In Guatemala!

Hello all.

(This is a really long post. Sorry)

When I check (stalk) other people's blogs I wonder why they don't write more often for my entertainment. Now I realize that when people are actually doing fun things they don't have time to write! That is what is happening to me. I am at my friend Ruth's house. She has two kids Sam and Kathe. They are fantastic! We are too busy playing for me to write. But I have had to tell them I need to write for half an hour. So here I am.

On Thursday morning I went to the airport at 5! I actually woke up at 3. Guess I was excited. I had 3 bags to check and two of them were 3.6 lbs overweight (weird that they were both the same over). While he was weighing he asked what I was doing there. Told him that I was moving to Guatemala to work in a medical clinic. Got it in there really fast so he would have a heart and not charge me. :) It worked!

I had a good little cry that started when Taraleigh and Elaine left and didn't end until I was through customs. I was anticipating a long line so I could compose myself before I got there but I walked right up! He was really nice and hardly asked me anything.

I got into Portland and the sign at my gate said the plane was half an hour late. Because I only had a layover of 1 hour in Houston. I didn't worry too much then. Later they said it was delayed an hour and a half. When I went up to the desk I was told the flight to Guatemala was late too so no worries. When I got into Houston the plane had jsut left. I went to customer service and waited in line for 1 hour and 40 minutes. There were about 25-30 Guatemalan's in front of me that had been trying to get out all day. I could hear them saying the next flight available was at 3 the next afternoon and it went to Panama first and wouldn't get back to Guatemala until 10 that night. I didn't really want to get in at night because I knew my ride would be long gone by then. They were also told they could not get a hotel voucher, jsut a discount. So I was prepared to spend the night at the airport. But when I got up to the counter they said I had already been pre-booked on the 11:05 a.m. flight the next day. Yay!!!! I was so happy I cried. Then I got a hotel voucher. Yay again! I called Ruth and told her the details. She called her dad (who was picking up another team) and he said he would send someone to pick me up and put me on the bus.

The hotel shuttle took an hour to get there and then there was not enough room for us anyway. So he came back 15 minutes later. Then it was a 45 wait at the hotel to get checked in. So from the time I landed in Houston to the time I sat on the bed in the room it was 4 1/2 hours. But at least I got a good sleep in a king size bed.

The next morning I confirmed with Ruth that Isreal would pick me up. I had met him in 1996 so I was hoping to recognize him.

We got into Guatemala city 1/2 hour late and then when I went to get my bags only one showed up. So I had to wait in another line for a long time to report my missing bags. By the time I got outside there was no one there that looked like Isreal. So thankfully there was a pay phone right there and thankfully Tony from my church had given me some change that he had left over (God was looking out for me!) So I called Ruth and she said that a North American lady was looking for me. But I hadn't seen her. I guess I had taken so long she left and was going to come back for me. She hadn't gone very far so she turned around and we found each other. She got me to the bus depot and the next bus left 10 minutes later.

They were really nice to me on the bus. The guy in front of me gave me a tourist map he had found in his paper. The lady next to me offered me her jacket. She thought I would be cold because the windows were open and it was dark. In my terrible Spanish I tried to tell her I wasn't cold because I had come from Canada that day. She smiled and nodded. Classic "I don't understand but I don't want to tell you because you will just try to speak more abysmal Spanish that I won't understand".

And then Ruth was there with her kiddos!!!! I was so excited. Kathe is almost 5 and she gave me a big hug and put her head on my shoulder. I am in love already! And Sam even tolerated a hug from me. They are both fantastic! They were talking a mile a minute until they were forced to go to bed!

So yesterday we played and ran a couple of errands. I saw their house that they are building. It looks great. It has been under construction for 10 months and still has quite a ways to go.

I am not sure when I am leaving here. Probably Friday. I will head to Antigua and start my Spanish lessons. I already am remembering more words as I am here. Can't wait to understand it all!

So I hope at least a couple of you have made it all the way through. Sorry for the length. I won't have as much to say in the next couple of days. I will put up some pictures later of the kids at the pool yesterday.

Bye!