A few more first or early impressions

Hi kids,
It is Sunday night, 11/23/08 and I have been studying for the past five hours and I am tired of it, so I am going to write to you! Obviously, we are still at Benson Institute. We will be moving into the Limburg’s house after they leave (next Sunday). We meet with the landlord tomorrow morning. He plans on repainting, so I’m not sure when we will be able to move in. But once we do, we will have internet. Then I can use Skype to call you! I hope more of you will sign up by then. If you do, just email me your Skype number (sign in). I will also have a chance to check your blogs to see if any new pictures have been added. I feel isolated, because we haven’t heard from you. But it has been hard for us to keep in touch as well. I feel awkward tying up the computer in the office for very long—even though the three employees (Zuli, Brenda, and Danne) are all wonderful and go out of their way to make us feel welcome. Who would have ever guessed that I could become so dependent on the internet? I guess wonders never cease.

The paint here does not have mold inhibitors in it. Therefore, to keep things looking nice, you have to paint every year or two. That is why there has to be gap before we can move into the apartment—even though we are using all of the same furniture. With the humidity here, mold and rust are both big problems.

We had to scrutinize our budget to decide where our greater priorities were. The Limburg’s apartment actually has three bedrooms upstairs and a sort of small living room downstairs. It is more space than we need. However, that space will enable us to continue to host FHE’s and invite students and “menos activos” over. We could have found a smaller apartment, but it would have been impossible to do the things we should do (as mentioned). With a smaller apartment it would have been easier to justify the expense of a car. However, we have been using the buses for several days now, and I think we will be fine around town. We have also done lots of walking. I feel very blessed, because my Plantar Fasciitis hasn’t given me even a hint of a problem. Waiting to send in our application was the right thing to do, so that I could get all of the required treatment. I did my part and now Heavenly Father is blessing me. The walking is good for us anyway— we both need to burn a few more calories.

We haven’t traveled to the capitol on the bus yet; but the AP’s said that whenever we do, they will pick us up. I’m sure Tuli would, too. In fact, I am thinking we may want to go to the city the first weekend in December. The senior missionaries (including the Area Office) have a “Break the Fast” potluck and it would nice to get to know some of them better. But the other reason would be because then I could celebrate my birthday with Tuli (only we would have to celebrate on Saturday instead of Sunday). We will just have to see what happens with our schedule. We might find we want to wait until a little later in the month.

There are a few things I touched on, but glossed over with my last blog entry. So, please excuse the disjointedness.

When we rode the bus to Zacapa for Zone Conference, in addition to being amazed at how many people we could cram into the bus, I was also amazed at the politeness of the men. When I boarded, a man gave me his seat. Three other women boarded after me and each time a man gave her his seat. We had four men standing in the entryway. One of them was rather tall and stood with his head bent for the entire trip. But it was the most natural thing in the world for them to do. I don’t think that would happen in the States anymore. Sigh… Aren’t “Equal Rights” great?

During our lunch break at Zone Conference, I visited with Elder Gonzales. He is a Guatemalteco (I hope that is spelled correctly—who knows? Nathan? Kathy?) from another part of the country. He speaks only Spanish, but we were able to have a great conversation. He is a convert of four years. He was the only one in his family to join the church. His family owned (I think—but it could have been that he just worked at J) several fast food establishments and Friday, Saturday and Sunday were the busiest days and he couldn’t get off work. The night he told the missionaries he believed their message and wanted to be baptized, they explained that he would have to come to church. He prayed very hard that night to plead for help in finding a different job. The very next morning at 5:00 AM someone knocked on the door and asked if he wanted to work for him—and he had Sundays off. That was his first miracle. He became active and after a while he began preparing for his mission. He received his call. He had limited funds to buy the necessary clothes and supplies. He really wanted a digital camera so that he could take pictures of his mission. He prayed about it and the Spirit told him not to worry about a camera. Within a week, a missionary serving in his area knocked on his door and handed him his camera. He explained that he was leaving to go home to the United States and he wanted to give his camera as a gift to this missionary preparing to go out. It was so touching to hear his testimony of the Lord’s love for him and the miracles in his life.

Currently he is serving as the Branch President in a little Branch just west of Zacapa. His companion is his counselor. There are only four brothers with the priesthood. There are lots of women and almost no children or youth. Previously there were about 10-15 in attendance each week. Over time there were Sundays with 20-25. Last Sunday there were 40 people there! You should have seen his face light up when he told me that! I asked if many of them were investigators and he said no, most of them were menos activos that he and his companion had been visiting. Both he and his companion are “nativos” (his comp is from Honduras) who will have many leadership opportunities to serve in the church in the future. But as we visited, his greatest happiness came when he told me that he received a phone call on Wednesday night and his parents were scheduled to be baptized this Saturday (yesterday).

I have a few more first impressions to share with you. In the city, I was surprised to see that basically every business, every parking lot, every housing area, hospital, etc. is guarded by a guard carrying a shotgun. It must be a major form of employment. Even the church employs guards by the temple/chapel and Distribution Center. Only they wear side arms instead of carrying shotguns. We haven’t seen that here in Chiquimula. However, it is not uncommon to see just ordinary citizens with side arms or a machete (I have only seen one of those, but I am told it is common).

