Internet Not working

Hola to all from Villa Nueva! So first of all, I haven´t had internet since Monday which is why I haven´t posted since then. Now, I´m only doing this because Lee snuck me into to school´s office so I could use this computer.

So, this week was good. I did a lot of clinic stuff and math tutoring. The clinic has been interesting to say the least. About 50% of the cases have been feminine problems, but we also got to drain twice, a dude´s belly of all the water from is nearly non functional liver. He´s an alcoholic so his liver now sucks at what it does. SO, he has hepatic cirrhosis causing his belly to balloon with water. The best image I have of this other than what I actually saw, is a photo of a skinny little African child with a huge gut due to malnutrition. I think that is actually cirrhosis, just with a different cause. Anyway, we drained 1.2 liters of this clear-yellow liquid (not urine) yesterday, to go along with the liter we drained on Monday from him. He´s still got a lot more to go, but a medication Dra. Eliet put him on will help his body to absorb the rest. That was interesting. And there were a ton of type II diabetics that came in with blood suger the the 3 and 400 range, one guy came in with 468. The ´normal range´is 70 to 110. Apparently diabetes is a huge problem here since they eat so many carbs, really thick tortillas, rice, lots of bread etc. And the put TONS of sugar into their coffee...TONS. And they pour sugar into their milk, which is why I´ve had maybe only one glass of milk since I´ve been here. So those people had to sit in the clinic for quite a while on IVs to bring their blood sugar down. Anyways, that all I guess with that. I will let you know how the surgery goes, whenever that is. I´m not sure, but I may actually get to help with that, we´ll see.

Hmm, well this week I also did a lot of math tutoring. What an adventure that is. The school system here is a bit wack if you ask me...NOPE, completely wack. From 730 to 1pm they have 7 classes and a recess, with no passing time between classes, but with a ´rest´ period at the beginning of most classes for 10 mins and then a rest at the end of each for 10 mins. The teachers say the kids need to rest since they expended so much energy in their previous class. This BOGGLES my mind. With each class only being 45mins, that leaves about 25mins of learning time. Wierd. This, plus the wierd ways of teaching. This week one thing in particular stuck out to me. I can´t give you the example since I can´t type out math stuff, but the basic idea is that Brenda (14 yrs old?) asked me for help on a problem and so I began working it out and decided that variables were needed to work it out. I did it in my head just fine, but I needed to show here how to do it the long way since she´s not able to do it in her head at her level. Well, SURPRISE, they haven´t learned variables yet! Okay, so their teacher, Estella, who is actually one of the home ´kids´ told me that what they were supposed to do was use their ´LOGIC´. WHAT?!?!? Basically, this logic is a different way to think of the problem with a variable involved, but with a different face, and can only be used when the person already has the ability to use variables to solve these problems. I can´t explain it perfectly here, but it was absolutely ridiculous. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, the teacher couldn´t even show me how to do it with her logic, I had to show her. To top it all off, when Brenda asked Estela to help here with the first three problems she did them for her instead of direct how to do them. So out of the 4 problems assigned, the teacher did the first 3 for her, and couldn´t even solve the 4th. Wierd.

This is not to say that they are horrible for teaching this way and shouldn´t be teaching (although some probably shouldn´t be). This is definately a cultural problem down here and although it may be easier for some to laugh at this, it´s a serious problem that not only are these kids being taught in a terribly inefficient way, but when they struggle with a problem, they aren´t taught to persist until it is finished. Unfortunately, I´m learning that this situation is more the rule than the acception here in Guatemala . And to think that this is the case at a private Chrisian school here. I´m beginning to realize why there is a 60% unemplyment rate here and no doubt, this has much to do with the general economic state of this country. It seems clear as day to me that, all this translates into this fact- when a Chapin (Guatemalan) gets fired or rejected at a job, he or she simply roles over and quits. It´s too bad. But this is something that is really combatted by the people who work at this home...that is, teaching persistance and hard work...it says somewhere that laziness leads to folly and hard work leads to something better (I´m not sure how it goes in Proverbs). Anyways, that´s some of what I´ve learned this week.

Well, tonight we have a team from Orlando, FL coming in. 20 people for me to translate for. I´m really looking forward to it actually. That´s all for today, see ya!

