Wednesday, Jan 21 – Completing what was unfinished

7:43 pm

After waking up twelve hours ago, sleeping in for Guatemalan standards, to what I thought was an earthquake (Bennett was actually shaking the bed to wake me up since I had headphones in), I rushed a shower and headed to the woodshop.  We all put the final coat on 24 benches in about an hour or two and enjoyed the rest of the day off.  The benches look great and we took a group shot with them for the Casa website (casaontherock.com).  We told Jack Ciak that we were done and instead of giving us more to do he just said, "Enjoy the kids."  So we did.  We all played pretty hard and got worn out.  A couple of us started to read some of the books we needed to have read before we get back from interim.  I was able to start and finish a great book, Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village, within five hours including a lunch break.  It was good to have that weight lifted off of me as well.  There is one little boy here, Yogi, who can't be more than four or five and he is always full of smiles.  Since he can't speak any English and you could say the same thing about my Spanish we just talk with arm motions and smiles.  I love still being able to communicate with the children even though I'm not nearly as proficient in their language as the other six here with me.  

Tuesday, Jan 20 – A new school year...a new president

7:12 pm

So we are very close to finishing the benches.  All of them have a first coat of oil paint, so tomorrow we should finish them with their second coat tomorrow.  It'll be really neat to get closure on that project so we can move to newer, greater things.  This morning the Casa kids started school.  They've been out since October for what is their "summer break" so it was great to see the kids dressed up in their uniforms and looking forward to a new start.  It's crazy because most of the children and teenagers are pretty far behind in school.  I know a 20 year-old, for example, who's starting fourth grade.  If all goes well he'll be able to finish the year in seventh.  Today while we were painting outside near the woodshop, I pulled up Obama's inauguration on CNN.com.  We listened while he spoke and it was really cool to be witnessing a special part of history while painting benches right at the top of Central America.  I woke up this morning thinking that everyone else was already up.  I had listened to two songs that I like just to get the day started alright, so I was feeling great.  I got up talking to myself in a funny voice saying things like "Woohoo, what a great day this will be," and so on.  Philip, who turned out to still be in bed turned over and gave me a weird look, so I felt pretty stupid.  It was really funny to me though, since Philip already makes fun of me sometimes for talking to myself.  Anyway, today was  a great day all in all.  At one point I held Elias, a nine or ten year old boy, like a baby and he didn't want to be put down.  I thought to myself, "I wonder if he's ever been held like this before," since most of the children here have had a really rough life until the point they arrived, and he's been here for at least half of his life.  So there's a pretty good chance he hasn't been held like that.  That was probably the most memorable part of my day.

Monday, Jan 19 – Oww!

9:15 pm

We put the black coat of paint on the bottoms of all the benches so they're all pretty much halfway there.  It's encouraging to see that the end is near and we won't leave a job unfinished.  At lunch, though, I started feeling pretty bad.  My stomach took revenge on me for the stress from yesterday and the day before so I was quick to take my Zantac and get to bed to nap for an hour or so.  I felt a lot better once I woke up, but still hurt some.  I think by tomorrow I should be on top of the whole thing and back to my non-hurting self.  The ladies here are really nice though, always asking me if I'm feeling alright.  It's encouraging!

Sunday, Jan 18 – A Day of Rest

Sunday, Jan 18 – A Day of Rest 

4:45 pm

Today has been a great day. After church and worship, the rest of the day was fairly uneventful.  I continued working on the video that I'm trying to make for Casa, and I tried to read some of my books for class, but that just didn't quite work out.  For some reason I've been a little stressed here lately...don't really know why, I've just not felt quite right.  I escaped the noise of the kids and the "old smelly people" as I call them and went the the woodshop just to get away from everything.  I spent the afternoon there and it was just what the doctor ordered!  I came back feeling more relaxed and on top of my game.  Just in time too!  I'm looking forward to getting back to work tomorrow to finish those benches!

Saturday, Jan 17 – Block party take dos

7:09 pm

So I just came back from a great block party in Magdalena--the one we prayed over on Thursday.  It was soo great.  A ton of people came to Christ and even more just had a blast and a great memory for their childhood.  Mike Parker mentioned that most kids out here have to grow up way too quickly so it was great to provide something pleasant that they can remember.  This morning we helped Adam's brother, Jeremiah, hang some ceiling tiles because, of course, Adam was out for the count.  Eventually seven people in a little room was just a little too much so some of us headed out and started to paint some benches...what we live for around here :)  It was good though, because most of the benches have a second coat of primer so we can get started with the actual paint.  After we got back from the block party there were about 500,000 new old people here (okay, they're not old per say, but some of them are definitely old enough to be my grandparents.  We essentially got kicked out of the dining room because their group was so big so we ate outside in the cold.  No, I'm not bitter...  actually I'm not--they had a heck of a travel day so I can definitely empathize with them.  They're here to build a new water tower on the other side of the property where the boys live.  I'm sure Casa is really excited to be getting this addition.  It'll be neat to see it go up over the next few days.

