We were in San Marcos, Northern Guatemala, on a "week of service" trip with youth from all around Guatemala and El Salvador. I was sharing a room with a very boyish looking 13 to 15 year old (I forget).
We both yawned a little bit as we got up. I said something about how nice the bed was.
He said to me "oooh, I was having a wonderful dream"
"yes" I said "It is good to dream"
"Yeah" he responded, "but I was dreaming about my dad"
"Oh, That{s nice"
I thought, oh wow, we have been gone a few days and this poor little kid is already missing his family. I rolled my eyes behind closed eyes and the thought "that{s sweet" had an easily descernable condescending tone.
"my dad is living in the United States, I have not seen him in years" he told me.
oh.
He is the oldest at around 14 years old.
I felt like sh**. And that is exactly what I deserved.
Jordan
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Historical Tidbits
I found and stole a Newsweek from 1988. Bush senior is on the cover, a tough cowboy on a horse with snocapped mountains in the backround and "the spirit of Marlboro in a low tar cigarette" and picture of said product is in supreimpsed on the picture which covers the back of the magazine.
Highlighting the sad stories (when looking back) in this issue is an article on Chiles Pinochet and its "glow of prosperity." Pinochet has only avoided prison and the death penalty because of some laws which prohibit prosecuting former heads of state there... or something like that. He did lots of terrible things and was placed in power by a United States supported coup that ousted Allende (I forget his first name, father of famous author Isabelle Allende) for his socialist stance. The article speaks glowingly of Pinochets work. Newsweek redeems itself a little bit by later talking about the "two chiles" (rich and poor) noting htat "to a large extent teh economic recovery of the past three years has been made possible by a shar reduction in salaries" and acknowledges that while the Chilean economy is doing well "there is truth to the fact that.... the average chilean is not.
There is a hopeful article on the ousting of a military dictatorship in Burma... sad to realize that 20 years later there is another military dictatorshiop there.
who knew? apparently in TS Elliot{s early writings there were some very anti-semetic statements.
Some people are abusing the new nicarette gum
"Irans Crusade Falls Far Short" but fundamentalism is still rising. A cease fire had just been agreed upon between Iraq and Iran. Hussein is referred to as "President Hussein." Iran "accused Iraq of using poison gas one more time." Oh yeah, and do you guys remember how the United States sold arms to Iran, who was fighting against our ally, Iraq?
After an article on how Bushs strategy will center around slinging mudballs at Dukakis, a following intervew article has the headline "Bush blames Dukakis for the negative camaign" Bush said, "I will never apologize for the United States of America,-- I don{t care what the facts are" Newsweek writes "Fortunately for Bush, his own slips of tongue have become so common thast, like Reagan{s, they have ceased to be big news." Bush was struggling to break away from his elitist image, eating pork rinds was apparently a flop. A pollster in another secion advizes that bush "Go heavy on family values."
There are also letters to the editor praising what Pinochet has accomplished in Chile
ok, some of my plans to travel have, sadly, been swamped, but I will still have a good Christmas here in Lindo Charcha.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Jordan
throw a snowball if you have one
Highlighting the sad stories (when looking back) in this issue is an article on Chiles Pinochet and its "glow of prosperity." Pinochet has only avoided prison and the death penalty because of some laws which prohibit prosecuting former heads of state there... or something like that. He did lots of terrible things and was placed in power by a United States supported coup that ousted Allende (I forget his first name, father of famous author Isabelle Allende) for his socialist stance. The article speaks glowingly of Pinochets work. Newsweek redeems itself a little bit by later talking about the "two chiles" (rich and poor) noting htat "to a large extent teh economic recovery of the past three years has been made possible by a shar reduction in salaries" and acknowledges that while the Chilean economy is doing well "there is truth to the fact that.... the average chilean is not.
There is a hopeful article on the ousting of a military dictatorship in Burma... sad to realize that 20 years later there is another military dictatorshiop there.
who knew? apparently in TS Elliot{s early writings there were some very anti-semetic statements.
Some people are abusing the new nicarette gum
"Irans Crusade Falls Far Short" but fundamentalism is still rising. A cease fire had just been agreed upon between Iraq and Iran. Hussein is referred to as "President Hussein." Iran "accused Iraq of using poison gas one more time." Oh yeah, and do you guys remember how the United States sold arms to Iran, who was fighting against our ally, Iraq?
