Adios, Guatemala. Hasta pronto!

I haven't posted much because there's literally too much. It keeps failing because there's too much to say. I'll post it when we get back to the states.

We leave for Guatemala city very soon. Bye!

How we do laundry in Guatemala

Holy Week, Batman!

We went to the market today, and my wallet got stolen. Sadtrombone.com.

Oh well. We had a lot of fun today around the town square/park.

There were people everywhere dressed for the procession. It was cool to see the floats and archways and stuff.


The floats started at the church, an eventually made their way to the park.


Then there was a big display where 4 different people bow to Jesus 3 times and invite him back to the church. Or something. Watch it.

Ok, that's all for now.

Dinner and stuff

We looked around for a good place to eat dinner for a while and found this great taco restaurant. They had 3 tacos for 10Q... Or the Taco Rico for 30Q. Sterling and I definitely got that.



Amazing.

Time to make some guac and retire. A long day tomorrow, going to a town across the lake. No work for the rest of the week, which is great because we shoveled for 4 hours today.

Learn about coffee!

Our friend at the garden, Jose, told us about the coffee.

Then we ate it.

For a synopsis of what we did at the garden for the last few days, watch this:

Also Sterling blistered in the sun and got pustules:



Yeah, that stuff that looks like sweat... isn't. Gross.

And Luke made a tunnel:



We also got to go back to the Rivera's because I left my phone there, and got to say hi to Bobi!

Hola todos!

Today

After sleeping in (yay Sunday!), we went to breakfast, and then to the market. We got stuck behind a Palm Sunday procession.

The market was crazy and we got out of there. Then we hung out with Laticia and her daughters and got pizza!

After that, Katie joined us and we played basketball.

Then we came back, relaxed a bit, and went to mass. I still don't know when to stand, sit, or kneel, and it being in Spanish didn't help.

Oh, and there was a big beetle on me.

Tonight

We hung out at the mission and had a great dinner (leftover hodgepodge). It was definitely better the second time around.

After that we went to the long term missionaries' house and played some pictionary. This was Hilary's axe:



Needless to say, we didn't get that one. Tomorrow is palm Sunday so that is exciting. It is the start of holy week, which will be crazy.

Also, it's really cool to see churches all over the town, filling public squares, and just yelling about Jesus. It sucks trying to sleep, but it's cool to see.
Ok bed time.

Soy un oso. Como los niños. Tengo hombre.

Today we visited a family that Hilary knows. Yesterday, Sterling and Hilary went and Sterling told them I was an oso (a bear). He also told them that I eat children.

It was fun to spend time with them. Laura and Hilary wove:

We went outside and played soccer with the younger daughter, Lati (or Coco), who was bent on our utter destruction on the soccer field. She was actually really good!

Also, a funny picture:

Denise doesn't read our blog.

She'd know that if she read the blog.

Rooster

Wilson´s not the only one who can post! So rooster´s here start at 3AM and are right outside our window. Wilson and I have resorted to our Ipod´s he a collection of music me the Wrath of Khan (because I would rather hear William Shatner scream KHAAAAAAAAAAAAN! then that rooster). Hilary probably the smartest of us all has chosen earplugs.


Adios Hasta Luega.

PS Lindsay, Laura was very sad you were not here her face lit up when she thought Hilary wasn´t. Louis I know that we are US Americans and that I do not represent North and South nor Central America as a whole. Mom and Dad you guys would love it down here it is amazing.

Leticia, Sefora, Leti

Hi all, Hilary here trying my hand at blogging. I wanted tLast night after working in the garden Sterling and I went to visit Leticia and the girls with Jefe and Jordan. They have both grown SO much!! Sefora is now taller than me and Leti no longer looks like ¨little Leti¨. They both are still so funny and talkative. Leti tried unsuccessfully to get Jordan to sing a song from school. She eventually san for us while we danced. Sefora was busy doing her ¨Crucigrama¨, crossword, in English! We will visit them again today afer lunch. When I told Leticia we were here for ten days she said ¨Not enough time¨and tried to keep me with them. I love this family so much.

Lindsay, I wanted you to know that they asked where you were. I saidyou couldn´t come but say hello and Leticia said ¨Solo Hola?¨ and I added that you wanted to come and send your love, hugs, and kisses. Everyone we´ve seen has asked, you are very missed :)

Random side note, when we were shoveling in the garden yesterday, filling wheelbarrows up with dirt, I beat Sterling and filled mine up faster (MWAHAHAHAHAA!!) Apparently all my snow shoveling in Minnesota wasn´t a waste!

Well, time to head back for lunch. Yesterday we had fresh tortillas with AVOCADOS! I´m hoping it´s somehting similar today!

Adios todos and thanks for reading!
Hilary

After 2 days in Guatemala

I am slightly burned, mostly tanned. Comparison shot:



Hilary's feet are gross:



And Sterling is just burned:

Last night

Last night we went to an ice cream shop after dinner (cabbage and chicken, bread, fried plantains).

The ice cream was great!

Then we went and visited a family that Hilary knew, but only one of the sons was there.

On our way back, there were a few churches doing late night worship sessions.

This guy was just yelling in the middle of the street! About Jesus, though. And saying hallelujah a lot.

Anyway, bedtime. We're going back to the garden tomorrow morning, but there is no afternoon work because it is Saturday.

Also, if you get a call from a weird number, chances are it's one of us calling over skype.

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Afternoon Work

After lunch, we went up to the mission's garden to see if we could help. Jose (in the red) asked us to help them make the fertilizer for their coffee beans.

The soil is mixed with the pulp leftover from the drying/roasting process. They have big areas to sun-dry the beans, and a roasting building. The coffee is then sold to the US, and the farmers make a good amount of money from it.

On the way home, we ran into a big group if children starting to prepare for holy week (next week).



That strip of pulp went down the entire street! It was about 250 feet long. Then we ran into the best stray dogs ever:

And on the way home we found a fellow Washingtonian, a tuk-tuk driver:



Time to take a shower.

-Wilson

Lunch!

Lunch needed its own post. Awesome!

We've had a great time so far! We got picked up from the airport after going through customs (which was much easie than Indonesia customs) by our awesome driver, Julio.



Julio should be a taxi driver in New York because even though he would get dozens of tickets every day, he would also make huge amounts of money because of how fast he can get you places.

We had dinner, and it looked like this:



It was delicious.

Then we went to our hotel, the Casablanca. This is the view from our room.



This morning we ate breakfast and went to help buil a house. We mixed concrete on the second story. First we scooped the sand from the ground into a bucket, then we lifted it up.



Then we mixed it all and the Guatemalans laughed at us.



How do you like *that*, Luke Carlson?

At least the view was nice.



It's almost lunch time, then it's back to work. So I have to go.

-Wilson

Location:S Terminal Rd,Houston,United States

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And we're off! We'll update next when we can get to an Internet cafe. 

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Wondering if I can add video to the mobile blog. 

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Well we had an eventful flight to Houston! Sterling broke the LCD monitor above his head, meanin that no one behind him could watch the golf tutorial video that was on. I broke my seat. And I went to the restroom right before we hit a bunch of turbulance. That was fun. 

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At the gate. 

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Rounding the corner and.... more line. 

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The neverending security line. We have 1.5 hours to get through it. 

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Drawbridge makes Hilary scared. WILL WE MAKE IT TO THE AIRPORT? WHO KNOWS! 

About to go to sleep in CT

We have a 7:30 AM flight out of La Guardia, so we need to be up by 3:30.  Sterling just broke a bottle of wine on the kitchen floor.  I guess that's sort of like a christening.