Journey Home Part 2: Family Christmas

'Twas a marvellous Christmas. We spent it at my mother's home in Red Deer, AB. Also technically our home while we are in Guatemala as all of our stuff is there too. Present with me on Christmas Day were my wife, my son, my mother, my sister, my other sister, my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my half-sister-in-law, and my ex-step-father-in-law.



Blaise got the best haul of gifts. Of course. With all his aunties and a grandma around, it's not surprising. I got some sweet gifts too - expansion to Settlers of Catan, a bunch of DVDs, books, candy, winter clothing accessories, and stuff to make me smell not bad.

In a future post, I will discuss at length the joy of food. So, I'll skip Christmas dinner for now.



It had been 2 years since I was together with both my sisters. I love them - we have some pretty good laughs. On Boxing Day, the three of us with my super amazing brother-in-law, world renown DJ Dean Jones went skiing at Lake Louise for a day. The conditions were awesome: about -10°C, deep snow, low snowboarder population, no line-ups, sunshine for most of the day. Even met up with Chad, an old friend from college.

Dean and I timed our second to last run to make it up the lift just before it closed at 4 o'clock. We wanted to take it easy and just hit green runs and enjoy the scenery. We were both exhausted by the day and didn't have any energy left. We followed a blue square sign to a run we hadn't tried that day and found ourselves stuck on moguls which stretched more than half the length of the mountain - neither of us ski moguls. It took us 30 minutes to make it down - a process that involved going side to side, falling, trying to turn around, and resting. Worst run ever.

In the car during the 4-hour trip each way, we watched episodes of The Office on my iPod.



This was the first time Blaise has seen snow. He was intrigued for a little while and actually learned to say it: "no" (though it's suspiciously similar to "no" and "nose").

Vecinos con Vozinos

I was hiking up a beautiful mountainside burrough of Tactic yesterday afternoon with Walter. Every fifth house was raising its roof with Mexican "yip-yip" cowboy music thus sharing their advanced sound system with the neighbours (vecinos). Walter explained that it was more important to many Guatemalans to have big speakers (vozinos) than to have pretty much any house accessory, such as chairs, fixed roof, food...

This morning I was reminded of yesterday's adventure in sound. Engine brakes. Over and over again. As usual.

Add to this the 6-10 dogs who nightly have a barking match. The early morning firecrackers. The pre-morning roosters. The rain on a tin roof. The marimba polka music blaring from the bars.

I guess it's time to readjust.

Journey Home Part 1: Leaving Guatemala

I saw my first murdered person the day before we flew to Canada.

We are applying for residency in Guatemala and so I was obliged to go to the official's office to sign some papers. I took a taxi. The driver had to redirect himself several times because of impromptu traffic barriers put up by the traffic police. When we got to within a block from my destination on one of the largest and busiest one-way streets in Guatemala City, three of the six lanes were closed because a man was laying dead on the street on his back. Someone put a newspaper over a bloodied head. My estimation is that he was shot in the face.

The taxi driver said that about 15 murders are reported in the paper each day for Guatemala City. Many of these are theft related.

The image of the corpse is etched permanently now in my mind.

The trip to Canada the next day went fine. Blaise did tremendously well. The most trying part was our 70 minutes in Houston where we stood in line at U.S. Immigration, picked up our 4 large pieces of luggage (along with our 2 carry-ons, car seat, 2 "purses" and 18-month-old boy), stood in line at U.S. Customs, checked our baggage again, passed very slowly through a Homeland Security checkpoint then checked in at our gate which was 2 wings away. The entire time, Blaise's diaper was leaking peepee onto Amber and me (note to self: remember to carry a spare shirt when traveling). Blaise was changed at the gate, just in time to board with the other travelers with small children.

A note on Homeland Security: It's not a pleasant experience standing in stocking feet with my pants falling down demonstrating that a video camera works, removing a laptop and a desktop computer from my carryon luggage, and at the same time asked to show my boarding pass and passport. Punks.