After an article on how Bushs strategy will center around slinging mudballs at Dukakis, a following intervew article has the headline "Bush blames Dukakis for the negative camaign" Bush said, "I will never apologize for the United States of America,-- I don{t care what the facts are" Newsweek writes "Fortunately for Bush, his own slips of tongue have become so common thast, like Reagan{s, they have ceased to be big news." Bush was struggling to break away from his elitist image, eating pork rinds was apparently a flop. A pollster in another secion advizes that bush "Go heavy on family values."
There are also letters to the editor praising what Pinochet has accomplished in Chile
ok, some of my plans to travel have, sadly, been swamped, but I will still have a good Christmas here in Lindo Charcha.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Jordan
throw a snowball if you have one
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Listening cont.
I had to, because this has been on my mind.
SaaabER (like bear) and VerDA: Thats Saber (verb for "to know") in english and verdad (truth or maybe truly). I love these two expressions andthe way people say them here. Saber means literally "to know" and Verdad means "truth or truly". Here in Guatemala people will just say "saber" instead of "Quien Sabe" (who knows) ans who knows would generally be the best way to translate it. But it is not like they never say "Quien Saber" either.. SSSSOOO, to take things a little to far.... the way people say saber (saaaaBER (again, like bear))sometiems soudsn to me like tehy are saying much muchmore than simply "who knows." Or they could have choosen NO sé, "I don´t know."The fact is that they are not saying quien sabe (whoknows) but ahve chosen saber (to know) instead. Sorry for the repetitive ness Penny Moon, but I just want to make sure everybody gets it. Anyways, it soudns to me liek Guatemalans are making a very modern (postmodern really) commentary on what it measn to know anything anyway. Like I said, they could have made other linguistic choices, I think that not only does "saber" have more elegance, it also carries more meaning. It´s as if guatemalasn are questioning anyones ability ot know for sure anything about this "reality" (those quotes the Guatemalans put there). "where did the dog go" "to know..." maybe they are saying , "to know, to really know something, si something outsdide of our capacity as humans, you don´t know where the dog is, I don´t know where the dog is, maybe the dog does not really exist if neither of us can see it." or "I don´t know, and what does it really maen to know something anyways.... 20 years ago I knew me and my brother were going to ahve a good harvest, and then my brother was killed by the army and they burned our land and I lived the next 7 years in exile, so I try not to KNOW anything anymore." On the other hand, when Guatemalans I know really do feel they know something, they really do know it. verdad is like "truth". My host mom asys "VerDA" I might say ¨boy, it´s cold¨and she´ll say ¨VerDA", Truly... now that´s something on which we can all agree. This feels to me (or at least thisis how I Like to think abou it) like a frustrated or, actually, maybe elated response to the constant Guatemalan postmodernist-esque whining Guatemalans do throughtheir "saber" and it´s implied belief that it is impossible toarrive at any truth anyways. "puchica, mas ké" "VerDAD" "boy it´s cold¨"now that´s the truth"... I don´t care what you asy about ti being impossible to find truths, it´s flipping cold!
I might go deeper into thehistorical reasions why these sort of far out ramblings on Guatemalan spanish might actually hold some water, but for now let´s sum up the possible reasons with: exploiration of humans, war, ineffective and extremely corrupt governance for a long time (ie unfinished roads, promises not kept), war, lot´s of mountains which slow communication and still, even today, seperate people thus creating distinct languages and isolated communites that are ignorant of the world around them, but know enough to know that there is a ton out there that theyjust will never know, and competition between mayan spirituality and Christian belief.
more
CRAP: the soudn I make when I realize I´ve changed into my boxers before brushing my teeth. I then have to go outside to the pila (cenment thing with water) to do it.
Big SPLAT: the soudn of soup spilling all overmy pants at a recent wedding my host sister invited me too.
little SPLAT: the soudn or peaple spitting under the table at the weddign reception.
Jordan
ps. more on spit. In grade schook I was indignant abuot the fact that we weren´t even allowed to spit at recess. I still did all thetime (at recess) and was never caught.... untill my very last day of grade school when I was reprimanded by some lady with a whistle. I was SO mad, I had gone all that time without getting caught. I remember telling my dad when I got home. I wonder what he thought.
