It's a small world

Tonight we returned to Puente de Vida, the Spanish church we've been attending for the past year, to celebrate the church's anniversary. Duane and I both found ourselves picking out the words we COULDN'T understand. That's a big change from a month ago, when we'd pick out the words we COULD understand! (Here's the way Duane described it--We went from "Blah blah blah oh, here's word we understand, blah, blah, blah" to "Wow, we're understanding most of this blah, but not all blah.") Our listening comprehension has certainly improved a lot.

Here is something more surprising than improved Spanish skills...Guess where the woman sitting next to Duane was from??? QUETZALTENANGO! In addition, there was a Wycliffe missionary couple who lived in Guatemala in the 1970s and their Guatemalan friends visiting. As you can imagine, we heard some frightening stories, but, oh, how we loved talking with all of them!

The experience tonight has made it just a little bit easier to return to life in the States.

If you would like to contribute money to the work of Vid y Pompanos, you can do it online through the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC) at

http://www.crcna.org/pages/crwrc.cfm

Designate the funds for "Guatemala"

Sunday morning we were up at 3am to prepare for the trip back to the United States. Sonia's friend drove us from Antigua to the airport in Guatemala City. Just after Duane mentioned that emotionally he felt like he was already home, the windshield wiper fell off the car. Then it started to rain. How hilarious! No, it would be a few more hours before we had to leave Guatemala.

As the flight from Guatemala to Houston took off, I could only think about the people we had met. Many of them want to come to the U.S, but cannot. For us, it was so easy. Flash a passport and climb aboard. Many people we met are so poor they live in shacks. Yet, we return to a home that feels like a palace.

I found myself dreading the inevitable--landing in Houston. I didn't want people to speak English around me. I didn't want to remove the kids from this immersion experience and slow down their language learning. I didn't want to leave Guatemala. We landed in Houston and I almost burst into tears of sadness.

How different this experience has been for us than our trip to China in 1995. After China, we felt satisfied, like we didn't need to return. After Guatemala, we can't wait to return. We are eager for another experience in Guatemala or another Latin American country. We decided to work to incorporate our Guatemalan experiences into our lives. We don't want this trip to become a memory, rather a part of who we are and who we will be. To this end, we will try to speak Spanish as much as possible in our household.

It is becoming increasingly obvious to us that the kids have learned a lot of Spanish. And effortlessly! How I would love to keep them in an immersion setting! A few more months and no doubt they would be fluent.

After this experience Duane and I are convinced that learning a new language teaches a person so much more than how to communicate with more people. It broadens one's thinking and understanding. The Spanish language makes different distinctions than English, and vice versa. This idea reminds me of a book from my linguistics days, that I must read again, called, Metaphors We Live By.

On our flight, there was one very brief moment of panic. Just after some turbulence, the flight attendant, who was obviously a native Spanish speaker, announced in both English and Spanish, "This is an absolute emergency. Please sit down." Duane and I just looked at each other. Nothing happened. People didn't even sit down! Maybe this was our last cross-cultural event of the trip. Is it possible he used the words, "absolute emergency" just to scare people into obeying him? We thought for the briefest moment we might crash into Mexico!

Now it's back to life in Minnesota. We are grateful for the experience we have had. We are eager for more! In the meantime, how DOES one use the subjunctive in Spanish?!

To see photo slide show, go to

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nykamp/sets/72157622309205678/show/

Click "Show info" to see slide descriptions.

Well, it happened. A piece of our luggage was stolen today. We aren't surprised because the scene at the Xela bus terminal is crazy. There are tens of buses all lined up with drivers screaming out where they are going. It appears to us as chaos. In addition, the terminal is adjacent to the market. So, to say the least, it's a place with a lot of people and A LOT of activity.

Our host mother took us to the bus terminal this morning. Since there wasn't enough room in her car to fit everything, we arrived at the bus terminal in 2 vehicles. Half of our luggage was in Sonia's car and the other half was in a taxi. Suddenly, as we were unloading the luggage from the vehicles, about 5 men showed up to "generously" carry the suitcases to the bus. Thinking all of these men worked on the bus, and not wanting us to miss the bus, Sonia told us to let them take the luggage. Immediately after the men crossed the street with our luggage, another chicken bus drove past and blocked our view of the luggage. Immediately Sonia saw what happened and told us, "check, check." We did see some of our luggage tied onto the top of the appropriate bus, so we thought we were good to go. When we arrived at the transfer point, and asked for the last piece of luggage to be thrown down off the top of the bus, the man said there was no more luggage for us. In the 10 seconds that a bus blocked our view of our luggage, one piece was stolen.

