Did I mention I don't like soup?

This story is a bit embarrassing to admit. I had fooled myself a little into thinking I could get by okay in restaurants and stores etc. Today after church I went to a typical Guatemala restaurant. I went there years ago with some friends. The menu was only in Spanish but that initially didn't faze me. Last week for dinner a friend and I went to a restaurant that had only spanish. But I ordered pasta and that is pretty easy to translate. I couldn't figure out what anything was except the nachos!!! I felt like I had really done well in fooling my waiter into thinking I could speak Spanish and I didn't want to ask him what each thing was. Three north american girls came in and I asked them if they knew what it all said. She said she would try but she was no better than I at understanding. So I ordered something with chicken and rice. Can't go wrong can you! Ya, you can. It was soup. It did not say "sopa" in the description and the other soups did. Just as the food was arriving the girl at the next table brought her dictionary over for me to use. But I had just figured out what I had ordered so I didn't use it. I ate it and it was okay. I had wanted fried chicken. So I let myself order a banana liquado (like a milkshake) for my dessert. It made me feel happy. :)

It is funny going to church. Well, not funny. I like it but the funny part is that I am able to gauge my progress in Spanish by how much I understand each week. I understand the songs better and when the cute really short little old lady gets up to pray I understand more of what she says. The sermon is spoken first in English then translated. The girl translating speaks SO fast but I get bits and pieces here. I had heard she changes little things sometimes (gets numbers mixed up or expands on something) and today I caught a few things she expanded. And when the guy speaking (guest speaker) said the bit about heaven he said where wolves lie down with the lambs and she changed it to lions and lambs. Kind of funny. :)

This week has been a good one. It is sure nice to have other people around to run my errands with me and to do fun things too of course. :)

Yesterday I met with Anita and Greg. They are the ones who run the medical clinic I want to work at in January. Their web site address is http://hands-of-hope.com/s/  I got really excited talking to them. There is a lot to learn and she is willing to help me out. She doesn't do the clinic 5 days a week so there is another clinic she knows of that might need some help. And they know of some orphanages who would like to have someone come in once a week or something like that. That would be fun I think. There is also a midwife who works there. I am hoping she is willing to train me in all she knows. I would have loved to taken a midwifery course before I came down here but you know, life gets busy. So I got very excited and wished January was here! I can start whenever but I wanted to wait until my language skills are more advanced. So I will evaluate later. I still have 7 weeks of Spanish school scheduled. I have to be better by then!!! 

Off I go to study. It has to be done. :( As exciting as it is to learn a new language, and as motivated I am to know the language, what it boils down to is this: It is still school. And I don't like school. (I know you are thinking suck it up princess!) But it is my job right now. So I will do it (do you hear the martyrdom in my voice?)

Have a good week guys!!!!

Why I need to learn the language.

Today I got a little frustrated.  I have been sick and don't have much of a voice today. Actually, I have no voice. If I whisper I am okay but when I try to talk occasionally a nasty squeak comes out. Juan Carlos (the dad at the house where I am living) said at lunch that I sounded like a rooster when I laugh. Nice eh?

But that is not the source of my frustration. Well, I was frustrated but that is not the point of this post. :)

I was talking with my teacher this morning in class. I don't remember how we started talking about it but she was telling me that when she takes her birth control, if she forgets a day she takes two the next morning. I was horrified and thought I would educate her. I told her what I knew and she said "But the doctor told me this. And he is a specialist for women." He said if you forget 2 days in a row then take 2 each morning for the next two days to catch up. That will keep her from getting pregnant. So what do I say? I don't want her to lose all trust in her doctor if she does believe me. But it is so wrong! So the frustration came in when I couldn't adequately explain what I wanted to because of my lack of language skills. Then she says to me "I have destroyed my body because I have been doing this for 10 years" I scared the crap out of her. It was terrible. Limited vocabulary. So I reassured her somewhat. But it definitely made me think I am right in getting these language skills down before I start working with people in a medical capacity. 

When I do work with people it will be with people who don't have access to any health care so I may not run into this problem much. But how do you educate people who have been doing things a certain way for generations. Without offending them. I don't know. I have a lot to learn. Even with my being sick I have heard a LOT of advice on what I should and shouldn't be doing. Pregnancy here is my favorite. The women are to lay in bed for 30 days. I think something (like a scarf I think) is supposed to be on their head, and they aren't to do anything laborious at all. Now this may sound sort of great but only for a day or two. And it slows recovery. AND they are not supposed to drink anything cold so that their milk doesn't come out cold for the baby. You can't just walk up and say "That is ridiculous." You would get no where. So I will watch and learn from others who have successfully gone before me. 