Dave

Hello. So I am finally back at the home, after a good three weeks at language school in Antigua I can finally start to make a dent in my speaking abilities. I've been pretty frustrated about the whole spanish speaking thing, because I've been learning and learning and learning, but with minimal speaking to suppliment it all, my brain has pretty much got a grammar traffic jam (9 tenses) everytime I try to speak even simple present tense and some past tense. I've been getting more and more agitated about my inability, but today, actually got to do a decent amount of talking with some of the kids.
I arrived here around 9:45 and not too long after getting all my stuff set out where it belongs I joined in a water fight with some kids and two other short term missionaries, then I took a nap for about an hour. After my nap I decided to go hang out with the younger boys (they are generally the easiest to get to know and the most patient with bad spanish speakers). So I played UNO with Javier, Hans, David, Sammy, and Giovanni for a while and then wrestled around/had a pillow fight with them for half an hour or so and then went back to the other property where my living area is. I hung out with Amy and Erin (the short termers) and Lee for a bit and then went back to the other side to have dinner. I hung out with the girls and Salomon (one of the older boys) for a bit, pretty much not talking, just listening...I'm not comfortable yet speaking Espan~ol in groups (by the way, I could use a lot of prayer in general but especially for the ability to speak to these kids). Then we ate dinner with the older boys, again I just listened the whole time. I've been frustrated a lot of today since I had trouble manning up and just talking. Oh well.
So after dinner I was sitting listening some more, with just the two girls there, and Edgar and Rony still at the table, and finally, after they left I had a decent conversation with someone. Rony asked me why, after I've been to language school, was I not talking at all...haha...so the thorn in my side ended up being the topic which started my first conversation. So I talked with Rony (14 yrs?) for 20 mins or so about medicine. I was surprised to see that he actually struck up the conversation, it was really cool. I know all this probably sounds wierd, about my frustration and inability to just go out on a limb and talk, but believe it or not, it's actually been really frustrating that I've been such a wuss. So anyways, we talked about how he wants to be a surgeon, and the system in Guatemala (it's mostly government run), and things that Rony has gotten to see in the clinic here (like last year when a guy came in with wooden shrapnel in his gut from an explosion), and also my plans for med school and after. We also talked about his schooling right now and what he's learning in science class...this made me more excited to begin tutoring math and science (hopefully I'm able to help him). Anyways, so that was just a bit ago, and now it's about 8:00 and I'm writing this.

Oh yeah, I've been pretty tired this week and also, today and thursday I have generally just felt crappy...apparently my body is still getting over the explosive sickness I had the other night. I finished my antibiotics today, Praise The Lord! This drug that I've taken once a day for this amoeba or whatever I had, has given me a constant bitter taste on the back of my tongue. Much of the time for the past week, I have had the taste of bile (puke taste) on my tongue.
It's really wierd because it's not my tongue actually sensing the taste, it's just my brain telling me that my tongue is sensing it, so nothing I have done (mint, brush teeth, drink water) has helped get rid of the taste...aahhh, good times. Also, every sip of water I take, I can taste every impurity in it clear as day...not to mention that I can taste the air (and the air is extra polluted here so it's like chewing on dirt or the bottom of a shoe...yumm).
Just so you all know, I'm not sitting here angry about all this, venting to you...I just find all this interesting and wierd, so I thought I'd pass it along.
Again, as I mentioned in a previous post, I really enjoy reading any comments you guys put up, so please keep commenting. It's strange how much little things from home, like those comments, fuel me whenever I read them. Okay, well I'm gonna go read and then go to bed, and then it's off the the megachurch (12,000 people) in the morning! Have a great night.

Sunset from volcano.


This is just a photo post adding to my previous post.







I'm going to post more photos tomorrow. The Todds are going to bed, so I gotta go. I will be back.

Losing My Lunch/Dinner/Breakfast/Every bit of Fluid in My Body

So, I finally got sick. Sunday I went to breakfast, then church, then out to lunch, then hung out at home then ate lunch left overs for dinner. I'm not sure where I got it, but we are pretty sure that I had an amoeba. FUN!!!

