El Cumpleanos de Lisa

Sorry to have not posted in a while, but we were out of town this weekend. We promised Lisa (Andy's daughter) that we would come back to Quiche to celebrate her 11th birthday because they don't usually do much for them but they planned a big party for her. She had a sleepover on Saturday with a bunch of her cousins, friends from school, and 2 neighbor boys. A couple of Tomasa's sisters also stayed the night since they were helping out a lot with the party. The house was packed with 20+ people sleeping over.

We had a hairy ride on the chicken bus (our fastest driver ever, that didn't really slow for speed bumps) but we were happy to show our support. It was really nice to play with the kids and get to know more people in the community because we may see them on the streets, or possibly in our English classes! We played some very competitive games of Foosball which they call futios here. And I also snuck in a cascarone on Toby which was awesome! Cascarones are eggshells filled with confetti that people crack on each other's heads. They are very popular for parties and on Mardi Gras. Some people get a little meaner and fill them flour instead of confetti, or they even crack real eggs on each other.

Another cool custom we learned about is that it's typical for the party attendants to call out for the birthday person to take a first bite out of their cake (just with their face). This can turn ugly, as with the case of Lisa, when friends often shove your face into the cake when you go down for the bite. Needless to say, Lisa's face was cover in white cake and frosting. It was quite entertaining!

Weird Insect!

Check out this very leaf-like insect that we encountered on Friday evening outside of our bedroom. They are quite large, probably around 4 or 5 inches long.

Anyone know what these are called?

La Iglesia de San Felipe

On Ash Wednesday (Ceniza) this week we were able to visit a very impressively decorated church in the nearby town of San Felipe. We walked there from Toby's school with some other teachers and classmates as part of an excursion. This church is always decorated for Ash Wednesday and many locals that are traditional will go there during the evening and light candles and things. Every Friday until Easter a different church in surrounding towns will decorate the church and locals will visit in the evening. There are processions that proceed on the Sundays as well between now and Easter.

The decorations consisted of a scene on a stage where Jesus was above everyone else and there was Moses tapping the rock with his staff. (Note: Each church does a different scene inspired by a verse in the Bible.) There was real water flowing from the scene and lower down a figure drinking from the water. (This impressed me a lot because water, electricity, etc. are pretty costly here, so it's a big sacrifice to have it in the scene.) On the floor the was a very large and elaborate design like a sand painting but using dyed sawdust that local furniture makers save throughout the year to be used during this time. Then surrounding that was a border design made with pineapples, watermelons, oranges, and other fruits. Outside of that creating a bigger barrier were a bunch of floral displays containing lilies, birds of paradise, and many other flowers. You wouldn't believe how awesome it smelled in there with all the fruits and flowers!

Arrival to Antigua

We've made it to Antigua! It was a little hairy riding the chicken buses, but we came out of it alive. For those of you who may not have ridden a chicken bus before...let me elaborate so you don't just think, "What's the big deal?"

First off, contrary to the name, chicken buses don't really carry chickens. All over Guatemala and most of Central America the main and cheapest form of transit are the chicken buses. They are old school buses from the States that growl and puff out huge amounts of black smoke as they drive along. If the owner has enough money then they are usually painted with bright patterns and colors like the one seen here. They usually are modified quite a bit to fit the needs of the locals. For example a large rack extends along the roof with one or two ladders on the back for the attendant to climb as he lugs up and down backpacks, bags, and crates of produce of the passengers. Inside the bus usually a side of seats are modified to fit longer benches, thus creating a very narrow aisle of only about 8 inches...and pretty much impossible to walk down. Above the seats are shelves to store bags, on the tops of seats are handlebars, and on the ceiling are bars so that standers have something to hold onto. Usually on the front of the bus is painted some name or phrase like "Veloz Quichelense" or "Dios nos acompane" (God is with us).

And thanks to God that he is because chicken bus rides can be somewhat terrifying. The bus driver usually speeds through towns as the attendant yells out the destination of the bus to attract passengers. And it doesn't matter if the bus is already full because they'll just add more. Chicken buses have the right of way by cars and often pass on blind corners, sometimes narrowly missing driving a car into the canyons below. Driving from Quiche to Antigua we travel through some very windy and steep hills with hairpin turns...and I just pray that the brakes don't go out as we huff and puff up and down the hills.

