in the states

Im at home... my home in nc anywayzzz.

its so weird being back...

Dont get me wrong. I loved being greeted by my parents and rebecca at the airport.. I loved having the normal sunday lunch with my dad's side of the family. Food has been wonderful.. I got to brush my teeth without using a water bottle... I am so thankful for these things.. more now than before por supuesto...

I watched the end of the world cup.. but it wasnt the same.. it was in english and there was no commercial for Coke with the theme song.." en las callas muchos manos.... que viene que vay" i loved hearing that... I havent sweated at all today.. in fact I have a long sleeve shirt on and my feet are about to freeeze..

but at the same time I dont feel all here yet.. I think I not only forgot my bathing suit in Guatemala.. but part of myself as well.. maybe even part of my heart.

I loved it. I love the relaxed, easy-going culture.. I loved my family... all of them including my infinite number of cousins.. I loved speaking Spanish. I loved meeting new people. I loved drinking coke from a bag. I loved tortillas at every meal. I loved the mountains. I loved the americans I went done there with. I loved the lil adventures I had with friends. I loved learning words only used in guatemala like puchica. I love cucos, granizadas, and por supuesto churrazcos... I loved the people.. at the nursing home, my students, the people at the store I worked at, the people of Llano Verde, the people of Llano Largo, the people at the bakery, and last but not least... my family.. haha... especially my sister.

I've already started praying about returing :D

Thank you all for your prayers and support! I look forward to sharing stories, pictures, and my heart for Guatemala.

Va pues

3rd week of the second month.. and like the 3rd week of the first month.. sickness has struck again.. but like the first month.. it wasnt bad and im fine now!

my job for the past few days since there my school is on vacation has been working in a tienda in the mornings and bakery in the afternoons. i love my students... but i love working at these places also and kinda wanna finish out my month here..
the store has all your snack, beverage, and cooking needs.... for Guatemala.. it looks like a hole in the wall.. but its really a room of a house.. the same house of the women that taught me and my friend to make tortillas.

not only is it a store but its also a a lil grill.. it kinda reminds me of my grandmas old store..
around 9 30 or 10... tons of workers flock to tienda Jessica to watch some TV through and to get a snack... tostadas, empanadas.. arroz con leche.. ive been helping.. trying to help through this rush.. i can at least pop the top to the glass bottle sodas... people ask for an agua... but it doesnt always mean water.. its kinda like how some people in nc say they want a coke.. but really want a sprite.. very confusing at first for those of us trying to learn the language... its alot of fun and i enjoy talking to all the people.. the world cup has obviously been a big deal and its been fun to watch every day.. i probably have watched 2 games a day...

at about 12 Jessica gives me some food.. which is always aammmmmazzzing.. maybe not the healthiest.. but its gooood. then i eat with her and my friend Susie.. the lady who taught us how to make tortillas.. its great.

ive gotten the opportunity to talk to susie alot and for that i am thankful to God for opening the door.

she attends the catholic church and she has alot of religious pictures hanging up. we were just talking and somehow we got to talking about one of her pics... then i popped the question.. wuts the difference between your church here and the evangelical church across the street...

she told me one was catholic one was evangelic.... so i asked again and for more info.. im obviously not God and I dont decide who gets to go to heaven or not... but I was so realived and happy after the conversation we had..

at here catholic church, just like the evangelic... they pray to God... padre.. God the father.. just like we do.. she believes in the trinity.. Jesus, Son of God who died for all sin...

I was already happy that she didnt pray to the saints or mary.. so then i asked her about the good works thing.. from my knowledge catholics believe they must do alot of good works to go to heaven.. i asked about this...

she said that christians should do good stuff.. and i then said but thats not what gets you to heaven right.. you have to pray and accept christ before you start doing good things for him and because of him.. she said she agreed... good works are easy when christ lives in your heart...

this was in spanish.. so many i didnt understand everything correctly.... and im not God so i dont get to decide who gets to go to heaven... but still... this conversation made me really happy and im excited have more talks with Susie.. im glad that we have become so close...

neways... i eat lunch with these peeps.. and i think the lunch yesterday just didnt agree even though i loved it... but its all good now.. im going to return in the morning to the tienda and then the bakery in the afternoon with susie and the other ladies...

pray for these relationships i have with these people.... its going to be hard to say goodbye.. but i know that some of these people i will see again in heaven..

pray for my family as well... they are all good people but there is def some tensions between households.. which is really sad when our church consists of family. esp my sister.. i love her to death.. but i want her to know its okay to love ppl when they dont love her back.. shes very judgemental and conservation.. not a good combination.. esp when it prohibits you from having relationships with people that differ in their beliefs, thinking, or even something as simple as clothing... i love her so much though.