After dinner I hung out with the Todds and talked on Skype with my family for a bit. Around 7 I went home and studied for a bit and was beginning to feel nauseus (nautious?). I went out to the Bodegona (giant superstore of Antigua) and picked up some note cards for spanish vocab. When I got home, I read a chapter on missions out of a book by John Piper called, 'Don't Waste Your Life,' then I read some Bible and also studied a bit of Espan~ol. From about 8:30 'til 10PM I talked with Dave and Esther, a married missionary couple from Ontario, Canada. They work in Honduras but are here in Antigua at language school for 6 months before they go back to their mission. During my conversation with them, I felt nature calling in a serious way, so I went to the bathroom and didn't come out for quite a while, maybe 30 min or so. First came the diarrhea, then the amazing volume of vomit. For those of you who don't know me super well, I don't mind (and actually kind of enjoy) talking about gross things, so get ready. So the first puke was out of this world...it was pretty much the entire 2-3 pound calzone I had at the Italian place for lunch and left over for dinner. I nearly choked on my 3rd or 4th heave...it was a lot of calzone. After a few minutes of fun, I realized I should have puked in the toilet, not the sink...it turns out I plugged the sink (haha), DISGUSTING. I had to unplug with a stick I found outside with the help of the other Dave. That was the best puke, but I ended up puking 6 times, about once per hour, until 3:30AM...of course, with a complimentary diarrhea each time, and a bonus second diarrhea the last time. Each time things seemed to get a bit easier and more routine, by the 3rd time or so, that I (being a numbers guy) decided to start keeping track of how much volume I thought I'd been losing, based on the size of my water bottle sitting on the vanity. In the end I came up with a farely conservative estimate of 5 liters of volume lost from my body. The next day (yesterday) I was talking to Dave and he told me about his first four weeks here, being sick...he told me he never thought you could actually pee out of your butt, and I thought to myself, I couldn't have put it any better myself, Dave. Sorry, I don't have any photos of the excitement...hopefully I have painted an adequate picture for you. In the morning I spoke with Wendy, the wife of Kendon, who is the director of NLCH...she's a nurse, so she called in an order of drugs and Pedialyte to a local pharmacy, which was delivered to the Todds at school, and they brought it to me at home. I ended up being able to eat a bit for dinner last night (soup) and then was able to go to class this morning.

Now, today was a much better day. On Sunday, I happened to meet someone at church who runs a Christian school in a nearby town called Parramos. This mission also facilitates the building of houses for local families in need, with the only prerequisite being that there is a need for a roof over someone's head. Dave, in my house, just happens to be a carpenter who helps this mission with their home building (actually today was his first time with them). So I ended up going with him and a Kiwi (New Zealander) named Craig, up to Parramos and helping with a house construction. It was really incredible...we finished the entire ~10'X16' in just over two hours. Not until afterwards, hearing stories of previous house donations, did I realized how much of a huge impact this easy 2 hours of work had on this family. This mother and 4 children had apparently been kicked out of their previous house by the alcoholic, abusive father. It was a bit vague, but I guess this group went in and dismantled the home and moved it to its current location where we put it up today. Anyways, it's cool to see how big an impact it has on a family to just give some time to help them out...I really didn't know what to do with myself because none of us really felt like we had done much, but we certainly gained a new sense of perspective...what a day!

Oh yeah, I forgot...I also climbed a sweet volcano with actual lava flowing from it, that was rad. We roasted marshmallows over the lava. The next day (saturday) I went with my house mate Meghan (from Saskachewan, CAN), and a guide to Monterrico for kayaking through mangroves and then the the ocean for some swimming/getting thrashed by the waves. The mangroves were awesome. Most of the time in the mangroves (which are river forests with streams networked althroughout), we were smelling a scent of hard-boiled eggs, it was wierd. I did some "body surfing" during which, I got completely thrashed against the ocean floor (the first time my mouth was open I took in a whole mouth full of sand...yumm).

I'm going to go now...I hope you were able to make it through this blog without puking! I'm sticking to my purpose of really keeping ya'll informed on my experiences down here, don't forget that!

