Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Gringos in the Dark

We got here, safe and sound!!!!! No problems with the airlines except that we almost missed our flight to the DR because we forgot to set our watches back to FLA time,no problems bringing Gus... except i dont think he likes to fly very much... not enough good places to pee in an airport... We got all of our equipment through customs without a hitch.. which was a miracle in itself. Brian picked us up and we ate some dinner, drove out to RSJ and started to move in! The only thing is... we have no light. The lights are out in RSJ and apparently have been for a while. Maybe manana... but it doesnt matter because we are going to Santiago to look for a vehicle during the day. Wish us luck and nooo lemons! More to come soon...

Friday, September 22, 2006

Farethee well, Guatemala

Maria-
After a monster round of goodbyes in TN, OK, and KS, we didnt figure Guatemala would be rough at all. We were wrong.
Here's Maria, our Senora and house mother. She is about four foot six and likes to beep beep her way through intersections instead of stopping, while she tells us that no one obeys the traffice laws except for her. She also had the E.T. comment (See earlier post), and loves any excuse for our other German bartender housemate to make her a "mojito". She is also the lady who weeps while she tells Holly and I about how much her church family means to her as she watches her husband slowly die from cancer, and gives us a tortilla maker, windchimes, a garish wallet that I will cherish forever, and a ragged, well loved book of spanish Catholic hymns for me to learn. Hard to leave Maria.

Here's my teacher for the six weeks- Carmen. We spent 168 hours face to face, speaking spanish and chatting about our different lives- she loves to keep a neat table, and is a little OCD about it. She and Holly really got along (for more reasons than just the neatness) and now that we are gone- I find that will miss having her as a teacher and friend.

Hollys teacher was named Lucia- which, in spanish, roughly can mean "looking good". She was a stylish, fast talking girl from Guat city, who was well liked by all the male teachers and had immaculate manicures every week- ( if TJ notices your nails- they must be pretty interesting...) She and Holly got along, especially when Holly threw out the last book of Grammar and started translating and talking about the parables of Jesus instead.

There were so many others- our group of friends who went to the Copan trip- Blair- a Dallas headhunter who threw away a high power career to work in a Guatemalan orpanage. Mike, a husband and father who quit his stable insurance job and is sacrificing months with his family to fulfill a lifelong dream to learn spanish and work in public health. Chad and Shelley- a couple from down the road in Franklin who gave up preaching to run childrens homes in Honduras. The "tres chicas", from Nashville (and Otter Creek strangely enough!) who were studying and working every day(at least when they werent salsa dancing) to teach poor kids english at the school near our building.
We learned a lot of Spanish, but more so- we learned about the Lord and how he works- how he is calling his people to crazy things all over the world if we just listen. Holly and I were so encouraged- as we wonder if we can accomplish what we feel like has been set out for us- seeing these people jump into Gods call for thier lives made us so much more excited to get our hands dirty in our own calling.
Goodbye Guatemala. Thanks. Hello Dominican Republic.

We stink.

Our clothes stink. Our room stinks. Our feet stink. Our towels are so stinky, it is better NOT to shower than to allow bodily contact with the foul-smelling terrycloth.

We normally take our clothes to a lavandería every week & a half or so. But 2.5 weeks ago we decided we would save money and do our laundry when we got back to the States. About 4 days ago, we really started to regret that decision.

The thing is, we are normally a clean people. But there's something about leaving a place that makes us messy. (This time, we are actually dirty.) When leaving somewhere - be it Tulsa, Nashville or Antigua, we want to enjoy the moments we have left, so tidying slips down on the priority scale until we are literally fishing around in a mini-mountain of clothes.

But 4pm tomorrow, stinky or not, Nashville, here we come!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

J'aime les crêpes.


I know we're supposed to be learning Spanish, but our Spanish school just happens to be next to a crêpe place. Like, a real French crêpe place. Edward is the owner - he's about our age, from France. He was travelling from Canada to Argentina, and he ran out of money in Antigua. He decided to stay awhile and open a crêperie to make some $$. Why not?

Every day Blair, Shelly & I dash over to Edward's during our 10:00am break, hoping he didn't stay out late last night. If he was out late, then he won't open until 11-ish. If he's open, then we enjoy steaming hot crêpes filled with what is quite possibly my favorite substance in a jar - Nutella. Sometimes we mix it up a little and add banana.

TJ doesn't like - says they taste like wet pancakes. But he took some pics yesterday - aren't they great?

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

How far are you willing to go?