Tonight we were talking at dinner about the situation here in Guatemala. It has been in the news in the US a bit. Not sure if it made it all the way north. :) The president has been accused of being behind several killings (3 in particular). The lawyer of a man that was assassinated earlier this year was killed last Sunday. He made a tape before he died (think The Pelican Brief) outlining what happened with his client (who was killed along with his daughter to make it look a little more random). I didn't get all of it but the gov't (President and wife) wanted him to front for illegal money laundering (I think). He wouldn't and was subsequently shot. This lawyer knew it was coming and had plans to leave the country that Monday. Apparently there are FBI agents here to investigate further.

The gov't here is very corrupt. Juan Carlos was explaining  a bit of it. And of course I couldn't understand everything but he basically said that there is money out there. It is just being skimmed off as it works it's way down the line. Each gov't worker it passes takes a cut and by the time the money (or materials) that is for the people gets to where it is supposed to go, it hardly exists. So sad. This will never turn around quickly, if it does at all, but this past Sunday more than 30,000 gathered to protest against the gov't. Whether it will do anything I don't know. But even as a moral boost I would think it would be somewhat effective. 

I finished reading Three Cups of Tea. The authors theory is that education is vital for change. I tend to agree. While I am here to help keep people alive and healthy, I think that any contributions I can make towards educating kids would be good. That is the only way change can come about. But this is a slow process taking years and even generations I believe. 

So. That is some of my thoughts for you to think about. It is so easy to ignore this stuff. And even being here there is not a lot I can do about the second half of my rant. But educating people as I can will be my goal (once I can speak Spanish :).

Other than that. I have felt two earthquakes here now. They have been 5.2-5.3. Pretty fun actually. A lot of people here get scared because in 1976 (I think) there was a large earthquake that ruined most of Antigua and killed a lot of people. That is why there are so many ruins here. And Antigua used to be the capital but was moved to where Guatemala City is now because of it. But in my ignorance, I think they are kind of fun. :)

I have been pretty bored the first half of the week. I was sick for a couple of days and now I have lost my voice but I feel fine. So maybe that was part of the problem. I seem to be okay now. I finally unpacked my thing (and organized, which I LOVE to do). And I studied this afternoon (which I had kind of been ignoring, while being bored). So I feel like I am back. Just one little slip in the road. Might even reward myself with some ER tonight. :)

A few of us went out to a restaurant last night to listen to some live music. It was really good. I enjoyed it. It was open mic night so the first couple of people were English and then there were a couple of Guatemalan's who sang and played. And this weekend Lori (student here) and I are going out for treats. It is probably a good thing she studies in the afternoon and I study in the morning. Otherwise we might be going for treats a lot!

Well this is really long. Hope you have made it this far. I am not usually a political talker but when it affects the people I am serving in a negative way I tend to get a little fired up. 

Have a good night all! (or morning, or afternoon or whenever you read this)

Naomi

I am so happy!!!!

Yesterday I got to the new house I will be staying at. I knew they had wireless internet so the first thing I unpacked was my computer. I had a good signal reading but it couldn't load an internet page. I did the "diagnostics" and it said the internet was working fine. If it was fine why couldn't I play like I wanted to!!!! I was pretty disapointed. One of my roomates said I could use his while he was gone. I just had to lock the door on my way out of his room. How great is that! Then this morning I very very selfishly prayed for the internet to work. I am embarased about it but I wanted to give credit where credit was due. :) And I turned it on and here I am writing to you! 

This is exciting for a few reasons but the biggest is that most people I want to chat with are busy during the day and I don't go out at night to use the internet. So now I can keep in better touch with people through MSN and facebook chat. And if I could figure out how to get my Skype to work down here then that would be even more fantastic!!! (when I click on it it gives me a question mark. What is it asking? If I want to talk to all my friends? Or if I just want to give Skype a little attention with a click? Really. It should be obvious :)

Yesterday when I was on the chicken bus from Guatemala City to Antigua the guy came to collect my money. I didn't know how much it was so I asked. He leaned over the lady next to me, formed his lips and very slowly and loudly said "ocho (eight)". It cracked me up. Usually I have to ask people to slow down but not this guy. Then a guy came on at one of the stops and started selling pens. They were little 4 color pens. His sales pitch was fantastic. He was saying "there is red, black, green, blue" "You can use it anywhere, the house, the street, etc" He said they were only 2 quetzales each. "That is 50 centavos each color!" He was really working the bus. He said a lot more but I forget. The guy in front of me bought one. Not sure about the rest of the bus. But at least it worked for him. 

