La Finca del Nino-Our New Home

Oct 1st, the feast day of St. Therese Lisieux, the patroness of missionaries, is fittingly the day we, the new missionaries arrive at the Farm. I know for myself I have a mix of emotions going on at the moment but excitement probably outweighs them all! We have done a lot of amazing traveling and had some beautiful opportunities! However, I am ready to have a permanent home again and a routine. I am ready to give my whole self to the Farm and to the kids. Pray for us as we will be praying for you!

                                                  http://www.ewtn.com/therese/therese1.htm

Missionary Introduction

This is our official article we wrote to introduce ourselves for our newsletter:
Hello everyone, we are the new missionaries.  Mucho gusto.

This being the first time we’ve met, we would like to say a few things about ourselves.  Along with the usual info, we thought we’d give a very interesting, and very not interesting fact about us.  Let’s get to it.

First up, there’s Natalie D’Orazio.  Originally from Jacksonville, Florida, she graduated in 2010.  Natalie is our nurse, which means she is automatically the least likely to get voted off the island.  The Farm’s not on an island?  Okay, well what you really need to know is she is awesome.  Her favorite things to do are reading, surfing or anything that involves being out on the open water.  Ocean water, though.  Lakes weird Natalie out.  Although she just learned to like Lake Atitlan here in Guatemala. Her very interesting fact is that her name means “Christmas Child” but she could not have been born farther from Christmas.  Her very not interesting fact is that she has lived in Florida her whole life.

Next, there’s Curtis Tripp.  Curtis is from Connecticut and went to Notre Dame.  He studied Environmental Science and Anthropology.  We all pretend like we know what that really means too.  In practice, we just know that he is able to identify any rock or tell the history of pretty much every culture we have encountered or brought up in conversation for four weeks straight now.  He uses words like breccia in everyday conversation and still doesn’t understand why after multiple explanations we don’t get what it is.  His very interesting fact is that he learned how to live off the land from aboriginal elders.  Really.  His very not interesting fact is that he doesn’t like condiments.
After that, we’ve got Curtis’ other half, Noelle.  She’s from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and also went to Notre Dame.  Noelle studied sociology and got her masters in global health.  She also likes Curtis.  Like, a lot.  And the outdoors.  Not as much as Curtis, though.  We’re all excited about having a married couple with us as part of our community at the Farm.  Noelle’s very interesting fact is that five days before the wedding, the church they were going to get married in burned down, and she was so not stressed out about it that she forgot to tell Curtis.  In the world of not very interesting facts, she likes cats.

Tiffany Ross is from Clearwater, Florida.  She went to Florida State and majored in International Affairs and Latin American and Caribbean Studies.  Her favorite things to do are rapping, traveling, running, and spending time with interesting people.  In addition to having a head start in Spanish classes from college.  Her most interesting fact is that she daily prays for the end of bees and wasps.  Curtis is very not okay with this and is quick to point out how ecologically shortsighted this is.  It’s safe to assume he is counter-praying.  Tiffany’s very not interesting fact is that she has a love/hate relationship with earthquakes.

Finally, there’s Pat Gothman.  From Dallas, Texas, he went to the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota where he majored in Philosophy and Catholic Studies.  Lots of strange things seem to happen to Pat, which means he always has good stories.  That’s what we’ll keep telling him anyway, until the strange stuff starts involving us, too.  So far, he has been the official group historian via writing and video.  Pat’s very interesting fact is that he unwittingly volunteered at a steakhouse/drug-lord-money-laundering outfit for two months.  A very not interesting fact about him is that he is tall and doesn’t fit in any “Guatemalan size” buildings.

We are all loving Guatemala and traveling and studying Spanish, but above all we can’t wait to get to Farm of the Child and begin our new lives as missionaries!

 

CMMB

post and pics to come when I have good wifi

Last Week in Antigua

Our leaving is bittersweet. Antigua has been such a beautiful home to us for the last 6 weeks. My guatafamilia was amazing! So sweet and welcoming. We spent a lot of time around the table. We had all kinds of conversations and my guatamama was an amazing cook! I truly enjoyed my time with them.

La Union school, where we spent most of our time each day, was a beautiful experience as well! Our teachers truly became our friends and I had the pleasure of having 3!

A few things I learned from Antigua:

>The Mayan culture is still very much alive.

>Anything within the 1-2 hours is "on-time". It would also not be out of the question to all-together cancel your meeting. The value  relationships more than time schedules.

>Santa Clara has the best bakery in town.

>Dona Luisa has the best banana bread.

>I need to find a country to live in where the food is more expensive:)

>People make fun of you when you wear rain gear, though it rains and the streets flood on a daily basis during the rainy season (about 3-4) months.

