Sunday, February 17, 2008

Got up at 6:00 a.m. and took a wonderful warm shower. Unlike other mission trips I have gone on where the water temperature depended on the heat of the day- this home had hot water heaters! Today, we attended church in Magdalena inside the building we are working on. It was a full house! Lots of young families with lots of children. Of course there were tons of beautifuly little Guatemalan boys which made my heart ache for Edison.

The music at church was so loud and once again, I had a horrible headache. I've come to the conclusion that the pressure changes associated with the higher altitude of Magdalena is what is causing my headaches. All I know is that they are the most excrutiating headaches I have had in a very long time! At one time, I thought I was having a brain aneuryism -- anyway - I didn't. I did lean over to Paul at one point and said, "If I pass out, get me to a hospital as quickly as possible!" He just looked at me weird and said, "Okay".

The service was good - a little longer than to what we are accustomed. Paula, Ali & Katy, along with some of Ali's friends played music that was really good, however, my favorite part was the Guatemalan men playing the Marimba. The marimba is the national musical instrument of Guatemala. Later in the service we learned that one of the men playing was the preacher, Mario's, father - a recovering alcoholic.

Fontaine gave a message, Karen spoke on behalf of our grop and then Pastor Mario gave a sermon.

After church we headed to Antigua for shopping and lunch. Our plan was to eat at Pollo Campero's; however, we didn't realize there was a parade in Antigua that day. It was part of a festival leading up to Holy Week. Many people who own homes or businesses along the parade route fashion a carpet of flowers or colored sawdust on the road. Men and boys were purple robes and hoods (resembling the KKK) and carry a large hand carved wooden "something" on their shoulders with artifacts. The men pay to participate. They walk through the "carpets". It is a catholic tradition in Guatemala.

Pollo Camperos was full with no place for the 30+ team members to sit, so ... we ended up eating lunch at ........... McDonalds! I had "un hamburguesa, granda papas and a coca dieta." It was delicious because I was starving.

After lunch we walked to the historical part of Anigua for photo ops and went inside one store. The store was full of traditional clothing, masks, linens and other souvenir items. In the back of the store was a man chanting and worshipping an idol - there was smoke and dancing - pretty weird!

We left without buying anything and headed to the market. Kensley purchased an authentic Mayan dress and some lavendar jade heart shaped earrings. I bought two purses and my favorite purchase was a hand-embroidered blanket that I paid $50 US Dollars for. It is beautiful and I intend to give it to Edison some day.

We dashed home and had 15 minutes to freshen up and then it was time to go to the english speaking church service led by Fontaine. The service began with the band playing praise music. Again, Paula, Ali and Katy and friends performed. Fontaine showed a video of a portion of a sermon about how you should look in a mirror to remove the plank from your own eye before trying to remove the speck from your brothers' eye. This hit home to me because I do need to think about what is bothering me about another person and need to realize the problem lies in me and not the person who annoys me. We broke into groups to discuss things we were facing and trying to determine the real underlying problem. Our group did not share because we mostly asked the other girl in our group questions. She and her husband moved to Guatemala from Colorado. They run a feeding mission to feed approximately 50 kids each day for lunch. Her husband has a mission working with the Nationa Police Foce of Guatemala teaching them proper tactics, firearms, etc. and at the same time teaching them about Jesus and his love. The husband's name was Albert. I hooked him and Paul up and they talked forever. I could tell Paul was excited when Albert offered him a time to come and help teach a new class that begins this week. Paul is trying to find a way to help with this new mission opportunity he has been given.

After church, we headed to Pizza Hut which was very tasty! We returned home and everone did different things. Once again, I colored posters for bible school; however, this time I had Crayola crayons making the job much easier!

Okay - way past bedtime - I'm going to sleep.