I gave a chicken a shot and when I say I want my drainage back, I mean it...

# of chickens we gave shots to in 7hrs- 2192
# of needles used- 220
# of times I kicked a chicken becuase it wouldn´t stop pecking at my shoes- countless
# of days left in Guatemala- 150
# of times I have thought about eatting Moose Tracks Ice Cream this week- 3
# Zuchinni plants I planted successfully- 13
# Zuchinnis that have grown- 0
# of plants that are still left planted and have not been pulled out- 4 (they are on their way to being yanked becuase I think they are sick)
# of days it rained in the last two weeks- 14

Quote of the Week- ¨Is this cheese?¨ Asked by a man from my natural medicine community when we picked up a pizza in San Marcos after work before taking them back to their homes.

Biggest Accomplishment! I finally slept on a chicken bus! It helped that it was not full so I was able to slouch down a little bit and lean my head against the back of the seat instead of letting it bang on the window like most people prefer to do it.

Weirdest Thing I Heard- My coworkers told me that some people use their teeth to castrate sheep. Yea, I have NO idea why. And no, they are not lieing.

You Know You Have Been In Guatemala Awhile When- You are getting use to 8hr bus rides (only issue is no bathroom stops). You don´t really care about getting your socks as clean when washing them (its a pain scrubbing each sock individually).

“Everyone will hate you because of your allegiance to me. But those who endure to the end will be saved” Matthew 10:22

Leave Your Ears Alone! So many people here have a thing with publically cleaning their ears. They usually stick there finger in their ear and shake it really fast. Eww (that is two w´s right there). Then there are the people who are a little more creative and use pen caps, sticks and paper clips. However, my coworker who the other day used the car key from the truck to clean his ear, I had to turn away. Can you imagine how many ears that car key has been in! Ewwwww! (that is 5 w´s right there)

What You Got There- Toilets that smell decent, sometime self cleaning, sometimes blue water, sturdy floor.

What We Got Here (in the communities)- Toilets that are about 1ft off the ground, on a cement floor that looks like it will cave in at any minute and give way to the what feels like endless floor of human waste (and other objects) below, not self cleaning, doesn´t even have water in it (unless its rain water) and and surely does NOT smell good.

First Time- I had to deny breakfast in a community while giving shots to the chickens. There was no way I could eat greasy eggs, beans and chile for breakfast. Big cultural no no to deny food or drinks being offered but I just couldn´t do it without hurling right there on their kitchen floor.

We Have To Give How Many Shots?!?! Mid Friday we found out that there was a chicken disease spreading and that our organization was ordering us to give shots to all the chickens in the projects. All 12,000 of them. So they quickly organized teams and bought enough syringes, needles and vaccines and other things to start at 6am on Saturday, yes...Saturday. Friday night we had a meeting in San Marcos and then got some dinner afterwards. Went to this restaurant that is like KFC but the popularity of McDonalds here in Guatemala. It was my first time eating chicken there. So got some chicken, which is suppose to be amazingly good (I was not impressed) and we went home. I got up at around 530am the next morning to go to work with an all to familiar feeling in my stomach. The chicken had made me sick. I had to go to work because it was a chicken emergency and we were in teams of two. So I get to the office, do so moaning and laid on the desk till we left. We started giving shots at 730am to the first 1000 chickens. After about an hour my hands were getting tingly like they were asleep and shaking. Decided maybe to sit down before I fell over. So I took on the job of preparing the syringes and vaccines and handed them off to people giving shots. I gave one shot to a chicken just to see what it was like but I found filling syringes a little more tolerable. It would not of been so bad had the smell of the chicken houses not been so stinky... So yea, getting sick from eatting chicken, then having to spend 6hrs with 2200 of them pecking at yea and bawking is not so pleseant.
I learned- Chickens like pecking at buttons and if you shake the box of syringes that gets them all to run away and leave you alone.

“Be careful for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Phillipians 4:6


Art Class Is Going Well- Last week in art class I taught the kids how to make the snowflakes by folding coffee filters and cutting little pieces out of them. Well, since we don´t really have snow here, I decided to incorporate some color. So the little kids just dyed the coffee filters but the 4-6grade were taught the color wheel. So I taught them the primary and secondary colors. They had a lot of fun doing the coffee filter flakes and then the teachers stuck them to the windows, when they fell off after drying, of course, use glue to stick them back on! (I discouraged the idea).

