Mi Vida Loca

 Yesterday was an adventure, to say the least…

       We have our days off on Saturdays, so a few of us decided to go to Antigua for the afternoon to get lunch and see a couple of the other B Squad teams. There are crazy, painted school buses that fly through the streets of Guatemala every time you turn around, and these apparently are Guatemala's version of public transportation. So we walked out to the main road, and 5 of us hopped on a bus that slowed down momentarily as a man hanging halfway out of the door shouted "Antigua, Antigua, Antigua!" Little did we know what we were getting into!

       We stepped on the busy only to find that not only was was it "full" according to American standards, it was PACKED. There were at least 3 people per seat, and in some cases, 4 or even 5. I wish I had a picture, but we were gripping tightly to our bags in order to prevent pickpocketing, which apparently is a common occurrence. One of the girls happened to catch a lady unzipping the pocket to her camera bag before she was able to take anything. Guess we're not in America anymore! We had no room to sit, so the five of us gripped tightly to the railing as we were tossed from side to side, landing on annoyed Guatemalans, as the driver flew around the curves of the Guatemalan hills. The bus driver's "assistant" then proceeded to somehow climb over and squeeze through us all packed like sardines to collect 5 Quetzales from all of us (The bus ride cost a little over $0.50  in American dollars!).

My stomach somehow remained under control despite the circumstances, and we made it safely to Antigua. We then had the BEST meal so far since arriving in Guatemala. We stopped at a "Pupuseria," where we partook in these amazing, fluffy, flour tortillas/pancakes with cheese and other ingredients cooked inside on a grill right in front of us. I decided to have Queso y Frijoles Negros (cheese & black beans) and Queso y Champiñónes (cheese & mushrooms). They were MUY DELICIOSO!

Since we were living large already, I decided to split a dessert with Alyssa, so we ordered a "canoa," which means "canoe." It was an incredible concoction of a fried plantane split down the middle, stuffed with rice pudding, cinnamon, and raisins and sprinkled with chocolate sauce. MUY RICO!

But somehow, one of the ladies serving us talked us into ordering the Tres Leches Flan, telling us it was the best thing on the menu. Well… if you insist. It was probably the best flan I have ever had. No lie. My mouth is watering now just thinking about it.

We then split up, a few of us headed to the market while Alyssa and I got lattes at the Guatemalan version of Starbucks (or Starsucks, as my friend Lauri likes to call it!), and we just chilled out for a little while. It was probably the nicest bathroom that I've used in the past 9 days…

Did I mention that it rains a lot in Guatemala? There was actually a landslide in Guatemala City on Saturday, but thankfully everyone is safe here. We are definitely experiencing the weather though. It absolutely poured on our walk back to the buses. But we found a little stall at the market selling t-shirts that I just couldn't resist…

We managed to find the right bus back to Chimaltenango, but the ride that had barely taken 35 minutes to Antigua now took an hour due to the driver stopping every 10 seconds to try to pick up more passengers and fill the bus. Luckily we had seats this time! We were cautioned to be back at the orphanage before dark, but as the ride dragged on, the sky grew darker and darker. Since there was no official "bus stop" where our orphanage is located, we had to keep our eyes peeled for familiar landmarks and hope to get off somewhere near our stop. We recognized the place where we needed to get off, but the bus merely slowed down momentarily to let off one passenger… and we ignorant Americans were left speechless and confused at what to do to let the driver know we needed off! Luckily, we were able to jump off at the next stop, but we had driven another minute or so before he stopped.

So we were left to walk about half a mile in the pouring rain, pitch black dark, on the half-flooded streets of Chimaltenango while cars and buses drove by at amazing speeds, often soaking us as they plowed through 6-inch deep puddles. Thankfully, God protected us and we made it home safely, if not "bit" damp (read: SOAKED) and only about 20 minutes late for dinner. I couldn't complain though, because there were some mouth-wateringly amazing tamales waiting for us. I DEVOURED mine.

We woke up early again this morning to get the children ready for church, and we went to Misión Evangelica Bethesda with our ministry contact, Maureen, for a service completely in Spanish. I was able to decipher the general message from the pastor by reading through the verses in my English bible and catching a few words such as "resurreción," "santos" (saints), and "transformados" (transformed). It was fun when we recognized a couple hymns that had the same tune as hymns from home (Lord, I Lift Your Name on High!).

So far, our first 5 days here have been amazing. The children are beautiful, and I already have a few favorites (whoops!). It's definitely an adjustment waking up at 4:45 am, though! See all my pictures here!