Friday, Jan 16 – Al Volcan

9:20 pm

So much has happened today.  I don't even know where to start!  I guess the beginning will work.  At around 8:45 this morning we arrived in Antigua because the Spanish class takers needed to go into the city to pay for their lessons for the week.  I just walked around the place for the three hours and it was great.  I love going to supermarkets in new cultures.  They really show what the people use on a day to day basis and you can get a good idea of what life is like.  I then went to the market and just lost myself there.  Most of the market is just for tourists: bracelets, bags, and other souvenirs.  But at the back, there is a completely different world filled with fresh fruit and vegetables, shoes, clothes, and real, homemade goods.  I bought a pair of shoes which sounds weird but they're cool dress shoes that I can wear and be reminded of this trip every time, plus I talked the guy down to 200 Q which is about $25.  Not too bad if I do say so myself.  We all met up at McDonalds, probably one of the nicest McDonalds I've ever seen.  I got a Big Mac and fries and felt very much at home...even though I think the last time I ate at McDonalds I was in Paris.  I waited for the group there for about 15 minutes and met a 6 year old little boy while I was waiting.  I don't know what he was doing there, but we played games on the iPod Touch that I won from Wofford Study Abroad.  We left McDonalds and went to Ruta Maya travel agency to arrange a trip to Pacaya a few hours later.  There were going to be 13 of us going, so we had to pay an extra $2 (so $15 total) to take a private van.  It was really fun on the way down there because we had some absolutely outstanding views.  At one point I just thought to myself, "And He made that in seven days? Wow."  So we arrive at the Volcano around 3:30 or 4:00 to do a sunset night tour.  This volcano is active and spews lava all the time so we were supposed to be able to get right up beside it.  I bought marshmallows back in Antigua to say I ate a marshmallow roasted by lava.  I said supposed to for a reason, though.  Although it was very cold and SUPER windy, the weather didn't keep us from marching on.  We got to a part of the volcano that was almost straight down and covered with tiny rocks, the texture of sand, and about a foot deep.  It was a ton of fun because we just sprinted down the whole thing and stopped by the bottom.  Well, most of us stopped at the bottom.  Adam, a 25 year old Gringo employee of Casa who came with us kept going just a little too far until he fell and split his head open on a huge volcanic rock.  It was pretty scary at the time because the blood came rushing down his face onto his blue jeans.  Our Guatemalan tour guide, though, immediately took his shirt off and started wrapping his head before he lost too much blood.  Needless to say we didn't go any farther.  Before Adam hurt himself we took some pictures of the most beautiful sunset I've ever seen.  We headed straight back, taking shortcuts over private property, and moving hastily.  They don't exactly have Regional One (Spartanburg Regional's Helicopter) down here.  Adam could walk, though, and he remembers everything.  He should be okay, which is a big relief.  So instead of roasting marshmallows we got to essentially run back to the base and rush to the hospital.  We had fun no matter what, though!  So it's been a pretty long day and I'm definitely ready for a good night's sleep!

Thursday, Jan 15 – Reaching out

8:43 pm

Today was markedly different from the others.  First of all, the cheerleaders left this morning at 5:00 am.  Now, we all liked them a lot, but it got old having a continuously dirty living and eating space because of eight girls who could not and would not clean up after themselves.  I cleaned the place like crazy today and it finally looks healthy inside!  In the afternoon, we had a pleasant change from daily bench-making and instead went to the city, Magdalena, where we'll be having a block party, this time complete with snow cones!, on Saturday.  We walked around the square inviting people to come, witnessing to some, and praying over the various aspects of what the block party entails.  It was fan-tast-ic.  We spent about two hours out there and I got to know some of the older kids here at Casa since we broke off into smaller groups of three or four.  One Gringo per group.  (Gringo, by the way, is a norteamericano or someone from the US).  I was with Erick1 (that's how they differentiate between different kids here with the same name) and his girlfriend.  Oh, and everyone here has a girlfriend.  I guess there's nothing else to do all day!  I cooked both lunch and dinner.  Reheated taco soup for lunch (but I did have to cook the rice--not instant) and Rotel Chicken for dinner.  Both were Mrs. Shain's recipes and both were great!  I'm so excited about the days to come, but you'll just have to wait to hear about them until they happen!

