La pila

Anyone who´s lived with me knows how much I detest laundry- I have no idea why I hate it so darn much, but it just makes me angry.

Well world, meet Guatemalan laundry- the pila. It´s a 3part sink- 1 side is smoother (for washing dishes, I think), 1 side is ridged (for scrubbing clothes) and the middle is deep and full of water. So since we´re all pretty much running out of clothes, Laura, Katharine, and I decided to (attempt to)do our laundry together at Laura´s house- but every Guatemalan house has (at least) 1 pila.

So. You start by putting all of your clothes in a bucket of water with powder soap stuff. Then, one by one, you pull them out and give them a scrub on the pila- adding more soap if it´s an especially dirty article. Then, using little bucket-dish things, you scoop water from the middle (where the faucet it) and rinse and wring out the article until there are no more bubbles. THEN, you put the clothes in something (shout out to my baggu re-usable shopping bag that doubles as a laundry basket) until you can bring them home to hang on the line. All of this happens while various Guatemalans walk by and laugh at (with) us. It took about 40 mins to do it, and honestly, world- it wasn´t that bad! Lord knows how our clothes are going to look when they´re dry (sometime tomorrow?), but it was actually nice to wash our stuff together because we got to chat and laugh together. Also, it was SO much more environmentally-friendly!!

So am I renouncnig washing machines? No. But am I dreading the next load of laundry I have to do? Why no, no I am not- because there´s something really beautiful about washing your skivies by hand and then hanging them up for all the world to see.

bendiciones, juli

Mi cumpleaños!

Well world, I´m 22 years old! Honestly, I was a little bit nervous about what yesterday would look like- because I´ve only been with my host family for a week, and I´ve only known these YAVs for like 3 weeks (which blows my mind in itself), but it was seriously a wonderful day! And for those of you who didn´t know, yesterday was also Mary, Mother of Jesus´s birthday, too- according to Guatemalan Catholics. Happy belated birthday, Mary!

So the day started with a little jog, and then a legitmately hot shower! This probably needs some explanation. SO there´s an electric water heater attached to the shower head (safe??)- so it has to be on the correct setting (hot is represented by a black dot, cold by a half black dot. Obviously.) Then, one has to turn the water (with the valve, nothing more) all the way on, then turn the pressure down little by little. The more pressure, the less hot the water will be. So I´m not saying I´m Einstein, but I´m pretty proud that it finally all came together for me. Then I went upstairs and had a typical birthday tamale for breakfast! Yum!

Then, I went up the street to school, where I was greeted by balloons, a ¨surprise¨ piñata (hard to have surprises when we´re all together all the time...), a bday sign, and many coca lights (which are somehow far superior to Diet Cokes). At our 10oclock break, we broke the piñata (which seriously took like 20 mins, it was the strongest piñata in the world) and had lots of candy-- then my teacher brought out a big cake for all of us! And after like 10 birthday songs, we finally could enjoy it. Qué rico!

At lunch, my host sisters presented me with my gift and many hugs, so sweet! They gave me a woven cloth that they use here to wrap up tortillas or line bread baskets-- So I´m not 100% sure what I´ll use it for, but still so thoughtful! Then they came downstairs and I gave them a bunch of dulces from the piñata- I am so not above bribing them to like me. Then after lunch Brodie called! Yay!

Soo in the afternoon we bussed to Antigua (Tina with the 2nd ¨secret¨cake), and met up with Marcia and another mission worker who´s been here for over 40 years, Dennis Smith. He talked to us about Guatemala, politics, his experiences, our hopes, etc... Very cool! Then we went to Marcia´s house and hung out until dinner and I got to talk to my parents, too! So what did the birthday princess want for dinner? Chinese food! Haha, we had it delivered, and it wasn´t really anything to brag about, but it was yummy and different from the (delicious) Guatemalan food we´ve been getting. Afterwards, we ate like half of the world´s largest cake that Tina´s host mom made. Yep- I probably gained like 10 birthday pounds yesterday, but it was totally worth it.

All in all, a wonderful day full of friends and food when I felt very loved.

bendiciones, juli

Bienvenido a Guatemala!