Hangout with Mission Group from Lubbock, TX

Today I had class like normal. We worked on conditional tense and imperative, which is a tense that signifies commands, suggestions and advice. Afterward I went to MonoLoco for lunch with the Todds and a short term mission group from Lubbock, TX that has been at NLCH since saturday and took the day to go around Antigua. After lunch we went to the really nice market to do some wheelin' and dealin'. It was pretty fun, I walked around with 4 of the guys in the group (high schoolers) and helped them with tranlation at each tienda. I tought them a bit about bargaining, which often involves walking away when they don't give you the price you ask for. It was a good time. Because of this hang out time with the group today, I switched my Pacaya climb to tomorrow. That will be rad, I'm excited. That's all for today. Here's a photo of the meal I split with Marilyn and Tommy.

Wednesday Fun

Rug in La Merced Catedral











Above, is the main drag just a couple blocks from my house.


First of all, I forgot to mention last time, that there apparently was a tremor (temblor) of 5.2 magnitude around midnight Monday night. Somehow, I did not get woken up by it, but the others in my house said it was pretty cool. Today was interesting. My class today consisted of me and Lucia talking about the different Mayan people groups and languages, local guerrilla warfare, government corruption, and differences between/problems in the Catholic and Protestant churches. It was a difficult discussion much of the time since my vocab doesn't quite stretch into deep theological topics, or terms of warfare. It was good though. Then I ate lunch and talked with Carolina the house mom for a bit. Next I went out and booked a trip up Volcan Pacaya for tomorrow afternoon/evening. You should look it up. It's got flowing lava that we will get right up next to, we may even roast marshmallows over the lava at sunset...I will let you know.

This is a view of the sunset while walking back to the house, a couple blocks away.


Then some other stuff probably happened that doesn't matter enough for me to write about it. Just a bit ago I was walking back to the house with Tommy and I stopped at a little tienda (snack type store) for a sport drink. I bought the only cold Revive (Ray-Vee-Vay -- a local gatorade type drink), only to find after I left, that the lid was not sealed and there was some liquid missing. One of many peculiar things about this place...oh well. then we walked home and here I am at the Todd's place mooching their computer.

This is the Arch (El Arco is what they call it) with Agua behind it.

I've posted some random pics from yesterday and today. The rug is in La Merced Catedral (Cathedral), the same place where that purple Jesus rug was at. Other photos are just around town...if I post the mountain photo, that is Volcan Agua, which is around 12000ft or so. See you next time! Oh, don't hesitate to comment on any posting...it's nice to hear from people, it gives me something to do.

This is MariaJimena, the daughter of the son and daughter-in-law that live in the house. She's in here little swinging bed/crib.
This is a church that Tommy and I saw on our walk today to the north edge of town...I don't know why this text turned blue and underlined...whatever.

Hey everyone. Today was a nice relaxing day. I went to church at La Iglesia del Camino ('Church of The Way') with the Todds. This place is pretty cool, they do the sermon and worship in English and Spanish. They sing one verse in English and the next in Spanish and they always have the lyrics for both languages up so if you choose to sing one or the other the whole time, you can do that. I decided to sing each verse in the language they were singing in, it was kinda fun. The sermon is given by the Pastor, Mike, speaking it in English (he speaks spanish too) and every couple sentences, the translator standing next to him would tranlate...it was sure a lot of work for my brain but it was fun, and a great way to help improve my spanish. I'm still not doing so great in speaking spanish, except with my professor at the school, but I understand pretty much most stuff that most people say to me. I'll hopefully get to a point by the end of schooling here in Antigua where I can speak with and understand anyone I talk with, that way I'll be able to communicate with the kids at NLCH a bit better. After the sermon I met an MD from Canada named Jeff and his wife Bonnie. They are down here with their 4 kids for 3.5 months or so, helping to get a clinic running in a little pueblo up the hill from Antigua.

We went to breakfast before church at Cafe Candesa, I had pancakes. Then we went to lunch at El MonoLoco (literally 'Crazy monkey' they call it Funky Monkey). I had a wicked good wrap there. Then I went home for a bit and napped. I walked around town a bit with Tommy today and saw another procession for Lent. There were sawdust rugs out in the streets again. Now I'm here at the Todds writing this.

