Operation Ginger Bread House! A success and I am now a frozen volunteer and people are looking at me crazy becuase I think its going to snow

THERE ARE SUPPOSE TO BE MORE PHOTOS BUT HAD INTERNET ISSUES
# of fires on my patio to burn excess cardboard material and papers from the gingerbread project- 2
# of times I have worried about my neighbors coming over and pounding on my door saying my fire smells bad- 2
# of Coconuts I have managed to crack open to make Christmas ornaments- 4
# of Coconuts that I have managed to get the milk out first before completely cracking the coconut- 3
# of times I have lost the coconut milk due to accident- all 3 times ! (first time accidentally dumped it down the drain thinking it was dirty water, second time I filled up the cup and then accidentally knocked it over, third time I accidentally dumped it down the drain again thinking it was dirty….GRRRR!!!)
# of times I have tried to slice the coconut and bake it in the pot to make dried coconut- 4
# of times it didn’t burn-1
# of blankets on my bed because its cold out- 5

Notice… So my camera broke. No idea why (and not sure if I have mentioned this in another blog) so I haven’t really been taking pictures lately and the ones I do take are with other people’s cameras. So yea, getting a new camera in December and until then, there will still be pictures going up on www.flickr.com/photos/peacecorpsolivia but they won’t be as many.

Date I put up my Christmas decorations- November 4th

Who introduced mayonnaise to Guatemalans!?!? They use mayo in way to much and for once I would like to have a side salad with my meal that is not marinated in mayo.

“All things happen just as he decided long ago” Ephesians 1:11

What we got here (in the little towns)- You can go into a store that you have “confianza” (trust) with and if you are a little short on money, you can bring it to them later. Ever picture Target doing that?

What we got here- I can leave my doors and windows open and not worry if the air conditioning or heater is on (because I don’t have either)

What you got there- Air conditioning and heaters

Man I miss…. Being able to run to the printer knowing there is always white paper in it (here ya gotta search for a piece of paper in the house)

I really wish I had a way to keep my veggies crisp. You would be amazed at how many veggies turn into the rubbery form. Celery is impossible to keep fresh, carrots more or less, radishes get squishy, green beans get flimsy, broccoli gets yellow and rubbery. The ones that do survive are cucumbers, red bell peppers (we don’t have green here) and onions last sometimes.

Did you know its possible to burn something bad enough in a pan that even after 3 days of soaking, it still is very tough to scrub off! (Don’t ever burn lemon bars)

“I want your (God’s) will, not mine” Mark 14:36

My Hippie Ginger Bread House- I decided to make an example ginger bread house to take with me to show the kids what they would be making, well, me thinking that since the kids had never seen snow I should use colors in the icing instead. In the end it looked like a hippy’s house and Erin affectionately called it “a hippy crack house”.

Operation Ginger Bread House:
44 kids (and a few adults)
5 volunteers
30 eggs, 28 which actually made it to the icing stage
15 bags of powdered sugar
One roll of aluminum foil
One giant bag of wanna-be fruit loops
A TON of candy
At least 20 people asked “what time are we doing this next weekend?”
132 graham crackers
7 bags of “extra icing” given away at the end to the adults that requested it for a snack later on (yuck!, its pure sugar!)
So Erin, Nick, two Canadians named Ian and Robin and I met at 730am to walk 30min to our community and we spent the next 2hrs setting up and getting ready. The kids were suppose to be there at 10, they started showing up around 9. Erin got a great arm workout trying to make the many lbs of icing, the guys opened up all the packages of graham crackers, gently and separated the broken ones from the still in tact ones. The families house we were doing the project at made us breakfast. Potatoes, beans, chips (yes, like snack chips), hot sugar water and bread. Then around 10 we started to organize the kids at the table soon discovering that aluminum foil bases on a sunny day were making things kinda tough. So using the icing in sandwich bags to assemble the houses we went one by one with the kids and they waited very patiently and quietly (much to our surprise). We used non-sealable sandwich bags which ended up being a huge mess on our hands but we got the job done. Then we put out our muli colored bowls of icing, fruit loops, bags of candy and let them go to town. Well, they didn’t. They kinda looked at us confused and so we had to give a couple demonstrations on how to use the icing as glue and the candy to decorate. So, two hours later we had 44 mini architects very happy and they didn’t eat the candy or fruit loops like I was expecting. They asked permission before eating anything. Some of them were confused as to what to do with the Hershey bars because they had melted so I let them eat those. I walked over to one table and grabbed a fruit loop out of the bowl to eat and as soon as they saw me do that they all dived for them as well. I had a piece of cardboard with all the thank you cards taped to them so they could sign and well, some kids wrote their names rather large and so some thank you cards didn’t get much attention because the kids thought that there was no more room. We tried our best to predict what the kids might do and try and work around possible problems and my mom sent me the dots that come on the paper (they are lightweight and different colors and come on strips of paper) and so each kid got 9 of them and about half of them didn’t take them off the paper, they just glued the whole paper, with the dots onto the house. We were not expecting that one at all, but it gave us a good laugh. So overall, its hard to say who had a better time. The gringos or the chapines (Guatemalans).

