Hi everyone, we’ve had a busy few weeks as we’re sure you’ve had too. It’s been good to be busy as it’s the time when we’ve been really missing everyone too.
This is what we’ve been up to:
We went to Costa Rica for the weekend to renew our visas. It was a really nice little holiday and well needed. We stayed with one of our latin link friends - Joel (living in Costa Rica) and another – Cat (who came down from Honduras). (These are the friends that we were with for our first week in Guatemala.) We went to the coast for a couple of days and visited Manuel Antonio National Park where squirrel monkeys roam free along with raccoons and iguanas. We went swimming in the Pacific Ocean and built sand castles. And we enjoyed eating chocolate that doesn’t taste funny (you can buy Cadburys in Costa Rica but not in Guatemala.) It was lovely to have a break but we missed Guatemala so it was nice to come back on the 22nd, in time for Christmas.
On the 23rd we were at the El Castillo offices for a special Christmas activity for the young people on the streets who sniff solvents. (El Castillo split their work into 2 categories, children who are addicted to drugs and those who aren’t - normally these children work on the streets but have some sort of a home to go back to, they had done a different activity with these children the day before). We went out in minibuses delivering hot chocolate and Christmas bread to all the young people El Castillo know, in different focal points around the city. We also gave presents of T shirts and sweets and there was a drama showing that drugs, money and stealing wouldn’t fill the hole in their hearts, only Jesus. It was quite an emotional day. There were a lot of homeless adults around too who all wanted to talk to us particularly and who told us about their families and situation.
On Christmas Eve nothing really happened till about 9pm when some of Isaaks family arrived along with Ami, an el Castillo worker from America. We had a meal of tamales, this time filled with olives, pepper and prunes. We then tried pumpkin pie that Ami brought so it truly was an international affair. We exchanged Christmas presents – We were both given slippers by Isaak and Jomara – and wished each other a merry Christmas. At midnight the noise from fireworks was tremendous and we climbed on to the roof to watch. Then we went to sleep.
On Christmas Day we opened our presents from each other (Matt now has a stylish new Guatemalan hat) and went to Suzanne’s house for our British Christmas. We had a great time with Suzanne and the Christmas dinner was delicious although the sausages wrapped in bacon weren’t the same and we couldn’t find sprouts : ( . Our mince pies however were yummy and Jo is very proud of how her Christmas cake turned out. We played Bancopoly (Guatemalan monopoly) scrabble and rummikub and watched an episode of Jonathon Creek on dvd. We were also able to chat with our families, which was lovely. The next day we went to Chris and Rich’s house (our mentors) and had a leftovers lunch followed by a walk in through a nature park in the afternoon. It was a special Christmas for us, just a little bit different.
For the weekend after Christmas we went to the Refuge to give the workers there a bit of time off. There was only one girl staying there at the time and one boy. Hector, another El Castillo worker was there to look after the boy, Cecilio and we were to look after Betsaida. We already knew her from the day process and she was so excited to see us. We spent 2 days playing Uno and Lotto and also with some bubbles we brought for her. It was a lovely way to spend some of our Christmas time.
For New Year’s Eve we went to the house of one of the families from Church. We went in the evening and ate a New Year’s Eve dinner at about 10.30pm. At midnight we lit fireworks on the street (which was very scary for Jo as there aren’t the same safety precautions here and one of the fireworks called a ‘tank’ is on wheels and drives along the ground alight!). We then played lots of games till about 4am.
Finally, Jo had to go to the dentist this week which was very scary for her. Her fear of dentists has built up over the last few years but it all went well in the end although the procedure took about 2 hours! And Matt had a hair-cut at a Guatemalan barbers, making his hair the shortest it has been since he was about 14.
Now we’re back at work and looking forward to the year ahead. This last year has been so full for us that we wonder what is in store for the next. We hope you all have a really wonderful 2009 too and send you all our love.
Jo and Matt
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