Ya´ll, It´s Fair Time !!!

So... I am back in the states. Got here a few hours ago. You guys live in a weird country here! Just kidding :) So I won't be putting up a blog while I am here. I will put one up at the end of the trip around August 20th. Thanks for reading for the past 11mos!

(this is a lighthouse in Tapechula, Mexico)

# of pageants I watched this week-3
# of hours spent watching these pageants- 14
# of times I vowed never to go to another pageant only to return the next night because of begging coworkers- 2
# of times riding the bumper cars this week-3 (this is a veggie vendor in the sunday market)

First Time being back at sea level in 11mos- Beach in Tapechula, Mexico. Ton of ear popping going on.

Tacos as we know them in the states are called “Gringas” in Tapechula. So yea, ordered 2 “gringas” for lunch.

Bartering Moment of the Week! This is a good one! So I inherited a lot of clothes from Ellen when she left this month after almost 3yrs of PC service. I now own more sweatshirts and sweaters than ever. Then last night Ellen and I were walking a vendor area and people were selling everything from candy, cds, cheap toys, earrings and then there was booth of people claiming to be from Ecuador with woven stuff. I found this sweater I liked that was Q250 ($35) and I do not have the money to pay that. So I tried it on and in the process took off my fleece that Ellen had given me. She said she liked my fleece and so I said “want to trade?” so she tried it on, liked it, and still asked for some money since it was old. So I ended up paying $6 for my new sweater and she got the fleece I got free. Funny thing is, this fleece Ellen wore to Ecuador when she was traveling and now its going back.

Life Lesson of the Week- When visiting another country, for example going to Mexico from Guatemala, don’t change money you aren’t sure you are going to spend. I lost about Q30 changing money between pesos to quetzals because I didn’t use all of it in Mexico. Big bummer.

(this guy is holding the guy cow waiting for him to mate so they can go home..what a job)

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans with succeed” Proverbs 16:3

Most Disappointing Moment- I was making my last box of Mac and Cheese and went to pour the noodles, which were sticking to the inside of the box because they were moldy from when the kitchen flooded. Luckily I was able to rescue the cheese and had some back up noodles in stock. Phew! Close one!

Moment of Celebration- When I packed last year I packed 2 zip lock bags of socks and 2 of underwear. I wrote on my calendar that after being in country one year I would give myself the gift of opening up a bag of fresh socks and underwear. Well I did that a month early for packing reasons and let me tell ya, it was VERY exciting.

At what point will I stop thinking that soaking my clothes and kinda moving them around is not sufficient enough to consider it a “wash”

The theme of the Feria Parade this year was "Events from the Bible"

The chicken didn't want to do the parade anymore



Here comes the Ark!


“And the winner is…” So despite Guatemala claiming to be a conservative culture, they are very big on beauty pageants and you would be surprised the age that some of the people wear the clothes they do. So the 14yr old in my host family was asked to be in the “Muse of the Floral Games” pageant. There was a national writing competition and the writers came to Tejutla to read their work and then the winner choose who they wanted to be the “representative” of their work. Well, she won. Luckily in this one they only wore one dress and it was appropriate per age.

“And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive” Matthew 21:22
(This girl stands on the street every morning from 6am-11am selling fresh squeezed orange juice. You can add the optional raw egg if you like)

Spent a few hours in San Marcos buying clothes I probably don’t need, I found a guy in one of the ropa stores to talk to and I asked him all the curious questions I had been wondering.
- He got into the business because they had a sewing business but his wife had a heart operation so they had to do something different.
- He buys the pack of clothes by the 1000lbs.
- The clothes come into a port in the coast
- He pays about Q4500 for 1000lbs of clothes
- After 15days whatever isn’t left will go to the pickup truck guys that go to the Aldeas

Dish of the Week- I made pad-Thai this week with three of my coworkers and it turned out really good! Didn’t think I could make it but it was an easy recipe to follow. Only thing is, of course I made too many noodles. For those of you who had the opportunity to experience “Olivia’s endless noodle dishes” where I cooked enough pasta to feed usually 20 on accident, well, thought of you that night when I had made about 1 ½ times to many noodles.

Spanish Opps- So of course I have a cold, again. Whenever the weather changes drastically to be cold I seem to get a cold. So when I was telling someone had to sneeze I said “I have to be naked” instead of “I have to sneeze”. The verbs are very similar sounding in Spanish “estnudar” for sneeze and “desnudar” for be naked. Opps….

Not exactly what I would call a bumper car- With the feria came bumper cars except these didn’t exactly bump, more so ya slammed into each other and because of physics, bounced off each other. First time I rode them with my host family and I let one of the 4yr olds drive my car. The cars don’t come with a break or gas peddle, you just got once they turn the electricity on. They also don’t come with seatbelts. So every time we would run into someone, which was quite often, I would act as his seatbelt because he almost flew into the steering wheel way to many times. Second time was with Alberto, Candy and Otto one night except this time it was raining. They convinced me that it would be ok despite the fact that the rain was falling through the tent into parts of the bumper car area. Studies show that if you drive your car into a puddle (on accident) it won’t go anymore. Third time was with Jake and Erin (girl in the site next to mine) and it was one night after dinner (again in the rain). This time no one was riding so I convinced the operator to let us ride 3 for the price of 2 since no one else was there. Guatemalan Rule: Barter whenever and wherever possible. So I won and we rode. Since no one was out that night we rode the bumper cars for 15min. Like I said earlier, we don’t bump though. You have small crashes. When we would have a head on collision or if you would be stuck against the wall and someone was about to run into ya, you braced for slight pain and maybe a scream more than a laugh (at least I did). So the three of us got off the bumper cars each complaining about something that hurt from all the crashing but it was a LOT of fun.

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” Romans 8:28

Bienvenidos a Mexico! On Saturday I went to Tapechula, Mexico with Otto, Alberto and Erin. It was about a 2 ½ hr drive north west from San Marcos and it was sooooo pretty! We drove on the opposite side of Volcanoes Tajamulco and Tacana that I am use to seeing and they were gorgeous (and huge)!! Going from an elevation to of almost 9000ft to sea level in a period of 3hrs really can drive your ears nuts. That part of the country is also hot, humid and tropical. Opposite of everything I am use to where I live. So we went to the beach to walk around, ate some “gringas” (tacos), looked in stores that I can’t afford on my little PC salary and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean (in English!). That part of Mexico I guess has a good income I guess because it was a lot more developed then most parts of Guatemala.

Tejutla Feria- The feria in Tejutla has been here for now a week and will be ending on the 26th. Each pueblo/town/city in Guatemala has their patron saint and they celebrate that saint each year. It’s a combination of beauty pageants, a parade, dances, processions, junk food, games that rip ya off, people selling the most unusual stuff, fireworks that sound like bombs that people seem to enjoy, scary bumper cars, ferris wheels that you couldn’t pay me $1000 to go on and the addition of a few bolos(drunk people) to the streets. All in all it’s a pretty good time J The parade this year had the theme of “Events from the Bible”. I was hoping to get a group picture of the 20 or so Jesus’ that passed me. Adam and Eve started out the parade wearing very little clothing and well, I was in a sweater and jacket. Can we say burr!!!! Noah’s ark was having a problem with the chickens not wanting to walk down the street. We had not only 3 magic kings that passed us, but 6! I think some how they miss counted during the assignment of biblical events. Judas actually had a rope around his neck tied to a tree that they had cut down to stick on the back of the truck; sent a little prayer out to him hoping the car wouldn’t slam on his brakes for any reason.