December 15th - December 31st, 2007

December 15th was kind of a lazy Saturday and my rommate, Pamela, asked me if I wanted to go to the city and have lunch with her family. It sounded fun and I wasn't doing anything so I went along. I met Pamela's: Grandmother, Mother, Sister, Uncle, Aunt, and cousin. We sat down to eat Spinach soup and chicken enchiladas. (note: if you ever have the chance to eat a meal with a Latin-American family, take it) They spoke so fast and, a lot of the time, at the same time. After, lunch we went shopping at the super market, Hiper Paiz, which is litterally Super Wal-Mart. They purchased several of the big chains here in Guatemala and all across Central America a few years ago. I started to wonder what that will do to Guatemala, a place where families run a tienda, little store, and there are several within a community, what will a huge corporation like Wal-mart do..., Is it ultimately a good thing or not??? Anyway, we finished shopping and went back to their house to eat some more. We had some Rice Tamales, packed up Pamela's car and came back to Antigua. We met up with some friends, had a few drinks and called it an early night.



December 16th - Dia de Canastas (Baskets Day)

Tha staff all showed up by 7 am on Sunday morning to prepare for the operation..., yeah, operation. We had 8-900 families coming to the project to receive a Christmas gift basket and along with that there was an hour of entertainment for the adults and kids seperately. I was helping with passing out the baskets to the families. Each basket had a variety of useful stuff in it, like pasta and a blanket (see photos). In all we estimate that there were between 3-5,000 people that came through the project. It was a long day but really rewarding and fun too.



Decenber 17th-21st

It was a pretty normal week at work, just real quiet around the project. Pablo and I built a lot of panels in preparation for the 4 Vision Teams that were coming in January. On Wednesday I went with Chicho and another satff person to our new out-post in San Rafael. It's about a 45 minute drive north of Antigua. This is what Common Hope is looking at doing to expand their shadow of service. Building a facility like we have here in Antigua is very expensive so they don't want to do that again. Instead they are starting little outpost that use our facility as a jumping off point. This one is in the school in San Rafael. Chicho and I went to work on the stove that the school has. It was originally built too high and the cooks couldn't lift the big pots on and off of it, so we lowered it to about knee height. Thursday I started watching my friend Rocio's dog while she went back to Mexico for Christmas. Mailo is a Golden Retriever and still a puppy, one and a half years old, I think. That Friday, the 21st, we had the day off, comp time for the previous Sunday so I did nothing all day.



December 24th

This was the first low day I've had here in Guatemala.It was really different to not be around any of my Family and Friends, and even weirder that I wasn't going to be at CUC for the duration of the evening. I spent the day hanging out with Mailo and watching some sports. Then I called my father to ask him to call me later that night during Silent Night. My church has a tradition that each of the five X-mas Eve services are closed by singing Silent Night by candle light. At the 11 pm service, they have Communion right at midnight then sing Silent Night. It was about 1:15 am local time when my father called and I got to listen to the congregation sing. When they finished the whole congregation wished me a Merry Christmas. (even as I type this I'm beginning to cry) It was really nice and I appreciated it a lot. The only thing that sort of disruppted all of that was the dance party that started immediately after the barage of fireworks ended. Part of a Guatemalan's Christmas celebration includes launching off Fireworks at Midnight Christmas Day. So, for about half an hour there was a nation-wide fireworks display. At 12:30 am they turned on the music in the plaza of Santa Ana, which is directly in front of my house, and had a party til about 8 am.



Christmas Day

I got up and went for a run with Mailo, we ran for about 40 minutes, it was a beautiful day. 85 degrees or so, sunny, blue sky..., no snow anywhere..., very different from any Christmas I'd had before. I called my folks and several friends and then made some dinner. I invited my nieghbor An, from Belgium, over to join me for dinner as she was alone too. We enjoyed dinner and conversation, Pamela got home and joined us as well. All around a good day.