Mom was there to pick us up after 7 hours of flying (plus the hour in George Bush International) with our winter jackets.

Under the Snow

Yowsers! There's a fair bit to catch up on, so I'm not going to bother.

GUATEMALA: I finished the sponsorship promotional video, subtitling and all. We left on a Tuesday morning for Guatemala City and spent a day there getting some of our residency papers done. While on my way to sign some paper downtown I saw a murdered person laying on his back in the middle of the street with a newspaper over his face (he'd been shot in the face). My appointment was one block up the street.

THE FLIGHT: I was grateful that the two landings weren't the regular kamikaze landings that one expects from Continental. The Department of Homeland Security did a fine job in Houston - they checked my shoes, belt, computer, laptop, video camera, and everything in between. An old guy helped us with our luggage just before customs and told me horror stories about people who were taken to the side rooms. I thought maybe he was an agent trying to milk me for info or see if I would make a break for it - but it turns out he just wanted a tip. Blaise slept for 30 minutes on the first flight (3 hrs), twitching the entire time. He was sopping wet when we landed in Houston and our connection was only an hour long so we had to make it to the gate before we changed him (immigration, luggage, customs, luggage check, security, long walk to the gate). Needless to say both Amber and I smelled like urine once we boarded plane #2.

RED DEER: Not as cold as we had anticipated. My mom really enjoyed Blaise and serving us - which we enjoyed too. I went to two movies the day after we flew in, then another when I returned (The Prestige, Borat, The Departed).

EDMONTON: Spent a night with my sister and Dean, her manslave. Then a two nights at our friends' mansions. Every place has hot water!! Had some great visits with friends and we're still on the schedule. I spoke at church - probably too long, but I was relaxed and had lots of eye contact. Saw a couple movies here too (Apocalypto, The Pursuit of Happyness).

Dispatches!

I was listening to a podcast of Dispatches, from CBC Radio 1 and heard my name! Check it out (the Dec 5 show) ... I'm at 18:21. You can get the episode free from the iTunes Music Store aswell - search for Dispatches in the podcasting section.

Santa

We were invited to see Santa Claus when he briefly swung into Tactic on the weekend at our neighbours' store. As you can see, the weather was ideal and Santa was seen by a host of people.



Blaise was one of the lucky ones to be held by Santa. Not sure why there's bad blood here...

Banking in Guatemala

I've been spending a lot of time at the bank. We have a cash float which we use to buy gifts that are sent from Canada for sponsor children and then submit our receipts to balance our float. Lately, the gifts have been huge - building a house for example. So our float is always empty and I'm always going to the bank to cash cheques.

Yesterday, I waited in line outside for 30 minutes and then another 10 minutes inside. The guy ahead of me had a gym bag that he hoisted up onto the counter when it was his turn. He proceeded to hand bags of change (mostly 1 quetzal coins - equivalent to CAN$0.16) which was then counted and deposited. This took a while. Fortunately there were two tellers.

Last Friday at the BANCO AGROMERCANTIL there was an old farmer ahead of me with a deposit slip. I glanced at it and it had Q14 or $2.16.

This morning I waited in line for 30 minutes in a larger bank, BANRURAL, to make a deposit into our notary public/lawyer's account. The tellers, receptionists and loans officer seemed to have their own little activities while the rest of us waited. And there were a lot of us.

When the ATM in Tactic is empty, it's empty for days at a time.

If you have a cheque from say the Banco Industrial, you are only permitted to cash that cheque at a BANCO INDUSTRIAL. You can not just deposit the cheque into your Banco Agromercantil account. You have to cash it at the BI, then go to your own bank. You can see long lines of people on Friday afternoons waiting to cash their weekly or monthly cheques. This is also how we pay our electric bills.

As an aside, I just spent $4.63 to courier a package 4 hours away overnight to Guatemala City. To do an overnight courier in Canada it cost me $27.13 from Kamloops to Calgary.

What Is Important?