We ask ourselves this question every morning: How far are we willing to go? What are we willing to risk for a hot shower? Mortal peril? The answer, unequivocally, is yes.

Yes, we are willing to stand under running water that is electrically heated IN the shower head.

Yes, those are live electric wires you see in the above picture. These contraptions are used all over the world - they must be safe, right?

After six weeks of Guatemalan showers, looking forward to two years of cold Dominican showers, I am thinking this: Italy has great pasta, China has the Great Wall, Africa has elephants & giraffes, the Carribbean has unrivaled beaches, but the United States...? The Unites States has the market cornered on plumbing. You just can't beat it.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

La independencia!!!!

This Friday, Guatemala celebrated their Independence Day. Think Cinco de Mayo on steroids. Parque Central was stuffed with people, food, flags, music, and fun. We went to see the big parade/flag raising and had a great time eating "pupusas" and watching Guatemalans in their element.

All week we've been hearing/waking up to the bands from different schools practice in the streets, and today, they were let loose in a frenzy of drums, bells, and fireworks. From all over the city, they marched to Parque Central, where thousands of Antiguenos cheered and watched with anticipation as the national anthem (it's like ten minutes long) played and the pledge of allegiance was said. I couldnt help but borrow some pride for this little country that has spent several decades in civil war. I also caught myself thinking about my country and home. We're glad to be going back next week, if only for a few days. Maybe, just maybe, we can catch some of the first breaths of the Nashville autumn.



Tuesday, September 12, 2006

TJ's New Album

Big news.
TJ just released a new album.
A children's album!
It's only a few $$,
and you can order online here.

This was totally out of the blue, but somehow I think its my favorite album yet! A few weeks before we left the country, our worship minister, Brandon Scott Thomas, asked TJ if he could write a few songs for a children's album he was co-producing. TJ didn't have much time - we really were leaving the country in three weeks - but he wrote a few songs and gave them to Brandon. Of course the producers loved them and asked for a few more, then a few more, and before he knew it, TJ wrote & sang every song on the album.

You're going to love it. Your kids will love it. Your nieces & nephews will love it. Your children's minister will love it! It's kind of a Christian take-off of Jack Johnson's Curious George album. Kids songs that adults will enjoy as well.

It's always been our prayer that TJ's music and missions could work together, but releasing a children's album weeks before we left the country was more than we could have asked for! The record company enjoyed working with TJ so much, they asked him to continue writing and submitting songs from the Dominican. Worship songs, this time, I think.

Anyway, buy it. You'll like it!

Monday, September 11, 2006

Unexpectedly Enchanted!

I (Holly) have wanted to visit Mayan ruins for years. We booked a cruise for our first anniversary that included a trip ruins in Mexico. Then the bathroom in our apartment flooded and it quasi-ruined our summer. (It's amazing how something so seemingly small can consume you. Our apartment was COVERED in mold, which did not agree with TJ's asthmatic lungs.) We were so fed up with landlord living that we toyed with the idea of buying a house, and putting our cruise $$ towards the down payment. In the end, our wise friend & sometimes financial advisor, Steve Speake, pointed out that perhaps homeownership & overseas living did not go hand in hand. In the end, no house, no cruise, no Mayan ruins. Though we did spend an autumn week in Gatlinburg, which was lovely, except we're pretty sure a week is about 4 days too long to spend in Gatlinburg.

So... On, this, our 2nd-to-last weekend in Guatemala, TJ wanted to make my dream of seeing Mayan ruins come true. We, along with 6 of our friends from school, bought tickets on a shuttle bound for the ruins of Copan in Honduras. The shuttle was scheduled to arrive at 4:30am Saturday morning. We woke up at 3:45, expecting it to arrive by 4:30. After an hour and a half, we were pretty sure the shuttle wasn't going to come. At 6:00am - two hours past scheduled arrival time - I got the number off our ticket and tried calling to bus company. Nobody answered (or maybe I was using the Guatemalan phone incorrectly?), and we went back to bed, making the best of things & looking forward to a relaxing weekend in Antigua. At 6:15, a horn BLARES down our street. We jump out of bed, get dressed, and the driver starts talking/yelling that the first driver was drunk so he's our driver instead. He sort of shoves us in the shuttle & off we go to pick up our 6 friends.

One house later, while our casa is still in sight, he asks us for our ticket. Oops. I left it by the phone in our TWO hours of waiting for the shuttle.

-- He says we have to pay double since we don't have our ticket.

