The fruit shakes, games and scary rides have come to Tejutla. Its Feria time!

(I helped my friend Erin paint her room, her site is about 2hrs from me)

# of fireworks that sound like bombs that went off Sunday night- 20ish
# of years taken off my life because of these fireworks going off- 20ish
# of Calla Lilies I got free while visiting a farmer- 15 (they grow like weeds here)
# of days till I come back to the states to visit- 11!!!!
# of days I have now been in Tortilla Land- Approx 315
% of service completed- 39
# of kids that took MY picture this week- 2
# of books I have read/currently reading while in Peace Corps- 11 (currently reading 4 at the same time right now)

Animals Cost the following in the weekly market here (mini market apart from the fruits and veggies. Had to do some research for work which is why I know this
Beef Cow- $400
Milk Cow- $200
Goat for Milk- $80
Grown Sheep- $53
Lambs- $35
Pig ready for bacon- $33
Baby Pigs- $14
Puppies- $4
Kittens- $1.50 (VERY close to buying one)

Hot Pineapple Cider- My host family showed me how to make hot cider out of pineapple so I bought a pineapple in the market and cut it into pieces, added cinnamon and that will last about two days and then the outside part you can eat along with the core I boiled for awhile, added some cinnamon and sugar and bam! I got a gallon of pineapple cider!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” Philippians 4:6

Quick! To the bus terminal to buy earrings! So I was going to a wedding on Saturday and it was already a long day and it was only 3pm. So between the electricity going out in the city which makes getting ready difficult and then my earrings broke I was getting a little frustrated. So Ellen and I walked from our $7 hotel to the bus terminal in San Marcos where they are always selling the most random stuff but it’s mostly veggies, fruit and giant slabs of meat ( I mean GIANT! Like you can buy half a cow complete). So found a lady selling random jewelry and what not and so I bought my earrings for $1.25 and ran back to the hotel. Granted they are by far the largest and heaviest earrings I have ever owned, they at least matched. (wearing them in this picture)

First Guatemalan Wedding- My coworker who I call Elmo got married Saturday in San Marcos to his gf of 3yrs. So this wedding was very low-key and uneventful which is what I am told many of them are like. We were late getting to the ceremony because the guy Ellen and I were going with insisted that it won’t start on time because nothing ever does here. Wrong! So walked in late which was a bummer. Ceremony was done by a lawyer and was a lot of talking. Then they kissed after each ring was placed on the hand. Then we went up greeted them, gave them gifts (still gotta buy mine by the way) and they walked out. Then we had some dinner, they cut the cake and off we went. The whole thing last about 4hrs.

My First Meatballs- I invited Ali (the volunteer I replaced and her fiancé, my supervisor) over for dinner along with Jake. Decided that Meatballs would be the item of the evening and I was in for some serious work. They turned out pretty good and I tried to make sauce from scratch which was a challenge but managed to get it right in the end. I was going to sauté some macadamia nuts to add to the green beans but my stove has two settings. 1.) Going to fry anything in 2min and 2.) barely on to where if a draft comes it will blow out (and even then still manages to boil water pretty fast). So the nuts burned in about 20seconds, bummer. Then dishes in the end were a treat speaking I managed to use at least ¾ of my kitchen wear while cooking.

“Now that’s some nice funeral music…” My little town is blessed to have a loud speaker posted on a pole in the center town. Loud enough that you can hear whatever music is being played each afternoon over the speaker from wherever you are in the pueblo. Some days its perky meringue, some days have familiar songs without the words (I heard “My Heart Will Go On” today) and then some days feature a type of music that is made up of horns, drums and has a very slow pace with a low tone to it. I finally realized that this is procession or funeral music. I personally go for the upbeat meringue but I guess that isn’t appropriate at all times.

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” Ecclesiastes 3:1

The little bugs are invading my veggies! Whenever I have left over fruit peels, rinds, veggie whatevers, I toss them into the patio where the bushes are thinking “eh, making compost” or something like that. Well, I told Jake about it and he said that isn’t how you do it and that I am going to get a lot of bugs instead. Nah…. I thought. What are a few bugs going to do to my patio. WRONG! So between my amount of peels from mangos, cucumbers, bananas and what not back there on top of all the rotten peaches on my patio that are falling from the trees a dozen a day I have a serious insect problem. So the little gnat wanna be bugs, whatever the are, have invaded anything in my kitchen or pila that is a fruit or veggies as well as discovering the trash. I threw some pineapple out in a plastic bag on the patio and came back a few hours later and the bag must have had 200 of the little buggies in them. AHHH!!!! Yea, so I learned my lesson on this one.

“The Birds” come to life- On my walking trail that happens to also be where I take my trash there has recently been a growing percent in what I assume are giant crows. When I say giant, I mean the size of roosters (not chickens, they are smaller). And they don’t really fly; they kind of hop around which is somewhat amusing until they stop hoping towards ya in a group and then you get a flashback to a certain Alfred Hitchcock movie.

The State Fair Has Invaded My Town- Each town in Guatemala (and central America that I know of) has a feria which is a celebration of the town patron saint. Ours is coming up in 2weeks and they have started to set up for. It has taken over the central part of Tejutla and I am hoping that someone brings the fruit smoothie machine I found at other ferias in other towns.

“What’s Up Jake!” So usually when we go to dinner at work, Jake and I walk together. It started out because I didn’t like walking in the dark alone and now even though its light out we still walk together to talk about whatever. This time he got back late from a community so I went ahead without him so I also left dinner before him. There are a group of kids about 8yrs old or so and each time we walk by them they either yell “Good bye” “Good night” or “What’s your name!” This time I said “My friend, the other gringo, is going to walk by in a few minutes. I want you to say “What’s Up Jake” to him when he passes. He will laugh” So it took some quick practice to get them to be able to pronounce the words somewhat clearly and he was coming down the road so I walked on ahead quickly and stopped to listen and heard him laugh. Life’s simple pleasures J

“However, as it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him” 1 Corinthians 2:9

A bollo (drunk guy) to the rescue to help change a tire! On our way to San Marcos for work, we were in a big hurry and of course, we got a flat tire. So usually you can find someone that changes tires every few kilometers because they put a tire on the side of the road with an arrow saying “Pinchazo”. Well, we found one luckily right away, to bad it was closed. Then we discovered the tools needed to change the tire weren’t in the car so we borrow some from the shop that was closed (the nephew was there). Meanwhile, a bollo came along and he insisted he could help change the tire. Some bolos can be kinda intimidating but this one was actually pretty funny and calm. My coworker was taking the tire of and he was standing behind him telling him how to do it, somewhat, even though my coworker knew what he was doing. Of course I got a kick out of it and had to take a picture. Then at the end he wanted us to pay him for his services so we gave him a quetzal ($.12ish) (the drunk guy is standing behind my coworked in this picture) Meanwhile, the house that was near us, a bunch of kids were yelling “Gringa!” so of course I yell back “Chapin!” which is what you call Guatemalans so I went over and started talking to them and took their picture. It’s funny beucase you can tell who hardly ever, if ever, has had their picture taken. Before, during, and after taking the picture they think it is the funniest thing in the world and it’s very exciting for them. When I show them the picture on the back of the camera they go crazy. So I ended up taking the card to get the picture developed and dropped it by their house a couple days later.

Update from previous blog- So I am doing better this week. Not as bummed as I was last week. Still frustrated with my work but it’s in God’s hands and I am not going to start worrying/thinking about it till I get back from the states. Thank you for keeping me in your prayers.