2-11-07
This morning I woke up looking out at a beautiful sunrise and pelicans dipping into the water. Mildred made amazing banana pancakes for us as we got ready for church. The church service was fun to observe with songs and a sermon. It is really neat to see that other than our language barrier we are very similar people to the Guatemalans here. After the adult service Bri, Joy, and I helped out with the pre-school class. They did a lesson out of their Sunday school book on Jesus helping the disciples to catch the fish. We helped them to fold boats out of paper then helped them to cut and paste fish. After Sunday school some girls pulled me into their games of hide and seek and London bridge.
Mildred drove us back to her house and with the help of Gladis and Vivian prepared a feast of steak, chicken, chorizo, tortillas, salad, rice, and fruit. We sat beside the water with the breeze from the bay cooling us off. Marianna is Vivian’s sister and is studying English and accounting. She practiced her English with me as I worked on my Spanish.
Tonight Vivian’s husband Walter treated us to dessert; I got a muffin and coffee. We were on our way to see Hotel del Norte, a landmark hotel that is over 100 years old. I had the cup of coffee in one hand and the muffin in another as we rode in the car. I was about halfway done when I saw a dead ant on the muffin. Normally, I would throw food away when I found a dead insect, but my initial thought was, “I’m too lazy to find a spot to put my coffee down while I pick the ant off so, I’ll just eat it.” I was about to eat it but, I thought, “No, I shouldn’t eat the ant.” So I put my coffee down, picked off the ant, picked up my coffee, and continued to eat until I found another dead ant. Now I was really ready to just eat the ant instead of bothering to go through the process of picking it off. But, I put my coffee down and picked off the ant and in the process spilled coffee on my shirt. Immediately I thought, “I should have just eaten the ant, then I wouldn’t have coffee on my shirt.” I have come a long way in a month in a half as far as what I consider clean and what I consider food.
