thursday.  june 18.  2015

the kayak guy, is also the mountain climbing guy.  he gave us a deal for both families to come mountain climb, and pay him to make lunch if we wanted…yes please!  it was 200q per family-$26 to hike with a guide and mountain climb.  then $4/per person for lunch.  best money i’ve spent.  it was quite the hike i must say-but we made it.  the kids did great climbing the mountain-alex’s stress fracture is hurting, so she didn’t climb.  we had to leave before the price’s were done, because it was almost 2:00-and we had to get to pana to grocery shop.  we hiked down the 30 minutes, said good bye to Lee, the owner, and ran to the dock just as a boat was passing.  they swerved and picked us up-so lucky!

made it to pana, walked 20 minutes, ate dinner, walked 10 more minutes, got some groceries, went to another grocery store, and we all carried groceries the 20 minutes back to the dock.  rode the 20 minute boat ride home, and hiked through the village and up our mountain with all the groceries.  alex was amazing-had a box of heavy stuff she carried on her head and shoulders the whole way.

we put stuff away, cleaned up, did math, showered, and wound down watching a movie.  it’s no wonder when 8:00 pm rolls around, we are exhausted.  it was a great day.

wednesday.  june 18.  2015

we didn’t go anywhere past our own village today.  cam and nadia went down to the village by themselves to get eggs-so awesome!  we made yummy big pancakes, did some school work, read books, layed in hammocks and listened to music, played a couple games, worked on personal progress, and chilled together from home.  we didn’t go anywhere, but we enjoyed being together and getting a lot done.  nadia took care of a snail for most of the day, that kept her pretty busy.  it was a nice day.

tuesday.  june 17.  2015

jarom left to head back to the states today.  job and all.  we’ve got to figure out how to change our lives from the rat race, to the lives we want to live.  figuring this out, isn’t easy.  miss you already jarom!

walked down to the dock to catch a boat, and there are probably 20 bags of cement, and two ladies loading them and carrying them with their heads.  i think i would just go back to bed if that was my job for the day.  but that’s not an option here.

jess and i and the kids got a private shuttle, and drove the 15 minutes to the orphanage this morning.  we had no idea what to expect.  reading the website and talking to the founder was an incredible story.  this couple moved to guatemala in the ’70’s.  when women have babies down here, local tradition is to not bathe for 40 days-the baby or the mother-after giving birth.  one baby had gook all over his eyes, and had never opened his eyes since being born-for 40 days.  this american woman cleaned his eyes and put vaseline on them, and he opened them.  the locals thought her a healer.  and that’s how the orphanage began.  long story short, after many years, they needed a bigger place, and found a $600,000 timeshare place that had foreclosed, and bought it for $160,000.  it’s atop a mountain, overlooking the volcanoes and lake.  breathtaking.  the couple ran it for decades, and now their daughter and husband and children run it.  they have a private school on their grounds that other kids in the area can also come to.  they feed the very poorest of the poorest children in the village every tues., wed., thurs.  they have awesome facilities for the younger kids-toddlers and babies.  a sports court that is covered is out back and they are currently building a volleyball court.  swimming pool area.  it’s beautiful.  these kids have about 5-7 outfits each.   their lunches even looked yummy-way better than what kids in america eat at their schools.

we spent 3 1/2 hours there hanging out, holding babies, playing with toddlers and watching how things work.   one baby is 1-the one camden is holding, but he has seizures and a few other issues, and looks like he’s 6 mos. old.  one baby was left in the hospital-the newborn.  one baby was left on the road with placenta and umbilical cord still attached.  and there was another baby-whose mom was a 16 year old girl who gave the baby up.

watching the toddlers eat lunch was incredible.  they sit, they eat, no whining, no complaining, no yelling, just sat, picked up their spoons, and ate.  that’s how it should be.  we cater way too much to our kids in america.  you don’t want this, ok, you can have this.  just make a good healthy meal, serve it, the end.

before we left, cam and madison and joselyn did a little magic show for the kids, and nadia and joselyn had made loom bracelets for four months to give out, and they shared those.

