Guatemala_Happenings

So a couple things took place today I would like to highlight. I had been in contact with Sam's cousin who works at the church we attend, Carlos. We have been talking about a couple opportunities he has going at the church. In my phone, I have two number for Carlos, or I thought they both were for Carlos. It turns out one of them belongs to one of our guards at the condominium we live in. When I first meet him, I did not understand his name, then he said, "Like Abraham Lincoln." After that I was good. So I called Abraham thinking it was Carlos. After the normal greetings in spanish I soon realized this was not Carlos, Abraham can speak some english, but no where near the amount that Carlos can. So in a little bit of a panic, I looked Hannah who was with me at the time, gave a grin, say sorry wrong number in english, then proceeded to hang up the phone. I found the right number for Carlos, gave him a call, and upon hanging up after leaving a message, the phone rang. Thinking it was Carlos calling on another line, like the churches, I answered to the voice of Abraham. I had a short dialogue with him, explaining how I thought his number was a friend of mine. I then received a text from him that read, "This is my cellphone. I want to learn more english. You teach me? I teach you spanish. Do you want?"Upon discussing the situation with Hannah I responded in spanish. Now, I'm not much of a texter, so the 11 other texts I received through out the day from him were a little unexpected. I would like to share a couple others that I found entertaining. After responding to him saying I though it was a good idea to help each other learn one another's language, I received this text, "Great! When, you can? Do you believe in Jesus Christ." How great is that. One thing about the guatemalans I have meet that do not know about my history of being here (Meaning I'm not with Sam, his family, and/or his friends have no information about why or what I'm here for) is they unashamedly ask if you attend church, what denomination you are, and if you believe in Jesus Christ. Perhaps a characteristic we as American can adapt a little. Maybe it's not done with such force and straight forwardness, then again maybe it would be good for awhile. But I definitely feel, or I have in the past and still do at times, a sense of anxiety about asking what someone believes about God, if they would like to join me for church, if they want grab a meal with the hopes that I could share a little of the joy I have with them. So, I feel we, myself included (maybe more myself then anyone) can benefit for a little more courage and action when it comes to sharing with others what we believe. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about meeting someone for the first time then asking them about their thoughts on subsututionary atonement, Calvinism or Arminianism are. I talking about those friends of ours who we consider good friends, maybe even friends we have known for a really long time that we have never really had a deep conversation about Christ with. On that note, the next message I received was this, "He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the almighty. I will say of the Lord, "he is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust." He sent me a bible verse. I chuckled a little. Why I thought it was funny I really don't know. But I looked at Hannah and explained what he a written. Her response was different then mine. It was, "oh, that's sweet." And not the "oh that cool" type of sweet, or the "oh that cute, something a husband does for his wife" type either. I was a "oh that's respectful, that's really admirable that his first response to me telling him I believed in Christ, was for him to send me a statement of his own faith so to speak. Weather that is what he was doing when he sent it, I don't know. Probably not. But I kind of took it as such. "Oh you believe in Christ, and seek follow him," in pictured him saying to himself in spanish, "me to, I trust in the most high God." All that to say my depravity runs deeper then Hannah's. Continuing on, I asked him what days he worked at the gate so Hannah and I could meet up with him and talk. I got this back, "I'm work to day. To morrow no work. The day after to morrow no work. What day you can talking with me? I felt like most native spanish speakers must feel when I try to communicate in Spanish. Respect for trying, knowing you will fail, and it's rather entertaining. My spanish is not good, my grammar is worse, and my speaking down right in need of an overhaul. Yet all those I speak are willing to help with a correction here and there, and are very respectful. Nevertheless, somethings are just funny. Like me asking the taco guys for tacos with abogado (a Lawyer) instead of adobado (a specific way to season meat). I mean it's just funny. So when tomorrow is spelt to morrow, it brightens my day a little with a laugh. Upon telling him we would meet him at the gate in 30 min. I got this text, "I have a hymnal bilingual of songs of praise and worship." Abraham plays the guitar and likes to sings. He showed me the book when we arrived to chat, it's actually a pretty cool book. Hannah and I spent a whole hour standing in the sun talking in english and spanish about everything from, our families, the languages, to where we grew up, etc. Half of Hannah's face got baked while the other was shaded from the sun. So, one side of here face is a little more tan the the other right now. But it did not feel like an hour, is went by really fast. I received some other various texts though out the day, another verse, some corrections on the texts I wrote in spanish, and a "Hey Friend, How was your day? All ok?" I's nice to have another person to talk to and practice our spanish, but would prefer to cut down on the texts. 


I did get to meet up with Carlos at the church and talk about helping to tutor at a school, which will be a topic for another discussion. But after my meeting with Carlos at the church, Ludin picked me up, we ran some errands in the city then proceeded home. On the way home, traffic was bad, as is normal for the city. We were moving maybe a foot per min. when we heard a siren. From our left was pulling in front of us was a black and yellow Toyota police truck with lights flashing.  It was followed by two SUV's who we very adamant about staying behind the police truck. The middle car had very dark tinted windows, pretty much black, and the trail SUV had tinted windows as well, but not as dark. The trail SUV also had it's passenger window down exposing a rather large gun. It was not pointed anywhere, rather just resting in the passengers hand to let everyone know they were not kidding around. Ludin turned to me and said, "I let them in because they have big guns," in a joking tone, implying that in any other situation he would have other wise charged forward in the little Samari we were driving. He also told me that Politicians car windows and sewer pipes are pretty much the same thing. You can't see what's inside but you can bet that it's dirty. I got a good chuckle out of that. I then realized the police truck was leading this small caravan, of what was most likely some politician, thought the busy and stopped streets of Guatemala city. From what I gain, political figures and their families seem to be in the most danger her.


Also on the ride home I saw a Ford F-350 with a Galpin San Fernando Valley license plate holder. Seeing a Large truck is not very common here in Guatemala, much less on that has a license plate holder from the states.  Made me feel like I was back on the side streets of Azusa. For those of you who don't know So. California well, Galpin Ford is a large dealership in the area.  I would see license plate holder for them all the time in Southern Californian. And License plate holders aren't really the kind of thing you send to another country, much less a dealers license plate holder. Maybe your alma mater, or a sports team you like. But a generic dealers holder? So I assume the truck was driven from California to Guatemala. 


Oh and finally. Also on the way home I saw this girl carrying an REI bag. Not like a paper ones, but one of those canvas ones. Really not sure where this is going, just made me think of the mountains. The only picture I have for today is of my hammock and soccer stuff. I play more soccer here then I do back home in the states, that I will miss when it's time to leave. I Finally found a spot that does not require some type of drilling thought cinder block walls. It's not the best but it works.