SaaabER (like bear) and VerDA: Thats Saber (verb for "to know") in english and verdad (truth or maybe truly). I love these two expressions andthe way people say them here. Saber means literally "to know" and Verdad means "truth or truly". Here in Guatemala people will just say "saber" instead of "Quien Sabe" (who knows) ans who knows would generally be the best way to translate it. But it is not like they never say "Quien Saber" either.. SSSSOOO, to take things a little to far.... the way people say saber (saaaaBER (again, like bear))sometiems soudsn to me like tehy are saying much muchmore than simply "who knows." Or they could have choosen NO sé, "I don´t know."The fact is that they are not saying quien sabe (whoknows) but ahve chosen saber (to know) instead. Sorry for the repetitive ness Penny Moon, but I just want to make sure everybody gets it. Anyways, it soudns to me liek Guatemalans are making a very modern (postmodern really) commentary on what it measn to know anything anyway. Like I said, they could have made other linguistic choices, I think that not only does "saber" have more elegance, it also carries more meaning. It´s as if guatemalasn are questioning anyones ability ot know for sure anything about this "reality" (those quotes the Guatemalans put there). "where did the dog go" "to know..." maybe they are saying , "to know, to really know something, si something outsdide of our capacity as humans, you don´t know where the dog is, I don´t know where the dog is, maybe the dog does not really exist if neither of us can see it." or "I don´t know, and what does it really maen to know something anyways.... 20 years ago I knew me and my brother were going to ahve a good harvest, and then my brother was killed by the army and they burned our land and I lived the next 7 years in exile, so I try not to KNOW anything anymore." On the other hand, when Guatemalans I know really do feel they know something, they really do know it. verdad is like "truth". My host mom asys "VerDA" I might say ¨boy, it´s cold¨and she´ll say ¨VerDA", Truly... now that´s something on which we can all agree. This feels to me (or at least thisis how I Like to think abou it) like a frustrated or, actually, maybe elated response to the constant Guatemalan postmodernist-esque whining Guatemalans do throughtheir "saber" and it´s implied belief that it is impossible toarrive at any truth anyways. "puchica, mas ké" "VerDAD" "boy it´s cold¨"now that´s the truth"... I don´t care what you asy about ti being impossible to find truths, it´s flipping cold!
I might go deeper into thehistorical reasions why these sort of far out ramblings on Guatemalan spanish might actually hold some water, but for now let´s sum up the possible reasons with: exploiration of humans, war, ineffective and extremely corrupt governance for a long time (ie unfinished roads, promises not kept), war, lot´s of mountains which slow communication and still, even today, seperate people thus creating distinct languages and isolated communites that are ignorant of the world around them, but know enough to know that there is a ton out there that theyjust will never know, and competition between mayan spirituality and Christian belief.
more
CRAP: the soudn I make when I realize I´ve changed into my boxers before brushing my teeth. I then have to go outside to the pila (cenment thing with water) to do it.
Big SPLAT: the soudn of soup spilling all overmy pants at a recent wedding my host sister invited me too.
little SPLAT: the soudn or peaple spitting under the table at the weddign reception.
Jordan
ps. more on spit. In grade schook I was indignant abuot the fact that we weren´t even allowed to spit at recess. I still did all thetime (at recess) and was never caught.... untill my very last day of grade school when I was reprimanded by some lady with a whistle. I was SO mad, I had gone all that time without getting caught. I remember telling my dad when I got home. I wonder what he thought.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Listening to Carcha
In order to finally describhe my life a little bit better hre in San Pedro Carcha, I{ve decided to make a series of entries on the subject. Obviously, it will always be impossible for em to describe perfectly what life is like here, buyt I am giong to do my best. My idea is that inorder to make things easier for me, I am going to divide entries buy the sensory inputs so to speak through which I perceive Carcha. Ive already put together some ideas for all of my senses, today is giong to be, as the title announces, sounds.
GALLOS, oh the gallos (that{s roosters): Theyare not as lovable as everybody{s favorite [Little Jerry[ from Seinfled and most times they are just annoying. I wake up to their crow often times. Everybody has them and at any point in the day you can hear them, but particualarly at around 5 30 am, 10 pm, and I think at around 3 am Ive been woken up a number of times. It{s much prettyer in the distance. Close up the cry sounds painfull, like everyday the roosters is reaching down to the depths of it{s being, summing up all of it{s strength and then violently ripping apart it{s vocal cords in order to make this piercing sound.