Big bummer of the week- My Trader Joes raspberry jam was still half full and grew a nice layer of fuzz. Bummer… I got a tolerance now for picking mold off of stuff or if it falls on the floor no big deal, but one thing I can’t work around is when it smells bad.

“Love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, obey his commands, be faithful to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul” Joshua 22:5

Spider Solitaire- I was sitting in the office one day working (playing spider solitaire) on the computer and in walks my shoe shine friend and so he watches me and then I offer to let him play and I start a new game. I taught him the rules and after a few hints, 1 1/2hrs, guess who beat the game!

Chemical Reaction for Crystal Light- So I use half a pack of crystal light to fill my water bottle and leave the other half for another time. However, for some odd reason, when you leave crystal light (the powder) in the little tub for a few days its has a funky reaction with the air and turns to a weird sticky paste type consistency. No idea why. Then! One day I was drinking crystal light out of a pitcher and a bit dripped down the side and onto the clay tile the pitcher was on and I left it there for a few days and no only does Crystal Light grow mold, but the white ring that formed around the bottom is now permanent on the tile. Part of me says “why am I drinking this stuff?!?!” however, its pretty darn good.

Getting In Touch With My Origami Side- I was at a training for work for the community leaders and of course, kids under 8 or so usually come. There was this little boy about 4yrs old and he looked so bored. So I made one of those fortune teller things out of paper that we use to make in elementary school and then I turned it into a flower and colored it and gave it to him. He was wary of the giant gringa talking to him so he didn’t make much of a reaction to my flower (of course a boy isn’t going to want a flower, it was the only think I could make though). I knew you could make a frog, but didn’t know exactly how. So I tried and I actually made a pretty good frog. I colored it green, put it on a chair by him and made it hop. That got him laughing. So for the next 10min we spent on the floor making a paper frog hop.

What Part Of The Body Is This?- I eat lunch with my host family every Sunday and they served my lunch with typical Guatemalan food and two small pieces of chicken. I looked at one of my friends in the family and started laughing beucase she knew exactly what I was thinking. “What is this?!?!” Half the time I get served pieces of meat here that I have no idea what part of the animal it is from nor how to eat it. I told her “I am use to the leg, thigh or wing, but I have NO idea what this is nor how to eat it” and she told me that I need to get use to eating that type of stuff and I said “that is fine, but there is no meat, it s a bone with sauce!”

Studies show that when gluing tree seeds together, it is a good idea to let them dry for a very long time otherwise your tree shaped ornament falls apart in your hand. As well as you can’t color corn husks with markets and expect it to be permanent

Highlight of the Week- In Comitancillo, the site next to mine, I was visiting Erin and she took me to a great store. They sell Reese Peanut Butter Cups and York Peppermint
Patties for Q1.50 ($.20) each.

“Be a good worker, one who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly explains the word of truth” 2 Timothy 2:15

My Secret Garden- Every now and then I am inspired to go kung-fu on my backyard and start pulling plants out or trying to pick up dead leaves and peaches in order to gain somewhat control over my disorganized patio. Well, there was a giant leafy plant that had taken over a 3ft by 5ft area of my patio and just spread across the ground. It has been there, and growing, since I moved in. I finally decided that it needed to go and so I started chopping away with my machete and guess what I found. Pots! There were about 8 pots under the plants and some are old kitchen pots, some are cans and some are pottery. That was pretty exciting because I just bought basil and oregano plants in the market and now I have something to plant them in!

BURR PEOPLE!- This week has been very cold and its suppose to last all week. I don’t have a thermometer, but I am saying that Monday was about 30’F out.

