I realize that I never blogged last Tuesday. Or Friday. Or the Friday before that. I apologize. My team decided to take a week-long wifi-break and it really messed with my schedule. Also the fact that our house switched up the wifi schedule really messed with my schedule. Literally. Now instead of having wifi on Tuesdays and Fridays, I have it on Mondays and Thursdays. So there’s that.
But anyway, I went with a group of nine people (five of whom were from my team) to see the Mayan ruins at Tikal. And it was FREAKING AWESOME. And also kind of scary. See?
It was awesome because this was an entire group of people who made GIANT STONE STRUCTURES and intricate aqueduct systems with hand tools and man power. And some of these structures correlated with solstices and equinoxes and were positioned just so for various reasons. It was crazy. But it was also kind of scary because these are people who sacrificed people and believed freaky things about Ceiba trees and the nine layers of the underworld.
However, as exciting as the ruins were, I think my favorite part was after we had returned to the island our hotel was on. We bought dinner from some street vendors down by the water and watched the sun set (which was cool and beautiful and all, but you can’t really beat a Lake Michigan sunset). Then we went off in search of a sports court we had seen from the roof of our hotel. We were successful. And we ended up playing street volleyball with a group of Guatemalans youths (okay I say youths because I don’t have a words for ‘friends ranging from thirteen to twenty five’) from the island. It was actually really fun, and that’s saying something because I don’t even like volleyball. Even though they didn’t really speak English and we don’t really speak Spanish, that wasn’t important. You don’t need words to play volleyball. A good hit is still a good hit, and a bad hit is still a bad hit, and things that are funny are still funny. We all had so much fun and laughed so much. Language is a minor thing in the grand scheme of things.
I saw that again today as a group of my squadmates and I (and by that I mean Aaron, Alex, Andy, Bryan, Rae, Olivia, Jodi, and myself. And Melvin, who is Guatemalan but is essentially on my squad because he eats all our food and never leaves our house) played a game of soccer against a team of local Guatemalan guys who were actually really big by Guatemalan standards. I mean, they were a considerable amount bigger than I. Anyway, we played them and we didn’t even lose (I mean, we didn’t win either, but a tie is better than nothing, eh?) and it was a really fun game. It is entirely possible to joke around and razzle opponents in different languages and get your point across. I was pretty proud of myself because I ended up playing goalie and didn’t even do half bad. Did I mention I was wearing a dress? #ballerstatus
The final part of this post, and probably the most challenging part of my life right now, is the fact that my construction project in the town of Santa Maria has come to a close. Which is REALLY SUPER SAD. Like, totally-leaving-holes-in-my-heart sad. Like, I know that theoretically we were blessing them by helping to build their house, but that’s a load of junk. These people have blessed me more than I can say. Their joy, their friendship, their generosity, their company, has been the best thing I’ve encountered in a while. Construction work was hard, really it was. I lost a bit of weight and gained a few callouses. But it wasn’t exactly belaboring. Not with all the jokes and laughter the construction guys brought. Hector, Miguel, and Victor were always smiling, and always had a sassy comment to say. And they were super patient with our language barrier and were really good at explaining things clearly. Also,they were really cool and taught us some words in the Mayan language of Kakchi’quel. Which is really cool to listen to but essentially impossible to speak or understand if you didn’t grow up with it because it uses phonemes we don’t use in English. But anyway. That’s finished now and even though I’m really happy that Juan and Filomena and the rest of the family have a solid new house to live in, I’m really REALLY sad that I won’t be able to spend time with them all anymore. But a) I’m visiting them again on Thursday because that is he day Hector, Miguel, and Victor are putting the finishing touches on the house, and I promised Victor I’d bring cookies, and b) I need to trust that The Lord has put these incredible people in my life for this season, and that He will bring even more incredible people into my life in the next. It just kind of sucks right now.
Miguel and I. Don’t be fooled, he’s straight up mean mugging in this picture on purpose. He smiles all.the.time. Legit.
Hector, Miguel, and Victor. Best construction crew ever. 10/10, would build houses with again any day.
The family for which we built the house. From left we have Filomena, Juan, Amadia, Rosalinda, Olga, and the little one in front is Ana who occasionally tortures cats. Filomena is one of the sweetest people you will ever encounter, and Juan has more joy than can be contained in his four and a half foot tall frame. And Amadia has a tendency to pray that I’ll find a husband. But for real, I love this family so much.
So that’s my life. And I am both happy and sad and am trying to figure out how that can be. #hipsterquotes