Traffic: In addition to crazy drivers, another hazard here is the “motos” (basically anything with a motor—mostly scooters). They zigzag in and out of traffic; they turn left from the right side of your car and vice versa. They compete with pedestrians for the side of the street. They go very fast and they often have two adults and several children or babies on them. I haven’t seen any evidence of a helmet. Now you may be wondering why pedestrians walk on the sides of the streets. The side walks are very uneven. You will have a smooth stretch and suddenly a driveway into a gated part of the house (where the car is parked in the courtyard) cuts through the sidewalk. Or the sidewalk drops down/goes up a step to accommodate for the change in elevation (we are in the hills). You have to really watch where you are walking. If there are lots of interruptions in the sidewalk really close together, people generally move to the street and walk around the parked cars. Occasionally, there will be someone asleep on the sidewalk. Saturday when we were walking back from the Mercado, there was a boy—probably about nine years old, lying on an Indian blanket, with his head on a step going into a building. He appeared to be asleep, but as I stepped around him, he sort of opened one eye—I guess to be certain he wasn’t stepped on. I have seen men asleep in the same way—but generally in the park or Mercado. Everyone just carefully steps around them. It is no big deal.

Oh yes, the highways are paved, but the streets have blocks that are hexagons or octagons instead of paving. It looks nice, but it has a few more hazards for walking.

Businesses and houses are completely intermixed. We have been in a home where the cars are on the first floor, the living quarters on the 2nd and the laboratory on the 3rd (the home of the local pathologist—he used to forensic pathology, but had so many threats on his life, he gave it up and just does normal pathology now). Lots of stores are on the first floor and there is living quarters above and a courtyard to the side. Every arrangement you can imagine exists.

I love it! It provides an opportunity to experience the world in a whole new way! People are kind and always great you. There are many open displays of affection. Fathers and sons kiss on the mouth as well as mothers and daughters. Most men and women greet each other by putting cheeks together and kissing (either the air or cheeks) when they know you. If you want to shake hands, you have to stick your hand out right away. Even then, a more intimate hand shake is to grab the other person’s wrist and forearm instead of their hand. It increases the closeness. They are a very loving people. It is so fun to learn another culture.

Last night we had dinner at the home of Dr. Perez. He and his wife are both physicians. He is a surgeon. She is OB/GYN. He is the Director of the Ministry of Medicine for the Department (State) of Chiquimula. He says he will invite us to some of the medical meetings so that we can become familiar with the system here. He will also invite us when he travels to some of the outlying villages (especially in the mountains) where the Chorti (Mayan descent) Indians live. There are a lot of needs in those areas.

Not all of the Chorti or other indigenous people are poor and uneducated. Actually the top administrator of CUNORI and also the head of the medical school are both Chorti. Many have been to there village schools and then come to “town” and attended high schools (called “Collegios”) and have learned Spanish. Some of the English students are now learning their third language.

Christmas celebrations begin in mid November here. They don’t have Thanksgiving to set the time for the music, so it starts whenever the community puts up their gigantic Christmas tree, somewhere near the center of town. We were in the City when the lighting occurred there. The missionaries were counseled to go home early and stay away from down town because there would be lots of drinking. We are singing Christmas songs in church—which is actually nice. I love Christmas music and never bet enough of it in church when we have only about three Sundays in December to sing it.

Guatemalans love very loud music! We can hardly converse even in Paiz (Walmart in Guatemala—does that make you happy, Nathan and Adam, to know that Walmart is alive and well in Latin America? We have Paiz and Hyper Paiz). There are six foot speakers blaring by the door. Friday night we went to the staff Christmas party for CUNORI. The music was so loud that it hurt your ears—but they loved it. We couldn’t even converse. And the volume made it impossible to try to translate what they were saying. Limburgs were given recognition for their hard work and their contribution to the school. It was nice to share that. We were introduced and welcomed. There were six speakers there and the walls were cinderblock—so everything echoed. Wow—I am going to buy earplugs, since I can’t converse in that environment anyway.

Spencer found a gym, so he is happy. He went on Saturday. They have all of the machines he loves. If I go, I need ear plugs there too. The music is not obnoxious (like it is in some gyms in the states), but is just loud.

Speaking of noises, just over our courtyard wall are some parrots and other birds. We can’t see them, but we hear them. They often squawk in response to noises in the area. Saturday morning (our first morning to hang around at home) you could hear them saying “Hola, hola!” Mama, mama!” “Hola! Hola!” At first we weren’t sure if it was the birds or kids. But we have met the couple and they don’t have any little kids and they said they hoped the birds didn’t bother us. There are also roosters somewhere in the neighborhood. I will miss hearing them when we get moved—but I’m sure I will find other sights and sounds that are enchanting.

One other quick story, then I promise I’ll stop. Previously I mentioned that the Benson Institute House has an open courtyard, typical in Latin America and the fact that you have to go outside to go to any other room. Across the street, there is an addition to the house going up another 1-2 stories. Saturday there were women up on the top balcony—with a straight line of vision into our courtyard. Not 10 minutes earlier, Spencer had taken a shower and come back to our room to dress. I commented that he might want to rethink that process or he might invite the opposite of David and Bathsheba—where women are looking down to where he is bathing—or at least walking after he showers. J

Well, this epistle has become very long. Only those who love us best are still reading. Are you one of those? Let me know if you made it all the way to the end!

We love you,
Mom/Dad/Spencer/Jeanine/Elder/Hermana, etc.