Big Decisions....
10 FIRST
First best friend: Tiffany Pines. I met her when I was 5 years old and we became quick buddies. She was born a year and a day before me and we thought we were boys until we were nine when her mom told us that since we were girls we need to stop walking around the house shirtless. We did everything the boys did...play football, basketball, baseball, race barefoot down glass filled inner-city streets...etc. The summers were hot......we didn´t think it was fair that boys could walk around shirtless and we couldnt....besides we were flat chested. Nevertheless, we stopped. Puberty sucked.
First car: Never had one
First love: Still learning about that.....I dont want to talk about it.
First pet: An Alaskan Malamut named Smokey. He was the most beautiful dog I had ever seen. Her was very wild. He would always escape and run away but would come back. One day he never came back...
First vacation: Going to Irish Springs when I was 7 or 8 with my family. Its like some place in MIchigan where the water was crystal clear and and the sand was dark tan and little fishes would swim around my legs tickling my knees. I really dont know where it is now. Was it real or was it a dream....that is the question.
First job: making chocolate candy, earrings, and selling clothes at my aunts little stand at a flea market when I was 10 or 11.
First album purchased: A single on cassette by Tracy Bohnam "Mother Mother" when I was 14 years old and in the midst of teenage angst.
First piercing: My ears when I was a baby.
First concert: Immature..... when I was in the 9th grade....I went to five of their concerts, yeah I was a groupie.
9 LAST
Last alcoholic beverage: Rum with Orange Juice a coupel fo weeks ago.
Last car ride: Coming back from the Museo Ixchel today.
Last movie: . Big Fish by Tim Burton....great movie
Last phone call: I called my friend Lara..
Last bubble bath: November 2006, which was the last time I had bathtub living with Val. I miss bubble baths!
Last CD played: Hail to the Theif--Radiohead
Last kiss: I saw a sister on the way here to the ciber and I greeted her with a kiss on the cheek as everyone does here.
Last time I cried: Last week....I was feeling sad about having to leave Guatemala
Last meal: Chicken Breast cooked in wine with a salad and tortillas.
NOW LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS...
Well a lot of things have happened since the last update. Well first I am going to talk about the positive things that have happened lately. Well today I went to the Museo Ixchel (Museo del traje indigena) (www.museoixchel.org) and it was awesome. Being there reminded me why I came here because no where in the world except for here can you find intricately designed traditional Mayan dress that goes beyong comprehension because they are so tediously done. And yes I was overstimulated. You have no idea. It was fascinating to see how it changed from the post-classic period until when the Spaniard arrived and how they influenced their dress and how the Mayan put their own spin on European clothing. It was GREAT! I also saw the art of an artist named Carmen L. Petterson. Most of her works are dated in the 70´s. They are awesome watercolors with attention to the detail of the traje tipico and capturing the emotion of the people in their faces. I fell in love with her paintings. They are the best I have seen of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala so far. I also have my first talk this Thurdsay. I am excited and nervous at the same time. Pray for me. It was awesome going to this museum. I look forward to checking out others in the future.
Now for the other news...
Isn't this photo of a sad african girl beautiful?....she captures how I feel.
Unfortunately, I will have to leave Guatemala and come back home due to the fact that I dont have a work visa and that my job didn't come through for me in this area and I cannot continue to work illegally. It is bothering my conscious and I must do what is necessary for the sake of my spirituality. I didnt even find out I didnt have a visa until around the end of March and at first I was gonna see if I could work it out but its almost impossible for my family to get the information I need for me to get the process started because they have busy lives and really dont have time to take out time to get what is needed. Also it really isnt worth is being that I have already worked almost 5 months with no work visa and even if I got the papers tomorrow I wouldn't get the visa immediately so I am sure it would take a couple of months meaning it wouldnt be to around the end of the year I would get it and my employers would want me to work another year with them which I don't want to do. Due to that fact that they werent up front with me and basically lied to me to get me here. Well they should learn a great lesson that maybe next time you shouldnt do that and that they need to have their stuff together to keep any american worker long term. Also my knee is still not doing too great.....I can't bend it past 50 degrees. I do exercises face down in bed lifting up my leg to exercise the muscles behind my knee but after a month and 11 days I still cant walk right. I was in a cast for 2 weeks so basically for the last 3 weeks I still havent been able to significantly improve my movements with exercise. If I take a badly planted step....it really hurts my knee and until I get a MRI I will not know whether I will need surgery or not. When I went to the doctor's and he drained the liquid off my knee.....every since that day I have not had to take pain medication cause the pain has almost dissapeared completely but like a said....a wrongly planted step gives me plenty of pain. That was on the 7th that I went to the doctor's and he did that. That same night my knee became swollen again in the same way as before. So that is not good. Now the liquid before had alot of blood in it from the initial blow.....this liquid should not contain blood but the fact that it is swollen is not a good sign. My body is not reabsorbing the liquid....I don´t know. I have to call the doctor and see what is up. The MRI is really expensive and I just cant afford it right now. I am seraching to see if I can find another place to to get the MRI that I may be able to afford as soon as possible but so far nothing. I am still searching. Since the day I hurt myself I have been working and taking care of myself like nothing ever happened more out of necessity because there is no one that can help me like I needed especially when I had a cast. I didnt have not even ONE day off outside of my regular days off to rest. I fear that it is healing incorrectly and that is why I feel like it is urgent that I come home and get some TLC cause I aint getting it here hehe.
I love Guatemala and I think this a beautifully complex country in natural beauty and culturally. It still is my goal to get a chance to come back here and serve to some degree without having to work. I am optimistic that I will be able to do that. Unfortunately time and unforseen occurences have definitely caught me. I do not regret coming here. I have learned so much within this short amount of time that I have been here. I have matured emotionally and spiritually. I have met wonderful spiritual people and I had a great experiences preaching in the mountains in Tacana, San Marcos. I definitely have lasting ties here in Guatemala and always will. I hope to make it back here soon after I regroup back home. I hope you all can get an opportunity to come and visit this wonderfully complex country and when you do I hope that I can be with you. I miss you all very much and definitely will see you all very soon. I dont have the exact date yet that I am coming home but I do know that it will be as soon as possible if I cant get my any help with my knee here. So the soonest would be at the end of June. I will definitely let you all know as soon as I know.