Semana Santa (Easter Week), Had some vistors and man I am one busy little volunteer!

Sorry I have been behind on putting up pics and blogs the last few weeks. I have been VERY busy at work and traveling with family so been kinda crazy. Hope your still enjoying reading these! Leave a comment! Ya know ya want to! Come on!!!

# of freak hail (the size of peas) storms that flooded my street- 3

# of goals blocked in the 5minutes we played soccer before the power left- 3

# of times I have now played goalie for the women’s soccer team at Intervida- 3

Funniest Moment- So I asked my site mate Jake to feed my cat while I was gone for a few days. I said the cat food is in a black bag in the kitchen. So I came back on Wednesday and went to fill the food bowl. Oh no, it was already full. Want to know why…. well, Jake had filled it with kitty litter instead of cat food. Kitty litter happened to be in a black bag as well but I thought he would be able to distinguish between the two. I got a really good laugh from it. However, I don’t think my cat appreciated it what so ever.

What the name of that picture? So I saw this pitchfork thing made out of a branch laying on the ground. So I had one of the older men in this community stand with me so we could take a picture. I am trying to recreate that picture of the man and woman on the farm with the man holding the pitchfork. I know the woman is serious in the picture but that’s just not me. I get an E for effort on this one.

Most Creative Use of a Horse- I saw two kids on a horse using a rope to pull two kids on bikes behind them. I was impressed that they were able to stay balanced on the bikes.

Funest Moment of the Week at Work- So I went with 4 community members and one of the guys from Intervida to process the plants they grew to make natural medicines. We spent 8hrs doing the whole process from chopping the 15 or so plants, to boiling the 15lbs of Vaseline, then boiling the two together for 2hrs, pouring them into little containers, cutting the labels and sticking them on with packing tape. They smell really good too! I have been inspired to go get some flowers, boil some Vaseline in my kitchen and boom! Ya got Olivia’s very own hand softener!

Ewww..do you really have to do that in public??? So not so much women, but Guatelaman men have the most unusal/disgusting personal hygiene issues. For starters, clipping your nails wherever, whenever, is not uncommon at all. They don’t even pick up the clippings! A lot of them will shave their face and leave whatever remains of that laying behind as well. Then on top of that, they got a huge issue with the inside of their ear. Really hard to shake a hand after watching some of this stuff.

So what’s Olivia up to with work- My life has gotten so busy at work! I am busy busy and VERY thankful my dad brought down my laptop because there aren’t that many computer for the number of people in my office so I find myself saying to them that I will work from home today which I get a lot of grief for because they assume being home means your not working. So here is what’s going.

- Done with the first step in the legalization process. Many hours of paperwork and what not and its been a challenge because reading long documents with limited Spanish makes for one frustrated volunteer.

- Working on designing the labels for two of the products. Getting some generous help from one of my friends in the US who does graphic design for a living. Thanks Kris!

- I am teaching two of the people in charge at one of my agencies the basics of business. Its kind of fun because whereas most lessons are kind of like teaching a class this is very hands one. One is picking it up a lot better than the other. For example. We go to a community to try to sell the products and then we come back and talk about how it went, what products we will take next time, what to leave behind and then I taught them how to figure out if the trip was worth it by determining the profit and subtracting the costs. They are very set on subtracting costs from the total sales not realizing that production costs have to also come out of that. They like to look at the bigger number basically which is total sales, not net profit.

- Tomatoes! I am finally starting to work on the tomato project. Its been on the back burner for a couple months and I finally have the time to focus on it. I am first trying to figure out between the 7 communities who is growing how many tomatoes and when they will be ready to sell. Lot of patience with that one. Then I am off to the bigger towns to find people to buy them. I am going to check into the national supermarket chain but that is a little bit down the road.

- Natural Medicine- I am doing some work with the community that is making natural medicines but still trying to figure out where I fit in there. I am sticking with them even though I don’t really have the time for them because they are very nice people, the community gives me a good vibe and I am enjoying trying to learn Mam from them. They make cough syrup, shampoo, repertory syrup and some Vaseline based skin stuff that smells good along with a few other products.

Taking on the Mam! So my latest challenge is attempting to learn the Mayan language Mam. It’s said to be one of the hardest to learn but to me the all sound the same and very difficult. I don’t NEED to learn it but its more a curiosity-attempting to amuse the indigenous people I am working with challenge. So I have about 30words or phrases I am practicing and I can do about 10 from memory. It’s hard because they use a sound that comes from deep in your throat, something similar to what the Native Americans use when speaking languages like Navajo. You kinda just give them that “how did you get that sound to come out of your mouth” look. So here are a few examples. I am spelling them to help pronounce the words, this isn’t how you actually spell them.

