Sundays are Rosa’s day off, and we are on our own for food. We decided to ask Justin, our neighbor, for his advice. I don’t know if we mentioned Justin yet. He is renting one of the other rooms in Rosa’s house. He is from Arizona and is currently working on his PhD in Latin American studies. His focus is on the history of borders and border security between the US and Mexico and between the borders of countries in Central America. He used to be in the army and was involved in security in Iraq/Iran and in the Koreas, so he has a special interest in the topic. The fun part of his research is he can do it from anywhere, so he is here improving his Spanish, working on his dissertation and teaching online classes for the university during the semester.
Since he has been in San Pedro before he is a great resource for local information and history. His Spanish is also much better than ours, so he helps us work through more complicated conversations over mealtimes. He and Tim have spend many an hour in deep conversation on all variety of topics. And when we think back over the last few weeks, it is amazing how the stars all came together to have us with this amazing family and Justin here too. Gods provisions are even better than we could ask for.
Justin had a favorite spot for breakfast and the four of us were off. Waffles and fresh fruit for Alex and Michelle, the Elvis waffle (peanut butter, fried plantains, chocolate syrup and bacon) for Justin and the eggs San Pedro (eggs, beans, special sauce) for Tim. We all ate well, and even managed to catch a portion of the Mexico World Cup match. Ironically, we are in a country that loves soccer at the best time to watch world class soccer and our family doesn’t really care for soccer. Go figure!
After breakfast Justin went back to the house to work and we went walking throughout the town. San Pedro is a little like Venice with its small narrow passages in between the houses and twisty windy roads. The town is on a massive hill, so not only are the roads twisty and narrow, there is also an elevation issue to tend to. And with no street names or signs, we really are finding our way by sight and instinct. We have to say, it is pretty fun.
On one of the hills we spotted a more modern looking cafe and stopped in to explore. We bought a cup of coffee and a liquido (like a smoothie but more liquid). We took them to the third floor deck of the building for an amazing view of the lake. It started raining just a bit which was fun to experience under the cover of a tin roof. We are really going to miss the sound of rain when we go home.
After the little treat we went home to get ready for church. We had asked Rosa if it was ok to go with her to church. We were not sure if we would be able to track with the speed of the Spanish spoken, but we were interested in seeing what a Guatemalan church was like. She goes to an evangelical church, so we at least had some ideas walking in.
At 3:00 it started to rain, so we took another tuk tuk to the church. Which was good, because the church is a little outside of town, and the road turns from pavement to dirt for part of the way. The tuk tuk ride was another wild one, and there were five of us packed in like sardines. But it did the trick, and Rosa let us know that kids under ten are free, which was a great thing to learn!
The service was great, we understood just a little, and the pastor and his wife were so sweet to both acknowledge us and thank us for coming. His wife then invited us on the patio of their house for conversation and to look at their view of the lake. It was a sweet moment, and their house has a pretty amazing position on the hill above the lake.
After church on our way home the worship leader road by on his mortocycle and offered to give the boys a ride around town. A few minutes later boy boys were loaded up and off they went. Tim and Michelle did have a moment of second guessing their un-helmeted son as he road away on a motorcycle in a foreign country. In the end, Alex had a great time and it is now one of his favorite memories of the trip so far.
Once back in town we opted to go for an early dinner. We decided to let Alex have a little comfort food since he had been eating authentic Guatemalan food for a week. We went to a restaurant attached to a hotel called Hotel Pinocchio. Alex and Tim opted for two different kinds of pizza and Michelle opted for pasta carbonara. Nothing like eating Italian food in Guatemala! It was delicious and we had enough pizza left to bring back to share with Justin as well.
It was an early bedtime to in order to be rested for week two of classes. Tim and Michelle are feeling a bit like week one was a fun refresher and week two is where the expectations ramp up. Let’s hope we can keep up!
On Monday morning we had a delicious breakfast of eggs and toast. These eggs come fresh from the family chickens. I guess we can’t be too mad at the roster since the chickens are from him. ;) Tim was not feeling to great, so we opted to plan for going to school and then laying low for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Class is absolutely ramping up for Michelle and Tim. We both had multiple pages of homework and verb conjugations. Alex spent the day learning about the seasons and producing more art. He drew a full person on his lower leg below the knee and named it Alexito. Since Alex had his ballcap on at school, Alexito had the benefit of a hat as well. It was pretty funny. Now to see if we can wash off the ink from his leg. And his ankle. And his toes. And the back of his arm. And and and. :) if you didn’t know better you would think the kid was sporting a multicolored leg tattoo. :)
We came back to the room and had a lunch of fried chicken, mashed garlic potatoes and rice. Better than KFC by far. Tim slept for a few hours while Alex and Michelle played card games. Alex mentioned being hungry (he always seems to be hungry) so Michelle broke down and bought the makings for pb and honey sandwiches at a local store. It was a smart move, and probably should have been done earlier, as during the week we eat around 7:30. It turns out that one of the town schools is under construction, so all of the students in the town share the use of the other school. Half of the students study in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon/evening. So the two boys don’t get out of school until 7pm. Hence the late dinner so we can all eat together.
Dinner was breaded and fried green beans with marinara sauce and a soup made with some kind of green leaves. All of it was delicious and served with the usual thick corn tortillas. We think we will all be dreaming of these corn tortillas when we come home. They are twice the thickness of the ones at home but are not crumbly at all. You can actually use them to hold food and the won’t split in half on you. And when the family makes them, the pat pat pat sound is a rhythm that speaks to your soul and makes you want to dance. Tim tried to make one, and the form was, well, let’s just say it wasn’t quite circular. He did try hard though. :)
After dinner Michelle and Alex went to the grocery store for a little yogurt desert and back to the room for a family movie night. Thankfully we downloaded a few movies onto the iPad, so we have something to watch if needed when the internet is slow.
Life is good.
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