This last journey Toby and I were super cramped on the buses (note to self: Sundays are very full days on the buses). We were squeezed at least 3 to a seat, sometimes half a butt on the edge and the rest of our body in the tiny aisle. Usually there aren't many foreigners on the bus so Toby and I tend to get many stares from little Guatemalan children who look at us like a creature in the zoo. Did I mention that we go over many speed bumps through towns and as we wind around turns you get the most amazing ab workout trying to stay straight and not knock into the stranger next to you? After 3+ hours on 2 chicken buses you're pretty exhausted. This last journey Toby and I needed to change buses in Chimaltenango and tried to make our way to the front of the bus to get ready to depart. We stopped at one place along the town and Toby got off but I didn't have a chance to get up there so I was stuck on the bus. I asked the driver to stop, but he just told me to wait. I was worried that Toby and I would be distanced quite a bit, but then I saw him hanging onto the ladder on the back as we moved through town. I guess the driver took off while the attendant was trying to hand the bags to Toby so they had to jump on and hang to the ladders until the next stop. The next bus turned out to be even worse because the bus was incredibly full and we had to squeeze down the skinny aisles and stand for a lot of the journey. The attendant had to even climb from the back on top of the seats and holding the ceiling rails so that he could get up to the front! It was ridiculous!

We are now quite happy to be in sunny Antigua where the weather has been in the 80s. Toby is doing great at the school, and we are enjoying the home stay we are with. Stay tuned for more on Antigua as we discover more of the city. One very cool thing is that one of the nearby volcanoes was smoking quite a bit yesterday!

Please Note

Note: We will be in Antigua for the next month and may not have easy access to internet and blogging, so please bear with us. Toby needs to learn the language... while I live the life of leisure. Ha ha!

Things Brittany Misses

Things I miss: My mom, my family, my friends, Dutch Bros, seeing Karlene at Coffee Rush, organic produce, Mini, Southlake Church, my hair, our own apartment, the duck pond, Apples to Apples (Charlie!), good bread and pastries, Oregon microbrews, Happy Hours, and New Seasons.

Things I don't miss: Cold weather, wearing a coat, rain, driving in rush hour to work, freezing in Sunset pool, waking up at 6:15am, $4.00 coffees, paying rent in Portland, and having responsibilies and commitments.

Love you all! Besos y abrazos. X O X O
BRITT

Random Guatemalan Fact of the Day

So last night Brittany and I offered to buy pizza for dinner since it was 2 for 1 night at the pizza shop here in town. It ended up to be about 13 dollars for both which wasn't that bad. However, the odd thing was that when it was delivered we had discovered that it had came with numerous ketchup packets inside the box. It turns out that here and in much of Central America, the people eat their pizza with ketchup (the ketchup is much sweeter here as well). I gave it a try and it actually wasn't half bad. I guess it helped that the pizza had super-runny and very bland sauce to begin with. This leads me to the addage... when in Guatemala, do as the Guatemalans do.

Random List of Things I Miss: by Toby

Things I am missing: family, friends, my cats, Thai food, happy hours with Lenny, my bed, down pillows, getting free coffees at Coffee Rush, playing poker, the duck pond, playing volleyball and tennis, New Seasons grocery store, snowboarding, 24, good restaurants.

Things I am NOT missing: work at HFC, rainy days, the cold, having to spend money, driving, junk food (surprisingly), my cell phone, expensive food, being busy, not having enough time to do the things I want.

Toby Makes Friends With a Chicken

Those of you who know me well, know that I like animals. So naturally, I wanted to befriend the local chicken, whose job it was to scour the garden in search of small bugs to eat. It however, had something different in mind... plotting his escape from the confines of the yard (Insert dramatic dun dun duh). While some bystanders may later accuse me of "chasing" the chicken, I was merely attempting to offer it a handful of corn while it, how you say, went in the opposite direction. Low and behold, while I was persuasively trying to offer this chicken some corn, it seized the opportunity to use its momentum to leap upon an outdoor sink and scale the four foot concrete wall. My heart skipped a beat! How would I explain the loss of our host Tomasa's beloved chicken? This was her fifth chicken as all the others had either eaten her flowers or pooed on the porch. I must go after it! Dashing through the gate and around the wall, I ran to the point where I had last seen the escapee. "How far can a young chicken travel?" I asked myself. Not that far it turns out as just as soon as saying that, I spotted the lil' chick in a bush along the wall. Another predicament stood before me... how does one even catch a chicken? I ripped off a branch of the nearest bush, hoping to use it as a broom-like device to merely sweep the chicken toward the door in the wall. This worked at first, until the chick decided a few bushes away, that it could go no further and just had to turn around. We did this dance a few times before I realized that... this chicken wanted to be caught. I mean, it was asking for it, right?!? Throwing down my branch, I moved forward with both hands, silently praying that no one was watching me because I knew how stupid I had to look. I invisibly pushed the chicken forward with my hands until he reached his turning point again, this time as he changed directions I lunged forward into a mass of feathers with a beak and some wings flying around in the mess as well. When the dust had settled, I had came out the victor with one little chicken in my hands. I then realized I had an answer... you catch a chicken with two hands. As I rounded the corner of the wall back into the yard, Brittany stood looking on in amazement. What happened next however surprised me the most. It seems the little fellow, or fellette (it is kind hard to tell), had taken a liking to me. Cuddling up on my sweatshirt I lifted my hand off its back and the chicken simply uttered a short "goubl." Which I understood to mean something along the lines of "Thank you for rescuing me, Toby. I love you" in chicken-speak. When the time came for me to go inside, instead of quietly going on its way it crawled up and perched itself upon my shoulder, as seen in this picture. At that point I knew I had made a new friend in Guatemala.

