Jared and I got the chance to hike up to a spot overlooking Antigua (the city we are living in while we attend language school). It was so beautiful to see the city, even though it was a little foggy. At the top of the hill there is a giant cross that can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. One of the students at our school is from Japan, and she gave us a concert with a really cool instrument that you can see in the video posted below.

On a funnier note, the other night we were eating dinner with the family. In the background, the Miss World pageant was playing on the TV. It got to the point in the pageant where they announced the top 15 women. Sandra (our house mom) was barely paying attention until near the very end when they announced that miss Guatemala was one of the final 15 women. Sandra jumped out of her chair and shouted "Increíble!” over and over again while running over to the TV. It was so funny to watch her get so exited about the Miss World pageant, and I could tell she was very proud of her country.

Small World

Yesterday, Jared noticed that one of the boys of the family that we are staying with was wearing a Dallas Baptist University shirt. It was crazy to see a shirt from our university here in Guatemala! We asked him where he got it and found out that they are friends with a guy that attended DBU.

This past Sunday was Jared's 24th birthday! We got to celebrate with a missionary family that is also going through language school. We met them at church and it has been great getting to know them! They invited us over for dinner and a game night with their two kids. We had an awesome time and were really blessed to have new friends in a place so far from home.

The Signs of Becoming Bilingual 8/13/10

Two nights ago at 3 in the morning, Jared rolled over and started talking in his sleep. He does this quite often, but this time he was speaking in Spanish. He was telling me that it was a good idea to buy a car because it was a good investment. I started laughing so hard; I never thought a person would dream in a language other than their native one.  

Last night I fell asleep while Jared was still studying. I started dreaming that I was translating the sentences that Jared was reading out loud to me. Of course, back in the real world Jared was not reading anything out loud to me. At some point, I woke up and kept asking Jared if he owned a car. The problem was I was still half asleep and had not separated the dream from the real world. Jared could not understand what I was saying and kept saying, “What?” I got frustrated because I thought he didn’t understand my translation, but he had no idea what was happening. I gave up and thought that his teacher would have to correct him in the morning. The next day he asked if I remembered what I had talked with him about last night. He explained to me that I just started talking incoherently out of nowhere. It was hilarious!

Market Day 8/5/10

When mission teams come to the children’s home for a week or two, they always take a trip to Antigua for a day of shopping and touring. We were able to meet up with them and help out with translating in the market. As I (Joy) was walking through the market, I stopped and talked with a very sweet, old lady who was sitting alone in her little booth. She was very excited that I was showing interest in her, and her face lit up when I asked her name. She proudly told me her name was Lucia. After chatting for a while, she encouraged me to come back and visit her whenever I come to the market. I look forward to getting to know her better. Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to share my faith with her.

Choc-ALOT Pancakes 7/25/10

This weekend we had to make a trip back to Villa Nueva and the children’s home to take care of a few things. On Saturday night the summer interns hosted a pancake dinner and movie night for the younger boys. We made a ton of pancakes! To our amazement, the boys kept getting more and more when we brought out another plateful. After walking them back to their house for the night, one of the intern girls noticed something was in one of the boy’s pockets. She asked him to take it out and guess what it was, a pancake. After asking the other boys to empty their pockets, we found out that they had all stuffed their pockets full of chocolate chip pancakes. We had a good laugh about that one.

The Centipede! 7/22/10

During class today, I (Joy) felt something that had a ton of tiny little legs crawling over my foot trying to get in my shoe. When I saw that it was a HUGE, GROSS, NASTY, 5” LONG, CENTIPEDE, I jumped up and started screaming, much to the confusion of the rest of the people in the room. A man came over and grabbed a piece of paper, (with my notes on it) squished it, and took it to the trash. He returned with the paper and gave it back, which was completely unnecessary. 

Our Host Family 7/20/10

We moved into the Oviedo’s house on Tuesday afternoon. This will be our home for the next three months, and it is perfect! Our house parents, Roberto and Sandra, have four boys, three of whom still live at home. Meal times are always fun because we try and keep up with them as they talk back and forth. They talk sooo fast, haha.

The youngest boy, Miky, turned 15 the day after we moved in, and it was an eventful day. Roberto came home early from work so that he could set off fireworks when Miky came home from school. It is a tradition here to set of fireworks in honor of someone’s birthday. Later that night we had cake and a bunch of their relatives came over.

Language School 7/18/10

Our first week at language school was a success. We love our teachers, which is important because you have to sit one-on-one for 4 hours a day speaking in Spanish. The first day after class, I (Joy) decided to take pictures off the veranda of the place we were staying for the first two nights. As I was taking pictures of the mountains off in the distance, I heard some kids start shouting at me from the schoolyard a few buildings over. They were all shouting things like “Gringa, I love you!” (Gringa means “White girl”) It was so funny. I just smiled and waved and that got them going even more.   

Our First Week 7/18/10

We spent the first week at NLCH (New Life Children’s Home) just getting to know the kids and the other missionaries that work there. It was great to have time to build relationships with the kids, but we were sad to leave them behind when we left for language school for 3 months. We do get to go back for a week in September for a staff conference.

We taught two of the boys a foot tag game the afternoon before we left for language school. We had a feeling that it would become a hit within a few days. When we came back from language school the next weekend (to handle visa/passport/bank stuff) it seemed that every kid in the home was playing it, even the older girls! It was a great way to learn their names and get to know each of them better. 

Why we chose to Blog! 7/16/10

Hey guys! This blog is going to be a very informal, “journal-ish” style blog containing things that are important and/or things that are hilarious. We hope this will be a means of conveying what God is doing through the ministry, and a way to keep you guys up-to-date on what our lives look like on a daily/weekly basis. It is so difficult to communicate all of what is going on in a monthly newsletter. Thanks for being apart of the ministry! Please feel free to comment on stories and ask questions about anything you want!