Tomorrow is Friday. Good.

Hello all. I am tired. I don't like being by myself at home at night all the time. It is not too bad, not like it was at the beginning. But when my friend found a dog and asked me to foster him until she found his family I said yes. That was over a month ago now. He is mine. But he likes to wake up at 5:30. I used to get up right away and walk him because I would rather get up early then clean up pee, or even worse, poo, later on. That got old VERY fast. Those of you who know me really well will understand that. So now I make him go back to his bed and he promptly falls asleep while I lay there. It is good praying time but I am not always in the best of moods! I have thought about giving that little turkey away. But not sure if I want to yet.

Anyway, Tuesday I woke up and thought it was Friday and it wasn't. Not even close. And now tomorrow it will be. And my dog is at a sitter's place because I am at my friends house looking after her father-in-law while she and her family are in the U.S. So I am GOING to sleep in on Saturday. And that will be a good thing.

That really had nothing to do with anything. I didn't have any lesson or funny story or anything. Hmmm. On to other things then.

I stink at keeping up this blog. Wait. You already know that.

I went to breakfast with a friend of mine on Sunday. We have been family friends since she was about 3 years old (she is now 19). She was volunteering in a place called Tactic and was helping host all the teams that they have come through. I saw her 3 times in the six weeks she was here and let me tell you, it was great. I had two other people I thought were coming down and unfortunately neither of them can come now. So it is nice to have a bit of "home" here.

We decided to splurge ($11.) and go to a nice hotel for a buffet breakfast. I have wanted to go since June of last year when a surgical team I helped out let me stay with them for the night. The food is amazing! And plentiful. They have an omelet bar. You pick what you want to put in it. And they have fried plantains which are my favorite here.

When we got there the waiter said we could leave our bags at the table. I had already spoke to him in Spanish so I couldn't fake that I didn't understand but I sure wasn't going to leave my bag at the table no matter how nice the place was! So we just took them with us. When I went to sit down, Michelle put her bag down and went back for something else. She is skinny so she was allowed. The waiter came up and zap strapped our bags to our chairs! Too funny! I loved it. But didn't feel quite cheesy enough to take a picture of it. After all, we were in a nice restaurant.

Then we went to my church. Let me preface this story by saying that Michelle is a Music major in University, and my worship leader has a good heart and a voice that sings in tune but almost no timing whatsoever. It really threw me when I first started attending. I had a hard time worshipping when I knew he was coming in anywhere from 3-8 beats late. Anyway, we get to a song that Michelle actually knows. Poor girl. She didn't know the previous songs so she had no idea what was in store. She starts singing in the most beautiful voice and then finds herself singing in time, but singing alone. After about 2 verses she heads to the bathroom. I thought she might be sick because she had mentioned that she likes this song and I didn't think she would leave in the middle of it. But when she came back she said she was fine. I figured out later she must have left because it was impossible for her to sing like she wanted to. Ah Guatemala, how I love you. :)

Well, that is it for tonight. I am tired. I just needed to get my blog count back up again so here it is. Please don't give up on me!!! Take care all. God bless.

My drive last week.

I thought I would let you in on a glimpse on my driving life. I live in a small town about a 35 minute drive from Antigua (the main tourist town here in Guatemala) but in reality is less than 14 kms. I have to do my banking and grocery shopping outside of Parramos because it is so small.

So last week I went to Antigua after I was done at the Home at 5. I was with a Guatemalan friend. We passed a bus and a pick up that flashed me some hand signals. I have seen these signals and to be honest, I have no idea what they are trying to say. My friend said to me that they signaled to slow down farther down the hill. There was some sort of problem. She was very specific that is was not here, but farther down the hill. How she got all of that from a couple of hand signals, I have no idea! I was glad she was with me.


