Well, as you already know, I did not keep this blog up to speed with the “Blogemala” site. So to hear all about our adventures, you’ll just have to check in over there.
Meanwhile, I am happy to report that we are home, safe and sound. It was a delight to show off treasures and hand out the few small things I brought to the children and Michael. I kept the spending on souvenirs to a strict minimum, but no one had any complaints. They each oohed and aahed over the colorful items they saw.
This morning our two younger girls wore their matching Guatemalan jumpers and colorful headbands to church. I was able to snap a quick photo on the front porch before we left.
This afternoon and evening I’m tired, but I’ve just been letting myself lay around and not do anything. It sure is nice to have a day to recover before Michael goes back to work and I’m on duty again by myself.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking a lot about how I can continue learning and practicing Spanish.  Some folks in church today talked about a way to connect with the international students at the local universities, so that might be a way to keep in touch.  Also, we have neighbors who are primarily Spanish-speakers, so I could be brave and go ask if I may practice speaking with them.  All I know is that I can’t just let it slide.  I have to do something.  I guess that’s what happens when you open your eyes and your heart to the countries around the world.  You can’t stay the same as you were.

Here is my post from www.Blogemala.com…..
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Since I’ve already written about the first half of our day yesterday, I won’t recap. Our story ended with us waiting for Bill Ray’s gang to come back from the bank while we waited in the lobby of our nice hotel.

When Bill and Don (his dad) and Daniel and Isaac returned, they had wide eyes and a story to tell. Apparently, going to the bank is an adventure around here. They had to go past several guards, one holding a rifle and one with a pistol on his belt. They had to go through quite a maze to even get to the bank teller, and then when they got there, the poor fellow was very surprised at the amount of money they were changing. They got a nice exchange rate, of 7.99 quetzales per dollar, so we were pleased with that. On the walk back. Bill felt very conspicuous with the many thousands of Q’s (as we call them) in his pocket. There was some thought about the advantages of not traveling with cash next time.

Once back on the lobby, Bill divided out the money again, handing quantities of the church’s money to the adults who are helping transport the money, and also handing out the personal money amounts to those who had sent some along to the bank.

With that done, Bill then went to check and see if our rooms were finally ready. After some more waiting, we were finally given our room keys, and the two carts of luggage were delivered to our floor. We all claimed our things, went to our rooms, and then prepared for whatever we were to do next. Bill offered to watch kids at the pool, and several of our kids jumped at the chance to go play. Meanwhile, our shopping team was forming. Originally we were going to take all who wanted to go. But then we found that the taxis would cost about $15-$20 each, so we pared down our group to just the four ladies who could squeeze into one taxi. Sarah Ray, Lorna Ray, Joyce and I headed out for our adventure, leaving behind a very disappointed Isaac who had been looking forward to this store I’ve been talking about.

We argued with our driver for a few minutes before we piled in, because he was saying it would cost 100 Q to go each direction. The guy in the motel had said it was about 60 Q to go in each direction. (Remember, divide by 8 to get the dollar amount for the quantity of Qs.) He finally brought his price down to 80 Q, and I decided not to haggle over the remaining 20 Q. We got into the taxi, and then plunged into the traffic. It took about 20 minutes to get to our store, and we enjoyed the ride very much. Our driver was happy to chat, so Joyce got to practice her conversational Spanish. Fortunately the driver knew a little English, so if we got stumped by a word, he was usually able to think of an English word to help explain.

One of our questions to him was how to get a return taxi, since we planned to shop for 1-2 hours. He offered to wait for us, for an additional fee, and Joyce worked on the details. The final deal was that he would wait for up to two hours, and would only charge an additional 10 Q per way. So now we were up to 180 Q for the round trip ($22.50).

We were dropped off at the door, and we headed in to complete our mission. Sarah and Lorna took the list of the items to donate to Eagle’s Nest, and Joyce and I took the grocery list. We agreed to meet back at the front of the store in an hour, unless we found each other before then.

Joyce and I had a great time looking at all the groceries. They really have almost everything a person could want.

Sarah and Lorna couldn’t find the exact items on the list, but they did a great job of finding things similar that would be nice for us to donate. Fortunately the prices were much cheaper than our top price, so that was really nice.

An hour and a half later, we were done and back out front wondering how to find our poor taxi driver. Amazingly, he was parked in a close spot and watching for us, so he waved to get our attention, and then he hopped out of his car and opened the trunk. He enthusiastically started packing the trunk, and actually filled it up completely with our purchases (that had filled two large shopping carts). We even had to hold a few things on our laps.