TORTEANDO: That is, makign tortillas. I probably eat at least five tortillas a meal and you can{t eat without them, The old stories tell that man was made from corn, and hre, they are at least sustained by it. We buy our tortialls froma local who makes them everday. Walking down the street you will ehre the plat plat plat plat of women tossing the dow from one hand in the other in order to make their amazingly perfectly round tortillas. The sound is delicuous, pleasant in it{s repetitiveness and, being a soudn that has been here since the beginning of time as we know it, is maybe something you have to listen to yourself
THE MOLINO: That would be the loud mufflerless motors which people use to grind their corn into the dough from which htey form tortillas. At the office where I worked, the molino across teh street drowns out your voice in the parts closest to the road.
DOGS: THe first house i stayed at their was a pcak of dogs ten strong. Oftne times at night I woke up to dogs fighting. THe yelping is terrible and I am in favor of extermination.
RAIN FALLING ON A TIN ROOF: Sometimes it is kind of romantic like that Norah JOnes song. Mostly it si just really really loudn and makes it sound like it{s raingin way more than it is. THe tin roof reverberates with the sound and sometimes the level of noise kind of scares me. Then again, it also sometimes gives me a great feeling of peace because I know I am safe inside instead of outside in the rain.
THE BIRDS: In contrast to the rather annoying roosters, in the morning one also hears lots of pleasant bird calls that I{ve never heard before. My favorite ones have a sound sort of like a very full and quality whistle that ascend to a very high, but not screeching pitch. There are lots of different bird calls and they all have a happy musical quality that is just great to wake up to.
GOATS: Above us is a pastor form which oftne times we ar graced by the bleating of goats.
WASHING: On warm days one often hears the inconsitent splattering of water and the rouch scrunch of women tirelessly washing clothes by hand.
MUSIC: People ply music loud. Praise music, Latin Rock, and some Mariachi music are favorites one often hears playing in the distance. Sometiems we make the mucis and at these times hte whoel place feels like the music is consuming it, it inflitrates every corner of the house and makes it alive.
CHURCHES: When there is a service downt eh street you know. Where i used to live I would just be able to hear the bass bum bum bum bum the same tow notes for hours. IT wasnt{ bad for sleeping. One might also walk past a more carismatic chruch... your blood will be chilled by the screams and wailing that sound as if the y came from jalf-dead devil creatures with a hing of the screams of a seriously injured cat. Then you{ll feel the uncontrolable desire to run from the booming sound of a man yelling abouthe love of Jesus and the Power of God. My own church signs songs which are drowned out by the overwhelmign sound of the keyboard. YOu can hear the worship leading singing into the mic upfrong. Songs will last a long tiem or will blend into anohter song and then it will sound the same, The peopel will clap an sing when the can, but you won{t hear them well. Some songs will repeat the same phrase over and over an d over utill you find it impressive.
PRAYER: When peopel pray, everyone prays.A carcophon of the harsh Kekchi language lifting p their preayers to the lord might just be something you have to experience yhourself. I hardly pray myself because I just love listenign to everyone else. Accented by hte glottalized k sounds and lotsof sh{s, it for some reason makes me think of a lot of wet pebbles falling into a running stream. One vocie ove the top directs the group in the dynamics of thsi strange song.
ONE SONG: I{ve heard the song "Eres Todo Poderoso" a millin tiems in a millin different forms includign the majestic sound of a lone, soulful voice crying it out to the darkness.
Wood Chopping: Sometimes I wake up toe the soudn of my mom doing hardlabor chopping small piecees of wood into smaller piecesof wood so that she can prepare our breakfast.
Ok that{s all for now.
Jordan
GALLOS, oh the gallos (that{s roosters): Theyare not as lovable as everybody{s favorite [Little Jerry[ from Seinfled and most times they are just annoying. I wake up to their crow often times. Everybody has them and at any point in the day you can hear them, but particualarly at around 5 30 am, 10 pm, and I think at around 3 am Ive been woken up a number of times. It{s much prettyer in the distance. Close up the cry sounds painfull, like everyday the roosters is reaching down to the depths of it{s being, summing up all of it{s strength and then violently ripping apart it{s vocal cords in order to make this piercing sound.