>Antigua is stuck in the American 80s with their music. Sometimes if you close your eyes you can pretend you're at a roller rink party:)

All in all it was a beautiful experience! Though, I think we are all in agreement that we are ready for the Farm! Just a few more days!

                Just on a side note I lived in the house of Santa Pedro. I could not find a whole lot of information about him except that he was a Franciscan from Spain that worked with the poor of Guatemala, specially Antigua. His feast day is April 18th and he was beautified and canonized by JPII. For more information you can read: http://translate.google.com.gt/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20020730_betancurt_sp.html&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhermano%2Bpedro%26biw%3D1366%26bih%3D673

 

Weekend in Semuc-Sabado

Sabado

My body has kept my routine of waking around 5:30am. It is much easier to get out of bed here though because the sun has already risen. Though I am a night person buy nature, I enjoy the quiet mornings for prayer. A priest told me once you receive all the grace you need for the day during the time you take for morning prayer, which is probably why satan tries to always sabotage it.

Dona Luisa provided breakfast before we headed out for Semuc. Banana bread and peanut butter will never get old! I think hiking Pecaya last week prepared me for some of the inclines. It was such a peaceful hike! Besides my heart beating, the only sounds were the river and some insects! It was so surreal! I was trying to take it all in around my without losing my footing. The pictures I had seen of Semuc really do no justice and sorry but that's all I have to offer you as well! This really is one of the most beautiful places on earth! We all agreed that while we could spend the day just staring off in wonder and awe, we were all so excited for the pools!

Again no words can explain the beauty of these aqua pools contained within a limestone bridge on top of a raging river. My brain still cannot comprehend that amazing phenomenon! I can't explain the anticipation and excitement I had to jump into the first pool! I felt like a mermaid in a lagoon:) Even the regret of not having brought a mask & snorkel could not take anything away from this experience. We slid from pool to pool over a series of natural water slides! We tried to strategize the best way to slide down in order to avoid rocks, but once you got going there was no controlling it! Gracias a Dios we all made it safe! A few cuts to practice good infection-prevention on. (I have already implemented the infection- prevention protocol so that it is well-ingrained once prior to arrival at the Farm. hehe)

Once we made it down to the last pool, it was about lunch time and the majority vote was to head back for lunch. (Anyone that knows me, knows I could stay in the water...forever...no not really,  it wasn't the ocean... there were no waves:)

*On a side note, one day after a break, or pausa as they call it, my teacher asked me how I was feeling. Sometimes you just need to switch it up so I told her, "me siento seca" or I feel dry. She laughed and named me sirenita (little mermaid). I told sorry but it's not original. My mom gave me that name long ago:)

I should have been full from a bread-filled breakfast but around mediodia my body was letting me know she was hungry. We decided we needed something a bit more substantial for lunch. I don't know if you are one of those people or if you just happen to know one, that when they find something they enjoy on the menu, they stick with it, because they have a fear of trying something new and having food envy . I'm not one of those, I order chicken-fingers at every meal:) agggg Agustin ummmm. sorry just clearing the throat, but yes I played it safe and ordered the nachos again. Despite knowing that I had delicious nachos coming we all couldn't hold back from another slice of Dona Luisa's! She lasted almost all weekend! Did we mention we had 2 loaves for 5 people. (We're going to work on the food discipline thing...starting at the Farm:) To my surprise, but not really, everyone ordered nachos!

Definitely felt the food coma after lunch but Tiffany, Patrick, and I headed for the caves! We heard many things about these caves; one time as it started raining they flooded and they had to rescue people out of them, but you don't really need to know how to swim to go through them, and above all as long as you have this candle they give you, you're good. "So what if I just brought a flashlight?" (me)

 "No, it takes away from the ambiance."

 "Well what if while we're doing all this climbing I can't hold it?" (me)

 "The guide holds it for you."

 "Ok, well then how do I see? the flashlight makes a lot of sense to me."

 "No, the candle is better. It's all good if you have your candle."