The drive back to the motel was even more pleasant than the first, because now we knew our driver and jumped right back into visiting with him. Joyce was even more relaxed with her Spanish, and she impressed all of us with her abilities.

When we got back to the hotel, the team members helped carry the groceries up to our room, with a little help from a man with a cart. Then they explained that they had been waiting to go to dinner, so they were glad we were back!

We regrouped in the lobby, and then divided into two groups. The Pizza Hut group had 8 people, and the Chinese-food group had 7 people. Since I went with the Chinese-food group, I can’t report on the Pizza Hut experience. But I sure can report on our expedition. We had Laura, Caroline, Annaleise, Daniel and Isaac, along with Joyce and me. We walked several blocks and found a place that looked promising. We sat down and tried to read the menu, but it was a Spanish menu explaining Chinese food, so it was very confusing. Finally we decided to just get the “Menu 5″ selection on the back, which was enough food for 7-8 people. We figured we would just see what came to our table, and eat what looked good. I encouraged the kids to be brave and at least taste things, even if they couldn’t finish them.

The first course was a delicious soup, and we all agreed that it was yummy. There were shrimp floating in it, and mushrooms, and tofu… and other stuff.

The “tacos dulce” were a little odd, with a won-ton wrap around a cooked banana filling.

Then there were four more dishes brought to our table, all mounded with amazing food. A spicy beef dish was SO good. The chicken and vegetable dish was a favorite of some of our group. The skinny noodle dish was my favorite, and the fried rice was very popular. We ate and ate and ate, and there was still food left over. Each person enjoyed their Pepsi, served in a glass bottle, and they even managed to survive with no “free refills”. (Oh, we made sure, before the meal started, to clarify that we could have no peanuts or peanut oil, thanks to Caroline’s allergies. The waitress couldn’t speak English, so she hollered at another customer who could speak some English. That lady came over and very nicely helped translate the specifics of “peanuts” for us.)

When we left the restaurant, there was a light rain falling, but that was ok. We hurried back to our motel, where Joyce and I were so eager to collapse. But there was another pool party happening, so we let the kids head to that, and we stayed in our room to wind down.

When the boys came back (Laura is staying with the girls in their room, so I don’t really know when she comes and goes.), we all tucked into bed, and fell asleep faster than ever before, with our heads swimming with the delights of our day.

We had a very good travel day so far. The flights were on time, the weather was clear, and the transitions between flights went smoothly. When we arrived in Guatemala City, the bus from our motel was waiting nicely, and we loaded up and made the 5 minute drive to the motel.
Because we arrived so early in the day, our rooms are not yet ready for us. But the lobby is beautiful and comfortable, so it’s not too bad to just wait. We ate lunch in the motel restaurant. It was a delicious buffet that cost about $8 per person. The wait staff was gracious and patient while we tried to communicate with our limited Spanish.
Now Bill and a crew is heading to the bank to change some money over, and I’m getting ready to head to the big store to do some grocery shopping. Then we’ll relax here at the motel before meeting up with the rest of our group tomorrow morning.
So far this has been a very fun adventure. I hope it stays this interesting all the way through.

Good morning! I’ll be keeping a travel journal on our official Christ Church Guatemala website. It’s at Blogemala.com if you want to follow along. I’ll also post my entries here as much as possible.
Here’s what I wrote today:
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Last night around 10 pm the first half of the Guatemala team was reunited at the Holiday Inn in Rosemont. What a joy it was to see the Ray Family and Spencer coming down the hall. Now that our little group is together, we can start this leg of our journey.
Our motel is so comfortable, it seems a shame to spend such a short time here.
Stay tuned here for updates as I’m able to post them. Thank you for your prayers, and thank you for sending us off with such love and excitement.
Thank you for the travel goody bags, too! The Rays brought the bags for the others of us who came earlier. It was fun to explore the bag and we exclaimed over each thing.
I must run for now. It’s just after 3 a.m. and we are planning to meet in the motel lobby just before 4 a.m. to catch a shuttle to the airport. Adios!
Christie, for the team.

Just wanted to let ya’ll know that we arrived at our Holiday Inn near the airport in Chicago. We had a smooth drive, and our motel room is very nice. It’s so luxurious, I hate to think that we have to get up very early tomorrow and leave. It would be fun to spend more time here.
The kids (Laura, Isaac and cousin Nathan) are SO excited. They’ve been bubbling ever since we left Bloomington. They had fun buying snacks at gas stations on the way. They are bouncing around exploring the motel room. All in all, they should sleep well tonight.
Right now the boys are discovering all kinds of cool techno-perks in the room. Nathan discovered that the clock radio has an iPod cable on it, and Isaac is exploring the t.v. in our room.
So far, we’re off to a great start.