i use to pray every morning before my mom and I would go to school for a little baby sister... God answered my pray.. not in the way i expected.. but it was answered.. for one month i have a little sister who i know loves me.. i just want this hard barrier of hers to be broken so more and more people can know how wonderful she is and how wonderful her God is... I want God to be real in her life.. not just a routine.... church every nite minus monday... skirts only... thats not christianity... i want her to fall in love with the relationship that she has.....

she took care of my last nite... after i upchucked my food from tienda jessica.... the toilet would not flush.. no water.. and i was locked in the house.. so i woke her up to get the key so i could go to the pilla to get a bucket of water to flush my vommit... it was quite the experience... she wasnt at all mad.. she insisted that if i needed something else to not hesitate and let her know.. i hate im not there tonite.. to talk to her... but i just dont know if could have had beans and eggs for dinner quite yet..

my family loves me too... even with their bizarre ways i know they do.. this morning one my aunts rubbed my belly with lotion to make it feel better... quite the experience at 7 in the morning after throwing up all nite... and she then made me this all natural drink that by the grace of God i got out of drinking because the bus was there to pick me up.... the drink reminded me of something i threw up last nite.... but i know that disgusting bebida was all out of love....

rest now... back to the norm in the mornings! only 11 more days here i think... its bittersweet...

speaking of sweet.. i cant wait to have some sweet tea

one more thing...
more on my trabajo... school

Let me just take the time to describe it more since I have time right now... I am sometimes with Kindergarten and sometimes with 6th grade.. but I want to expound on the Kinder.... thats what that call it here

In order to be a Kindergarten teacher here you must be able to be a zookeeper, policeman, and club bouncer.... the reasons follow
1. zookeeper.. the kids act like animals alot of the time.. so many have tried to bite me, they growl, scratch.... esp the boys.. they can be ferocious.. its kinda cute seeing a lil 5 year old crotched down like a lion about to pounce on you because you are their prey.
2. policeman.. to keep the peace.. i cant tell you how many times i have pulled lil boys off of each other.. these kids here are tough.. tattle tells to dot exist here in guat.. they dont cry... they just fight, fall, jump, kick, and scream... when they fall... they just get up with more energy...
3. club bouncer... you have to keep the kids in the classroom.. you lock the door to give yourself more time to prevent a child from escaping...all at the same time guarding the windows because they are easy to jump out of...

ps.. you have to be all of these at one time...
but most importantly to be a kinder teacher here i think it is important that one know how to be their mom also...
im pretty sure 95 percent of this class lives in the orphanage here at the mission.. its easy to tell.. they may be ferocious at times.. but they can be just as sweet... its true that they jump on you like a feline, but they love like a teddy bear.. and i can tell they are missing the love of a mom or parent...


more on my church.. the only boy that attends is my brother.. thats right.. even the pastor.. my mom here actually.. is a woman..
at first i was like woooooaa this is going to be interesting.
i personally dont think the bible teaches women should lead churches as pastors...

but my question is what is this church suppose to do..
there is no male leadership...
should they just not have church...

though the doctrine may be different than what i believe.. i cant help but admire how this church, this group of 7 or 8 women, have decided to still come together as believers and worship God... they dont have a male leader... but thats not an excuse.. its just another obstacle here on earth... who am i to judge or condemn that..

starting tomorrow school is out for a week.. im going to work in a tienda and bakery!! pretty stoked about it...

Got to do this quick.. cuz technically... Im not suppose to be talking, writing, reading, or breathing English right now.. All of last week, including with other Americans only Spanish.. talk about making your head hurt. It was def harder than I thought it was going to be at first... but I wouldnt change it for the world.. I feel in love last week.

The family that I live with.... Mom, 18 year old sister, 16 year old brother.. when Im with the brother and sister.. Trav and Reb.. its like being with yall when we are hyper.. u know when we laugh at everything and the dumbest things are funny... well its like that all the time with my bro and sis.. its hilarious...

My job... I commute back to the mission I was at the first month to work at the school here... Liberty College.. in the morning Im with 6th grade... until Friday only the girls would talk to me, but apparently I became cool on Friday and the boys did... or maybe it was because I could help them with their Math hw.. either or.. ill take it...In the afternoon its high school.. school here is only half a day.. elem and middle school go in the morning... high school in the afternoon. in the afternoon i am with seniors... all my students have been wonderful, patient teachers of spanish. i love both the classes, but especially the students in the afternoon because we are pretty much the same age and we all just talk.. i love it.

living conditions... wonderful.. I live in Llano Largo.. at first me and my friend thought it was going to be lil country town with two houses.. mine and hers.. but its not.. the houses here are the nicest i have seen in guatemala.. one house has a a wide screen tv that is like twice the size of ours at home.. im sure my dad wouuld like it.. in another house a pool table.. neway.. this town is wealthy.. my family is probably the poorest.. but our house is still nice.. nicer than i thought.. i thought i would be using the bathroom in a hole in the ground and showers with buckets... but i have a toilet and shower... and sometimes water.. haha .. thats another story..

in short.. i love it

adios

Yesterday was mud day..
Woke up got dressed.. jeans, tshirt, and jeans.... clothes that were ready to get dirty...