it was a lovely day, and our girls will hopefully remember it forever.  we stopped by the dispensa on the way home-everyone raves about it, like it’s kinda a walmart.  but no.  wasn’t great at all.  headed to the docks to get home.  hiked up to the house just while the first drops started coming down.  and then it downpoured.  i love being here during the rainy season.  it’s awesome!  we started getting ready for dinner, potatoes and zucchini, and the power went out.  it’s only happened twice before on sunday mornings, when we are trying to get ready, but this one lasted from 4:30 until midnight.   we made use of the light that was left, got math lessons done, and some of us went to bed, while a couple others watched a movie.  it was a fun, fulfilling day.

p.s.  if anyone wants to help a child further their education, $25 will pay for a month of schooling for a child at this orphanage. education is so vital here, since most kids stop at 6th grade, to continue doing what their parents do.

http://www.eaglesnestint.org/index.php

monday.  june 15.  2015

oh man, what a way to start off the day.  we found the kayak rental place along the lake-everyone got their own kayak(nadia rode with alex), and we were off.  beautiful calm green waters, huge volcanoes shooting into the sky, warm and beautiful-just a perfect morning for kayaking.  we rented for an hour, and it was just lovely.  we were at the next town after ours-santa cruz-and decided to eat lunch there.  i don’t know the name of the restaurant-but it was absolutely amazing.  the BEST chicken sandwich i have ever eaten in my life!  my mouth is watering just thinking about the huge homemade slices of bread, sauce and chicken and tomato and onion…oh, i don’t know how they made it, but i’m going back.  it is rated on tripadvisor, so there you go!

we caught the boat back over to jaibalito, and made it up to the casa in the village.  we invited kids along the way.  alex taught fingerpainting today-they did a great job!  alex showed them how to do giraffes with a hand, and the boys were amazing-did it looking at the picture once.  this is the first time alex has been able to come down to do classes since last week we were all feeling poopy.  she loved it, and is now making friends too with the little monkey in the village.  then jess prepared the funnest game-they loved it!  capture the flag/tag.  they absolutely loved it, and they run pretty darn quick!  we love these little ninos y ninas.  they have become our little buddies!

since we know we all have giardia…because we all have the symptoms, and everyone gets it here, we were on our way to the lab to test-and then they prescribe antibiotics, but luckily, the more natural nut i am, we ran into a german expat who said they treat it with diatemaceous earth and grapefruit seed extract.  i had read about that.  it was amazing luck to run into her-we were walking by in the village-and i felt like i should turn around and ask these ladies about what they do for giardia.  the other woman is an iranian princess who has a very large and beautiful home in the village.  they say everyone gets it a lot, not a big deal, this kills it, and doesn’t destroy your gut flora like rounds of antibiotics do.  so-bueno!  we started the protocol tonight.

while jarom ran to pana to exchange money and eat with the kids, i ran to santa cruz to meet gabi and get the stuff for giardia.  right off the docks is a restaurant-cool cafe i sat in and got a hot cocoa and did a few things while waiting.  i bought the natural meds-headed home-and then ran into another expat and talked village politics and shared stories.  jarom and kids got back, and we headed up the street in the village to our home.  i know we shouldn’t just give stuff out to the kids, but we had a whole left over pizza, and we know these kids are very hungry, so we told them uno pizza per persona.  it was gone in seconds.  we said our good-bye’s, hiked the hill with flashlights, got our math lessons and scriptures read, and headed to bed.  we left the house at 9am, and got home at 7pm.  that, my friends, is a fun filled day.

p.s.  apparently 42 people can fit in a guatemalan boat.  makes for a cozy ride.

sunday.  june 14.  2015

church was great.  we were only a couple minutes late…which when you are catching a public boat to get to pana, you never know how that’s going to work out.  picking up words here and there, and following along in the lessons, i could feel the spirit and needed to hear what was taught today.