Well, today is the last full day we have before we leave tomorrow after lunch. I have a full list of errands to run, all over every part of town. Soon I’ll rustle up the kids and we’ll head out. I have no idea how long all these errands will take, but I’m already mentally prepared to eat lunch while we’re out, if necessary.
Then, this afternoon, if the weather cooperates, we’ll head to the pool for our weekly water playtime with my sister and her boys. If we’re both able to get all of our lists done today, then we’ll have the reward of getting to play this evening.
Tomorrow we’re hoping to leave around 1 pm to head to Chicago where we’ll spend the night and then get up very early to catch our 6 a.m. flight.
On that note, I’m going to run make some coffee. I’m feeling the need for a little caffeine help in starting my day.
Oh, my haircut experience was very nice. But my camera battery died yesterday, so the suspense can build until I fetch my charger from the church where I left it on Sunday.
Bye!

In just a few days, my two oldest children will join me on an adventure to Guatemala, along with a group from our church. We are very excited. Meanwhile, I’m working hard to get all of the things done that must be done before we go.
Tomorrow’s big deal is that I’m going to get my hair done. I have no idea what will be done to it. I’m going to let the hairdresser decide. Should be exciting. Perhaps I should get some “before and after” photos to share.
Hopefully I’ll be able to post updates as we travel. This time Michael is not going with me, so if I run into a snag, it might just be the end of my connectivity. But I’ll do my best to keep in touch.

The little bird who was brought to our gate a couple of weeks ago, has become quite a fun friend and regular visitor. We kept him safe and fed him for a week or so, and then once I saw he was eating on his own, I decided it was time for him to be set free. He had a few false starts, ending up sitting on the ground somewhere hollering. But finally he was gone. I wondered if perhaps he had met his demise, thanks in part to the human intervention in his life. Then, to my amazement, little Jackie showed up again, ready to be fed some tidbits. After that happened a few more times, we finally realized that our little bird was doing ok. He goes away to somewhere, and sits in trees and on power lines. But quite a few times a day he comes back and hollers for us to come say hi to him. We are always eager to run out and find him when we hear his voice. We try to grab a bit of bread or some other food item to give to him, and he gladly gulps it down.   Every evening Jackie disappears for the night, safe somewhere in a tall tree, I hope.
This morning during one his visits, Jackie flew right into the kitchen. We can’t have THAT around here, so Laura chased him down and tossed him back outside, offering a peace offering bit of food to send him on his way.
I don’t know how long Jackie will hang around, but we’re sure enjoying our little birdie friend while he’s here.

Yesterday we were treated to a line of storms, thundering across Illinois. Since I like storms, it was cool to hear the thunder and see the lightning. However, when our water alarm downstairs (the Leak Frog) went off, and when Michael went to check on it, the fun was over. Water was standing about 6-8 inches deep at the door of the basement. The whole first room of the basement was flooded, and we didn’t know about the second room.
Interestingly, the waters subsided fairly quickly, since we have two drains down there. After the water was gone and we tried to figure out what happened, we figured that the city drains must have been overwhelmed and backed up into our house. The second room of the basement was not very wet at all. Just the room with the two drains was the worst.
Then it was time to clean up. All of the laundry waiting to be washed was now urgently in need of washing, thanks to the water. And various boxes were ruined. Some of Michael’s boxes of tools were soaked, and had to have the water poured off. A few things were ruined, but amazingly, the water didn’t do as much damage as we first thought.
Once the most urgent things were rescued, we set up the Leak Frog again to warn us if we had another flood, and we went to bed. Thankfully, no more floods came.
Today I worked hard getting all of the laundry washed and brought upstairs. Lots of odd things got washed, too, such as miscellaneous snow boots, odd gloves, a small soft-side suitcase, some mesh laundry bags, and anything else that had gotten caught in the water. As I emptied the laundry bins, Luke was kind enough to hose them off in the back yard. By the time Michael got home, my job was done, and he decided to work on hosing down the muddy basement floor. That resulted in more organizing and a few more items to be dealt with, but all in all, the basement looks much better now than it did before the flood.
More storms are coming tonight, but we’re in a better situation to handle another flood should it happen.