I was kinda nervous.. I knew last time the team came back people were exhausted.. and alot of people kinda got sick afterwards...
The night before in our group devotions we were each given a word.. mine was endurance.. so thats exactly what I prayed for the nite before and our bus trip there... and thats I and my team got..

Our whole team worked on one house yesterday... The part we worked on was this hallway, connected to 2 rooms.. and then one of these rooms was connected to a whole... Our leaders started assigning jobs.. all the guys were summoned to start filling up buckets of mud and tossing them out of the window.. and then some girls were chosen... it was like being on the price is right.. nikki mashburn come on down..I walked down the steps to began my journey into the mud.. it was like 3 inches below my knew...

went to the first room... we would push the mud towards the window, and someone would stand at the window with a pail throwing it out... I thought just this one room would take all day.. but it only took 20 minutes... we finished that room, the hallway, and the other 2 rooms all that day... we took a lunch break and of course we had some fun along the way... our group is all about singin...

so obviously by the end of this we are completely covered in mud... those of us actually down in the pit of mud..apparently i looked like amazon woman as i had mud all over my face with shovel in hand...whatever i looked like.. i really enjoyed what we did.. thats no lie...

before leaving we had to clean our brooms, shovels, and buckets... so we walked to the river.... as we were washing... i told everyone.. im sorry but i just got to do this... so i just layed down in the river... in its filth and all... but hey... it got the stains out.. eventually we were not only washing the mud off of our equipment.. but our bodies and clothes as well...

it was a great day...
one of the songs we sang...

i wanna be your hands, i wanna be your feet.

i hope these people saw that Jesus was the difference in our life... it was more than just wanting to help these people fix their earthly home... it was ultimately making sure they had an eternal home..


newayzzz.. today normal day ... except...
went to the nursing home... and all the old peeps are lined up in chairs gettin there hair cut... this led to us being asked if we wanted our hair cut... we agreed... 3 of us got hair cuts!!! these girls were just in beauty school.. but hey .. it was free... and it looks pretty good if i say so myself.. its shorter than i thought it would be... but my spanish vocab when it comes to the beauty shop needs some improvement as i found out today...

village tomorrow...

last day here on the compound here Friday..

saturday.. maybe waterfall and making more tortillas with susie

sunday ... antigua!!!

monday... we start gettin shipped out to our houses for the second month!!

mucho amor..

ps... thanks summer camp for your lil notes!! I was just talking to some friends here how its going to feel so weird going back home and not going to summer camp and how much fun I have always had with yall...

Last week of the first month... wow..
It has gone by so fast.. but at the same time, I feel at home here.. like I have been forever...

So lots has happened since last week. After we got back from helping the people affected by Agatha... we returned.. showered.. ate.. and then had our weekly sport nite with the teens.. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to play soccer... you see before we went out that morning I went running, like I have been doing about every day with one of the girls here... It was a good run.. she pushed me.. I wanted to quit, but she said something to me and I was like heck no I gotta finish.. anyway... the point.. by the time we got to deportes nite.... i was whooped... aka.. really tired..

I wasn't going to play soccer.. just watch... I know shocking... but mostly guys play... once again I now shocking, because thats how it is at Liberty... but its different here... but then ....my former teammate Liz Cook, of the Bettygoats.... my friend Olivia and Roberto.... were in need of a teammate... When they asked me it was like looking at lil puppy dog faces... too hard to resist... so I played...

But when i played I expected to lose in about a minute.. you see once you score the other team gets kicked off... so I was pretty sure us gringos (american slang terms) would instantly be eliminated.... but we rocked.

We probably played in this little area of court for 20 minutes.. the play was fast, hard, agressive, but FUN! I was getting to the point where I just wanted to let them score i was so tired... but then it happened....ball bounced to my feet... shot... SCOREE!!!!

I SCORED A GOAL IN LATIN AMERICA AGAINST LATIN AMERICANS!!! It was the greatest feeling ever... I kinda felt like Brandi Chastain after she scored that winning goal... the difference is I didnt rip my shirt off... but thats how excited I was... my team also rejoicing, celebrated... then roberto for some reason, felt compeled to pick all 3 girls up to show his excitement..

Next morning I woke up.. and felt I had been hit by a train, knocked to a road, and then being run over by a car.. thats how sore I was....As the day continued... woahhh.. I have never been so sore and tired in my life.. dont worry-- didnt run that morning... got up and was going to try... but I only made it to the outside hammock...

