On Sunday, I was given a gift.  Its value was equal to a month of rent on the house where I now live.  It came with no directions as to how it should be used; just my name on the outside of the envelope.  To me, this is a large amount of money; it's nowhere near what we need to equip the health center in Los Encuentros nor enough to buy a 4x4 ( Read more... )

I was corresponding the other day with my mother (via e-mail as almost always) when I said something that struck me a little funny. I had gotten the tires on my bike changed as well as a patch on one of the tubes. All of that had cost me Q80. To me, this sort of a small fortune. To you, it probably isn't. For two brand new tires and a patch on ( Read more... )

Some days I feel completely torn between cultures.  This is not an enjoyable sensation.

Here in Guatemala, you have the Catholics and the Evangelicals.  Beyond that, there isn't much of any note.  Some of the Evangelicals will say "Those Lutherans are just Catholics who don't want to be Catholics; they're just as bad."  Some of the Evangelicals will ( Read more... )

For those of you who follow me on Facebook, this is the exciting news that I was talking about 3 weeks ago...and never got around to writing about.  Sorry, but here it is.  For those of you who get the church bulletin, you've already seen most of this; although the wording might vary a bit.

The opportunity has come up that I could start arranging ( Read more... )

Here in Guatemala it is quite common for a couple to have a baby, live together, and get married...in that order. (Although, sometimes they live together before having the baby.) I have one co-worker in such a position. She and her partner have a son who is a little over a year old. Because I don't have all the details, this won't be a very ( Read more... )

I had someone call me on the phone yesterday and ask me if I was supposed to be here, maybe I was supposed to go back, etc. This was a very difficult conversation for me to have because there are very few things which I am sure about in this world, but to where I have been called is one of them. So, for this person to insinuate that I shouldn't ( Read more... )

(Para leer en español, siga hasta la mitad ( Read more... )

Don't worry. I haven't forgotten about you. I just haven't had much time to write recently. There have been a couple small changes in my life and a couple big changes in my life ( Read more... )

In the past, I have introduced you to groups like Children of the Americas, Hogar de Esperanza/Hope for Home, and even Iglesia del Camino.  I've introduced to you places such as Caserio el Paraiso, Antigua, San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Aldea Aguacate, and Santiago Zamora.  But in this post, I want to introduce you to someplace I haven't been and a ( Read more... )

First, a few more notes on my fast ( Read more... )