Heading home

That´s right. I´ll be home for just a bit, arriving tomorrow around noon and leaving around 4 on January 3rd. I can´t wait to be there and spend time with my friends and family, more than anything, really. But just for fun, here´s a list of some other things I´m looking forward to:

1. Oklahoma Joe´s
2. A friend´s wedding
3. Jacob´s Well (which, for all that it means to me, could be a list all its own, including the following 2 items)
4. Lunch Bunch
5. Sunday Night Jam
6. POC
7. Cigars with the boys
8. A moment´s quiet, without the honking of buses and their accompany fumes, the barking of dogs, cockadoodledoodling of roosters, screams of children, blaring reggaton, or the tv. just peace and quiet, particularly in the following two situations:
9. A walk all by myself on my favorite trail at Shawnee Mission Park
10. A trail run at Swope with an old friend
11. Some possible late night escapades with the good ol´ bike gang
12. The Hot Club of Cowtown Dec. 30th at Knuckleheads
13. Christmas (duh)
14. Real beer
15. Real cheese
16. Plaza lights
17. Lavender Lace Tea
18. Broomball (let´s make it happen people)
19. You Say Tomato
20. McCoy´s
21. Being cold

And on and on. In the interest of tying up my last loose ends, I´m gonna leave this at 21 and finish up before I head out! If you have anything to add to the list, put it down der in the comments section. Love you guys!

Retreat, Antigua, Tow, Christmas, Futbol

Lots to report on here from a full weekend.
We had a staff prayer retreat in Antigua last friday. We kicked the day off with some breakfast. From L to the back and then up the right side: Giselle (Admistration and Accounting), Me, Gaby (Paralegal), Bea (Paralegal), Joanna (Australian Social Work Fellow), Luis (Lawyer), Name Withheld, Marisol (kind of hidden, Office Manager and Maid), Delmi (Social Worker), Jessica (Lawyer, Director of the Legal Department, my boss), Alejandra (Guatemalan Legal Intern), Silvia (Guatemalan Legal Intern). Not pictured: Pablo (Field Office Director), Alex (Church Relations Intern), Miriam (Director of Social Work), Alejandro (Guatemalan Legal Intern).

Luis took a holy nap during quiet time.

We played a game that put us all in ridiculous positions that made me and Alejandra laugh a whole lot.

See?

Later, my car broke down and I had to tow it back to the city. Good thing I have free roadside assistance!

Putting up some Christmas decorations with the family. If I´m an adoptive son of Candy (right), then Joanna is my sister-in-law. That´s my "cousin" in the middle.

Our maid Emma. This was a rare moment of animated laughter. Great.

The family. Victor, Candy, Me, Joanna, Victor Jr.

This Coca Cola water tower looking thing is right in the middle of the legal district. Out of place and beautiful. I´ll get a better shot later on.

We went to a semi-final soccer game yesterday. Our team, Municipal, is called the Rojos (Reds). I came with Joanna, Victor, and Alex (not pictured).

Gameplay.

There was a kind of absurd amount of fireworks, smoke bombs, and of course, shouting.

I´m shocked.

People were happy about the win.

Frustrations and Hilarious Latin Americanness

When you live in the developing world, you begin to notice some big differences - or at least some idiosynrancies that stick out like a sore thumb to American eyes. For example:

Yesterday, the biggest intersection in this, the capital city, was shut down in order to make the world´s longest pizza chain in the world. First of all, you need to understand that when an intersection that big is shut down here, there´s no going around the block, and there´s no u-turning to backtrack and find a way around. Almost all of the streets here are one-way, and there doesn´t tend to be much of a grid to the system. I ended up going 2 miles out of the way the other direction, weaving my way to the airport, and going a back way to the road that comes out on the other side of the world´s longest pizza chain. I found out today that there was no pizza-making actually happening at the event. Nope, they were taping pizzas in delivery boxes together. Something to be proud of indeed.

On a similar note, the only road that goes into my town directly from the city was basically shut down the other day for a Christmas parade. This meant that for most people going into the town (who had no warning or signage to help them out) ended up turning a 20 minute drive into a two hour drive. Bummer. I, fortunately, had some foreknowledge and turned the curse into a blessing - taking yet another backway that loops way out over the top of the mountain the town sits on, around the bend, and down a long road into town. This way turns out be pretty naturey, lacking the smog and smells and noise of most of the rest of this continent (or at least it´s major cities). It also turned out to be the same road I ran up last Wednesday on an hour and a half excursion beyond the city limits. In my half running-half walking it turns out (based on my car´s odometer) that I covered about 9 miles that day. Not bad.

