Must save the bags! ¨Cat! Come back with my tamale!¨

(In this picture my coworker and I traded sweaters and he is trying to act like me and smile for the pic, though he couldn´t, and I am trying to act like him and be serious, thought i couldn´t.)

# of movies I watched this week with volunteers who stayed with me- 5 (The Notebook, Rent, Memoirs of a Geisha, Crash, Brokeback Mountain,) Someone brought them on DVD

# of batches of brownies made in the last 3 weeks- 3

# of batches of edible brownies made in the last 3 weeks- 1

Amount the shoe shine boys make in Tejutla- Q10-20 ($1.50 to $2.00) a day

Cost of a Guatemalan Wedding (small to medium in size)- $1000 (approx. 3mos of this persons salary)

Cost of a full grown cow ready to be made into hamburgers- $800

# of times it took to kill a spider in my dinning room by throwing my box of crayons at it- 5 (it kept playing dead, then would get up and run SUPER fast, I would scream, throw the same box of crayons again and we did that game a few times until I dropped the box straight on top of him like Willie Coyote being hit with an anvil. Proud moment! I tell ya, the box is still on top of him and will most likely remain there for the next 17months, just to make sure he is extra dead)

# of co-workers that asked if I had diarrhea upon finding out I had a stomach issue- 7 (ok..not sure about you, but not something I feel comfortable asking my co-workers.)

# of hours spent on buses going to Coban for the weekend- 25 (12 going and 13hrs coming back)

# of buses I took during the 13hr trip- 7 (changed basically every 2hrs)

You Know You MIGHT Be Losing It In PC When- After your kitchen floods, you separate your plastic bags that got soaked and hang them all out to dry in an attempt to save your precious ziplock bags and your imported grocery bags which double for trash bags.

Guatemalan Proverb- If thy fruit or veggie is wearing a coat of something fuzzy, better to leave it be in (in the trashcan), instead of trying to better the food by cooking it, thinking that all the fuzz (mold) will be made harmless. (experienced this with bananas and tomatoes)

“A cheerful heart is good medicine”

Proverbs 17:22

There is an organization called HELPS International (http://www.helpsintl.org) here and they are a Christian non-profit that gets together teams of doctors from the states and brings them down here to do work in the communities for free to people that usually can’t get healthcare (along with a variety of other projects). Everything from prosthetic legs, eye exams, women issues, surgery, dentistry and much more. So I spent 1 ½ days with them translating between patient and nurse or doctor and man it was tough sometimes. Between not having the best medical vocab in Spanish, worrying about saying the incorrect thing to the doctor or nurse and also sometimes the problems the patients had were very sad (or gross). I had a great time translating and glad I got the opportunity to do it as well as met a lot of VERY nice people. They might be back to Tejutla next year so hopefully I will get to help out again. So I saw a lot of bodies parts I wasn’t planning on seeing, found out some “hmm.. I didn’t know that” medical stuff and got to see once again, how hard Guatemalans work to get by day to day. So here are a few highlights from my time with HELPS:

- When asking a patient how long they have had a symptom for (cough, backache, sore throat, etc..) you might expect them to say something like a week, or a month, how about a number of years. Some people told me they had headaches for 10yrs. Can you imagine that?!

- Ever told anyone they are pregnant (they didn’t know), I have!

- Found out that Guatemalan women have to have their husbands sign a consent form saying they are allowed to get their tubes tied.

- Saw everything from kidney stones, a ton of hernias (as young as 8yrs old), collapsed uterus, high risk pregnancies, rheumatoid arthritis (that looks like a horrible disease!), eye problems, skin problems and many female problems.

- The prosthetic department made a leg for a women that was mid 20’s or so it looked like to be able to walk for the first time (not sure in how long of time) and she wanted to get the leg in part to be able to walk down the isle because she is getting married. It was an exciting moment when they drew back the curtains and she came out using a walker to help her walk on her new leg for the first time.

- Ate bacon for the first time in 8months! Wehew! They brought down a bunch of American food for meals and so usually that’s one of the highlights for PC volunteers when translating.

- After breakfast each day they would have worship music, a devotional and prayer. I was SOOO excited. My first taste of Christian fellowship since I left. Oh how I miss it!!!!!