the kelly’s invited us and the price’s over, and their good friend-the jensen’s, for dinner.  we had hawaiian haystacks, so yummy on our tummy’s.  we provided brownies for dessert, oh lovely chocolate.  we visited for 5 hours with these families, it was so neat to hear their stories of selling their belongings in america, and making the adventurous move to guatemala to live.  i dream of selling our stuff, and heading to europe.  the jensen’s started a non-profit, not only teaching the mayan people to set up garden boxes, but also how to garden, and what to do with the food once it has grown.  the people down here don’t know how to eat vegetables.  self-sustaining is always the best route to go.  the kelly’s started a non-profit, teaching women how to make jewelry, and the mayan women get paid really well to make it.  it’s sold in the u.s. and wherever the kelly’s travel.  what a great way to help women be creative, work for something, and help support themselves.  we really enjoyed visiting about homeschool, raising these kids differently from the world, and sharing all our different stories.

we all jumped in the back of the toyota truck, and were driven back to the docks to catch our boat home.  it was a lovely sunday.  we read family scriptures and talked about the ruins, and lake atitlan, thought to be the waters of mormon.  we had family prayer, and the girls worked on some personal progress.

just feel like it was so inspired for us to come here, and meet these families.  i have had the itch to live abroad for some time now, and hearing their stories, pushes me a little more that way.  if only we could figure out an income for jarom to make abroad…

saturday.  june 13.  2015

even though our tummies have been giving us a hard time, the price’s and us decided we needed to do something fun today-especially since we’ve been sick for a few days and doug is heading home tomorrow.  we hired a van to take us to iximche-an hour and a half drive to get there.  it was beautiful.  we hired a guide to tell us the history of the ruins.  so fascinating.  then our driver took us to such a great restaurant-which we needed-we’ve been missing some really good food.  we drove the hour and half back to pana, got out of the van, and joselyn tossed her cookies.  it was great timing.  hopefully we all can finish off having this bug.  we met quite a few americans on the boat ride, and it was great visiting and finding out where everyone is from.  such a fun day!

p.s.  doesn’t the tree below remind you of “the tree of life?”

friday.  june 12.  2015

yep-still sick.  today was our big chocolate waffle day with the village kids.  i was able to take a shower finally, but crawled back into bed.  jarom got up at 3:45 with alex and madison to get them ready, caught a private boat at the dock at 4:30, rode the 20 minutes to pana, and got them to the church building in pana so they could go on the youth temple trip to quatzeltenango.  they were so excited to go and see one of the temples down here.  jarom got them on a chicken bus with the rest of the youth, and they met others along the way and picked them up, and drove the hour and a half to get there.  they did baptisms and confirmations, and said the temple was muy grande and beautiful.  they had a huge lunch for both of them-only 20Q-$2.60-and started on the hour and a half ride home.  there were bus troubles and it wouldn’t start at one point, but they finally made it.  jarom took camden and nadia-caught the boat to pana to pick up alex and madison, and the downpour began.  it usually rains in the afternoons, but this was a complete downpour, you couldn’t see the lake, it was thundering.  beautiful to watch from the house, but to be in-they were drenched!  they walked from the church, caught the boat from pana to jaibalito, and hiked up to our house.  what an amazing experience though.  going to a temple in central america with mormons in guatemala and doing important work there.  making new friends, experiences they will never forget.

since jess and i were sick today, jarom and cam and nadia, and doug and their three kids went to the village casa to teach about dental, hand out toothbrushes and toothpaste, and cook waffles with nutella.  since there were only about 10 kids there, everyone got 3 waffles.  they loved them!  wish i could have been there.  they did a great job though!   i’m missing out-darn stomach bug.

thursday.  june 11.  2015

estamos enfermos.  we aren’t feeling great. we all have the runs and stomach cramps.  it’s gone through everyone, but jarom only had it half a day.  the rest of us it’s been stretching into a few days.

jarom and cam caught a boat into pana to grab some groceries, ran into the prices, they found a bigger grocery store together which is great!, and then caught the boat back home, and carried the groceries back up our mountain.  just the two of them.  what sweethearts.  the rest of us have been in bed.  hopefully this passes soon.  on the bright side, we can be sick in bed but have amazing views to look at.

june 10.  2015

quite a few of us have ucky stomachs and other stuff going on.  hopefully it passes within a day or 2.

this morning, cute luciano boated over to the price’s house, grabbed nick, boated back, and came up and got madison and camden.  they played and ran around the mountain together-luciano i think likes having buddies.  he’s constantly teaching us spanish and correcting me.

