So you think that being a missionary is all excitement and adventure? Below are a few things that, rightfully so, don’t get talked about as much as maybe they should.
Parasite water. Here in Guatemala, the water is full of parasites, bacteria and dirt. In order for us to have water to drink, cook with, wash our fruits and vegetables with and brush our teeth with (some of us use the ‘parasite’ water), we must filter the water in 5 gallon buckets and distribute it around the house. Depending on how dirty the water is on any given day; the process of filtering 5 gallons can take from 30 minutes to 3 hours.
Warm showers? Not exactly. There have been weeks into months where I haven’t had a warm shower. Yes, the water does get warm, sometimes. There have also been days on end where we had absolutely no running water at all.
Cannons. One of the wonderful things about living in a 3rd world country is the culture you get to experience on a daily and sometimes nightly basis. Here in Guatemala the churches set off cannons randomly throughout the day and night. They are loud, really loud.
Beans. We eat beans. Tons and tons of beans. You know what that means.
Rainy season. It rains here, a lot. It will rain 3 hours a day, almost every day, for 7 months out of the year. Bring your ponchos!
Productivity. When something breaks or needs fixed, it’s not as easy as calling the local repair man or going to Wal-Mart. Many times, you have to wait for something to be sent from the States or hire someone to find it in another part of the country.
Not so “Roach Free” living space. Another cool thing about living in Antigua is the ancient buildings and streets that we get to walk on each day. One of the less desirable things of an extremely old city is an extremely old sewer system. So, here in our house we must keep screens or ‘lids’ on all the drains to keep the army of hungry roaches from crawling up on your feet and into the household.
Door to door (or window) salesmen. Standing in the window of my kitchen I have been solicited machetes, brooms, garlic cloves, dvds, electric tape, marijuana, alarm clocks, slightly used socks and my all time favorite, so close to being totally rotten fruit that it must be eaten 2 seconds after you buy it.
Poop trash. As mentioned earlier, the plumbing here is older and with being older it unfortunately doesn’t work that well. The solution? Poopy toilet paper trash cans. Yep, we have nice little smelly trash cans next to each toilet that we get to throw all our trash into. Yum.
Expensive electricity. You heard me right. In Guatemala, the cost of electricity ranges from 2-3 times more than the average cost in the United States.
Well, now you know….