Blaise's Current Vocabulary:
(he's 16.5 months old)

mama	mama	no	no
papa	papa	hm-hm	yes
moah	more	wuhzis	what's this?
caca	cracker	whoo whoo	dog
tcheez	cheese	puppy	puppy
papa	papaya	cah	car
wawa	water	baboo	balloon
buckbuck	chicken	ha-ee	hi
dehdoo	thank you	no-o	nose
bye bye	bye bye	ee-ee	ear
tahtahtah	hot hot hot	ah-ee	eye
tee	teeth	ha-a	hand
ezhus	shoes	waweh	flower
coco	Poco (his favorite TV show) or TV	que	que (what in Spanish)
Bzh	Blaise

Door-to-Door Salespeople

A woman knocked on our door this late afternoon. She was selling bean tamales with a nice hot salsa. How could I resist at a mere $0.16 each! Her husband was at the end of our driveway waiting with the vehicle (a bicycle) in the rain with the food goods.

Since we've lived here, the door-to-door salesfolk have been frequent. Oranges. Handwoven Large Baskets. Warm Pizza. Cashews. Tortillas. Yogurt. Goat's Milk. Pressure Cooker Repairs. Prepared food of the Guatemala Variety. A Shoe Shine.

For me, pity kicks in easily. I yield more to the desire to pick up the determined and downtrodden salesman than to the appeal of the product or service. Though I must say these bean tamales are delish.

It is difficult to see so many people spinning their wheels in unproductive ventures. There is a man who probably walks 20 kms each sunny day selling homemade ice cream from a styrofoam box to which is attached a jingling bell. I tried a cone of his iced cream once and it wasn't very good. What could I expect for $0.16? So what can be done to help the uneducated? Educate them! But how? There are many obstacles to their financial success: First the education (this is huge as it often involves common sense). Then the capital. Then the purchasing base (who do you sell to when everyone around you is poor?). Then the money management (making sure they don't spend their money on useless things).

Art

Over the past year, I've run into or been referred to some remarkable pieces of interesting art. 6 are here linked for your pleasure.

-The Helsinki Complaints Choir with a song by Esko Grundström, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen. (thanks Carl for sending this to me)

-Billboard Top Song Timelapse by R. Luke DuBois. Dubois fed 857 songs between 1958 and 2000 into his laptop and gave every week 1 second where he crunched the top song of that week.

-Single-Paper Art by Peter Callesen. Magnificent and often meaningful paper sculptures cut from one piece of paper and completely connected. (thanks Kevin)

-Animatus by Hyungkoo Lee. Look at classic cartoon characters' skeletons. Brilliant! (thanks again to Kevin)

-The Honda Choir. A vocal rendition of automobile sounds. (thanks to Kevin again for this one)

-Rick Mercer's Photoshop Challenges: Harper vs. Martin, Gilles Duceppe and Jack Layton, Peter MacKay and Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff and George W. Bush, Paul Martin, Ralph Klein, Jean Chretien, and most recently Jason Kenney. (thanks April for telling me about Mercer's blog)

Post 200

Average posts per week since I started* blogging: 1.5
Average posts per week over the last 100 posts: 2.35
Average number of comments per post: 2.34

Thank you everyone for reading and commenting. You are all superstars.

*(not counting the first year with only 1 post)

28-Year-Old Honey

My honey is TWENTY-EIGHT years old today. 28 on the 28th. She calls it her golden birthday.

I have to go make her some breakfast now while she is still sleeping... shhh.

Weekend in Honduras

We took off Friday afternoon dragging our buddy Mariah from St. Albert with us so we could get to Ruinas Copán, Honduras in time for supper. Stopped and had licuados (smoothies) in El Rancho. We got another stamp in our passports (the last possibly for mine as I'll be getting a new one in December).

We stayed in our usual hotel, Hotel Calle Real and ate at our usual restaurant, Via Via. Mariah got her Christmas shopping done and we watched a couple movies on HBO in our hotel.