Well, world- here I am in San Juan del Obispo outside of Antigua, Guatemala! INSANE! The 5 of us Guatemala YAVs will be here for about 5 weeks, doing language school and just generally getting ready for the year. We took a long walking tour the other day in Antigua (photos to follow soon), and it's a really really beautiful and historically well-preserved (read: toursity) city! Yesterday we moved in with our 1st host families for our language school time (before that we were in a nice hotel) and then at the beginning of October we move to our rest-of-the-year sites where we'll start work and stuff! Wow! These 1st families are a little strange, because it feels way more like a weird hotel than a ¨family¨- We all get the feeling that they have host students all the time... so they could kinda care less who we are. Haha, ego blow. BUT, it´s also really nice to be able to just go to our rooms and relax and not really worry too much about establishing real and lasting relationships with these families... because they clearly expect no such thing... so that´s been kinda nice. Let me tell you world, operating in a different language is exhausting! It will get easier (and more comfortable with the families), though... with time.

It´s seriously crazy that I´ve only been here for 5 days, world. I´ve had so many moments today of "I cannot believe this is my life" - so needless to say it's very exciting so far. I realize that after only a few days I´m very much stuff in the ¨honeymoon¨ phase, but I seriously feel so comfortable here... It´s awesome. (Note= this does NOT mean that I fit in. I´m at least a head taller than all women, and most men. Good stuff.)

Things to get used to:
- There are volcanoes everywhere. Active and Dormant- I saw one errupt the other day. No big deal.
- Toilet paper does not go in the toilets...Nope- It goes in the trash can.
- I have no laptop. I Never realized how pathetically attached I am to it for so many things. Refreshing and also strangely unsettling not to have it.
- Bugs are EVERYwhere -- beetles, moths, etc... love that part
- It rains EVERY afternoon ... it´s also quite a bit colder than expected... booo
- Tortillas galore! Very Juli- friendly. Also, all food that I´ve had has been DELICIOUS. Woo!


Let´s see- I think that´s about it. We had our 1st adventure on the public transportation yesterday. Literally a disaster of aimlessly wandering and taking bad advice to find our bus... but we made it some how! haha

love to all,
bendiciones, juli

I leave for the airport in 3 hours!!!!!!

Orientation

Here's some pictures of me on my last day at Ludwood Ct--



Well here I am at Orientation. We're staying at Stony Point Conference Center, which is in Stony Point, NY-- annnd is an "intentional community" -- as in, they grow their own vegetables, recycle everything... so obviously I'm loving it.

But - orientation itself, well this has been harder. We've been having lots of hard hard conversations about gender and race and power and caring for yourself well... As well as making about 65 new best friends (all of the international and national YAVs). It's so so much fun and I'm SO glad that they structure the program in this way, but it's heavy, world, and exhausting. All of the facilitators for the week are YAV Alumns (YAVA), and so they have lots of encouraging (and scary) stories and experiences to share-- yet another reason I'm very glad that they structure the program in this way. Plus we have worship in the morning and evening, and we're singing all kinds of weird songs in different languages to represent the different sites that people will be going to, which is always fun :)

Let's see-- Favorite orientation moment so far: We've been having total information overload these days, so today we got the afternoon off to relax and do whatever we wanted and then after worship, had an epic 2-hour dance party in the room where we've been having our sessions/workshops. Such a fun way to bond and be stupid and blow off steam! Especially since we're all so so white... hahah. A bunch of us also followed this dancing with a long massage train-- excellente.

Well that's about all that I have to report. Hope all are well! (Hopefully) contact info will be coming out soon...
bendiciones, juli

"Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Where shall I go from Your presence? If I ascend to Heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there... Even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me."
-Psalm 139:7-10

I leave tomorrow!

Well world, I got commissioned this morning at my home church and I leave tomorrow for Orientation in New York! I've come home to a whole mess of packing today, and let me tell you... It's a lot harder than I expected to fit my world into 1.5 suitcases. I don't like it, not one bit, world. But, part of my whole experience in Guatemala with YAV is to live simply and it's just so hard to pare down what I thought I needed-- especially in the toiletries department. Ah well-- I'll make it work somehow. :)

So I'll be outside New York at Stony Point with all the international and national YAVs until Aug 30 when we'll all fly to our respective sites! Then all 5 Guatemala YAVs will be in Antigua for 4 weeks for language school until I move to Xela!

Better get back to the packing- I can't believe it's almost time to go!
bendiciones, juli

A few updates

I leave in 2.5 weeks! Insane! I go to orientation in Stony Point, NY on the 23rd and then after one week of all international / national YAVs orienting together, we're deemed ready and we all leave for our respective sites on the 30th!

AND I'm 91% fund raised! I'm almost there! :)

Thanks for the prayers, world. I can't believe it's almost here...
bendiciones, juli

"You go nowhere by accident. Wherever you go, God is sending you. Wherever you are, God has put you there. God has a purpose in your being there. Christ who dwells within you has something He wants you to do through you where you are. Believe this and go in His grace and love and power."
- Rev. Richard C Halverson