10/13/10
We drove in this awesomely scary van today to a church that was out past the dumps. We actually drove through the dumps to get there. You hear the term “the dumps” and you probably picture something…I know I did, but it wasn’t at all what I pictured. It probably took about five minutes for us to drive through them. There were children playing in the garbage. There were shacks set up on one side that were like tiny closets that people lived in. There were constantly burning piles of garabe. The place smelled horrific, there was terrible black smoke coming from everywhere and there were more flies than I have ever seen in one place. I was sitting in the front of the van and looked back at the rest of the girls – it was just the girls in this van – and they looked horrified as they were covering their noses and mouthes with their shirts and trying not to look as terrified as they felt.
I took some pictures of the van. I was trying to imagine how in the world a van could turn into the condition that it was in and how in the world it was still able to drive. The hood was smoking a lot of the drive and there were many fumes. There was no side door and we brought a kid with us who hung out the window the whole time…I think it was a choice but it was not one I would have chosen. There was a hole in the floor of the car which I learned when I put my foot down and it touched the tire. Check out the pics, the descriptions don’t seem to do it justice.
We ended up getting to this church and we were told to pick up garbage in this small yard. The guys were given machetes and they were told to hack some of the vines. The girls got to pick up the hacked vines as well as various other garbage. I have no idea how that much garbage got there, and I don’t want to have any idea what I was touching. I was dripping with sweat, it was getting in my eyes and my nose…I don’t think I’ve had sweat drip up into my nose before it was weird. But I liked this task because we could tangibly see what we were accomplishing.
Then we at lunch…with no where to wash up and no water (besides our drinking water) we had to be creative, luckily most of us brought our hand sanitizers. It turned into some praise and worship. We were told we were going to spend several hours with children. Once we got there we were told that there were no children, though some came – it doesn’t really seem to matter what we’re told, whatever happens, happens. Kevin, a local ministry contact with us, was trying to translate between us and told us we could sing songs but no dancing, no choreography, and no games – that pretty much took away everything we had planned.
Thankfully Kevin was willing to teach the kids a song in Espanol and then we headed out. Kevin did some choreography without meaning to and I watched the pastor grow increasingly more uncomfortable each time he moved his arms. We’re learning about legalism quickly. Michael brought out card while we were there and Kevin later told me that the pastor looked uneasy about those as well. I guess in Guatemala Christians are not really supposed to do “worldly” things such as playing soccer, playing cards, dancing, etc. We have a lot to learn and I am growing more aware of the fact that we are going to break social and cultural norms and look like fools.
I had a lot of fun last night though. I got some of the guys at the ministry to teach me soccer tricks…there are a couple I just can’t seem to get, but I’m practicing. With our limited amount of Spanish and English, Kevin and I were able to have a pretty good conversation. I was able to teach him what sarcastic means (which was a little difficult getting him to understand), but my understanding is that sarcastico in Espanol means “to be mean” so we had to get past that. I think sarcastic is similar to “broma” which is like joking, I guess. It’s just fun to see all the similarties that exist between cultures.
I told Paul, Kevin, and Melvin (another local guy at the ministry) that tomorrow was Michael’s birthday. Paul informed me that a local tradition in Guatemala is that you light off firecrackers in front of the birthday person’s window at 5am. So, we had to go pick up some firecrackers. Becca and I happened to be the only two up and outside so Paul gave us some money and Kevin, Melvin, Becca and I went to the store. I don’t know where we went but it seemed like a pretty sketchy part of town, luckily Becca and I didn’t have to get out of the car. Melvin was driving like a madman, but (agian through rough translating) I think he was trying to show off for us.
Michael is staying in the house across the street from me but I was still able to clearly hear the firecrackers in the morning. Once we all woke up, I learned that not everyone had been informed of the plan. I guess Brooks jumped out of the top bunk when he heard the firecrackers and went into “swat style” crawling on the floor; Michael’s only reaction was to try to put his shirt on and then look out the window; Greg was aware that it was going to happen so he just laughed, but Brooks assumed that he was in such shock that all he could do was laugh. The girls in the house with me woke up the next morning, startled, asking “What in the world was that scary noise last night?!” All in all it was a lot of fun.
P.S. the name that Guatemalans call themselves sounds, to an English speaker, like they are referring to male genitalia which led to a very funny conversation in which all of us girls were giggling like little girls.
10/14/10
After we all exchanged our stories and what we thought about the firecrackers that morning, we had plenty of work to do for the day. We started by going to the beach and picking up garbage. It didn’t seem like there was all that much garbage until we started working. I picked up the “little things” and as I was meticulously searching for garbage I tried to remember the last time I cleaned up my own city in my home town…I don’t know when it was but I think it was in elementary school. Funny how I have to travel to Guatemala before I will be willing to clean up a city…
We went back to the house and had plenty to do around the yard. I chose to do meticulous garbage clean up again and picked up all the little scraps of newspaper from the firecrackers that morning. Brooks’ birthday is on 10/24 so I will probably be doing that task again soon. I then picked up sticks and other garbage in the yard and ended up putting my hand into a fire ant pile; the good news is that I noticed quickly and only got about 10 bites.
I ended up going to Michael’s birthday party was fun, a neighbor made an awesome cake for us. It’s wonderful how great chocolate tastes when you can’t eat it whenever you want.