-- We say we're not going to pay, we can back to our house - still in sight - and get the ticket.

-- He says that's not possible.

-- We say the bus was two hours late, we had to call, and that's why we don't have the ticket. We're not going to pay.

At which point, he tells me that 2 hours was plenty of time for me to find my ticket. And thus begins my first heated Latin argument in Spanish. I won in the end, he said we could just bring the ticket to the agency when we returned. But I'm not going to lie, it got pretty ugly. At one point I snapped at him (actually used my fingers and snapped at him) and told him to listen to me. This I am not proud of, but you live & learn.

So we pick up the rest of our friends & proceed to get so lost that we turn around at least 100 times. Not exaggerating. This driver had NOT driven to Honduras before. We are carsick. Our friend is throwing up out the window. We are weaving in and out of traffic. A four hour trip stretches into an 8 hour trip.


Highly un-amused TJ & the back of Holly's head on the way to Copan.


When we arrive in Copan 4 hours late; sanos y salvos, Gracias a Dios, our expectations are not high. But we all 8 agree, the weekend was positively enchanting. And relaxing. A vacation from a vaction, if you will. (Except that our "vacation" in Antigua is full of studying & tests.)

Back to Copan. The town was lovely and the Mayan ruins were OLD. And intricate. Though these aren't the largest Mayan ruins, they are the most artistic. We were the only people there, and it was easy to imagine the ancient city swarming with people, going to the market, taking in a ball game, just living life, thousands of years ago.





And now I've got to tell you about the food. The food was hands down the best we've had in a LONG time. It was wow by USA standards, not to mention Central American standards! An open-air Honduran churrascaria for lunch - it's like a Brazilian steakhouse in a America, but at 1/100th of the price. Great meat, too. And dinner. Wow. Dinner. Twisted Tanya's. It was something else. A gourmet British-run restaurant in the middle of Honduras. Mahi Mahi with lorocco sause, talipia with salsa hondurena, seafood pasta, chicken curry, filet mignon... And I can't even write about dessert - it pains me to think I'll probably never taste that chocolate delight again. 4 courses for $15. We could afford to splurge since our charming hostel - literally, it was charming - was $4 a night.


Dinner at Twisted Tanya's.


We left Copan at noon on Sunday, all wishing we could stay an extra day... Suffice it to say, the trip home was 75% as hellish as the trip there. It took 8 hours again, this time in pouring rain. But I must say, Copan Ruinas was worth it. Those Mayans... They were/are something else.

And thus concludes the longest blog ever. I hereby promise to never give TJ a hard time about writing long blogs again.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Just Can't Stop Listening...

It's true. Derek Webb (formerly of Caedmon's) just released a new CD, and we can't stop listening... It's truly compelling. He blew us away three years ago with She Must and Shall Go Free - hands down our favorite album. This one might be even better.

And he's giving it away for free. Download the entire album at freederekwebb.com.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Buenavista Social Club


Ever since junior high, TJ has had an affinity for all things Cuban. He loves the music, he loves the food - he even wants a tatoo of a palm tree! (Don't worry, Mom & Dad, don't think he's going to follow through on that one.)

Last night was incredible. Three members of his favorite Cuban band Buenavista Social Club live here in Antigua. Serendipitous. They play on Wednesday nights at this little place in town. We heard about it last week, and TJ's been counting the days.

Buenavista Social Club did not disappoint: the music was great and the dancing was even better! After this, I don't think anything could keep TJ away from Cuba if that door ever opened!

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Happy 26 on the 26th!

TJ celebrated his 26th birthday on August 26th. 26th on the 26th - only happens once in a lifetime!

La Antigua, Guatemala is a great place to celebrate such a monumentous occasion...

We had a wonderful dinner on the patio of Tre Fatelli with good friends Chad, Shelly & Blair. Afterwards we enjoyed a (surprise!) strawberries & cream tres leches cake from La Senicienta, one of our favorite bakeries in town. Feliz cumpleanos, amor mio!

Friday, September 01, 2006

E.T. and the American work ethic

This just in from our senora at dinner last night...

We were talking (in Spanish) about how hard people in different countries work. Spaniards work short hours, Germans work long hours...

But Americans - Americans work the most, she says.

She looks at TJ and I, and to prove her point, asks: "Haven't you seen the movie E.T.?"

TJ and I look at each other blankly, then nod.

"That lady," she says, "That lady worked so much she didn't even know she had an alien in her closet!"


And she wasn't trying to be funny - to her this a valid proof of how hard Americans work!