La Casa de Toby and Brittany

Hi everyone! Just wrapping up another sunny day here in Quiche. Brittany and I spent the day laying in the sun, playing backgammon at our little "diamond in the rough" Blintz Cafe, and shopping in the market. Yesterday I snapped this photo of our soon to be house we are renting after we get back from Antigua next month. This picture makes Quiche look VERY attractive, however our rental is one of the nicest places in town. We snagged this baby for only $225 a month with utilities and cable included! Expensive by Quiche standards... a steal by ours. The interior of the house is very clean and the owners are making sure to have the washer hooked up along with a new large bed, cable, and TV ready for us when we move in next month. We cannot wait to have such a nice space to ourselves. We originally had planned to stay in the converted upstairs apartment of a very outgoing Guatemalan woman named Carmen, however when her relatives decided to stay longer than expected, she asked around within her family (these tend to be very large here in Guatemala) to see if anyone had a place we could use. It turns out her niece's husband was just promoted in the Guatemalan Air Force and assigned to Guatemala City. Wanting to keep their house in Quiche, they were more than happy to rent it to a few nice gringos who could help them with their loan payment...US! Now you will just have to come visit and see how nice it is for yourself!

Feliz Día del Cariño

Feliz Día del Cariño a todos. Happy Valentine´s Day!

We´ve had an exciting day experiencing Valentine´s Day here in Quiché. It is not any kind of religious holiday here as some might think, but more of a day of friendship - not just couples.

We were invited to a work party this afternoon at Enlace Quiché (where we are to work). Andy informed us last night that we needed to buy gifts for people for a gift exchange, so we had to do a little shoppping. There was a minimum price of Q50 (quetzales) which is around $6.50. We didn´t know our people except that Toby had a woman, and I had a man. So, we played it pretty safe and bought Toby´s person some earrings and Brittany´s person a leather wallet. At the party we participated in a pretty interesting work activity, sort of like an ice-breaker where we all had to write a poem or love letter to the person we love the most. Then our letters were mixed up and someone´s name was put on it, then we switched them around again and read the letter to the person whose name was written on it. It turned out to be pretty funny because lots of random people were saying things to each other like, we have a crazy love, you are my other half, I love you, you are my best friend, and you are the greatest on Earth. Andy had to read his letter to Toby which was pretty funny. After this we did a pretty formal gift exchange where someone starts by giving a gift to their person and then that person gives theirs and we continued one by one giving hugs and saying thank you, etc. After they were all passed out we opened our gifts. Toby received a bamboo wind chime and a vase. Brittany received a collection of chocolates, suckers, and a mug - funny enough from Andy! To finish off our party we had a catered lunch which consisted of veggies and rice with corn torillas and tamarind juice to drink. It was quite special for us to participate in this gathering and meet many more of the people that we will be working with. They seem like a great group of people, and it made us even more excited to be working here.

More on gift and chocalate exchanges...
We sat in on a couple of the English classes today that started a few weeks ago. One class was a group of kids and another of adults. In both classes the students participated in a chocolate exchange where they traded gifts like we did at the party one by one giving some chocolates to a fellow classmate that was drawn at random. (This is a normal tradition in class at the schools, so we have learned from Stan and Lisa.) In the adult class one boy gave a rose to everybody and another woman bought arroz con leche drink and a snack for the whole class. We´ve certainly learned today about how sweet and generous the Guatemalan people are on this day. Andy and his family were very sweet to us as well. Tomasa and Andy both included us by giving us chocolate bars like they gave their kids!

Bienvenidos a Guatemalan Adventures

Congratulations!!!
You've found our blog and you'll be much entertained for the next year and half by reading about our travels and adventures throughout Guatemala and Central America. If you are looking to hear about us risking our lives riding the chicken buses, teaching the local Mayan people English, adjusting to the quirks of a lesser developed country, and bragging about all the cool stuff we get to see (like monkeys and Mayan temples)...then you've come to the right place!
Bienvenidos a Guatemalan Adventures!!!