The Last Couple Weeks

Ice cream making, parent and relative visits, drives to work, boat rides, ski runs, go kart rides, and all the fun in between. It's crazy to think September is only a few days away. This summer seamed to past faster then the ones before. I find myself saying that every year. This is a good reminder for me to make the most of the time I have with those around me where every I find myself.

Not Really Anything

really noting to write about these. Just have not posted much lately, so thought I would put up a little somethin' somethin'.

Mid Summer Nights

This past week and a half I was graced by the presence of my family. My aunt Sherri and Cousin Kerri were in from San Diego,  and my parents made the trek up Late Sat. night (what troopers). I think I went water skiing just about every day while they were up. Which I was really glad I got to do, but my body is just a little sore. My aunt and cousin flew out of MSP so I took the trip out with them this past weekend to pick up tiff's car Nora. I spent the night and Sat. morning with some more family. The Kelly's pick me up and we had a grand ole time with pizza and playing with the kids. Today I went on a hike on an old Rail Road grade trail. The tracks are gone, but was still nice to explore another area of the north woods I never ventured to as a kid.

July

Over the 4th of July I got to be in the Land O' Lakes Parade with my work. We had a wonderful time throwing candy, waterballons, and spraying people with squirt guns. Thankfully it was a nice day. Saw this really neat old Porsche while in Land O' and played some soccer at the park in Phelps just the other day. It's funny, in the mountains in California we have a lot of people who want to play just not enough space to play and here in Phelps was have all the room to play but not enough people. Off to play some golf today. Twilight rate at Eagle only $25.00 with a cart. 1:03 tee time playing by myself means 36 plus holes of golf this evening.  

Mom and Dad came up last Sunday Night, stayed a few days then needed to get home and work. But while the old man was here I had him give me a hair cut (sorry Hannah, I know using clippers is cheating, and not the professional way). Then today I went to some garage sales with my grandparents. I was looking for a bike to ride around the trials and get dirty up here. The last place we went to I found this old Schwinn. I'm going to put some cycle cross tires and wheels on to help when riding on the gravel roads. I arrived at the place and asked if this was the garage sale. He said yes, but it's not till tomorrow. I didn't even read on the ad that is said no early birds, and here I am a day early buying a bike for 10 buck, I felt really bad, but at the same time glad that my honest unawareness lead me to a great matching blue bike for the Peugeot. Finally, when cleaning out a game cabinet of my grandparents I found some old slides of my parents wedding. What a good looking couple. If you ask me, what every that prince dude of England's name is and his now wife should take some lessons on how to acknowledge the crowd for my parent, just a suggestion. I mean look at the wave.   

Deer, Fishing Boat, Ski Boat

Rode my bike to the Phelps Library to post this today. It was 92 degrees on Wed. and 40 something when I woke up this morning. Built a fire in the fire place, popped in some toast and did some reading and called it a great morning. Below are just some sights from my days here thus far.

Bike and Boat

I really like both of these things. Boat is in for the first time in a couple years. Other then some little adjustments it runs really well after a new water pump and some WD40 on the Throttle. Hopefully I will get my first ski run in here soon, the weather has been warming up.

Wisconsin

I'm in Wisconsin. It's a drastic change both from Guatemala in pretty much every way. The amount of free time I have is the most noticeable one. I'm busy. But it's not the I'm just spinning my wheels busy, It's the everything I have done so far has been really good busy. Thus, I have not written or keep in contact with every many. Once I get settled in I hope to me on more of a schedule and post some more. Here are some pics I hope to have more later. If you have free time this summer, Phelps is a great place to be.

Guatemala_Building (Day Three)

Above are some pictures of the finished house we have been working on. The team from Kentucky bought at wood burning stove for the house. This way Patti can cook inside in here kitchen, and not have to cook on the little porch our outside. This is especially nice when the rains come. I was not able to be here on Friday when the finished the house, I had to be back for volleyball practice since Hannah and Sam were in the city watching some kids. It was a great experience being able to help build a home for people, and even better being able meet the people who will be living in the house, here about their families, and work along side them.  

Guatemala_Building (Day Two)

 

Well, We got some more walls up. Another outside wall and the two interior walls. The first two pictures of this post are from another build site only four blocks from ours in the same village of Magdalena. The are adding on to a existing house and building some chicken coups. Both houses are going to be getting a stove that the team is donating. This is make cooking much more enjoyable for Patti and Paula. Patti is in the last picture of this post. She helped us to hammer some nails today and hung out for most the day. We all enjoyed a watermelon break with her and her sister. The kids have no connection to the family other then they life next door to the house we are building.

