Guatemala

2009-05-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

The last month or so has been extra exciting, we started off in Rio Dulce working on our
mission house. We had to build steal beams, cut concrete beams, lay beam block, lay and tie steel mesh, haul litterally tons of sand, gravel, and concrete bags, and mix tons of cement on the ground with shovels and hoes then pour the foundation. We also finished the plumbing and electrical (which is a pain since we're making solid block walls and have to run single wires and a lot of times we have to keep changing the color of the wires because they ran out at the store.)

We did this for about two weeks then we drove 6 hours to the mountains above Zacapa to Pinalito (our other mission) for a night only to find out Nino, a native who's known for teaching his whole family to be theives like him, got his house shot up because he wouldn't stop stealing and he wouldn't leave peacefully. Well, he was fine but his 15 year old son got shot in the chest very close to his heart. Luckily he lived but when he went down to the hospital in Zacapa the doctors cut him open (very poorly) most likely because he was poor and they needed the practice because you could clearly see the exit wound. That night we had half of the village at our house scared because they thought they had heard rumors that the same people were coming after them too. So we let the women and children stay in the mission with us for about an hour until we found out that someone else got a letter saying if the missionaries got involved more blood would be shed. Even though it was a hard desicion we had to tell them they couldn't stay after they already got settled in, and of course they left furious and terrified to go sleep hidden in the mountain somewhere that night.

Fortunately the whole thing blew over and we left the next morning on another 7 hour trip to La Libertad, El Salvador for a little vacation time.
We stayed in Salvador for a total of 4 days and surfed two of those days because there was
a huge swell there and it was too dangerous the other days. The most dangerous day was our second day there when the biggest wave had a 20 ft. face and was extremely think and powerful. It took out about 20 people, broke 6 boards, and almost took two lives. As you can imagine after hearing this guy tell the story of him being held under for about 200 yards we were very hesitant to go out the next day. But the swell died down and we had a fun day and didn't want to leave when it was time to go.

So we left and drove another 6 hours to guatemala city and stayed for two days before driving another 7-8 hours to a place in the North-West of guatemala called Nebaj... When we arrived in Nebaj it was very evident that there was a strong Mayan influence there by the look of the clothes and their language, which is a Mayan dialect mixed with spanish called Ixil (ee-sheel). We were supposed to stay with a missionary family we know that has been there for about 20 years and has worked with my aunt and uncle a few times before. We were driving throught the town wondering how we were going to find this family when all of the sudden the man we were looking for just happened to pull up behind us and lead us to his house. They had a nice house sitting on about 14 acres on the edge of town with a horse and a bunch of paintball guns, which made it nice when we weren't working. 2 of the 5 days we were there we went to other villages around Nebaj to help them get church buildings started. So i was back to hauling in mixing, but this time instead of doing it in the blistering heat...we were doing it in the freezing hail, it was definitely an experience.

Then after 5 days in Nebaj we left on another drive back to Pinalito that should have been about 6 hours but we got stuck behind two Mayan festivals, a funeral, and we got a flat tire...so it really ended up being more like 8 hours.
We were in the mountains for a fairly uneventfull week before going on another 6 hour ride down the mountain and back to Rio Dulce. From here we celebrated an early 17th birthday for me, and late 16th birthday for my cousin Chelsea, and a late 15th birthday for my sister Cassidy by taking a 4 hour boat ride to an island off the coast of Belize to go snorkeling on the second biggest reef in the world. Even though we were only there for about 5 hours we were so beat from all the swimming and waking up at 4:30 that we were ok with leaving, even though the island we went to was the most awesome place i've been to.

Now i'm sitting in a hotel room on Rio Dulce writting this and preparing for tomorrow's 5-6 hour drive and then after few days the return trip and all the work we're going to be doing right after that with the team we're picking up. Even though i love this country and love all the rewarding work we're doing here i still miss the states and can't wait to get back in June.

recently

2008-01-19T09:41:00.000-08:00

Lately what I’ve been doing is working a lot. I’ve layed tile, grouted, mixed mortar for the tile, cut tile with grinder and tile saw, tiled and grouted a counter by myself, and I even did a little bit of plumbing at the Pastor’s house when their sink was clogged. But I’ve also been doing a lot of school, playing with the native kids, and practicing my Spanish. So in the past few weeks I’ve been pretty busy…But there was also time for fun; we got to hike a volcano and we saw lava and we also went to a big tourist area called Antigua to shop for souvenirs with some friends that were down here. We went inside a giant cathedral while we were there and walked around, looking at all the different statues and giant altars. And also, a while back we got to go to a castle from about the 1500’s. We walked around on the inside and found secret passages and also looked at some old cannons. Another thing I did is helped play doctor when a bloody machete wound victim was carried to us.

2007-12-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

The Past
Up above the hot desert of Zacapa, is the cooler and jungle/forest-like area of Pinalito. Here were many people who, before my uncle and aunt came, were treated like dogs. Nobody cared for them or thought nice of them, they were thought of as the poor people who chopped themselves up. It used to be one of the most dangerous places in that area. The main religions were Catholicism, or witchcraft. My aunt and uncle wanted to go there so bad to preach and to just touch the people there and make them feel loved. They went there to preach a few times and then found out that other missionaries needed a full time family there to take care of everything instead of short-term ones. They were so happy to hear this and prayed that they would be the ones. Eventually they bought it and moved in. They started doing church and little by little people came, even if they didn’t believe in God, they were still curious. They would come and listen and eventually get saved, and then more people, until there was a whole group of people that were saved.
Today
But, even now there are still people that are scared to come into the church…or some people will get whipped by their family or something else if they take a step in there. So we’re working hard to break this fear and change everybody’s minds, but the nearest Catholic Church is hard to compete with since it’s such a strict religion and the fear of change.
What I’ve Done
Honestly, I’ve been doing the most work I’ve ever done and been having about the most fun I’ve ever had at the same time. I’ve learned how to lay tile, grout, use a machete, a little bit of plumbing, make cement railings, cut tile, and other various things. I’ve also made a lot of friends here, learned a lot of Spanish, and taught some English, and taught a bunch of kids how to skateboard. I really like it here, even though there are some crazy things that happen, you just have to have faith that everything will be alright and God will protect you.