Settling In

We have been here for a month now and the haze of transition is beginning to clear. We have decided to make our temporary rental a permanent one after looking at numerous town homes and apartments. Although this two bedroom apartment lacks many things, it has some pluses we didn't want to give up. The essential pluses are cheap wireless internet (a rare find in housing), weekly cleaning, hot showers, and a good price. The neighborhood is beginning to feel like our spot with a kid's park and square two blocks away, a yummy coffee house on the corner, and Carlos' neighborhood store to supply us with basic essentials like milk, soap, and pop! Rick's school is about four blocks away.

Ben has made three neighborhood friends: Alexis, Danny and Sebastian. When it is not raining they spend most of their time playing soccer in the callejon (side street). Last week they made kites and tried to fly them in the street. Kites are for sale everywhere as November 1 is "Dia de Los Muertos" (Day of the Dead). On this day families remember and honor their dead by preparing the departed loved ones' favorite dishes to eat at the cemetery, decorating their grave sites, and flying kites with messages for their dead loved ones. Food in the market is very expensive this week because everyone is shopping like crazy to cook up their feasts. We will probably visit the local cemetery to observe the festivities. Our cultural learning this week is to ask Guatemalans what their plans are for November 1.

At CIT (missionary school) we learned that we must enter a new culture with humility and an attitude of a learner. When all your norms of living have been left behind and there is so much learning to do, it is easy to try to reinvent America here or at the very least disparage what is done here as a poor substitute for home. As I have set up our home and naturally look for items I am used to using, I have needed to remind myself that if I can't find what I need, most likely there are two reasons: 1) I am looking in the wrong place or wrong store 2) Guatemalans use some other tool or product to accomplish the task than we do in the U.S. I had a hard time finding a garlic press. Surely in a land where garlic is in everything, Guatemalans have a tool for crushing or mincing their garlic! When I asked for a garlic press, I was shown to a different section of housewares and found what I needed. It was in a section I call the "smushing" area. There are a myriad of metal tools used in the kitchen to crush, smash or squeeze things. There were various types of juicers, tortilla presses, the garlic press, and some other things I wouldn't know what to do with.

By the way, the picture shows ladies making tortillas. Here in Antigua, most Guatemalans do not cook on fires, but use stoves. I won't even attempt to make tortillas as they are expertly made and sold everywhere. Our neighborhood grocery store sells them fresh and HOT, 4 for a Quetzal (about 15 cents). If you stop at lunch you can here the women slapping the tortillas in their hands in the kitchen. The ladies in the picture let us try our hand at patting the tortillas. It's harder than it looks!

Today I went to the grocery store AGAIN. I go about every other day. Each time I buy produce I get to the check out and the cashier calls out "PESO" (weight) and someone comes and grabs my produce and runs away with it to weigh it. There is no scale in the produce area and no scale at the check out. Each time I think "How inefficient, if they would just put a scale at the check out or the produce section everyone wouldn't have to wait to get their produce weighed. Oh, well, I guess that's how its done here..." So today I noticed this HUGE sign in the produce area which said, "Please, dear customers, take your produce to the meat counter to be weighed before you go to the check out." OOPS. So each time I have shopped here the workers are probably thinking, "Here comes this dumb foreigner who doesn't know she should get her produce weighed. Doesn't she know what a pain it is for us to run it back to the meat department for her?"

The kids and I stopped at a bakery on the way home for treats. We are trying out different bakeries. Each one has beautiful looking pastries, but some are don't live up to their image! We each got a pastry, plus one for Rick for $2 total. Not a bad reward for hefting our groceries home 6 blocks! Guatemalans enjoy fruit pastries that we are not accustomed to: pineapple pie (looks deceptively like apple pie) and fresh fig turnovers. We haven't tried these yet, but intend to. Also available are such yummy ice creams as: coconut, cheese, avocado, and shrimp. Hmmm not sure I am up for those!

UPDATE FOR MAILING PACKAGES: After talking with different missionaries, we think the best way for us to receive packages would be for them to come with an American ministry team. If you wish to send us a package, please let us know and we try to find a team that is coming from the U.S. You can send the package to them and they can carry it down to us. Honestly, even if a team is not coming for a month or two, it will be better for us and we may receive the package sooner than had it gone through the mail.