Guatemala_Building (Day One)

Today I helped out a team from Kentucky start building a house for Patty and her Mom. It's a 20 by 20 house with three rooms. Three of the men on the team took point with a majority of the construction and planning of everything, I tried my best to keep the three high school kids that were with us occupied. I have never been on a build site like this before, where you can't just run to the home depot and pick up some extra screws or rent that tool you may need. It makes things a little more difficult. I also felt like their was a lot of standing a round watching a couple people work. Maybe that's the nature of these type of projects or maybe it's my go go go, produce produce produce attitude. But, If I was not the designated translator to talk with Carlos, one of the contacts in the village were we working with, I would have been pretty bored. Now my spanish is much better then when I arrive, and can manage ok with misconjugated verbs and poorly pronounced words. But for me to be the goto in a situation like this was a little nerve wrecking, but actually enjoyed it. And it was a great experience to practice my spanish more. I will be helping out till friday and will hopefully have pictures of a completed house then.   

Guatemala_Volleyball

We (meaning Hannah, the volley ball team at C.A.G. and I) had our first volleyball game  this morning. Actually we had our first two. And guess what, we won both. And by win I mean the other team beat themselves. We had a few good kills and some good serves but all in all, it was a first game style of play. I'm glad we were still able to win, but need to work getting some better kills. The team has talent, they just need to learn to settle down for the first part of the game. We played best of three sets and both games our second set were so much better then the first. I honestly don't remember the score to the first game, but the second was 25-20 (set one) and 25-5 or 6 (set two). So if we can work on playing like we do later in the game we should have a pretty good record. 


It was something of a mini tournament, we received trophies in all, but only a couple schools were represented. It was hosted by the Swiss American School in San Cristobal, so just up the street a little. They had ceremony representing something like that of the opening ceremonies of the Olympic. A member of the school was waiting as we arrived to lead us into the main court area where a lot of the activity was taking place. The people were clapping and welcoming, however, I think it was mainly for the Swiss American teams that were before and after us. Nevertheless, was still fun to walk in having people clapping, even if it was for some one else. 


After the Guatemala National Anthem and Swiss American school fight song, three different cheerleading squads took the floor. It should be noted that these squads were made up of young girls, like 7-10 I would say. The first young group of girls took the floor and Gwen Stefanin's Hollaback Girl comes on. And this is not the version you would hear on American radio stations. The whole C.A.G. team started cracking up. I think because most of them have some type of American culture, so seeing little kids cheering to lines like "my shit," all the while only singing that part of the song is comical. Perhaps it is all do the fact that C.A.G. is a christian school and curing is seen as characteristic christians do not do. But to those cheering and their parents, they either didn't know what they were saying or just did not bother them at all. The second and third songs produced pretty much the same results with different squads. An F bomb here some inappropriate verses there. I mean, I sure it's nothing they have not heard before, and the context for them is different, but for 7 to 10 year olds seems out of place. And were I would not allow it to be used if I were running the school, it was still funny.  

Guatemala_Fútbol

So I really wish I could play more soccer then I have here. I have by no means played a small amount, just wish I was playing more. Ever since joining a league in Oakhurst I have enjoyed more and more playing soccer. I really don't know what it is about the game that I'm drawn to, but I just feel really good when I'm playing (even when I do make bad pass, miss hit the ball or allow a goal, which is more often then not). Since being her I have been playing in three main place.

1. El Camino (The church I attend)

I have started helping out on Wed. and Friday afternoons tutoring some students from across the street. They are kids that need a little extra attention to grasp concepts and finish their homework. I work with Sam's cousin, Carlos, and his aunt Sarah. We have 2 to 6 kids each day and I use my limited knowledge of spanish to try and teach geometric shapes and the what infant and finite articles are. However after the tutoring session we usually have a little time to kick the ball around for 10 to 15 minuets (some time more if the wind closes the locked door with your keys in side). But this is a fun little field/court to play on. But it really does not play to my strength, which is speed, you can only go so far before hitting a wall. 

 

2. C.A.G. (Christian Academy of Guatemala)

Sam's brother, Alex, is the coach and athletic director at the school. So, up until the past week we have played pretty much every afternoon with the high school team. Their field is almost full size, I have come to find out, their are not a whole lot of regulation sized soccer fields. But this one is pretty close and most of it is in good condition. Right know is the dry season, so the ground is really hard. And when I say we play with the team, Sam helps Alex to coach and I try to learn as much as I can.  

3. I wish I new the name of this place (there is a large Gatorade sign painted on the entrance, so let's just call it that)
Every Sunday, Sam, Alex, and myself will head to the city to play under the lights. We play 8 vs. 8 on a shorted field. Take a normal field and instead of playing long ways, play the short way, that's the size. The field is turf, but it's not the soft stuff like at Granite Hills High School. The goals are smaller and the pace a little quicker. We play with some people from another church in Guatemala. They have been super supportive of me playing and I have not once felt like I was inferior due to lack of ball skills (well skills in general, there are lacking more then most). In fact it has been a very, very positive experience and something I look forward too every week. They (the other player I play with) started off by calling me Crouch. Peter Crouch is a talk, lanky, white striker for Tottenham. Thus, I was referred to as Crouch for the first month of play. Although recently they have been been just calling me Troy. But I scored a goal tonight. However, I did make a defensive mistake that allowed on in as well. So I guess it evens out. I really like coming to this place. We play for about one hour or an hour and a half depending on if their is a team after us. It's the best when we can play extra time because another team doesn't show. The place has a little food stand and nice places to watch the games.