The people at the nursing home noticed my tiredness and lack of energy.... I did to.... honestly.. every step was a hassle... even the nite before.. it took everything out of my just to crawl up to the top bunk.. that afternoon VBS... o great kids... I hobbled over to the VBS location, to be told by fellow teammates I looked pale.. which was weird since I was burning up so I expected to by flushed.... took it easy.. someone bought me a gatorade.. nap in hammocks... dinner... o wow...

instantly I could tell I had a fever.. after dinner went back to the house to take my temp and it was a grand total of 103.. haha

so i didnt get to go help dig mud out of houses last thursday... i spent the rest of wed nite trying to get the fever to go down.. it did.. but then came back early thursday mroning b/c i woke up at 2:30 dripping sweat... but.. I'm fine now.. I was a little discouraged i didnt get to go dig out mud.... but as I was laying in the hammock during the rain wed nite.... looking at the stars... I thought maybe God just wanted me to be still.. and know He was God...

So many times I get caught up in doing this for God... I forget to just enjoy sitting at His feet... So instead of serving God last Thursday by digging out mud.. I had some extra quiet time with Him.. and prayed.. alot.. especially for my team... it was a hard day...

No matter what country you are in... Dont forget to take time to Be Still, and Know that God is God..

my team got sooooo muddy... me and this other girl started to wash everyone's clothes after the mud... I got dirty just washing their clothes (which we did in the rain and wtih a washing machine)... it was pretty fun to have our own laundromat....

Me and the team were talking one night about how God put us in the right place at the right time... We havent been affected by any of these "things" that have been occuring in Guatemala.. but we were put in a place that we can go out and help.. God is in control.. in the mud, the rain, and in the lava...

Friday... so more americans arrived... we know have over 50 people living in this missionary house.. they are from Florida... the noise level has def increased.

Saturday... we went to Chiquimula... and went to a MALL!!! with air conditioning!!! and McDonalds!!! it was delicious.. we also went to market in town, followed by a sit down restaurant.. with even more AC... and steak... it was fabulous...that nite we had a campfire and had smores...

Sunday... morning church... music was very polka-ish..... afternoon-- lots of pool, chillin in town... nite--- church with Cubans!! it was definetely the highest energy level we have experience in a church... we probably performed our drama for the last time of the trip... i had a friend take pictures of it.. the pics are pretty awesome, can't wait to show em!!

Today.... the founder of this ministry, took us on a tour of the compound, despite how we are into our 4th week here... haha.. but no.. it was really cool and inspiring... he challenged us to have dreams... but not just dreams... but faith to back these dreams and to make it happen... it was so inspiring that I just wanted to instantly start building a school and nursing home to run beside each other and together (thats a dream I have)... I also just wanted to go adopt a kid!! (another dream... for after marriage : )

O another things... Thursday... I was sick that nite and early morning... but by 11 AM, I was fine and no fever.. so I had alot of free time.. like I said...
I taught myself to play the guitar!! Looked up some chords online.. a Shawn McDonald song.. and Bam!! Theres a couple of guys here who know how to play and have been giving me mini-lessons... I want to keep it up when I get back to the states :D But first I got to find a guitar.. if you have an old one... when july comes around start dusting it off for me!! I really love trying to play.. def need more practice...

As of now... tomorrow we are going to help the storm victims again... I dont have a fever and I feel amazing... so I should be going :D

Pretty crazy how the 2 months we are here, the country is experiencing trouble from a volcano and tropical storm.
Don't worry.. I'm fine... our location is not experiencing any difficulty from this.

But many places and people in Guatemala are--we saw that for ourselves for the first time today. We drove for about an hour to go to a place that really suffered from the tropical storm.. It's weird because when I heard "tropical storm" I didn't really flinch or think much would happen, because where I live---it's not that big of a deal... Yeah there's lots of rain, but the only major damage is by the coast.. anyway... this was completely different.

Mud was the major difference... I saw houses completely overtaken by mud.. lodo in Spanish.... We walked around ... well.. tried our best to walk around....but mud gets pretty tricky.. We saw people digging in the mud looking for clothes, and then trying the best they could to wash them... On our way in we would see random piles of "stuff" from a house along with a family... These were the people that had lost their home... they probably slept without a roof last nite..

We were in the bus driving to this one village... and as we rounded a curb we just saw a mass of people... Tons and tons of families... lots of kids... they were all gathered at the church.... The leaders were just making sure that the well that was built last year was still working.. it was.. hence why all the people were gathered... It was honestly like being on the set for one of those commercials you see on TV, asking you to support a child for a dollar a day.... except these kids were ten times cuter and I was looking at them through the window of the bus, not my television screen..

We passed out alot of food today... Once again, I wanted to do so much more... but without hope in Christ... it was hopeless and helpless..


So right now... all I can do is pray for them-- hope you will too.. and I am ready to pass out more food or clean up the mud or something thursday...