There is a stretch of road on the way down the hill that is just dirt on one side for about a km. The government quit paying the road crew sometime last year so the road was never finished. With the Tropical Storm and the heavy rains we have been having, the road is washing away. And not just the dirt, but it is eating away the foundation under the asphalt and that is crumbling away on the sides. It leaves for a pretty narrow lane. And where it is crumbling leads down the side of a steep hill. So there is no where to build that foundation back up again. It can make for a bit of a scary drive on a good day. Especially because nobody wants to drive on the rutted bad side so they drive the wrong way on the asphalt until another car appears. It is a windy road and the buses whip up and down it so this can happen without warning. I have seen and been involved in many close calls. And there is no shoulder to drive on (to avoid them) or cement barriers to prevent driving off the road and down the hill.

So back to last night. It was still light when I went down but I knew it would be getting dark when I came up. When we got to the bottom of the hill we saw the problem. There is another stretch of road 200 feet long that is often a river passing down when there is a lot of rain. Another night I came up in the dark and the water was a good 2 feet of rushing water that cars couldn't pass. Anyway, this time it was a semi-trailer stuck in the middle of the road. The main cab was backing up to try and hook up again to pull it out of the way. I drove around him and continued on my way. A few km's later I was in another town and all of a sudden traffic was being diverted and ambulances and fire trucks were driving by. It is hard to get out of the way of a two lane road that has no shoulder, just houses on the side of the road. I turned down a road and then my friend told me I would go way out of my way and I should go back and take a different road.

I dropped my friend off and did my banking and gorcery shopping and I really wanted to go to McDonalds but it was almost dark and I was worried about getting home. I still want McDonalds.

Anyway, I took a different way back. I wanted to avoid the accident so I took a different highway. But I forgot that there is a long stretch of really bad bumpy dirt road that I had to drive to get to the highway. But I was in luck! The ruts had been washed away from the rain and so many vehicles had driven over it that the ruts turned into a continuous road of deep water filled puddles. 15 feet long puddles that went from one side of the road to the other. You would pull up out of one and go right back down into another. It worried me that I couldn't see what was on the bottom (I have already had one flat tire from the bad roads) but I made it without incident. This stretch of road is also very remote so I wouldn't want to get stuck there by myself.

I made it back to the "river" stretch and it wasn't too bad. Just really muddy and I could feel my tires slipping (on a side note, the next day I asked my friend how to use the 4 wheel drive :) I have driven when the water was rushing by and about 2 feet deep.

So, I made it home okay and it was dark but that was okay. Then I was sorry I didn't get my McDonalds! :) Hindsight is always 20/20.

This post is not about complaining. I have become used to it and don't often get too nervous anymore. Although the other day I was in the Capital with a friend and I was doing an errand. I had to walk by myself for a bit and my friend later mentioned to me that it is nice to know we always have angels with us but sometimes she wishes for the angel Micheal! I feel the same way.

But as I was driving it I was thinking about how different my life really is now. I think about things that I didn't use to think about. I have to worry and watch myself and take precautions. I have to not get angry with terrible roads and unthinking people. But it is now normal. And I have good people around me. I know that I could call any number of people and they would help me in a heartbeat. Like my landlord.

Last night I had a large spider on my wall. It was too big to deal with on my own. So I went downstairs and told Axel that I needed help with a spider. I had no shame at this point. I showed him with my fingers how big her was (I included leg span in my estimation) and he was surprised. He said he had never seen one in town before. He asked if I had a broom to deal with it. When we got upstairs I think he had to bite his lip not to laugh. He thought I was talking about a tarantula! He took his shoe and just killed it. I tell you, it was big! He told me they were common and harmless. They are common??!!?? This is supposed to help me feel better??!! Later I thought about my can of Raid. I could have killed him with that and maintained my distance. But my grandpa gave me wise advice last time I complained about picking up dead bugs with toilet paper. I used a broom to sweep him up and I put him in the toilet. I wanted NO chance of reincarnation.

Alright, this is long. But I have a lot of time to make up for. I am still keeping up with the Home blog. http://www.newlifeandpeaceministries.blogspot.com/ So you can see pictures of me and my kiddos. Next time I write, I will write fun stories about them.


Bye!

P.S. These three guys were my dinner dates on Friday night. Jealous?