TORTEANDO: That is, makign tortillas. I probably eat at least five tortillas a meal and you can{t eat without them, The old stories tell that man was made from corn, and hre, they are at least sustained by it. We buy our tortialls froma local who makes them everday. Walking down the street you will ehre the plat plat plat plat of women tossing the dow from one hand in the other in order to make their amazingly perfectly round tortillas. The sound is delicuous, pleasant in it{s repetitiveness and, being a soudn that has been here since the beginning of time as we know it, is maybe something you have to listen to yourself
THE MOLINO: That would be the loud mufflerless motors which people use to grind their corn into the dough from which htey form tortillas. At the office where I worked, the molino across teh street drowns out your voice in the parts closest to the road.
DOGS: THe first house i stayed at their was a pcak of dogs ten strong. Oftne times at night I woke up to dogs fighting. THe yelping is terrible and I am in favor of extermination.
RAIN FALLING ON A TIN ROOF: Sometimes it is kind of romantic like that Norah JOnes song. Mostly it si just really really loudn and makes it sound like it{s raingin way more than it is. THe tin roof reverberates with the sound and sometimes the level of noise kind of scares me. Then again, it also sometimes gives me a great feeling of peace because I know I am safe inside instead of outside in the rain.
THE BIRDS: In contrast to the rather annoying roosters, in the morning one also hears lots of pleasant bird calls that I{ve never heard before. My favorite ones have a sound sort of like a very full and quality whistle that ascend to a very high, but not screeching pitch. There are lots of different bird calls and they all have a happy musical quality that is just great to wake up to.
GOATS: Above us is a pastor form which oftne times we ar graced by the bleating of goats.
WASHING: On warm days one often hears the inconsitent splattering of water and the rouch scrunch of women tirelessly washing clothes by hand.
MUSIC: People ply music loud. Praise music, Latin Rock, and some Mariachi music are favorites one often hears playing in the distance. Sometiems we make the mucis and at these times hte whoel place feels like the music is consuming it, it inflitrates every corner of the house and makes it alive.
CHURCHES: When there is a service downt eh street you know. Where i used to live I would just be able to hear the bass bum bum bum bum the same tow notes for hours. IT wasnt{ bad for sleeping. One might also walk past a more carismatic chruch... your blood will be chilled by the screams and wailing that sound as if the y came from jalf-dead devil creatures with a hing of the screams of a seriously injured cat. Then you{ll feel the uncontrolable desire to run from the booming sound of a man yelling abouthe love of Jesus and the Power of God. My own church signs songs which are drowned out by the overwhelmign sound of the keyboard. YOu can hear the worship leading singing into the mic upfrong. Songs will last a long tiem or will blend into anohter song and then it will sound the same, The peopel will clap an sing when the can, but you won{t hear them well. Some songs will repeat the same phrase over and over an d over utill you find it impressive.
PRAYER: When peopel pray, everyone prays.A carcophon of the harsh Kekchi language lifting p their preayers to the lord might just be something you have to experience yhourself. I hardly pray myself because I just love listenign to everyone else. Accented by hte glottalized k sounds and lotsof sh{s, it for some reason makes me think of a lot of wet pebbles falling into a running stream. One vocie ove the top directs the group in the dynamics of thsi strange song.
ONE SONG: I{ve heard the song "Eres Todo Poderoso" a millin tiems in a millin different forms includign the majestic sound of a lone, soulful voice crying it out to the darkness.
Wood Chopping: Sometimes I wake up toe the soudn of my mom doing hardlabor chopping small piecees of wood into smaller piecesof wood so that she can prepare our breakfast.
Ok that{s all for now.
Jordan
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
sorry
that last post about Greg Maddux was not supposed to be so sappy....
Jordan
ps. I promise I´ll make a post about Guatemala soon.
Jordan
ps. I promise I´ll make a post about Guatemala soon.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
A sad day in Atlanta
yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
baseball was just another game to play
Yesterday, Greg Maddux (aka. pest pitcher of the modern era not on steroids) retired officially from Baseball. From 1992-1995 Greg Maddux won 4 Cy Young awards and amassed a 1.98 ERA. A brief look at his career statistics showed 20 walks total in 1997, in 232 innings. He won lots of gold gloves. He won lots of games with bad run support and crappy bullpens. I think 355 wins in all. Pretty amazing. You can marvel at his statistics yourself at the official braves website. I am not going to take the time rightnow on this slow computer to do it myself.