Favorite Moment- So for awhile I was doing a job where they would see the patients, then give me the medical form with the diagnosis and prescription, I would go get the medicine from the pharmacy, come back, and explain to the patient what medications they need to take and for what and so on. Well, they gave out a lot of Monistat (vaginal cream) and so on, mostly all for the same reason. This time around, I ran and got the Monistat (or something similar) medicine and pulled this woman aside to explain to her in private how to use the applicator and what not. She was probably a 40yr old indigenous Mayan woman. She got this look of terror on her face when I was explaining it and I couldn’t figure out why. So I asked her if she had any questions and she asked me “Are you sure that’s what I am suppose to do with that?” and I looked at the medical chart and the doctor had prescribed the medication for a rash on her arm. Oppppssss…. J

“God blesses those who are persecuted because they live for God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs” Matthew 5:10

In Service Training- So once or twice during your service you have a 2 day training for technical stuff and you bring someone with ya from your host agency. We had 2days on Good Manufacturing Practices. It went ok. I didn’t get much from it but I am hoping my counterpart got a lot from it (he says he did). So one night we went out to dinner (volunteers and counterparts) and we went to a Chinese restaurant in Xela and the volunteers had no problem using chop sticks but watching the Guatemalan counterparts (most from rural Guatemala) had their first experience with chopsticks and they gave that up very quickly and went back to the fork. It was a really funny learning experience. We visited a giant potato farm that grows a special type of potato for Lays Potato Chips. Just never really think about where things like that come from.

Marsha Marsha Marsha- So Marsha finally came to visit me. She was in my site for about 2days and we had a nice relaxing time. Consisted of making a really BAD batch of brownies (just don’t get what I am doing wrong), making a get well card for a friend who got knee surgery, talking to people at HELPS and watching movies. We discovered Marsha shouldn’t be in charge of making the Mac and Cheese for dinner when she is hungry because she ends up draining the pasta before its done. We did mud masks and the whole time she kept saying it felt like Botox, even though neither of us have ever had Botox. Played some dominoes and I am trying to talk her into travelling the weekend of July 4^th so we are figuring out where to go. We also discovered that we get way to excited about cheese. There was a plate of cheese being passed around at HELPS for lunch on Sat and her, I and another volunteer basically all that the same time yelled “CHEESE!!!!!” and dived for it. Had a great time, too bad she lives 12hrs away.

My Casa is Falling Apart!- So this month has been an eventful month for my house. First the shower head goes out, pay a steep $30 to replace that. Then I have to replace another part of the shower so I can finally take a shower that last longer than 2min without the electricity turning itself off. Then the roof on my patio looks like its gonna fall so I got my host family boys to help me tire a wire around it and we tied it to a bored in the top part of my house. Then the kitchen FLOODS and so I strategically place a rusty piece of sheet metal over the hole hoping that keep the rain out next time. Then time to clean out the DISGUSTING gutters that are full of mud and whatnot that helped with the flooding into the kitchen. On top of that we have the constant “What is that smell coming out of my bathroom! Where is the air freshener can” reaction at least twice a day. Now! Something is going on with the walls in the kitchen and dining room because its like the top layer is bubbling like a really bad sunburn and I can almost peel my wall. I think water is getting under the coating on the wall and causing my dining room to look like it has a really bad skin problem.

Not exactly an 8 to 5 type place I guess…- So I was suppose to go to San Marcos on Wednesday with one of my Intervida coworkers that I am working with on that tomato project with. I called him the night before to see what time we were meeting. So we decided on 130, I was early (as usual). I was in the office till 230 waiting, no sign of him, nor any of my other coworkers from that section. I talked to another guy at work and he said they went to a community to play soccer that morning. What!? So I had to be in Xela that night and had to be leaving Tejutla by 330 to make it to Xela on time. So I left at 245 figuring he wouldn’t be back for awhile. He then calls me at 430 saying “Where are you?” and I responded “Where were you?” 3hrs late! Grrr….

Man! I am sick again! So yea, in training they THROUGHLY emphasize that we need to wash our veggies and fruit and what not. What feels like HOURS of training on how to eat in Guatemala. So yea, I am pretty good about soaking my veggies and fruit in bleach for 15min like we are told to do. Well last night, I bought some plum looking things and before I have bought a bag (1lb for $.20) and just pop them in your mouth without problem. Well! Not that case last night. Guess I should of washed those because woke up about 3am freezing and with a horrible stomach ache. Whenever I get stomach sick and I am sleeping my mind love to trick me and so all night I kept thinking it was 7am and time to get up so I hardly slept. I had a meeting to go to on moto, opted out of that one. So lucky me, I was to tired to look for my keys because my house was a complete disaster (as it usually is near the end of the week) and so I figured I would just get my spare from Jake and look later. Well, doesn’t help when you forget to ask for it and then they leave for the morning. So my wonderful host family, who is always home, took me in, made me drink some funky tea (she literally went out to the garden and started pulling plants out of the ground to boil) and then I had to drink this tasteless drink that was made of corn as a meal substitute speaking I didn’t eat breakfast and dinner was kinda given back to mother earth. I took refuge there until Jake got back to Tejutla next to the warm stove (yes… its cold here, wearing a sweatshirt and a long sleeve shirt and a shirt under that. Am I really in Central America?)