Fortunately, the bag that was stolen was the children's clothing. There were some other items, but they can all be replaced. We have experienced Guatemala in a new way and now our trip is complete.

Today none of us felt much like being tourists, so we took it easy in Antigua. We went out for lunch, walked around the central park, and visited the market to buy a few last minute gifts. We leave our hotel at 3:45 tomorrow morning, so we are heading to bed early tonight.

As I write this post, Daniel is telling me to "sopla, sopla" Guessing that he wants me to blow on him, I asked, "Is this what you mean?" Yes, apparently the verb "soplar" means "to blow." Actually, Daniel taught me how to better pronounce a word in Spanish today too. He said to me, "Mom, don't say _____, say it like this _____."

Ahh...it's a good feeling to learn some Spanish from Daniel as we prepare to leave. Yes, this trip has been successful, even if the kids don't have any clothes!

It is with sadness that we leave Xela. Tomorrow morning we travel to Antigua to begin the journey back to the States. Has the trip been successful? Have Charles and Daniel learned Spanish? The short answer is "a little." The long answer is that we return home with increased language skills, and a whole lot more. Duane and I are now much better equipped to hold conversations in Spanish. No doubt this can only help Charles and Daniel. Also, after hearing Spanish so much, we return with ears more adept at understanding it.

Perhaps more importantly, we return to Minnesota with increased

• knowledge of how to get by when everything around us is foreign,


• appreciation for natural beauty,


• generosity and


• understanding of what life is like for the poor.

Here is a country school house in rural Guatemala. We journeyed into the country to visit 4 poor communities. In fact, the majority of people in Guatemala are extremely poor and live in conditions similar to those described in this post. We had two wonderful travel companions, Adolfo and Milton, who knew just what to say when we didn't know what questions to ask. The primary motivation for this trip was to view the work of a local organization called Vid y Pompanos, which means "Vine and Branches." We met many village residents and saw their houses, churches, farms, and schools.

Apparently these villages receive zero aid from the government. The work of Vid y Pompanos includes helping communities effectively support themselves. For example, the local presbyterian church wants to build terraces on church property so the soil nutrients will not be washed away by the rain. This will produce better crops and, in time, hopefully the use of terraces will be adopted by the rest of the community. Another agricultural aid is to encourage farmers to diversify their crops so they have income throughout the year.

Vid y Pompanos also works to better educate communities. They pay for teachers to come and teach adults how to read. Most of the people do not know how to read or even know the alphabet. The pressure to work, rather than go to school, is very strong. Many of the people do not realize that receiving an education can be beneficial to their situation. Part of our job while visiting the schools was to encourage the people that learning to read is a worthwhile endeavor.

Fortunately, the people seemed to have enough food. However, that was about all they had. They were extremely poor. Their houses were shacks, made from wood or metal scraps with mud floors. Many had no electricity or running water. Some had no shoes. And yet, the people we met were all in good spirits and quite generous. We were given refreshments (limeaid and bananas) at many of our stops. We were also given gifts of fruit to bring home. Of course we did not want to take anything from them, yet what could we do except graciously and humbly accept their gifts.

To get to these villages, we drove on extremely bumpy, one-lane country roads deep into the jungle. It was hot, buggy, and also very beautiful. In the first community we took a hike to view their crops. We hiked on a mountain slope thick with vegetation. We were told there were tigers on the opposite side of the ravine. We passed the local women bathing and doing laundry in the mountain stream. Our local guide carried a machete. Then we were attacked by biting ants. We pulled down Charles pants to pick them off one by one. Sarah was also bitten multiple times. Who knew one could be so grateful for underwear!

We spent the night with a "rich" family. They had running water and an extra cement block building for us to sleep in. Their bathroom was an outhouse made simply of opaque plastic wrapped around thin tree trunks stuck into the ground.

When we arrived home we were hot, filthy, and exhausted. But, what an experience!