Anyways, I have been braves fan ever since watching Otis Nixon bring back a would be Pirate home run in the 1992 NLCS (I think that´s right, those details were´t so importatn to me at the time) and then watching Sid Bream charge into home, beating a Barry Bond´s (he had smaller arms at the time) throw to home, to win the series, I have been a Braves fan. Actually I think I might have just felt bad for the Braves because everyone else in my family was rooting for the Pirates. I felt bad later when my brothers were crying and I was happy.
Since then, I spent hours with a tennis ball and glove in front of our brick fireplace (the outside part) pitching balls, pretending to be alternatly, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery (remember him? he was supposed to be great and was my favorite for a while). When my pitches weren´t great, Otis Nixon, Marquis Grissom, David Justice, Mark Lemke (my favorite playoff time second baseman, Jeff Blouser, and others would make diving catches to save me. SOmehow the imaginary Braves always won, and for the better part of my life that was actually true in real life too. Now the Braves are struggling a little bit and I have to live like every other baseball fan not knowing for sure that my team would make it to the playoffs. The Braves used to have three potential aces, now, with Tim Hudson´s injury, they are struggling to find one (and yes, I blame the Yankees and their greedy ways for that).
Now we´ve got some good guys like McCann and Escobar, and good ole Chipper Jones is stillwithus, but the days will never be the same as those fantasy days with (young) Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz dominating the NL.
Today, the Braves are lost without a single ace and the retirement of Maddux has brought to the forfront of my mind how far gone that "yesterday" really is.
Jordan
I hope like probably every other Brave´s fan that one day he will return as a pitching coach.
baseball was just another game to play
Yesterday, Greg Maddux (aka. pest pitcher of the modern era not on steroids) retired officially from Baseball. From 1992-1995 Greg Maddux won 4 Cy Young awards and amassed a 1.98 ERA. A brief look at his career statistics showed 20 walks total in 1997, in 232 innings. He won lots of gold gloves. He won lots of games with bad run support and crappy bullpens. I think 355 wins in all. Pretty amazing. You can marvel at his statistics yourself at the official braves website. I am not going to take the time rightnow on this slow computer to do it myself.
Anyways, I have been braves fan ever since watching Otis Nixon bring back a would be Pirate home run in the 1992 NLCS (I think that´s right, those details were´t so importatn to me at the time) and then watching Sid Bream charge into home, beating a Barry Bond´s (he had smaller arms at the time) throw to home, to win the series, I have been a Braves fan. Actually I think I might have just felt bad for the Braves because everyone else in my family was rooting for the Pirates. I felt bad later when my brothers were crying and I was happy.
Since then, I spent hours with a tennis ball and glove in front of our brick fireplace (the outside part) pitching balls, pretending to be alternatly, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery (remember him? he was supposed to be great and was my favorite for a while). When my pitches weren´t great, Otis Nixon, Marquis Grissom, David Justice, Mark Lemke (my favorite playoff time second baseman, Jeff Blouser, and others would make diving catches to save me. SOmehow the imaginary Braves always won, and for the better part of my life that was actually true in real life too. Now the Braves are struggling a little bit and I have to live like every other baseball fan not knowing for sure that my team would make it to the playoffs. The Braves used to have three potential aces, now, with Tim Hudson´s injury, they are struggling to find one (and yes, I blame the Yankees and their greedy ways for that).
Now we´ve got some good guys like McCann and Escobar, and good ole Chipper Jones is stillwithus, but the days will never be the same as those fantasy days with (young) Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz dominating the NL.
Today, the Braves are lost without a single ace and the retirement of Maddux has brought to the forfront of my mind how far gone that "yesterday" really is.
Jordan
I hope like probably every other Brave´s fan that one day he will return as a pitching coach.