Blaise did not sleep well. Last night, he woke up 4 times screaming. The first time at 11 pm. After 30 minutes of soothing and exploring all possible solutions he went to sleep only to be woken up 10 minutes later by a rooster (I'd like to clean that rooster's clock!). So, I've been pretty tranced out.



I visited the ruins again with Mariah. They were still there and still old. This is the famous estela head from the ruins (on all the postcards). Notice the whiskers. Notice the angry nose. Entrance to the park is relatively expensive - US$15 - compared to Tikal - US$6.50 - and you have to pay another US$15 to get into the tunnels which we didn't pay. As we approached the tunnels, one of the guards approached us and offered us an under the table deal as long as we didn't talk about it. So we got to see the tunnels for US$4 each. I must say that they are not worth US$15. Maybe not even US$4. But it was cool. The coolest part being the deal. The ruins are layered because subsequent rulers would build a whole other set of new ruins (ha ha) on top of the old ruler's ruins. It's hard to appreciate everything your seeing because it's mostly worn down carvings and all the really interesting stuff is gone (the people, animals, furniture, paint, roofs, and wooden substructures).



This is a Guacamaya. There are lots of them at the ruins park.

Last night we enjoyed some ritzy food at place called Twisted Tanya's. I had filet mignon with a light jalapeño sauce, a lovely salad, and cheesecake. The cheesecake had to come home with us because Blaise was really tired. I slept through most of Batman Forever after I ate my dessert. I also enjoyed some cheese pupusas, carrot soup, waffles, bread pudding, a great big burrito and some nice beverages over the weekend.

It was good to get away and feel our extremities again.

Steaming Horse

Amber pointed out the horse outside our house early one morning. This is how cold it is inside of our house. I'm not trying to have a cold competition with my Canadian friends who are always quick to point out the -84°C weather they are experiencing. Perfectly clear. Understood. But how many of you have 3°C inside your house? My joints were stiff due to the consistent rain and cold we've had in town the past few weeks.

Consequences of the cold:

-Amber and I get up in the night and scurry in our heavy layered PJs to Blaise's bed to ensure that he is covered up. He routinely kicks off his blankets... for kicks.

-Our house has a distinct campfire smell because when it's windy the smoke from our meager fires can not escape to the outside and stays inside. With us. Cough cough.

-Amber managed to convince me that going to Copan, Honduras for the weekend was a good idea since it's hot there. It's her birthday on Tuesday, so I went along (or rather drove the 250 km through mountain passes, desserts and border crossings).

-Showers are taken when they are needed. Well, that's not true. They are taken when we agree that they are needed. Low pressure and volume doesn't make it a pleasant experience. Besides, not many people can smell you when you have so many layers on.

Chocolate Mint of Anguish

Mariah was kind enough to share one of her chocolate mints with me this morning. It was perhaps the most foul thing that has gone into my mouth. I howled and spat and sputtered and winced and shuddered. Think cat poop and antifreeze (no, I haven't tasted either, but free your imagination). Mariah ate two of them. She thought they were a little off. I had to drop oil of oregano and then deepfry my tongue to regain coherence. Poison!

I'd love to know what was wrong with these things. Where are my chemical lab techs? The expiration date was sometime in 2008 and we've had the same mints before and they were fine. Not sure if I'm brave enough to try them again.

RSS. Do it.

If you're scared of computers, don't worry, this is simply meant to make your life easier.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) allows you to know as soon as a new news item is posted on your favorite news website or when your favorite blogs have a new post. This eliminates the necessity of having to visit each website to see if something knew has been posted. For example, I know that I don't have to visit Justin's blog, because he hasn't posted anything new since November 4. I do know however that there are seven new articles on the How Stuff Works website since I last looked at the feed. All you get are the headlines and a short description or the first few lines of the article, so you can browse ad free and click on the articles or blog posts that most interest you. All Blogger blogs automatically generate an RSS feed.