Finally, yesterday there happened to be some kind of revival happening in the streets just a few blocks from my house. I don´t think noise ordinances exist here, and if they do, I´m absolutely certain they're not enforced. Trying to get some Sunday afternoon R & R in my room, I was distracted by the very loud Merengue worship music and some preacher screaming at me (and everyone else within 2 or 3 miles) about Jesus. As much as I love Jesus, I don´t much love anyone screaming at people about him - much less telling people about him when it comes from a desire to "win" souls, rather than as an overflow of our love for friends, family, neighbors, and enemies. I made another blessing out of this cursed yelling and headed uphill to the only green space in my gated community with my guitar, where I was somehow able to get above the all the noise and actually commune with our Lord. How ironic.

And that´s just the kind of lesson you learn in a place like this - feeling far from home and culturally disoriented (because I know that if I grew up here probably all of the above would not really phase me), I can either get frustrated and grumpy (which I´ve done plenty of), or I can adjust and make the most of things. I´m learning to do the latter more and more. Forget how you thought it would be, forget your plan, forget wishing it was different, forget what it´s like at home - and make the most of it. I can´t imagine how potent those lessons may be by the time I´ve been here for 6 more months and begin transitioning home. I´m sure I´ll feel some cultural dizzyness there too.

The Great Adventure With Rachee Bee

Hey Friends. Sorry it´s been a while since I´ve posted. Life is good here, and certainly moving and changing - but in sublte ways. The basic format is still: wake up at 6:30, iron clothes, eat egg and fruit breakfast, driving down the hill and up again and around the roundabout and end up at the office, where I more or less sit at a desk from 8 to 5 and enter data, do some filing, go to meetings, or run out to meet with public prosecutors, etc. Drive home around the roundabouts, down the hill and up again (or stop in Zone 10 for dinner and/or a movie), go home. Run. Practice guitar. Eat dinner. Do some skyping or reading (currently: The Gift of Good Land, Chasing Francis, and the Gospels). Hit the sack. There are of course the day to day changes and interruptions. I´ve had the pleasure of getting more involved with my church lately, and tomorrow I´m going to see the Messiah performed at the national theater.

A more remarkable interruption, though, is the recent visit of Rachel. She flew in on Tuesday and left on Sunday. What happened in between was a great time. We went to the old colonial capital, Antigua, and enjoyed the metropolitan atmosphere, cobble stone streets, ruins of centuries old churches (and the still standing structures of others), and some great food. We then headed back to the city, hopped an overnight bus, and the next morning woke up in the jungle province of the north, known as the Petén. We had breakfast at the island town of Flores, then took a shuttle to the lakeside town of El Remate, where we holed up at a french-run hotel for two nights. Swimming off the idylic thatch-roof dock, eating at the same reliably delicious restaurant for every meal (they even served a real Thanksgiving meal!), walking around, shooting pool (that´s right), and resting (I think there was at least one nap in every day!).

We also went to nearby Tikal, the ruins of one of the largest, most powerful city-states of Mayan days of old. The stone-built temples, houses, and other structures were astoundingly gigantic, and the presence of history seemed to breathe with the wind in that place. Really a dramatic wasteland of power fallen, and jungle encroaching - just a shell of grandeur for our touristic voyeurism into the lives of a people long gone. We took the bus back to the city on Saturday, and had breakfast with my host family on Sunday morning, before I took Rachel to the airport and sent her back to Kansas. I know pictures tell at least a thousand words each, though, so check these out below. All of the Tikal and El Remate pictures are on Rachee Bee´s camera, so we´ll have to wait for her to email those or put em up on her flickr or something.

The Great Adventure Pictures Part I

Trimming back the hedges. Don´t worry. I asked if we could take a picture. They were really nice.

We found what looks like a meeting place for some Guatemalan Boy Scouts. I swear Rachel was more excited about this than me.

There's something like 20 churches in the tiny town of Antigua. This is one of them.

Rachel´s art shot.

Rachel was insistent on taking a picture of me jumping on this roof. I didn´t realize until later that she got it in a series.

At a giant tourist-friendly shop, Rachel found a comfortable place to rest in the arms of her savior.

We stopped at a mirador (scenic overlook) on the way back from Antigua which overlooks the entire Guatemala City metro area. I live somewhere towards the right of the picture.

Rio Dulce

A couple weekends ago Alex and I went to Rio Dulce, a town a little ways inland from the Caribbean on a river of the same name.

We stayed in this sweet screened in shack. All we heard at night were the jungle animals doing their thing. Pretty and relaxing. A great place to read and swim (of which we did a lot).