Monday, December 8, 2008
It´s been a while
You guys remember that song that was huge for a little while while we were in High School. Sort of a grundgish (sp) sort of song "it´s been a while since I could say.... that I wasn´t addicted" stuff like that, well my innocently written title suddenly brought back the shameful recollection that I liked the song. oh well. Anyways, for a long time now I have held fast to the rule that I need to respect my former self. That is, I need to respect the ideas, views, or ideas of what fun is, that I used to have, even if now I think it is stupid. I realized a long time ago that if couldn´t promis myself to respect (in the future) what I think today, then today will end up being pretty crappy and useless because I´ll always be worried about what a future, more intelligent (supposedly) perhaps more dignified me will think. If I don´t have respect for my formerself, my futre self might logically not have respect for my current self, and if I realize that, then why should me current self have respect for itself? So I promise to respect all of my selves... anyways.... This strategy has already benefited me. For example, when I was a little kid I thought that it was just downright disrespectful and stupid that my older brother sometimes went to peoples houses and TP´d them.... for fun. When I was in HS I learned that it was "cool" to do this very thing. I refused many an invitation to join in on this activity (which as a HS and with pure pressure and with the distorted but intelligent enough reasoning of my friends didn´t at the time seem so bad) largely on the basis of wanted to respect the strong opinions of my former self.
ok, enough of that, let´s get back to Guatemala, it´s been a while.
I just got back from MCC meetings in the city. It was a lot of fun to hang out wth the MCC team here. They are all a lot of fun and they are all very good people. I am constantly amazed at how different everyone on the team is, and yet how well we all get a long.
The highlight of our time was geting ready for our performance in a talent show which will be held at the regional MCC meeting in Nicaragua in January. I won´t reveal what it will be for fear of spy´s from SALTers in other countriçys in Central America who might read thsi and reveal the secret of what we are going to do. Suffice it tosay that it was a lot of fun.
It reminded me of the annual "talent" show which happens at my Penner sides Christmas gathering. I will miss that.
Anyays, we spent a lot of time talking about thefuture of MCC in Guatmala, values, and methods,. It was good. We also had a lot of fun, and for me it was just nice to be in a new place, get different food, and have a hot shower and room where the sunlight woke you up in the morning. My room in Carcha has a window, but it has no screen and it is not made of glass, but wood. So there is only light when it is open.
We also had a Christmas dinner which, being prepared by my former hostmom inthe city, was amazing. I also helped in hte making and earing of sugar cookies. We followed up dinner witha rousing game of pictionary. David Janzten, Beth peachy, and I won. I did bad drawing but twice I the first guess to come out of my mouth was correct, giving our team aneasy victory. One was Christopher Columbus ( guess as soon as I saw two little boats and what appeared to be a land mass) andtheother was Rocky Mountains. I have never played such an intense, hotly contested game of pictionary. THen we played the dictionary game which was also a lot of fun. Though I think we had a bad dictionary. I think in the first seven words no one guessed the correct definition, and it was because the definitions usually just sounded badly writen. I reminded myself of my dad with this entry for one word with the successful definition, "A man of unusual proportions" . My dad is not a man of unusual proportions, that just seemed to me like a very typical way that my dad might word the less politically correct, ¨that man is fat." Earlier that day we had also eaten pizza (it had been a while for me) and played soccer. Saturday we relaxed in theMCC apartment, went out to get coffee (I had gelato), I visited my former host family, made an excelent dinner, and hung outlate into the night talking, listening to David play his new guitar, and singing along. Very fun.
Now I am back in the office finishing up my project and wrking on getting ready for a Work and Learn team to come my way to Bezaleel in January.
oh yes, while visiting my host dad in the city he told me, ¨Ya casi no tenés accento gringo" or "you almost don´t have a gringo accent anymore" so that made me feel pretty darn good. Though I think in that moment I had been talking particularly well. I still stumble around sotimes when I am not sure what to say or how to say it. I am still, probably pretty much everyday, reminded that my vocabulary is limited, I need to get back to the books (maybe even with a dictionary) and continue learning vocab. I really want to learn higher level vocab. It wil be dificult here though because spansih is the second langauge of most people here too, andmost don´t read, so it will really need to be a conscious effort form me. Also my listening skills need to improve. They talk slow here and I am afraid that if I went to a faster speaking place I would ahve problems.
Anyways it is about time I go on and get home.
I think with Christmas season coming, thinking about all the traditons of my family and with people at Bethel College, I am entering a little bit of another period of missing home(s). I even kind of miss the whole commercial aspect of Christmas which has hardly hit Carcha. The cheesy Christmas songs that have nothing to do with Jesus and everything. It is all part of a season which I miss.