To take advantage of all this, you need an RSS reader. I use one that is built into my browser Safari on my Mac. Easy as anything to add an RSS or XML (same thing basically) feed to your bookmarks. Any page that carries a feed will have an RSS or XML on the right end of the URL (website address). Just click on that and you get the RSS page, then add to favorites.

Windows has a whole bunch of RSS readers too. I'm sure Sirdar or kevininspace can recommend one. Firefox and Explorer have RSS reader plugins that you can download.

Some feeds that I subscribe to are the Edmonton Oilers, Wired, CBC Canadian News, New York Times Movie News, Apple News, and of course Strength and Honour Showtimes.

iPod takes flight (part II)

I ordered the new 5th generation iPod. Black. 80 GB. Colour screen supporting videos and photos. As far as FedEx is concerned, it's still in Shanghai at the moment. I only get it once I arrive in Canada on Dec 13.

What's super cool about this iPod is that I can keep photos (which I can use for work) and video* (which I can use for fun). The 80 GB is hardly enough though with 61 GB of music and 14.4 GB photos (both expanding) doesn't leave room for video. I'll have to pick and choose what goes on. A few disappointing features: this iPod can't synch with FireWire, just USB 2.0. My laptop only has FireWire and USB 1.1, so I have to synch it exclusively with my desktop compy. Also, all the gadgets I had for my old iPod (iTalk, RoadTrip, and dock) may not work with this iPod. I am hoping to get my podcast back on track by using my iPod as a voice recorder on the field. We'll see.

My first iPod (stolen, see previous post) was a 3rd generation. White. 40 GB. B/W screen.

*any movie converted to H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per sec.

Restored

Our house was robbed of $8000 worth of stuff nearly nine months ago. The thief is still anonymous and likely still suffering guilt. The most painful feelings from this have subsided mostly, though everytime someone else we know get robbed, the wound reopens a bit.

There has been an incredible miracle that followed the theft however. I wrote in our latest newsletter about how nearly all the items that were stolen had been restored. Well, now all of them, save some DVDs, have been replaced. We can only attribute this to God's faithfulness to us. I've learned to trust Him more and release a lot of the anxiety that followed the theft. Here's a detailed list of what was stolen and how it was replaced:

STOLEN	REPLACED WITH	BY WHOM
300 DVDs	138 DVDs	friends mostly
3.1 MP digital Camera	5.0 MP digial camera
iPod 40GB	iPod 80 GB	tax refund money
DV Camcorder	new DV Camcorder
Nikon F65 SLR	Nikon F65 SLR	gift from François
Diaper Bag	Diaper Bag	gift from Aunt Gaylene
Backpack	Backpack	b-day gift
Men's Dress Shoes	more comfortable shoes
Men's Sandals	more comfortable sandals
Women's old runners	new runners
Women's new flip flops	new flip flops
$200 cash	$825	gifts from Tols, Roths, Wiebes
Power Adapter for phone	new adapter
Pocket Bible (NASB)	new same Bible
Swiss Army Knife (camping)	Swiss Army Knife (biggest one)	my b-day gift to myself
Belt	new belt
Confidence in people	More Confidence in people	prayers, cards, emails, phone calls

A realization that I had after the theft was that there were three ways to live in the face of the threat of theft:

A) Live simply with nothing so that nothing can be stolen.
B) Live boldly and richly without attachment to material things
C) A good combination of A and B

Elixir

My nose started to run last night, so I decided to smash it behind the knees with this potent cocktail:

+3 Cold-fx capsules (600mg of CVT-E002) (or N.A. ginseng)
+5 drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract (here a sham or there the world's most useful product)
+1 capsule Garlic Oil (3 mg)
+5 drops of Oil of Oregano under the tongue ("Nature's Strongest Antibiotic!")
+1 capful of delicious Fig-Honey Cough Syrup (used here purely as a chaser, or is it?)
+1 tall glass of water

I felt pretty groggy this morning, like I had a hang-over (never had a hang-over, but I imagine this is what it feels like). What am I missing from this random menagerie of mythical immune boosters?