How much does that cost? How much did you pay for that? So on Thursday when I wasn’t feeling so great. I was down by the display case and there were two shoe shine boys standing there and were asking me how much everything cost in the display case. So I sat on the ground and they sat on their little shoe shine box and we had a chat. They taught me how to count to 10 in Maya-Mam and they already knew for the most part how to count to 10 in English. Found out they live 2hrs away and take the bus in to shine shoes. They were 11 and 12 though they looked more like 8 and 9. We explored the giant buckets of honey in the office that have yet to be processed and are still giant yellow tubs of solid honey. Then the bees came, I ran screaming, they ran laughing. So they know my name, couldn’t remember it, and I know their names, can only remember one. I am sure they will be back again because I gave them a tiny bottle of honey for teaching me Maya-Mam and told them to come find me again.

Run Gringo Run!- So every year there is an international marathon in Coban (13miles) and people from all over, including Kenya, come to run it. So this year about 10 volunteers ran it. I took Friday to travel and run some errands for work and that took 12hrs to get there. Not so bad as long as you got music or a book. I had something better though, sermons on CD, score! So I listened to a lot of church on the way there. Then on Saturday we went to two different places in Alta Verapaz. One was a giant swimming hole with a multi level waterfall pool thingy. Then the next one I liked better and that was a lake with a tall waterfall falling into it. SOOO pretty! Reminded me of something you would see in Hawaii. So we did a lot of swimming, eating, playing on swings and walking. Then Sunday was the marathon. Of course the Kenyans won, they were ahead of the rest of the race by about a mile when they ran by us. So we cheered on the runners and then made an attempt to escape the overly sweaty (somewhat stinky) crowd of people. They just don’t always get the “Walk on the right side and oncoming traffic is on the left” concept here. We went to see a movie, The DaVinci Code. Two things. 1) I don’t get how anyone can believe that story to even have the smallest basis of possibility. 2.) I didn’t get the movie at all. The characters one minute liked each other, then they were enemies, to much jumping back and forth. Then on Sunday we went to a dinner organized by some of the volunteers at a restaurant thing and it was only open to us and we ate there for $5 (veggie lasagne!!!) and the place had probably 40 volunteers from all different parts of the country and programs so that was fun. Then came the highlight, getting up at 430am to catch a bus home on Monday. I had originally planned to go to a meeting in the capital at 830am on Monday but a part of the pan American highway was washed out so I had to take a different route and cancel the meeting. I ended up going threw the Quiche (Northwest part of Guatemala) and it took 7 bus changes and 13hrs to get home. Man was that a long day! Very very pretty though. So for any of you tempted to come visit, take a look at this place J This was where we went swimming the 2^nd half of the day . Entrance is only $1.50

These Sandals were made for WALKIN- So my walk is going well. I am going to check into taking some online Bible classes (not official, just simple educational tools) because I am tired of only remembering half of what I am learning. For example, I know some big event happened in AD something, but I can’t remember the year. So I am trying to learn all of what I want to know and not just remembering parts of it. I am kinda getting into this apologetics thing. I am not very good at it right now but I just don’t understand some of the things people believe when the evidence is so obvious.

Want to give a BIG CONGRATS to my Aunt Cathy for passing her Nursing Exams: Knew you could do it!

My Secondary Project- So…you all know I have been the owner of a very mad cat for about 2months now. Well.. I have decided instead of taking him back, I am going to keep him around because VERY little by VERY little he is getting friendlier. He now comes in the house and meows constantly until I give him food (usually something I am eating) which upon approaching him, he runs off and comes back for the food later. He still hisses at me while meowing basically which I find to be an exceptional quality in him (hey…trying to make the best of this).. I ran out of cat food and the little bit I have left he doesn’t like. However, he thoroughly enjoys milk (powdered, don’t remember the last time I had liquid milk) and a half of a scrambled egg. That actually ends up being cheaper than the cat food I have to travel to San Marcos to get so maybe he will end up getting that. Megan, anything in the vet books that say you can’t feed a cat egg everyday?