I did however, receive andelectronic Christmas card from Barry and Brenda Bartel and THE WHOLE BETHEL COLLEGE CAMPUS COMMUNITY. I thoght that was funny... thanks guys!! ok enough, fun, I actually did kind of appreciate it. I do feel apart of an extended Bethel community that is still worth something despite being so seperated. Thanks Bethel, you will always give me warm fuzzy feelings.
ok, I need to go
Jordan
ok, enough of that, let´s get back to Guatemala, it´s been a while.
I just got back from MCC meetings in the city. It was a lot of fun to hang out wth the MCC team here. They are all a lot of fun and they are all very good people. I am constantly amazed at how different everyone on the team is, and yet how well we all get a long.
The highlight of our time was geting ready for our performance in a talent show which will be held at the regional MCC meeting in Nicaragua in January. I won´t reveal what it will be for fear of spy´s from SALTers in other countriçys in Central America who might read thsi and reveal the secret of what we are going to do. Suffice it tosay that it was a lot of fun.
It reminded me of the annual "talent" show which happens at my Penner sides Christmas gathering. I will miss that.
Anyays, we spent a lot of time talking about thefuture of MCC in Guatmala, values, and methods,. It was good. We also had a lot of fun, and for me it was just nice to be in a new place, get different food, and have a hot shower and room where the sunlight woke you up in the morning. My room in Carcha has a window, but it has no screen and it is not made of glass, but wood. So there is only light when it is open.
We also had a Christmas dinner which, being prepared by my former hostmom inthe city, was amazing. I also helped in hte making and earing of sugar cookies. We followed up dinner witha rousing game of pictionary. David Janzten, Beth peachy, and I won. I did bad drawing but twice I the first guess to come out of my mouth was correct, giving our team aneasy victory. One was Christopher Columbus ( guess as soon as I saw two little boats and what appeared to be a land mass) andtheother was Rocky Mountains. I have never played such an intense, hotly contested game of pictionary. THen we played the dictionary game which was also a lot of fun. Though I think we had a bad dictionary. I think in the first seven words no one guessed the correct definition, and it was because the definitions usually just sounded badly writen. I reminded myself of my dad with this entry for one word with the successful definition, "A man of unusual proportions" . My dad is not a man of unusual proportions, that just seemed to me like a very typical way that my dad might word the less politically correct, ¨that man is fat." Earlier that day we had also eaten pizza (it had been a while for me) and played soccer. Saturday we relaxed in theMCC apartment, went out to get coffee (I had gelato), I visited my former host family, made an excelent dinner, and hung outlate into the night talking, listening to David play his new guitar, and singing along. Very fun.
Now I am back in the office finishing up my project and wrking on getting ready for a Work and Learn team to come my way to Bezaleel in January.
oh yes, while visiting my host dad in the city he told me, ¨Ya casi no tenés accento gringo" or "you almost don´t have a gringo accent anymore" so that made me feel pretty darn good. Though I think in that moment I had been talking particularly well. I still stumble around sotimes when I am not sure what to say or how to say it. I am still, probably pretty much everyday, reminded that my vocabulary is limited, I need to get back to the books (maybe even with a dictionary) and continue learning vocab. I really want to learn higher level vocab. It wil be dificult here though because spansih is the second langauge of most people here too, andmost don´t read, so it will really need to be a conscious effort form me. Also my listening skills need to improve. They talk slow here and I am afraid that if I went to a faster speaking place I would ahve problems.
Anyways it is about time I go on and get home.
I think with Christmas season coming, thinking about all the traditons of my family and with people at Bethel College, I am entering a little bit of another period of missing home(s). I even kind of miss the whole commercial aspect of Christmas which has hardly hit Carcha. The cheesy Christmas songs that have nothing to do with Jesus and everything. It is all part of a season which I miss.
I did however, receive andelectronic Christmas card from Barry and Brenda Bartel and THE WHOLE BETHEL COLLEGE CAMPUS COMMUNITY. I thoght that was funny... thanks guys!! ok enough, fun, I actually did kind of appreciate it. I do feel apart of an extended Bethel community that is still worth something despite being so seperated. Thanks Bethel, you will always give me warm fuzzy feelings.
ok, I need to go
Jordan
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