All blades of grass

There is a dog, split in two, stretched across one lane. I answer the door in my pajamas at 7 A.M. to a man wanting to know why I needed to see his son. The bank teller still asks me how my film is coming. I eat 4 meals. My 2 o'clock appointment with Oscar and Evelin doesn't happen because they are too tired to answer their door, but they answer their phone and delay my afternoon by 45 minutes. My 8 o'clock appointment with Erick and a carpenter doesn't happen because Erick couldn't contact the carpenter. I'm one of four adults at the small group tonight, it's on God's revealing Himself to us. No hay dios quien puede hacer las obras como las que haces tu. I'm training Oscar and Evelin to take photos and collect info for sponsorship packages. My little one is eating solids again after 3 1/2 days. The printer in the office hassles me and I end up taking 45 minutes to print one 8X10 photo. Nine of twelve members of a family descend the mountain and arrive excited that we are there, measuring out their house and talking about the size of the rooms. At 8:30, I drive by a drunk man laying on his side, back to me in the dark. The Oilers won last night, but Smith is injured. Flor writes me another reimbursment cheque, so I'll go to the bank three days in a row this week. We're going to get together on December 20. Only Q3.46 left on my phone. Amber is content with the soup I brought home from tonight's meeting. What is el Libro de Ecclesiasticos in English if Ecclesiastes is el Libro de Ecclesiastes? Online chatting with Carl dissipates after a couple exchanges - there must be a hummingbird blocking the satellite signal. Thom Yorke was singing in my car all day long. We meet at 3:15 instead and head to San Antonio to plan and estimate the building of a house. I write little blurbs describing the past 10 short term teams for a ministry newsletter. "Papá." Lang is the carpenter, he's going to do the job for Q2500. Sandra has made us a tasty soup with smoked roast beef chunks in it and tamalitos as dumplings. $16,000 raised at the benefit concert for Waldrons in Africa. The Simpsons Movie is in 2D. "Only 3 cups of goat's milk today, thank you." Hector can't make it to the video shoot, so we postpone until tomorrow. I have just enough money in my wallet for Erick to buy the re-bar, cement, blocks, and sand for tomorrows delivery to San Antonio. Estuardo chases a huge wood eating beetle around the patio. There's a man peeing on the side of the street. Jairo helps me with the grammar for the photo we are printing for the mayor of Tactic in thanks for the land the town gave us. The eyes should be 1/4 of the way from the top of the picture with no lines through the head. Why do Jehovah's Witnesses call God 'Jehovah'? The making of The Big Lebowski reminds that I need to be working on my screenplay.

Reminded

Amber, April, and Sirdar reminded me today that it is Remembrance Day. I don't pay much attention to dates here, plus, it's a balmy 24℃ outside so it's hard to even remember that it's November.

It doesn't take much to get me choked up about Remembrance Day. Everytime I go to a service or watch a program or listen to the minute of silence on the radio, I am overwhelmed with the sacrifice. I put together a slideshow to Rod Stewart's Forever Young of fallen Canadian soldiers for a school I worked at a few years ago. I updated it a bit a few weeks ago for the principal and sent it to him for this year's assembly.

I got up at 4 am today. Could not sleep and there was so much traffic. I decided to watch one of my movies that I haven't seen before, Amen., directed by Costa-Gavras. IMDB's synopsis is

Two systems: the Nazi machine versus the Vatican and Allied diplomacy. Two men struggling from the inside. On one side, Kurt Gerstein, a real-life chemist and SS officer, supplied the death camps with zyklon B while he tirelessly denounced the crimes and alerted the Allies, the Pope, the Germans and their churches at his family's and his own risk. On the other, Ricardo Fontana, a young Jesuit, a fictitious character who represents all the priests who had the heart to struggle against savagery, often paying for their courage with their lives. Countless priests, some known, others anonymous, who simply were not content to live with the silence of their church's hierarchy.