December 26th - 29th

Chicho, Felix and Pablo were on vacation so it was just me and Mario working. I did lots of little random stuff and just stayed busy. I also worked on a desk that I was building for Pamela. There was one in the house but it was sold to someone before we moved in just not picked up, so they finally came and got it. Pamela needs a desk for studying, so I told her I'd make her one. I used old scrap wood here at the project, plained it down and cut it up..., for my first piece of furniture I think it looks pretty good. Saturday I did my laundry and worked on the desk some more.



Sunday December 30th

I got up and was motivated to clean, so I washed all the dishes and cleaned the house. Sometime in the middle of scrubbing the toilet I got the idea to go to the beach! I asked pamela what she thought and she was up for it. So we loaded up the car with some food and beer and picked up Peter, the guy she was dating at the time, and headed south to Puerto San José. It's about an hour and a half drive south of Antigua on the Pacific Ocean. Antigua is in the hills but as soon as you start heading south it is just one gentle slope all the way to the ocean, the elevation drops, the humidity sky rockets and the temperature increases too. It was about 2 pm when we got to the black volcanic sand beach. The beach was pretty dirty, lots of trach and stuff, but it was nice. I played in the surf for a while and we sat and talked and screwed around, trying to do hand stands and front hand springs. We also got a call from our friend Carlos, telling us that he had tickets for us to go to the XL party that night in San Jose. The big Rum company here, Ron Botron, throws a huge New Years party every year. It's free but only if you know someone who gets tickets, Carlos used to work for them, so he gets tickets. We showed up and they had a huge stage set up with models, male and female, walking around in togas. Atlantis was the theme, we got a little dance performance, and then a concert by The Kumbia All-Stars, a big Mexican rock band. The rum was free and all you could drink, so I did my part..., and then a bit more... We finally left at about 2 am to head back home. Pamela drove and I fell asleep in the backseat. Somewhere down the highway, that 'bit more' didn't want to stay down, so I hung my head out the window and left it on the highway... We got home a little before 4 am and I went straight to bed.



Monday December 31st

A phone call woke me up at around noon, it was to confirm meeting plans. I was meeting up with Rocio, Terry, and Terry's friend Rob to go to the city and run in the San Silvestre 10K. I didn{t feel all that great, I wonder why, but I got up and had some tea and some food and headed into Antigua. We left at about 2 pm and got to the start of the run about 3 pm. It turned out both Terry and Rocio decided not to run so it was just Rob and I. There were about 2,000 people there, several in costumes, and only 2, yes TWO port-a-potties. Rob and I walked down the street to McDonalds to go to the bathroom. Then a 4 pm we started running. Surprisingly I felt pretty good until about k. 7, I wanted to die. I pushed through, though, and I finished in 50 minutes flat. Not that amazing in and of its self, but 10 minutes better that my previuos 10K and after a night of heavy drinking... We came back to Antigua and I showered, napped, and then headed to Rocio's house for dinner and drinks. Lot's of the Volunteers from the project were there and we ate and laughed and had some Vodka Jell-o shots. At about 11 pm we walked into Antigua where Pepsi was throwing a huge street party on Calle del Arco. I headed to the Monoloco to meet up with Carlos and Pamela and Bob. We watched the fireworks from the patio and then they kicked everyone out except for about 20 of us and they opened the bar. We listened, and sang, to loud music and drank until about 4 am. When we got back to the house Santa Ana was having another party so the music was blaring, Guatemalans don't do music quietly, and another friend came over with champange. Finally at about 6 am I was done so I went to bed and was asleep with out any problem.





That was the end of 2007! It was such a great year, so many amazing experiences, new friends old friends, Mission Trips and retreats, singing and dancing, laughing and loving, quiting my job and moving out of the country... WOW! I'm looking forward to life to come, especially in 2008!



Follow your heart and passions, life is too short to say, should've, could've, and would've...



Blessings on you and your's in this new year :)

Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14006&l=3abd5&id=752630746

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14323&l=fbb19&id=752630746

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=14330&l=c5055&id=752630746