We walked into town to catch a bus through the outlying ranch country to see a certain waterfall (see next).

We went to a place called Finca Paraíso. That waterfall is fed by a hotspring = hotwaterfall. Hott.

We also kayaked across the bay to this castle. It was built in the 1500´s to keep pirates off the mainland and out of the harbor. The pirates, of course, commandeered it. Shiver me timbers.

The castle courtyard.

Over my right shoulder you can barely see a mess of shipmasts, that´s where we stayed (and where we kayaked from). We had to to kayak back as that more imposing mass of rain you see moved over the water. It was an epic aquatic adventure.

More Castle.

More news: since our trip to Rio Dulce, I have gotten sick, gotten better, and found a church. Hooray!

Finca envy

So last Friday I came into work prepared for an all-day legal team meeting - a marathon affair (I hear) involving lots of coffee and a review of every single active case (and I can´t even count how many that is. 20? 30?). I was just preparing myself for my first legal team meeting when one of the Guatemalan paralegals told me the meeting was canceled and we had a big errand to run instead. It turned out that only of the paralegals (out of two, plus three Guatemalan interns, and then me) knew how to get to a certain public prosecutor´s office in a town called San Juan Sacatepéquez, so we were assigned to literally drive to it, and then drive back (really).

The drive was over an hour long, and about fifteen minutes into it we left the capital city limits and wound our way through farming territory. I rolled the window down and drank in the cool mountain air and ogled the terrace-farming techniques, high-tunnel-like structures specifically made for the hills, and the entire families (school is out here until January for most kids) working the fields with hand tools (which is our past and eventual future, people).

I was envious. Now. I know I´ve got a great opportunity to do a lot of good and get some experience in an office environment working for something I believe in and using some of my talents. But still... I couldn´t help but wish I was out there with them: breathing clean air (not the deathfog emitted from city buses and industry), working with my whole body, and getting dirty. The appeal was overwhelming. Not to say that I´ve given up on the office thing. I´m still doing my job well. I´m still in this for the long haul. But the experience was telling.

We returned to the city and to work. Not much has changed here in a general sense - but some other noteworthy events have taken place. See below.

Fotos

Last night Lerae and I were driving home after seeing a movie. In the middle of the city, at about 10 PM, for no noticeable reason whatsoever, there was a fireworks show. We pulled over at a gas station to watch it. Latin America often doesn´t make any sense, and usually that´s frustrating. This was just a nice surprise.

My friends from Lawrence, Jennifer (left) and Sally (right) came to visit for a night on their way to El Salvador to work with a community development organization for six months. It was really nice to see them. Check out their blog.

Last week my host dad, Victor Sr., pointed out this rainbow (arcoiris) from our porch.

On Día de la Revolución (a national holiday) we went to a spa in a nearby town for its volcano-heated hot pools, cool pools, and absurdly cheap massages. It also happens to be a castle.

My roommate/coworker Lerae and I went to the zoo near our house a couple of weeks ago. I know. It´s a zoo. But it´s a cheap, quiet, safe place to sit outside and read. We´re talking $2.50. I´d pay that much for all of the above without the animals in this loud, dangerous, smoggy city!

I dress up everyday, including fedora and briefcase. Sometimes there´s even a pocketwatch involved.

Fireworks.

Urban Husbandry in Mixco, Guatemala

So part of my job is to go to government offices and get documents processed/signed/paid-attention-to faster. Yesterday I was doing just that with a coworker in the suburb of Mixco, when I noticed some seriously small-scale urban food production going on. Right there, in the middle of the city, just outside of the public prosecutor´s office, was a herd of goats. And right there, in the middle of the city, was a lady milking one of these goats into a styrofoam cup for a businessy-looking customer waiting nearby.

If food systems can get any smaller than this, I truly don´t know how. Maybe if she´d skipped the styrofoam cup...?

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Not much else to report on here. I´ve been reading an impressively dull (and yet intriguing) case brief for the last four days and I finally finished a few minutes ago - so I thought I´d check in. I should be starting a special project compiling all the old verdicts from old cases for easy reference beginning next week - this squeezed around daily trips to various offices in and around the city.

I´m still getting into my routine, but it´s beginning to look like: a long day of work followed by a run, sit-ups, reading (currently Blood Meridian, Psalm 86, and The Best of Outside), journaling, playing guitar (and missing my bluegrass buddies), a Skype call to someone back home, and maybe an episode of The Office with my roommate Lerae, all followed by going to sleep with earplugs in so that a nearby rooster (which crows all night), won´t keep me up.

