded which caused a huge mess and wearing glass in your clothes is not at all comfortable. Not sure how it even got in there. So after some paperwork stuff and a large group of people gathering to watch the event we were on our way. All part of the PC experience.

Nicest Comment Someone Said to Me This Week- Olivia.. we really have to talk about you being so nice

Time for some Reconnect- So after 4months of being in your site PC brings ya all back together to see how your doing and if you are still sane. First 3 days were Spanish all day, much needed but forgot most of what I learned. Its hard to remember how to express your doubts, desires and feelings correctly! Watched the movie Pride and Prejudice in Antigua at a wanna-be theater and for the first time I was thankful for Spanish subtitles because without them I would not have understood what they were saying with their heavy British accents. The meetings in Reconnect were very much: What problems are you having? How can you solve them? Since you can´t solve them what can you do now? So basically it was a ¨So..how are you feeling? ARe you still sane?¨ Two day meeting. All in all it was a good time and it was nice getting to see the other volunteers that 7months ago I was having a very hard time with but now we have gotten use to each other and I am slowly getting to know a few of them a lot better thus enabling My Purpose to show more.

Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance - 1 Corinthians 13:7

First Guatemalan Funeral- So the father of the grandfather in my host family (he was 96) died a week and a half ago. Not sure what from. Well.. Guatemalans in Tejutla have a VERY long process of mourning. They have 8days of prayer every afternoon at the same time, on the 8th night, they make bags of bread for each family in the town (about 300 families) and they attach cards saying who passed away to them and then on the 9th day they distribute them to all the families. I was beyond amazed that they were able to write down the names of each family in Tejutla and knew exactly where they lived. Can you name 300 families much less where they all live? Then on the 9th day, for lunch they slaughtered two sheep for lunch and invited basically anyone and everyone for lunch. They also went to the cemetery, I did not attend that one. Then at night they had a mass for all the community and people brought candles that were after the service taken to an altar that was built in his house that I would of taken a picture of since it was so extravagant, but didn’t think that was appropriate. So yea… long process. In this picture they are cooking the sheep and rice. Yummmm... :)

So… I got a Cat- So finally went and got my cat during Reconnect at a place that is run on donations to help give animals a home till they get adopted. http://www.animalaware.org/ Check out the website. I found a cat carrier at a store in Antigua, the box ended up costing more than the cat! So I got one cat, right now his name is Mr. Grumpy because he was nice, now he is, well, grumpy… Working on him though. The other one I am getting is coming in 3weeks and she was so cute and sat on the cat box the whole time which translated to.. Take Me!!! So I am getting her too in a few weeks if all things check out well at the Vet. I also discovered the hard way that cats get car sick too. On the 7hr bus ride back Mr. Grumpy started drooling like crazy so I am thinking he didn’t particularly enjoy the ride.

So..during Reconnect I decided to get some new earrings. NOT at all my style but I really like them. Erin helped me put them in since it was a 2hr process (we didn´t know what we were doing)