11:50 pm

So we just had the most intense and confusing and amazing and horrible discussion on John 15:1-8 evuh.  Wow coming to realize to a new degree just how much I cannot understand all that is God.  He is soooo much bigger than me and everyone else in our group and the world.  How dare I even try to put limits and barriers on Him!  My God is the God of Abraham, Jacob, and Paul.  He created the universe from galaxies in their complexity to a grain of sand on a beach in Greece to the point of a dangly watermelon hanging  on a tree just to prove Himself in it all.  My God loves me?  Yes, my God loves me! YES, GOD!!!  PRAISE YOUR BEAUTIFUL NAME!!!!

Wednesday, Jan 14 – The bench races

7:00 pm

I filmed this morning using Mike Parker's video camera.  (Mine is done for).  When meeting with Pastor Dave he totally forgot the 9:00 time we'd set to start filming.  Ultimately I ended up interrupting his pancakes so that we could get his part out the way.  I also filmed the tour of the campus which actually took awhile.  It's going to take some time to edit because of all that there is to show.  I'm looking forward to it though since that's where all the creativity comes into play.  Bench painting is fun and rewarding, but it's also becoming a bit tedious and repetitive.  I needed something to make the time go faster so I proposed a race--actually, several races.  Becky and I were just starting to paint a bench, so I raced her to see who could finish their respective side first.  She won on the bottom side, but I won on the top.  Next we raced the other set of painters to see who could paint a whole bench faster.  They won, but since they had three people versus our two it's to be expected.  We were a close second though!  I think everyone had a better time of it, too.  Papi, the founder of Casa, also gave a great sermon tonight...totally in Spanish.  It was fun although there were times that I didn't quite get everything.  I love how these people worship: energetically and non-stopping.!

Tuesday, Jan 13 – Monday, all over again

5:48 pm

Well, not too much new today.  I slept in later today, until about 8:25 instead of the usual 6:45.  It was amazing.  Video-wise, I met with Pastor Dave and Mike Parker to do some final discussions about filming and then went back to my dorm to take a shower.  After that, I just played with kids, worked on benches, ate dinner, and enjoyed our group devotional time.  Pretty standard but a great day nonetheless.  I mean, really, I'm in Guatemala and getting four hours credit!

Monday, Jan 12 – Some time to myself..at last!

6:45 pm

So today everyone started school...except me!  The group decided to have teachers come down to Casa to teach them Spanish.  The thing is, everyone got their own teacher (none of whom speak engligh!) so that the instruction is very much personalized...all for $90 from now until friday.  Since I'm more of a Frenchy and don't see myself with a huge future in Spanish, I am dedicating my time to work on a tour & rules video along with a video to show Casa's outreach programs.  I'm pretty excited to be able to help them out like this.  The thing is, my video camera died on Saturday--in my hands.  It just quit working.  I mean dead, no life, and apparently no hope of life to come.  I'm sure someone here at Casa has a video camera I could use to film everything, but really it just won't be the same.  I went to Mike Parker's house on the other side of the property to discuss the rules that we wanted to include in the video.  We're going to meet with Pastor Dave tomorrow to discuss his thoughts on it. In the afternoon we started back working on the benches that I don't think will ever get finished.  We're determined though, and we continuously make good progress toward finishing.

Sunday, Jan 11 – Tourists Unite!

8:34 pm
We went to Casa's worship service complete with children's church, worship through music, and a message. The leader of the children's home truly has a passion for this place. It's very different here with worship because it's sooo energetic, not to mention it goes on forever..at least 45min to an hour of singing. People are dancing, clapping, jumping, yet they never get tired. Even the 50+ year old pastor joins in it all. It makes just standing and singing look quite dull.
After chuch we joined the cheerleaders in going to Antigua, the old capital of Guatemala and a major tourist destination (trap) with it's market and restaurants with menus in English. Where we ate was delicious, though. I had a pepper tenderloin steak that I would go back for time and time again if I could. I got that, a baked potato, tomato/avocado medley, and a coke all for just under $16. Not exactly dirt cheap, but I though that was pretty good regardless. That meal would have easily been $25 back home. We went to the market, got souvenirs, and took pictures. It was good to have a day of rest so we can get started going hard on those benches again tomorrow.