I guess today I remember the soldiers who were put in situations they did not expect to be in.

Driving Around

It is not uncommon to see some startling sights from my car. Here are a few recollections from the past week.

As I wait for cattle to cross the road returning from San Antonio, I watch from from my car as a bull attempts repeatedly to mount a cow in the middle of the street, stopping traffic on both sides.

Each time I pass one building on my way out of Tactic, there is a man with magnifying glass eyewear smoking a cigar standing in the doorway. He never has a beard, yet he looks like he never shaves either. He simply stands unaccompanied learing at passersby.

A Mazda pick-up truck is taxiing a half dozen people on the highway going about 20 km/hr. As I pass them, the front driver wheel is wobbling uncontrollably.

I wait in my car for Walter to come down from his 2nd story home that overlooks a pasture. A cow is runs down the street and dives through a barbed wire fence then holds it's right rear leg close to her body as it took a good slicing on a barb.

Decoding Presidential Speeches

Got this from Nate Knows Nada. 360 U.S. presidential speeches from 1776-2006 got put through a tag generator and so you can visually see how often words were used based on the size of the word. It's remarkable to see the shift in focus between eras and presidents - notably words like:

CONSTITUTION, HOSTILITY, INDIANS, COMMISSIONERS, FREEDOM, OPINION, VESSELS, DEBT, BRITISH, WAR, SPAIN, TREATY, SLAVERY, MEXICO, FRANCE, TAXES, TEXAS, TERRITORY, CALIFORNIA, LABOR, EMANCIPATION, REBELLION, APPROPRIATION, CURRENCY, NATURALIZATION, ELECTION, TREASURY, AGRICULTURE, CUBA, COMMISSION, ISLANDS, CORPORATIONS, PANAMA, INTERSTATE, CONSERVATION, TARIFF, CANAL, CRUISERS, GERMAN, INDUSTRIES, ECONOMIC, COOPERATION, DESTITUTION, UNEMPLOYED, DEMOCRATIC, DICTATOR, JAPANESE, PROSPERITY, STRENGTH, SOVIET, KOREA, COMMUNIST, PROSPERITY, MISSILES, NUCLEAR, CLASSROOMS, EDUCATION, GOD, CRIME, VIETNAM, CHALLENGES, INFLATION, DEFICITS, FAMILY, IRAQ, KUWAIT, WELFARE, CRIME, INVEST, WEAPONS, AFGHANISTAN, TERRORISTS

God's Eye View

Today, I was able to see with God's eyes things that only He could see a hundred years ago.



This is my child who will be born in April of next year. We drove into Cobán and had an ultrasound done. I filmed almost the entire appointment where we saw the baby wave his/her arms, open mouth, and wiggle. Pretty wild. Amber is quite excited about the prospects she's just discovered about where we can deliver this baby and with whom.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. Psalm 133:14-16

This is my home from outer space. Google Maps updated their satellite images of Guatemala, now they are one step down from the quality that you can see downtown New York City. My house is the lower of two identical ones in the middle north of the highway.

My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite, until the LORD from heaven looks down and sees. Lamentations 3:49-50

The cemetery is a-hoppin'

Had to swing around the cemetery this afternoon to check out the Día de los Muertosfestivities. I dragged Amber, Blaise and Mariah along. This time, I wanted to talk to a couple people to find out what they believed about this whole thing.

Two camps.



One group of women told me that they figured the dead are dead and the living visit the cemetery with food, flowers, pine needles and paint (to spruce up the crypts) just to honour and remember the dead in their family. I asked them if they believed that the dead did anything special on that day and they said "no, no hacen nada." Cool.



Another group parties hard. Lots of liquor and they burn incense and make offerings to Maximón. Most of the partying is done at home and the Mayan priests are heavily involved. They told me that in Antigua it's way bigger, as big as Easter. I smelled plenty of incense in Tactic too. Bombs (basically sticks of dynamite) were being shot into the air all day too.