This weekend I plan on climbing Volcán Pacaya (which you can see from my window in Boca del Monte) and celebrating an acquaintance’s birthday. Hope everyone out there is doing well. If you´re not digging autumn or winter back in the States, just know that I´m missing them both geographically and in my heart. Aprovechen.

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Currently listening to: "When I First Came To This Country" by Crooked Still (unreleased, but available for listening here - I have literally listened to this song at least 20 times today) and Crooked Still's fiddle player's myspace.

Pictures

Alex on the roof in Antigua.

The view from my room.

Victor Jr., Me, and Alex.

First Days in Guate

It has been a week since I first arrived here in Guatemala and I´ve been meaning to blog, but have been so busy. As a result, I have much to report to you, and I think we should start at the beginning.

When I arrived last Tuesday night, I wound my way through the airport to the baggage claim and grabbed my guitar and giant pack, but no giant plastic tote ever came down the conveyer belt. I was thrown into a world of Spanish as I had to ask how to get my missing tote, and was surprised by how quickly the language came back to me. A good sign. I had actually been quite apprehensive in the plane, remembering how hard it had been in Costa Rica and feeling the absence of each of you. It was nice to feel some immediate linguistic confidence, and even better to finally emerge from the airport and spot three of my comrades waiting for me. There was Joanna, the aussie Aftercare Fellow, her Guatemalan husband Victor (they got married a few months ago, and I´m now living with Victor´s parents, Candy and Victor Sr.), and Alex Fine, the Church Relations intern. Somehow we immediately recognized each other and they took me home to Candy and Victor´s in a suburb of Guatemala City called Boca del Monte.

Candy and Victor are very nice and immediately made me feel at home with some soup and rice and beans (pretty standard fare around here). They put me up in Victor Jr.´s old room with a view that looks up at Volcán (that´s Spanish for Volcano) Pacaya and down on the city. The next day I settled in in the morning and then ran some errands with Victor Jr. (including getting my tote from the airport). We met Jo and Alex for lunch at Tacontento where our friend Christian works. I started work the next day (Thursday). Everyone at the office was very welcoming. I spent the day reading an orientation packet, which I have been reviewing along with the penal code ever since, except for attending the final arguements of a trial on Friday which was very intense and which I could only tell you more about if you asked (legally).

The Communications Intern, Lerae, had been nannying on IJM business in the old colonial capital Antigua, about forty-five minutes from Guatemala City, so Jo, Victor Jr., Alex, Christian, and I all went out to visit. We were welcomed by the family for whom Lerae was nannying into one of the most beautiful bungalows I´ve ever seen. This place, like the rest of Antigua, was all colonial-style architecture with corner fireplaces, tile floors, mosaics, a courtyard with a fountain, a rooftop patio (with a view of yet another volcano), and heaps (I also happen to be working on my Australian) of Latin American art. We dined in and then went out to a discoteca (para bailar... y tomar un poco).

The next day we walked the cobblestone streets of Antigua, winding our way through Mayan weavers (and vendors), food stalls, and families out for the weekend. We ate at a pretty famous (for which I have no name or pictures, of course). I sat in Bill Clinton´s chair. We hung around the town center for a while. Antigua is, in many ways, the antithesis of Guatemala City. It is quieter (they just passed an ordinance against honking - which goes a very long way in Latin America), cleaner, and much more walkable. It was a nice respite.

Later in the afternoon we headed back to the city and ate dinner together that night. Sunday was spent much like my Sundays in the states: church, lunch, a nap and some reading, dinner, bed. So as I finish this up I sit here at my desk drinking mate, listening to some good ol´ American bluegrass on my ipod, and preparing to read the Codigo Procesal Penal some more. That´s my life right now. A very confusing and exciting mix of cultures and people. I know this will get hard, but for now it´s almost completely new and exciting. I´ve felt so welcomed by my coworkers and hosts. I think it helps that we are all united by a very common purpose and calling in a way that I never experienced while I was in Costa Rica. I have felt the provision of God in these new friends, coworkers, and host family. In some ways this city feels familiarly like San Jose. I´m not so shocked by some of the harder things that are just part of Latin American city life (trash, traffic, bus fumes, the parade of people, stalls, and well, Spanish). I´m still excited by some of the better things (committment to family life, food, music everywhere, etc.).

Missing all the folks back home but comfortably and happily diving into life here.

Just Beginning

Dear friends,

I am new to blogging, but not to traveling. I'll be doing a whole lot more of both very soon, and want you to come along for the ride. Check back here soon for a real update.

lots of love,
David