Inaugurating the Irrigation System- Intervida installed a watering system to help farmers with crops during the dry season and I went to the inauguration ceremony and after a lot of people talking, they decided to turn it on for the first time. I get a real kick out of the faucet where you turn it on because it was decorated in flowers with a few carrots hanging from it. Sadly had no camera with me to capture that moment.

Christmas Baskets- In Guatemala around Christmas time its popular to give Christmas basket gifts. They are like normal gift baskets except sometimes instead of a basket, it’s a plastic bowl, and the stuff in it can be anything from a 2liter of Coke, flour, crackers, sugar, nuts and so on. So my PC trainer for marketing sent us an email saying we should gather up a variety of PC products from projects we are supporting and working on and make baskets to sell in the PC office and the embassy. We are making 15 and they will sell for about $20 each. Hopefully they sell that is. Will keep ya updated. We are putting in honey, tea, dried fruit mix, candle, recycled paper, salsa, shampoo and chocolates with amaranto in them.

I went to Church! So God blessed me by putting another Christian a few hours from me (which is pretty close here in Guate) and so we meet in San Marcos, the big town that is about 1hr from me. Two weeks ago we tried to go to one church and we got to the door way and it was a very charismatic church and well, the shouting, crying and other odd emotions we aren’t use to in church kind of scared us off. So then this past weekend we decided to go to another church and we walked in and despite the fact that the service is normally 3 ½ hrs long (we were late by one hour accidentally cause we didn’t know what time it started), and it’s a really touchy feely huggy church it went pretty good. All the people were very nice and welcoming and we didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. So gotta talk with my friend but I think we might be going back. One thing that is different is that after the singing, the pastor goes around the room and says who is a first time visitor and when he got to our part of the room he said “hey! You two aren’t from here!” and so we had to stand up, say who we are, where we are from and so on. He asked if we were invited and we said no, that we were walking by and heard singing so came in. He was thoroughly excited with that answer, the fact that two strangers to the church and the country decided to walk inside. Its amazing the peace of mind and heart I have when in environments like that. Man I miss fellowship with other Christians. At least I got one here :) Gracias a Dios!

So..How is Olivia doing? Overall things are going good here. I am getting ready to spend Thanksgiving in the capital at a PC staff members house with his family. I am excited because it will all be foods I can’t possibly make where I live and none of the foods that I can make (so I am hoping). Then Friday to Monday I am traveling in the east with 3 other volunteers and going to see the Garifuna population which are descendents of African Slaves and have a very different culture than the western part of Guate. Then Tuesday to Thursday I am in the capital getting 3 days of medical exams and checkups. Fun fun fun. Friday we have our mid-service conference which I have NO idea what that entails and then on Saturday I head back to my site. I am having a Christmas party at my house on Dec. 9th and me and two other volunteers are hosting it. Its suppose to be cookie themed but baking is an art here and not many people have mastered it so its more a bake anything and bring it party. Then the weekend after that my sister come and the weekend after that my mom comes so got a busy busy schedule coming up. Work is going good. I have started working with a new jelly making women’s group and their jellies are going back to quick so we are trying to figure out what they are doing wrong. Because I know everything (actually nothing) about making jelly. I have only met with them once but I really liked them and they warmed up to me pretty quickly so I am looking forward to meeting with them again. I am trying my hardest to sell the freaking peaches. Even though they should of expired in August, so I am told, they say they are still good and so we are selling them for Christmas time. I am teaching them the art of decorating things for holiday themes so we bought some green cloth, put that on the lid and use some red ribbon to tie around it and tie the tag to the ribbon. I will do anything to get rid of these peaches. Then the honey is not really going anywhere but I am not going to do the work for them. Poco a poco (little by little). My tomato farmers are kind of driving me nuts and its not their fault. There are about 30 people that have greenhouses to grow tomatoes and well, they aren’t very well spaced apart when it comes to growing time frames and so for example, today I had 13 boxes of large tomatoes to sell and 1 1/2boxes of medium sized tomatoes. I called everyone I could and I could only find restaurants to buy about 8 of them. Thing is, I am going to have even MORE tomatoes next week and more restaurants only buy every 2weeks. I have decided that I think I might have developed a mild form of obsessive compulsive disorder here all because of my house. I go nuts trying to keep it clean and so when I know its dirty, its very tempting to stop whatever I am doing and go home and clean. Its especially hard keeping all the dishes washed because its cold out, the water is even colder and so I put it off for a sunny day which could be days right now.