Market Meanderings

Today for the first time i went to the market. The market is a place that is crowded to the brim with all sorts of things i have never seen before. This market is not your big city market where brand names like Heinz and dole are scattered everywhere. This is a fly infested, smells of rotten fish place, with some of the most wonderful things in the world. The colors are bright, the fruit is beyond gorgeous, and the faces are mostly friendly. I walked down to the end of the road and caught a micro bus into town. These are the equivalent of a mini van with the doors ripped off and a few extra benches put in. When i made my way onto the bus there were already 23 people jammed in there. I gave the driver my 2 quezales and sat on the very edge of the seat with half of me hanging out the door. I now fully understand how the whole one cheek on one cheek off concept can be uncomfortable if not dangerous.
I made it to town, half numb, and waked towards the market. One i made it i decided to take my list out the cooks had given me. Who would have known the words for vegetables in Spanish would have been so different in English. So here i was in the middle of a very bus, crowded market with a Spanish list and my 100 some odd words in Spanish. So i walked up to one of the vegetable vendors extended my list, and said "Yo nesitito, por favor." To my shock and utter amazement he understood and gave me thew things i needed. I even managed to barter the price, but only because the cooks told me what they would normally charge another Guatemalan.
After that i caught another micro bus back to the compound, just in time for lunch.
Wow life is good, God is good. I think i just might be able to fit in down here. Well not in appearance. First of all the 15 of us in Fe Viva are the only white people who are seen in the town, and second i am the tallest girl they have ever seen. Every church service we attend i am always told, Wow you are very big! and then they usually tack something nice on the end. But i hope to fit in with the language and mannerisms. These people are among the most welcoming in the world.
I have so many other stories and wonderful things to talk about but I'm afraid it will have to wait. Yes the Internet is working again, but it is a miracle but who knows when it will decide to crap out again. I hope you are all well. Send me some cold thoughts because I'm frying up. I
ts something like 45-50 every day but i rained yesterday so we played in the rain.
Talk to you soon
love
jaz
P.S. I'm going to be in Belize for my Birthday!

The happenings of a drug infested government

Today I was mugged. Good thing there was no coffee in it.
That was just to get you started. To make sure your awake when you read this. But it actually did hurt.
So yesterday started interestingly enough. We were having Spanish class at 6 am and we heard a plane pass overhead. Immediately Anthony, our Spanish teacher, ran outside and started searching te sky. We were sitting there wondering what the big deal was, when he ran back inside and grabbed his shoes and took off in the truck. Apparently the three years he has lived outside this small remote village, he has never heard a jet, especially a fighter jet pass by.
So he ran into town, thinking Guatemala had just gone to war, and found out the President of the
United States was scheduled to come to the country the next day. The fighter jets were just a display from the US of their presence, and their readiness if anything were to happen tomorrow.
His presence has something to do with a drug ring in government. Apparently some high up drug lords were arrested, but the problem was they were national police. The clincher is that the next day they were found dead in jail. All Burned crispy. Since the civil wars only ended in '97 the US became worried of its investments in Guat. Mainly coffee, fruit and of course some oil.
All night the fighter planes passed overhead at intervals of 5 mins, and it was si that that happened al over Guat. That must have been quite a few army personnel to cover the country. Whethe US is in, its all in.
The next day not much was learned about the meeting of the two presidents. It was very high security but some how 300 American flags were burned outside the Guatemalan Parliament building. Who knows what will happen now....
Other than that my days are filled with learning, teaching, working and much love.
Hope all is well at home
love,
jaz

Plane ride and snippets of the first day

The plane glides gently throught the air. I had planned on sleeping, but you know how it goes, something was in the air. Excitment possibly? Well it just might be.
As i was sitting here, pondering whether I should tell the sleeping man next to me his coffee is leaking directly onto my feet, i was thinking what wanted most out of my trip. My foggy mind came to the conclusion that i wanted to change. Small or large, painful or peacful.
Well as for my first day this what occured.
- I held a boa constrictor that we found in the back jungle. Sorry dad if you concider that unsafe. Who knew i would blow it in the first 12 hrs. But this boa had a sad fate. Anthony went into town and had it made into a belt. Maybe the next one we can keep as a pet.
- Forgot to bring most of my underpants currently i have 5 pairs. Laundry sucks.
-Gathered mangos before the wind storm that is forcasted for tonight.
-Recieved like 500 hugs from the casa espiranza kids.
- had my first language class
-Slept the coldest night of my life. The air conditioner was stuck on like deepfreeze. Its going to be removed and life will be back to normal.

So there is a small taste of waht its like. My entrys will generaly be short because the internet generally works in short 10 min stints, if at all. Plus all of the directions for this page are in spanish and i dont know how to change them so spelling will be hard to check. And i dont have the greatest anyway.

So to end I have concluded GUATEMALA=GREAT.
Your sister in Christ,
Jasmine