Ok  I thought well skills in order to actually go on this adventure I'm just have to turn off my critical thinking skills and better judgment. (Not recommended but sometimes needed in order to enjoy experiences more fully:)

Thankfully the fact that a huge Guatemalan family was going with us gave us reassurance. They had older kids in their group and one guy with his broken arm in a plastic bag! The water was freezing as we headed into the cave. You could hear bats as we entered. The water got deeper as we continued. I think we were all just focused on I was in about waste-high water for about 75% of the time. There was one point I slipped off the rock and went completely under. All I could think about was brain-eating bacteria. ( I think I blew out my nose and spit for a good 5 min after that.) Tiffany also took a decent spill, in which when she resurfaced I strongly advised or rather mandatoed (spanglish translation for command:), "You spit that water out!" We were crawling in, up, down, and just swimming through these amazing caverns! Our candles went out at least a dozen times along the way, and we would frantically paddle to the closest flame to re-ignite, which is quite difficult while wadding water and keeping up with the group, especially if your wick went under. At one point we came to a waterfall. I was enjoying just taking it in, when our guide, Rojo (insane doesn't begin to describe this Guatemalan), showed us to the shadiest ladder I've ever seen, to climb basically up through it. I was so focused on keeping up (because when you turned around it was just pitch black) that I didn't bother comprehending how I was going to accomplish this. In retrospect climbing up was way easier than trying to climb back down. I believe the focus on keeping our candle lit prevented the anxiety/reality of all the near-death experiences! It was probably the scariest/most amazing thing I've ever done in my life. Gracias a Dios! We made it! We have the candle stubs to prove it. The last stretch was a short tube down the river, but first a giant tree swing! Those will never get old! After a couple rides each we all headed into the river, which surprisingly felt much colder than the caves. The Guatemalan family (about 20 people) all linked tubes! haha. The three of us went solo! As we gazed at the beautiful landscape on either side we didn't realize the strength of the current. There were a few panic moments as we flailed to steer ourselves around some rocks. haha. It's all good.  At one point as we moseyed down the river Tiffany attempted to correct Pat's use of the term literally. (If I haven't mentioned before when Tiffany uses this term it is always in complete incorrect context. We tried to explain that there was a word for that, figuratively, haha, but she is quite convinced.) A bunch of laughs and a couple of selfies later we finished up our river trip and walked our tubes back up to the waterfall. A complete day of fun, but we were tired, wet and hungry. We arrived back just in time to catch a ride back to the nearby city of Lanquin to make sunday's departure easier.

Every mode of transportation is an adventure here. We are really missing out in the States with our mundane solo commutes! This is another one of those experiences that I just really can't put into words as I think my missionary family would agree! haha. I don't even know where to begin. Just imagine a bunch of foreigners singing Mulan at the top of our lungs, mind you, only one person actually knew all the words, as were all hanging on/sitting on top of each other in the back of a pick up in the pitch black outside over unpaved roads and then add a full on thunderstorm. I was overjoyed when we arrived at the hotel! 

VIDEO:)

Check out Pat's latest video of our weekend in Semuc!
http://vimeo.com/75225555

Weekend in Semuc-Friday

Our last weekend in Guate! So bittersweet. It has been a beautiful 6 weeks of study! The plan was for Semuc-Champey. Everyone we've talked to has said it is by far their favorite place in all of Guatemala! I hope it lives up to the hype!

Thursday night we said goodbye to a new dear friend Edgar, we met in Chontala our first weekend, but not before we stocked up on bread from Dona Luisa's! An amazing bakery! Though their banana bread is not quite as good as mom's, it's a close substitute and you can buy a whole loaf for 13.5Q or roughly $1.25! Now we were all ready for travel! Edgar was traveling to stay with family and look for work! Please keep him in your prayers! Friday, we woke up early and spent about a 8 hour drive in a shuttle van. We slept, talked, prayed, I attempted to read, but managed about half a page before getting nauseous, so I listened to some music as well. I forgot how much I missed my music! (There's always plenty of 80s American music playin' in Guate:) The last 2 hours were on curvy, non-paved roads, and I think we were all just ready to arrive. Before arriving we went over the shadiest bridge I've ever been on. (And yet when we walked over it later, I felt safer in the van.)



We stayed at El portal, a recommended hostel. As Tiffany would say, "We literally stayed in a tree-house!" Which means not really, but it felt like one. We were however, quite literally in the middle of no-where though I think this added beauty! We spotted a waterfall across the river and decided to take a hike. We had to cross the shady bridge on foot...so you could fit through the slats...but as they would say here it was vale la pena! (it was worth it!) How beautiful! This waterfall was actually the entrance to the caves that we planned to tour Saturday. With a whole day of travel and a short hike behind us we worked up quite an appetite. There wasn't a whole lot to choose from on the menu at el portal, and we were all surprised to wondered how schnitzel made it but no burgers or even tacos. I decided to play it safe and with nachos. Excellent choice. It definitely gave the others food envy. We spent the night just chillin and enjoying. We played life-size jenga and had Dona Luisa's for a late night snack! We headed off to bed early just as another group arrived. The noise did not bother me a bit as I fell right asleep after patching a the hole in my mosquito net with some med tape:) No malaria for me!