June 3rd and June 4th

Some of the girl clowns doing Remi; Top left: Catherine, Claudia, Lindsey, Bottom: Kendra and Me
This is the place we are living while in Guatemala
The open door is the girls room-8 girls 2 showers ITS AWESOME!!
Catherine, Lindsey and I after we read Scott and Emily's vows, so sweet.
Wes and I - our first day as clowns!! So fun, I'm notorious for the orange wig.

We got here on our 3rd try to Guatemala, the airport opened back up and we were able to land.

June 3rd
Today was a busy day! We had to get up, be ready and have our breakfast eaten by 7:30 am.
We had a devotional this morning by Scott with Juan translating in English. Juan is one of the Mexicans on our team who is studying English, so he knows both languages quite well. The other Mexicans are Claudia, Mehir and Esther (and Maddai is coming on Friday).
We learned about "Remi" today. Remi is a puppet show, it is a Vacation Bible School like "show" for los ninos with clowns (payosos) and puppets! We get to dance A LOT and sing A LOT of songs in spanish.
Today we went to the store-split up into groups-mine was Leslie, Juan, Julio, and were given 40Q (7.3Q to $1.00) to buy cleaning supplies to clean bathrooms in Carlos' neighborhood- same place they have a ministry called Gotitas de Amor. We only got to clean 3 bathrooms, we got to wash dishes at the first house. The 2nd house we went to we cleaned the toilet and swept the floor. The 3rd house we went to we prayed over someone with muscular dystrophy and swept the floor. The church will continue to keep that family in their prayers. Also a lot of the persons whose bathrooms or casas we got to clean were from the church. A lot of the children's parents are alcoholics and have no sense of a future or what they want to be when they grow up. They don't think they can get out of the area, but a big part of the ministry is giving them a hope for the future.
It was surprising that so many people said no but thank you. They lived in a place that used to be a park and just built homes there- some had tvs, but it was a very poor area. Juan and I talked about where other persons priorities lie as far as what they put their money into- very interesting how that worked. He said that a lot of people in his neighborhood many homes were made out of mud- something and they don't had floors but really nice sound systems, tvs, etc. Juan said that thats not where his lie. We were in an area where a lot of children saw their parents die from violence, gangs, etc. There was a bullet hole in the door of the ministry. It has mostly died down about 3-4 years ago but its still happening a little.
I was surprised how left out you can feel when you have 6 other people on your team that speak fluent english and choose to strictly speak spanish. Every once in a while after talked to them they'd remember I don't know what's going on. It's kind of draining and hurt my feelings because I don't really feel like an active part of the group. It's really hard when Scott and Emily (our site coordinators) do it too and don't translate even though they say they'll say everything in both languages but it hasn't been that way I will continue trying even though its been tough. I've been trying to learn new things too, its getting better day by day.


June 4th
Today we Carlos taught us a new workshop that we will be teaching to the youth this summer. Particularly the youth in Jovente which is where we are traveling to this weekend. The presentation is called "Sexo, Las Mentiras y Verdad" ("Sex, Lies and the Truth"). The powerpoint was very good, but some of the images were even hard for me to see. The effects of the STI's and some of the mental things are just hard to think about. The youth in places near here are actually dealing with so many pressures which definitely plays into my culture shock, its a totally different world down here.
By the time he was done giving us a taste of the presentation it was lunch time. We sat around and chatted. Around one we met with Emily for our next activity. She split us into two groups telling us that when we deal with children we need to always have games to play as ice breakers as well as to fill the time if need be. We came up with games like link tag and red rover also a few games that the Mexicans taught us that the Americans didn't know. Then Emily brought Elijah and Sydney (her children) to play the games with us to make sure they were good for that age. We got to pull out the soccer ball and play with it for a while!!
Then around 3 we got the rest of the afternoon and evening to work on our presentations of "Remi" and Sex, Lies and the Truth. Around 6 we started to make dinner. I helped out with dinner a lot..I don't cook often, but I cooked the steak and chicken, it was pretty fun (but often I mean never). We made quesadillas with either chicken or steak and a special sauce known here as pico de gallo with orange juice. It was good! Emily's birthday was yesterday so we made her a cake. We got Scott to help us surprise her and sang a special version of Happy Birthday to her.
Happy Happy Birthday
From all of us to you
We wish it was our birthday so we could party too
Happy Happy Birthday
From our Guatemalan Team to you!!

Then we got them to tell us how they met-which was through YIM and at Olivet-and how Scott proposed to Emily!! It was a cute story!! I like them a lot and am really excited to spend the remainder of summer here!!
We were given permission to get online tonight for a bit, but tomorrow we leave for Jovente which is quite a ways away so I have to hit the hay pretty soon here. We were practicing for Remi for most of the day, which involved lots of dancing and singing in Spanish and its a workout.
Time for sleep. Hope to write again sometime soon!!
Also..pray that we're all healthy and that language would soon cease to be a barrier. Gracias.

Peace.