DESCRETION- MIGHT GET GROSS
Give Me Some Drainage!- Since I got to Tejutla, 19months ago, they have always been working on one street or another. Whether it´s changing pipes, putting in pipes, or changing the stone on the road. One day I realized I had no water. No big deal, it happens, usually comes back by the end of the day. However that was not the case this time. I also discovered I had no drainage (toilet, shower, etc...). I discovered that becuase that night I got home, used the bathroom (last tank of water), and about 30seconds heard some water flowing. I went outside to the front of the house and looked in the 6ft hole in front of my house (one of the many holes in the street) and realized that the drainage pipe was disconnected from my house. No one told me they would be doing that... So I realized I had no water and no drainage. I had to shower in other homes and well the toilet, let it fill and flush it when the water and drainage come back the next day. This went on for 4days. My house was getting stinky and dirty and I had used every dish in my house at that point. I got my host grandma and took her with me to talk to the street guys to find out when I would be getting my drainage back. I was frustrated because 1.) they didn´t tell me they would do this 2.) the drainage pipe had been sitting in front of my house for days, they just wouldn´t connect it. They tell me they can´t connect it until the owner of my house pays them the $13 they are owed for the work. What! I live there! She doesn´t! Again, spanish gets good when frustrated. So this is Thursday, they don´t work weekends so that leaves me only Friday to get my drainage back. Then I said something that I don´t think I would actually do, but sometimes you get desperate. I said ¨Listen, I live there. The owner does not. I am sorry you guys are arguing over $13. However, if you do not connect the pipe that is sitting in front of my house to the drainage hole by tomorrow afternoon, I might accidently flush the toilet and poor water down the drains and whatever comes out of the drainage hole, where the tube is not connected, well, you will have to deal with that¨. Again, I wouldn´t of really done that, but I was very frustrated with something that could of been finished days ago. So Friday, guess who had drainage and water! Yea! It only took me an hour to wash all my dishes.

I Made a Top Dance- A very popular toy mainly amongst the boys here are tops. The ones where you wind the string around it and throw it. Well when you can throw the top and get it to spin on the ground, thats called dancing. I had never done this. So first time I threw the top, it was more like a baseball, it went flying, needless to say, it did not dance. The second time I tossed it, it danced almost perfectly. I impressed all the 10yr olds that day.

“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31

Have a Cow Lick Your Hand, Just What the Doctor Ordered- I was admiring a 3month old calf and it was staring back at me. So I stuck my hand out, which is kinda stupid on my part, but I don´t think cows bite. I wanted to pet it. Well, instead the giant tongue came out and licked my hand. Ewwwww..... I ended up petting it. I told my coworker the cow licked me and he said ¨when i had something on my hand a cow licked me and they went away¨. I think he was talking about warts. Still, didn´t know cow tongue spit cures warts.

Bolo- A drunk Guatemalan who usually passes out on the street for a day, sometimes they walk around yelling stuff or being, well drunk.I was sitting on a bus to go to my art classes and a bolo, who also carries a plastic kids fake cell phone and pretends to talk on it, he had a soccer whistle and was trying to direct the buses. It was pretty funny.

Another Funny Bolo Story- I was getting ready to leave on a motorcycle when I saw a couple of my coworkers laughing by one of the trucks. I walked over to see what was going on and they pulled a 3ft dead snake out of the back. I didn´t even know we had snakes here (it came from a place about 1hr away). So then this bolo walks over and takes the snake and puts it on his neck like a scarf. Then he takes the head and flings it over one shulder, then the tail over the other. He walks off in sort of a ¨look at me¨ funny strut and my coworker yells ¨The bolo is taking my snake!¨ and the bolo stopped and turned around and said ¨The word is ebriated!¨ It was pretty darn funny.

(this is a picture of Jake´s birthday cake and the dinner we made. The cake was a little bigger than the pan, but it was tasty)

Never Touching Money Again- I was on the bus and the bus driver helper, the ¨ayudante¨was about to start collecting the money. But he unzips his jeans and reaches in and pulls out a big roll of money. Then he zips his pants back up and starts to organize it and collect the money. EWWWW.....