I have to go brush my teeth and get going. I phoned a couple last night that I met a long time ago and asked them for a ride to church. That took some deep breathing. I hate making phone calls to people I don't know. Especially when I have to ask for a favor. I will take the bus after this, I just can't remember where to get off. Wasn't paying attention last time. 

Happy Sunday all!!! 

Naomi

Faaaaaaaall on your kneeeeeees!!!!

I am listening to Christmas music. I have Ruth's iTunes on and it happened to come up. I am not complaining. I love Christmas music. I used to love singing really loud to music as well but now I don't. Have I gotten too old? I used to sing so loud and animatedly in my car that people thought I was crazy. I hated summer because I had to decrease the volume (of my singing) at stoplights because my windows were open. I have purposely tried to sing loudly at music I love while in my car (well, used to) and it just wasn't the same. I was sad about it.

This has been a good week. I am visiting Ruth but not staying at her house this time. I am staying at the guest house. It has been such a relaxing week. Waking up early still but I get to lay around in bed and it is such a comfy bed!!!! And Ruth has a lot of books so I have been doing a lot of reading (which I love). I have to go back to school next week. I hope the break has been good for my brain and not a hinderance. I really thought I would study more while I was here. :)

I did some fun "cultural" things while I was here. Ruth and Walter kept bugging me about all my cultural learning. On Mother's Day the youth group made over 300 tamales for the church. I watched some of the two day process. It is a lot of work!!! Then on Tuesday the school put on a Mother's Day program. I got to go as an auntie. :) It is so much fun to watch kids you love in a production. Kathe was a teacher and Sam was a cow. It was great. And Sam's teacher asked if I was his auntie. She said he talks about me a lot. :) Yay. I love these kiddos.

Today we had Kathe's birthday party at the school. It was a lot of fun! Ruth bought this enormous Belle pinata (it was bigger than Kathe) and there were some pretty experienced pinata swingers. Then we had food and I made a bunch of balloon animals for the kiddos.

Kathe got a bunch of presents (of course). One was a live chicken. It is a teenager I think. I had a bit of a scare when I peeked into the box. That was probably the last thing I thought would be in there. Ruth said the family didn't have any money for a present and raised chicken's so gave her one. Wow. Can you imagine? It blew my mind a little on how big a present that was.

I went shopping for Kathe's corte (the traditional skirt that Guatemalan's wear. She got a traditional skirt too but I don't remember the name for that). It was fun. She picked a nice bright pink one. We had to buy sandals to go along with it. Kathe was sooooo excited. It was fun to watch. And, she looks fantastic in it!!! She wore it today. I will put pictures up on facebook as I don't feel like taking the time to figure it out right now.

Tomorrow I go back to Antigua. :( I will be staying with a different family. I met them before I left last week. I think I will be happy there. They have wireless internet!!!!! I can pretty much handle anything to have internet at night! On my own computer!!! They also have...... a washing machine! Wow. Are you guys as excited as I am? I knew it. :) They seem really friendly and there were several other students there that seemed pretty happy too.

Ruth forwarded me an e-mail a while back about a surgery team that was coming down that was short on nurses. I e-mailed them and so for 5 days in June I will be a recovery room nurse. That kind of scares me as I am a NICU nurse. But I think it will be fun. They are paying my expenses for that week too.

But other than that, life will be back to normal next week. I have decided to do at least 8 more weeks of language lessons. I need it! I thought I would practice some while I was here but it is so easy to have Ruth translate for me. So as much as I love her I need to get away from her! She is my enabler!!! (of speaking English :)

I am off now. Have a great weekend!!!!!

Naomi

Cutting back.

I am cutting back on internet, therefore there will be less of these. Sorry stalkers.

I don't have a lot of time right now. 

I am heading to Ruth's on Saturday so hopefully I will have time to write more then. Although.... I may be too busy playing with cute little kiddos. 

Hope you are all having a great week!

Naomi