I'm going to post some pics from the trip that I've already described in the blog, so you may have to go back and look at old posts and the photos will now be there. Anyways, see you next time!

weekend

Hey. TOday's just another day in Antigua. I had class in the morning and then went home and did a bit of homework before lunch and after. THen around 3 I went walking around town with the Todds, a couple who's going to be with NLCH for 2.5 years, so they are going to school for 6 months. We went to a little whole in the wall market type thing and picked up a few things and then we went to POPS icecream and each had one of their specials (one scoop of vanilla and 1 scoop each of strawberry, pineapple, and mango sherbet, topped with sliced bananas and other fruit). All for Q10 or $1.26. Then we went to the lavandaria to pick up their laundry. Oh yeah, I signed up yesterday to climb up Volcan Acatenango on sunday. So that should be sweet. Its about 13000ft high. I'm planning on just hanging out tomorrow and finishing homwork. Monday, I'm planning on hiking up Pacaya on Monday with a Canadian dude from the school I'm at. Anyways, thats pretty much all for now, so I will see you later.

Antigua

Top, a sawdust rug in a local cathedral. All the different designs of flowers and Jesus in the center, are actually different colors of sawdust.

Hey, sorry for missing the last few days...Theyve been busy. By the way, this post will have bad punctuation because the keyboards here are wierd, the most of the symbol keys show the normal symbol im used to but they dont actually produce that symbol (like a question mark).

Anyways, I arrived here in Antigua late friday morning and attended a missionary conference with all the missionaries at NLCH as well as most of the christian missionaries in Guatemala. This event is put on every year by donors in the states, with the help of individuals from Green Acres church in Tyler, TX who come down to speak in the workshops on the second day, and to provide child care etc. So, friday, saturday and sunday there was a sermon given by a guy named Bill from Dallas Theological Seminary, as well as workshops and kids activities and singles activities. The format of the services was just like a church service, with worship and everything.

To the right and below is 'the Arch', with a bit of the cathedral behind it (yellow).


The workshops were more or less discussion sessions lead by a person with knowledge on the topic. This conference took place at a hotel, so all missionaries attending stayed there, at little expense (since it was largely supported by groups in the states), and ate 3 meals a day there etc. I got to meet a bunch of people affiliated with New Life Advance International and other organizations.

This is one of the rugs in the streets. Again, all sawdust.

I began spanish classes on monday at a language school here in Antigua. I will be here for 3 weeks, going to 4 hrs of class per day. All class is, is me sitting down with my own teacher conversing about me, my life, my experiences, my family, my future, whatever. The prof. just leads the convo in a way that requires me to use different vocab and verb tenses. Its going well so far, today being the first day that I feel good about where my spanish going...hopefully I can keep that up. Last night I went to the gym with another student in my house...uhhhh what else...
OH, this past sunday there was a procession, as there is every sunday during lent. The whole thing is a bit odd from a christian perspective, because of the mixing of beliefs and general sentiment that traditions must be adhered to, in order to look good to God. But its also pretty cool, the art that is put on the streets. Many families create these "rugs" out of different colored sawdust. Imagine painting images using templates to paint the designs. This is what they do, except instead of paint, they pack sawdust into the stensils and then pull the stensils away. I dont have my camera with me right now, but Ill try to post some photos of these sawdust rugs at some point.

Some factoids Ive learned about Guatemala

There are 24 completely independent languages here, 21 of which are indigenous...the others are spanish, french and portugues I think.

There are 33 volcanoes here, and I can see 3 of them from Antigua.

The original capitol was destroyed by Volcan Agua when it erupted and caused a huge mudslide at some point in the 1500s i think. Then this city (Antigua Guatemala) became the capitol until it was destroyed in an earthquake in 1773. So now the capitol is the current Guatemala city.

Apparently Villa Nueva, the site of the Childrens Home is the gang capitol of Central America (sorry Mom).

Ive seen Volcan Fuego erupt 3 or 4 times now, spitting up a mushroom cloud of ash and smoke, probably a couple hundread yards high and a hundred yards wide or so. The Todds, from Texas (they are here for 6 months of school, before the go to NLCH for 2 yrs) have seen Fuego shoot out lava.

Thats all I got for now. ¡Hasta luego!

Dave