a jumbling of days

2-2-10

Today was a really long day..we walked for about four hours. My job here is to help to Aaron, one of the site leaders, give out loans. We also check on people who have loans, and people who need loans. So, today we walked through the streets to check on the few women who had/wanted loans. It is an interesting job, and you get to see the different lives the people lead, but trying to understand Spanish from a native speaker is very difficult and gets to be a little tiring. After walking for four hours, I was able to take a nap. This is the first nap that I have taken since arriving here in Guatemala. For those of you who know me well know that not being able to nap killed, and I thoroughly enjoyed my nap! After my nap I got in the van and left for class in Antigua. Antigua is about a 30 min drive from Magdalena. Antigua is soooo beautiful! The beauty is beyond explanation. I keep taking photos with the hope that I can capture the beauty, but I can’t and that is very frustrating.

The car ride back to Magdalena was interesting. I sat in the front with one of the missionaries here…he asked me a few questions which led me to talk about some of the things that led me to go to school in MN. One of those reasons being the relationship that I developed with my sisters. So that conversation was very interesting..turns out that he is a social worker.. which would explain why the conversation went in the direction that it did as fast as it did. Anyway, that is another story for another time.

When we returned, we went to dinner. We eat dinner every day in a café down the street. We had great conversation..one involving shooting televisions…muhahaha.

Both Terra and I returned home thinking that we were going to go straight to bed, but we were invited into the kitchen by our host mom, so we accepted. We talked for so long, and I enjoyed it so much! Los padres de la casa are so adorable! And when la madre laughs, it’s the cutest thing ever! I enjoy it so much! I am going to miss them when we leave. We talked about some of the silliest things, but I only know how to talk about the little things in life…SOOO I did my best to make it interesting..haha I think it worked. I told the mom de mi casa that she needed to throw a huge birthday party for herself and that she needs to fill her piñata with money. When I said that, el padre de mi casa asked if we put money in the piñatas back home.

3-2-10

Today when I arrived at my ministry site, I was told that we would be vaccinating chickens. I was very excited to do so! We had to vaccinate 70 at our first house. We vaccinate them by putting droplets in their eyes. Ryan, Aaron, and I picked up the chicks and put drops in their eyes, but our other group member, Josh, would. He apparently is afraid of baby chicks. Well, by the end he was forced to participate, and all I could do was laugh while I watched him pick up the chicks. He face was so full of fear and disgust..you know the type of face you would have if you stumbled upon a snake eating a baby calf? Well, that face belonged to Josh today. Just when I thought the day had reached its high point, Aaron asked Josh to put the chickens back in the cage by the handful. Watching Josh do this was the highlight of my year; the faces that he made caused me to laugh harder than the Bangkok joke.. needless to say this laughter was totally inappropriate, which is probably why I couldn’t stop. Next, we went to a house that had bigger chicks..needless to say this exchange was even more amusing! We vaccinated more than 100 chicks today. I found the whole ordeal completely entertaining, but I think I was the only one who did. Oh yeah, josh ended the day bay saying “I could only kill an animal for survival purposes.” I burst into even more laughter after he said this. I wish you could have heard the tone of his voice when he said this. (the more I am around Spanish, the worse my English gets..please forgive me if some of these phrases don’t make sense..haha)

4/2/10

So after my last entry yesterday it hit me…yes, my wanting to be around people who know me best hit me, and I got annoyed. I wanted to talk to someone who knows what I mean without having to go into great detail. Oh well…I got over it, and went to bed. Ohhh and by the way I am allergic to chickens.

Today we went around the city helping people with some of the things they need. One of those things included carrying huge buckets of water. The buckets were the size of those huge paint buckets that contractors use. A part of my job here is to give mini loans to people who need them to help them build their businesses. Today, we visited a woman who took out a loan a while ago, but was unable to make the payments because one of her twins became ill and needed medicine. The mission that I am working with gave the woman some chicken to sell so that she would be able to get back on her feet. This was such a blessing to see; she started crying and kept thanking God for his gift. I know people say that small gifts go a long way, but you never really believe it until you witness it in front of your eyes. In the states 20 chicks would mean nothing to many of us, but here it’s the beginning of something new and wonderful for many people. It’s good for me to see.

I will post more as soon as I have time :)