Saturday, Jan 10 – Into the Village

Wow. What an incredible day. After working on the benches some more--we completely painted one, built two, and primed six--we had a quick lunch and went into Santa Lucia, a local village. Casa hosted a block party that had a huge amount of people show up..somewhere between 300-500. Crazy, I know. We made cotton candy, had a moon bounce, and a clown was even there to make balloon animals for the kids. In the middle of it all, one of the long-term missionaries shared the Good News using an "EvangeCube" which I thought was hilarious (but great, don't get me wrong). There was a gorgeous, small waterfall with lime trees around it that we were able to pick and have with our sweet tea at dinner. The people there, though, were so real. They have a simple life with very few "things" and were just so happy to see us. There were 80 year old men and women willing to wait 20 minutes in line for a bit of cotton candy, kids that would run and pick up bag-fulls of trash just to win a pencil. If this was all we did in Guatemala it would be totally worth it. Except it doesn't end there. God fell on us as a group as we shared during our group-time today. Wow, again! Tear-filled prayers and amazing, personal testimonies could pretty much sum up what occurred except it was so. much. more. To top it off, God showed me just how sovereign He is: This morning, after learning that the Little Rock, Arkansas high school cheerleaders that are here with us don't like apples, of which we have many, I jokingly commented on how "ironic" that was because of the whole original sin thing with Eve taking the first bite of the apple. Bennett was quick to rebut saying, "How do you know it was an apple? It could have been any fruit. Heck, it could've been a watermelon for all we know." I replied, "Watermelons don't grow on trees...duh." Well, while we're in Santa Lucia I look at a tree on the side of the dirt road that goes through the middle of the block on which we're celebrating. On it is growing large, green, melon-type fruits. I didn't believe this. I asked a local and she said, "Yeah, that's a watermelon." So on the same day that I said, "Watermelons can't grow on trees," God responds with a loud and resilient, "Oh yes they can, for I will not fit into the box you try to put Me in."

Friday, Jan 9 - Let the work begin

So after an evening of cooking hamburgers, making home fries, and playing spoons, I hit the sack around 8:30. Next thing I remember Bennett comes waking me up saying, "It's 6:45." I am polite on the outside, but don't really feel that way otherwise. I manage a, "Thank you," and slowly start the day after my 10+ hours of sleep. The showers are pretty good after you figure out how to keep the water continuously hot. We have breakfast: Frosted Flakes which here are named Zucaritas (same brand) and milk from a box that doesn't need to be refrigerated. Sounds not exactly delicious but you'd be surprised. I'm not trying to give too much information here, but the bathroom situation is unique. The pipes aren't exactly toilet paper approved...I'm just going to leave it there, you get the picture. Jack Ciak tells us our "mission" for the day is to start working on building and painting the benches he mentioned we'd be making while we're here. We worked essentially from 8:00 until 4:30 with about 2 hours off for lunch and rest. We started by intensely cleaning the wood-shop which was no small job. Afterwards we started the building and painting. We had fun, but we only have 6 out of 24 built, two of which are primed and ready for paint. Hopefully since we have a hang of things we can move a lot quicker tomorrow and subsequent days.

I don't speak Spanish. I've dipped my feet into the language with Sp 101, but my ability to flow languages is limited to English and French. You'd think that would be a bad thing here, but I've actually been starting to work with Adriana, one of the kids here at Casa, teaching her some French! She knows some of the basics like Je m'apelle... and Como ça va?, so I can actually "tutor" her in a way. We're learning "I can speak French" and "I have a sister." She's a quick learner, too so quite possibly we could cover a lot. At the same time she's teaching me some Spanish. People helping each other. Seems like I've read that somewhere...

Thursday, Jan 8 - Travel & Arriving

We arrived today at 6:15AM after traveling the red-eye flights all night. In Washington-Dulles we met Joseph, a 16 year old Guatemalan who has dual citizenship in the US as well. He was coming back from spending two months in Virginia with family. We talked to him pretty extensively about Guatemalan culture and the differences between life in Central America and the US. We taught him how to play Go Fish! As we were landing in Guatemala City, there was a beautiful view of a volcano that looked like it came straight out of a "science fair project" as Becky said. Customs and immigration isn't quite up to the level of thoroughness of that of more developed countries. Us, a group of seven said we had nothing to declare so we went through the "nothing to declare" doors with our ten bags and 14 or so carry-ons and we weren't given so much as a second glance. Jack Ciak of Casa Para Los Niños Alleluia picked us up a few minutes later and we were quickly on our way. We arrived about an hour after we left the airport and I collapsed into the bed. Around 9:30 Philip woke me up and we went over the rules and Jack gave us a tour of the place. It's a huge facility and they seem to really know what they're doing. We have a great living quarters which includes a kitchen and dining area along with enough beds for an army. We made lunch at about 11:00 because we were starving and then we went our separate ways. Most went to bed (I had already gotten my nap for the day) and some of us stayed up to read and do some work (like writing travel journals). We're not going to do too much today except play with the kids and make dinner around 5:30--we're thinking traditional Guatemalan hamburgers :) .