What is your name- Tee-two-ee

Hard- Nah-tush

How are you- Seen-tie

God- Tah-teh

My Dad and Step Mom came to visit: So my dad and step mom were here for 6days during Semana Santa (Easter week). I hauled them all of the country in the little time we had. We had two days in Antigua watching processions (where people carry VERY heavy wood platforms on their shoulders with some religious statue on top). Processions aren’t uncommon here in Guatemala year around. These were special because they had 1000’s of people participating, they walked over carpets made of colored sawdust and other natural materials. The statues they were carrying on these platforms were also 100’s of years old as well. We got to eat dinner and breakfast with another volunteer, Marsha, and her mom while in Antigua as well. We also toured a house that is almost 400yrs old. I don’t know what it is with me and loving to look at really old casas. Then we took a shuttle to Panahachel at Lake Atitlan but sadly it was really cloudy so most of the beautiful views weren’t there that day. Before Pana we stopped at one of Trish’s coworkers farms that produce a typical Guatemalan cheese. We stayed a night in Xela to cut out the long travel time and ate some good Italian food. Off to Tejutla we went on Wed and along the way we saw several kids outside asking for money in the road with a stuffed man usually sitting on the side. They were asking for money for Judas and they were going to burn him on Saturday. Then we got to my site, walked around a bit and they saw where I work and the few sites Tejutla has to offer. We had dinner with my host family which was fun and a couple times I caught myself speaking the wrong language to them (Spanish to my dad and English to my host family..oppsss.) Then we got up Thurs morning and ate a typical Guatemalan breakfast. Then off to our 7hr journey back to the capital. We stayed in the Marriott in Guatemala which I THROUGHLY enjoyed.

1. -All the REAL butter you can take home with ya ( I took 10 little tubs)
2. -Free internet!!!!!
3. -I could shower for as long as I wanted without the shower randomly turning itself off
4. -Stocked up on free shampoo and conditioner.
5. -Cable tv
6. -Access to free food in the concierge lounge
7. -The concierge man was able to find me a ride out of -Guatemala on a tourist shuttle after 45min of calling EVERY shuttle in the country

I found out Wednesday night that on Thurs, Fri and Saturday there is basically NO transportation in Guatemala. So thanks to the concierge guy he got me a shuttle to Solala (Antigua was booked in hotels) and there I stayed with another volunteer that adopted me for 3days. Next time I will pack more than one days worth of clothes. Also in the hotel. There were a lot of couples that had adopted Guatemalan babies. A majority of the restaurant we ate in for dinner and breakfast all had Guatemalan babies with them. So off to the airport they went on Friday morning and I headed off to Solala to take refuge for 3days to wait for the chicken buses to start running again. Next year I will plan accordingly J

If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will loose it. If you give your life for Me, you will find true life.

- Luke 9:24

Cat Update- So we are making baby steps with Mr. Grumpy. I really do think he is schizophrenic. He is now on an eating schedule to where in the morning he is usually waiting on the patio for food. He hisses at me as I am giving him his food and I usually tell him to shush…. A couple of times we have shared dinner together on the floor next to my patio. It usually consists of him hissing, them meowing and sometime swatting at my hand to get whatever I am trying to eat. Not a friendly swat, a full on clawed swat. So I have discovered he legs eggs cooked any way however not a big fan of noodles. His newest treat is powdered milk. He came to me today when I put my hand out and I petted him for the first time in a month and then he turned around and hissed at me and ran off. I just don’t get that cat I tell ya!!

My Walk- Walks going great! God has opened my eyes to a lot of things lately and I have realized how fortunate we are to live in the US. I see a lot of this in the communities I work in and some of its kind of laid a layer of guilt in my life that I wasn’t as thankful as I should have been for what the Lord has given me. Here are some examples of what I have seen.

- People here don’t worry about whitening their teeth. They are thankful that they still have some teeth, even if its only a handful.

- People here in the indigenous communities don’t worry if their ¨traje¨ is in style. They are thankful they have clothes on their backs

- People here don’t complain about having to eat their veggies, they are happy that the crops yielded enough food.

- People here don’t worry about driving the nicest looking car, or horse for that matter. They are just thankful they have transportation weather it be hitching a ride or walking as far as they need to because thankfully they can at least walk unlike some who are born with deformed feet or legs. Then again, these are the same people that will buy a tv when their house is about to fall down :)

I thank God for opening my eyes to this and I think its going to be a lot harder than I thought to return to the US and be exposed to all the materialistic views that come with living in the US but we will see what happens.

¨We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps¨

Proverbs 16:9 (I love that verse! So true!)

I met this lady in Antigua. There are a LOT of women and kids that sell handicrafts on the streets in all the tourist places and this one was different. For starters she can say what she needs to say to attract sellers in 6 different languages. She is good at remembering names because the second time we walked by her she hadn’t forgotten us. So I stopped to talk to her for a while and she is a smart smart woman. She doesn’t understand why all the people in her village go to the US to work when they can work in Guatemala if they just look for it. She says she makes anywhere from 0-600Q a day ($0-$80). Speaking more than 60% of the country lives off of $1 a day that’s not bad. She said she saves most of the money from the good days for the days that its slow in the rainy season to support her kids.