about 1:00-the kids made their way down the mountain to the casa in the village, and jarom and i went to hans to drop off a load of laundry.  on our way, we saw about 8-10 little girls playing on the sidewalk.  one little girl stepped over to me and asked if we were meeting at 1:00 today-and i said yes-one moment and we’ll head up.  they clapped and yelled in excitement, it was so awesome.   we left hans, came out, and they grabbed my hands and followed me up.  one little girl had a baby on her back.  she was probably 9 carrying around an 8 mos. old.  these kids amaze me.

we did modeling clay with all the girls and boys, and string bracelets with the girls.  even the littlest girl tied her own knot, held it in her mouth, and braided the strings all on her own.  i offered to tie her bracelet on her wrist, and then they all started lining up to get them on their wrist.  they do lines really well.   they made cute things with their clay, one boy made a very detailed boat and person inside it.  with the girls, we did duck duck goose, and taught them a couple songs, like head-shoulders-knees and toes in english, and the hoky poky.

we said good-bye, and both our families ate at Hans.  we ran into an american, and she lives down here and helps delivers babies.  she said she did labor and delivery for 25 years in the states, and has never seen such stronger women.  they are amazing.  they have dirt floors, some have concrete floors, and they just deliver in their little homes.  these women are tough as nails.  we’ve seen them carrying loads of wood on their heads, loads of concrete, babies while doing all their daily chores-i have to say, we are quite the sissies in the states.

our family headed up to get some rest since we aren’t feeling great.  the rain started about 1:30 today, and has kept raining on and off.   it’s so great to listen to, hike in, and enjoy almost every day.  it’s a blessing, since last year, their rainy season didn’t happen and lots of crops died.  we hit our first week mark yesterday.   hopefully we can keep making friends and doing positive things and not cause any waves in the community.  we have been very blessed having luciano, and the house in the village.  it’s all been very inspired.  we are grateful for this opportunity.

june 10.  2015

quite a few of us have ucky stomachs and other stuff going on.  hopefully it passes within a day or 2.

this morning, cute luciano boated over to the price’s house, grabbed nick, boated back, and came up and got madison and camden.  they played and ran around the mountain together-luciano i think likes having buddies.  he’s constantly teaching us spanish and correcting me.

about 1:00-the kids made their way down the mountain to the casa in the village, and jarom and i went to hans to drop off a load of laundry.  on our way, we saw about 8-10 little girls playing on the sidewalk.  one little girl stepped over to me and asked if we were meeting at 1:00 today-and i said yes-one moment and we’ll head up.  they clapped and yelled in excitement, it was so awesome.   we left hans, came out, and they grabbed my hands and followed me up.  one little girl had a baby on her back.  she was probably 9 carrying around an 8 mos. old.  these kids amaze me.

we did modeling clay with all the girls and boys, and string bracelets with the girls.  even the littlest girl tied her own knot, held it in her mouth, and braided the strings all on her own.  i offered to tie her bracelet on her wrist, and then they all started lining up to get them on their wrist.  they do lines really well.   they made cute things with their clay, one boy made a very detailed boat and person inside it.  with the girls, we did duck duck goose, and taught them a couple songs, like head-shoulders-knees and toes in english, and the hoky poky.

we said good-bye, and both our families ate at Hans.  we ran into an american, and she lives down here and helps delivers babies.  she said she did labor and delivery for 25 years in the states, and has never seen such stronger women.  they are amazing.  they have dirt floors, some have concrete floors, and they just deliver in their little homes.  these women are tough as nails.  we’ve seen them carrying loads of wood on their heads, loads of concrete, babies while doing all their daily chores-i have to say, we are quite the sissies in the states.

our family headed up to get some rest since we aren’t feeling great.  the rain started about 1:30 today, and has kept raining on and off.   it’s so great to listen to, hike in, and enjoy almost every day.  it’s a blessing, since last year, their rainy season didn’t happen and lots of crops died.  we hit our first week mark yesterday.   hopefully we can keep making friends and doing positive things and not cause any waves in the community.  we have been very blessed having luciano, and the house in the village.  it’s all been very inspired.  we are grateful for this.