Es un buen Dia

From Drop Box

Man i can hardly believe that i have been living here for a week already! It seems like i just got here in Guatemala. Much work is done and many things are yet to be accomplished for the 1st teams coming in on Monday. There are going to be many people living in my room for a week.  18 guys in 1 room! it will be alright though. Dan says that the adult teams tend to fall asleep much faster than any Ivanrest team full of teens on a sugar high. So im excited to meet new people and get on a regular schedule.  I must say the food has been excellent Naomi is a Great cook and i hope to share some things with her and i think im going to make tortillas and tamales one night. On the whole menu writing and cooking aspect of this trip has been a bit challenging due to the lack of variety of proteins such as no pork, or much fish.  I have live chicken and ground beef to work with. It just makes thinking of side dishes a little more complicated and a little starchy sometimes.  But the carbs are good for the teams to keep up their energy!


Spiritually ive been blessed by the morning devotions with the staff.  A staff member reads the passage and then another will read the day of My Utmost for His Highest. And yes it's all in Spanish! Good thing i brought my copy along!  Its fun to read along and kind of pick out words that i know and learn new ones.  There is nothing else in the world like a good Guatemalan prayer. and singing afterwards.  Even though i have mostly no clue of what they are saying about what we read i always feel blessed by them sharing this time with me. Everyone on staff seems to be so strong in their faith.  That is something that i truly admire. 


During lunch today i had many questions asked by the staff since i was the only gringo.  Dan and Heidi ran to the capital to grab some supplies and left me at the base with estuardo, naomi, hermano, johanna, and paulina. which was fun.  It just takes a while to have a conversation or ask where something is. So at lunch it took about have our lunch time to figure out that they were asking if i was on the team that the tree fell in front of the van on the way back from one of our med clinics at the coast.  and then they said they knew Jason and Mike and i told them that they were my Cousin and Uncle. Hermano said "Jason es HULK!!"  Since he is so much taller than everyone here! 


My afternoon was spent stapling song sheets together and finishing up that project.  It's hard to get the computer work done here when we are limited to the amount of downloads we are able to have, It's crazy with the satellite internet.  


I also read my pocket dictionary with Deborah and Emmanuel (naomi and estuardo's kids) we taught each other some new words. It was fun having some time to relax this afternoon and hang out with them.
dinner was excellent it was Savory empanadas with ground beef and cabbage.  I love it how we have guacamole or picante sauce with everything. Also that we have tortillas everyday.  Ummm i love their tortillas that they make. they smell so good when they are cooking.  like fresh bread and corn cooking! delish!  


so that's the life of nate so far in the deep south.  I hope everything is going good in the wintery Michigan! 
I miss and love you all 




Nate

From Drop Box

p.s. those 2 pictures are what i get to see just about everyday! ES MUY BONITA!