Aventuras y travesuras: The fun continues here in Guatemala!

Guatemala is still keeping us busy. We try to have something to work on every day so that we can keep it fun and busy. We are so excited for our little house to be done! We started planting trees all around our house. The last few weeks we planted around 15 different trees. We planted strawberries, bananas, mangos, raspberries, nectarines, pears, mandarins, oranges, grapes, blackberries, apples, avocados, granadias, lichas, and paternas (these last 3 do not exist in the US, the first one is the one we posted a picture of a long time ago that looks like boogers inside haha, but delicious. Paternas are Mike’s favorite fruit that he ate in Peru all the time and we found a plant here so let’s hope we have success with it. They are a fruit that grow in like a big green bean, there are black seeds inside surrounded by white fruit that is like cotton candy. Lichas are this weird looking fruit that originally is from Asia, it is pink and spikey on the outside but inside is a clear fruit surrounding a big seed. They taste kind of like grapes). We are really excited to see what we get and we will probably go get more trees this week!

Mike is still teaching English, he has 5 new students and he is really enjoying teaching. We’ve had a few more people who are interested so hopefully soon we will get more. Mike has really been working on the outside work now, he has been cleaning all of our land around our house so we can plant stuff and make it look very nice. I was surprised to see that he only got a couple of blisters on his hands haha. He has given a couple of talks at church and he has done great. The first time he didn’t tell me he was going to speak until we were basically at church… I was happy it wasn’t me. He is enjoying his calling as Young Men’s President and likes working with all the youth. I must be doing something wrong because I have no calling and they don’t want to hear me speak either haha…. I’m just fine with that lol. Mike also got to take the youth to the fair this week and they had a lot of fun. The fair was in town for a week and we got to go 2 times. Xavion and Layla really loved all the rides, they aren’t scared of anything and they got to go on almost all of them that they were allowed to. The last couple of weeks the kids have been asking me to make them some type of treat so they can go out and sell it to the neighbors, the first week I made them cupcakes and the second week we made banana and pumpkin bread and they did pretty good. It’s fun to make things like that here but it’s hard to find the right ingredients. I’m still keeping busy and just getting tired more often haha life is great. I’m so burnt, people actually think Layla and Xavion look like me now lol.

Colton has been having hard time with the parasites, he got a lot better once we were in AZ but when we got back he started getting sick again. We took him to a different dr. who is known as one of the best ones here in Huehuetenango and this time we were told that the previous medication Colton took got rid of too much bacteria, even the good ones, so we had to start giving him bacteria every morning so he could get better. One time he had a lot of fever up to 103 for like 3 days and one day he threw up all afternoon. I was worried to death and didn’t know what else to do but to pray to my Heavenly Father to care for him. Mike gave him a blessing and we just waited to see what happened. My family believes in “ojo” which is a curse that people believe in here. Supposedly cute kids get it from other people who look at them too much. Kids start having fever, throwing up, cry all the time, diarrhea, don’t want eat…. Anyways everybody kept telling me I had to cure him of OJO because that’s what he had. I always refused to believe it was true and I was praying so hard that I wouldn’t fall into those beliefs just because I didn’t know how to help my baby. The way you supposedly cure ojo is that the person who is curing the baby (it doesn’t necessarily have to be a witch just someone who has been taught how to do it) first, they pass an egg all around the kid and when they crack the egg it’s all black inside, then they do crosses on the kids hands, feet, stomach, forehead using a green plant called rude mix with alcohol and then they spit on the kids face. Their beliefs are so strong that it actually seems to get the kids better pretty soon but I did not want to fall into it and Heavenly Father heard my prayers because Colton has been pretty good these last couple of weeks…. So thank you everybody who kept praying for him, from the bottom of my heart I thank you all very much. He can now stand all on his own and he even claps to himself when he does. It’s pretty cute. He has been walking a lot holding on from our hand. I think he will soon start walking by himself. I can’t believe he is almost one.

Layla keeps spending a lot of her time in time out. We have had a hard time at church with her because she wants to take everybody’s snacks. It’s so frustrating. The primary president asked me to come sit with her during primary a couple of weeks ago so I have done so and it’s a little bit better but today she was so good they picked her as the reverent kid to stand on the pulpit next week, so we will see how she does up there… I’m kind of nervous. Both Layla and Xavion will do a dance at a talent night from church next week, Layla is super excited about that.

Xavion had so much fun at the fair riding all the rides, he got to ride a mini quad all by himself on a small dirt track and he thought he was the coolest. The first time he did great but the second he got stuck on the rope fence and Mike jumped over the fence and went to pull him out. Mike and Xavion also got on the Ferris wheel with the young men from church and had quite the experience. The following story is told in Matt’s words. He came to visit us in Guate and went to the fair with us:

After an hour the guy in charge of the ride still was not letting anyone off the ride. In Guatemala the way the rides work are that they will not even start a ride until the ride is full. So if you are the first one there you end up waiting forever for the ride to fill up. Then once you are on you don’t get off the ride till there are people to take your spot. They also claim safety reasons about keeping the ride balanced. Xavion really needed to go to the bathroom about half way through the ride. He tried holding it as best he could to the point that he was ‘Ooohing’ quite loud as he fought the good fight. Finally, like when summer turns to fall, he could not hold it any longer. Mike made the decision to have Xavion pull his pants down and do his best to aim off the side of the ride. Unfortunately, the bar that held them in also made it difficult to make it off the side. As chance would have it, when Xavion could not hold it any longer, they happened to be stopped at the very highest peak of that now despicable ride. As Xavion started the necessary deed Mike peeked over the edge to see the damage that was being down. What he saw when he looked over was the seat filled with his young men, looking up to try to find out what was getting them wet. Finally, via text message Mike let Brenda know what was going on and she went and gave the guys in charge a piece of her mind. Well, this was enough to get them to let them down and after all was said and done the young men had a pretty good attitude about it and everyone went to go get a churro.

The Tagada – a multi perspective story

The Tagada is the biggest, most expensive ride at the fair. It is a giant saucer shape with seats on the inside edge of it. Everyone sits facing in looking across at someone facing them. There are no individual seats, just one continuous seat around the whole thing. There is no way to lock yourself in, you simply sit there and can try holding onto a railing that was above your head, though this is not very effective. Once the ride starts it spins in a circle for a few seconds then it starts bouncing in random directions. It’s like a car on hydraulics, it bounces in random directions very quickly and with a lot of speed. This, without exception, causes people to be thrown in the center where they continue to be thrown around in a heap with all the others who are unable to hold on. There is always a giant group of people hanging around this ride, not to ride, but to watch. It was hilarious. It was at the Tagada, the final ride of the night for Matt, Mike, and his young men, that our story begins. Mike, Matt, and the young men bravely entered the ride, and then sat for about twenty minutes waiting for the ride to fill, but once it did… all hell broke loose.

Mike’s Perspective:

I had gone on this ride before with one of my young men from church earlier that night. We had both successfully avoided falling into the center pit of terror and public humiliation. I thought I was safe…but the second time with Matt was different. Maybe it was the big crowd gathered expecting a show from the gringos, maybe Matt was bad luck, maybe it was the end of the night and I was tired from riding all the other rides, eating churros, and dealing with Xavion’s urinary emergency, or maybe they added some kind of turbo juice to the ride…but I fell in. The ride began and as soon as the bouncing started I lost my grip and grabbed onto anything I could. I happened to wrap my arm around my younger brother’s waist. I could tell he had gained weight since the last time I saw him. A big bounce came and his back crushed my arm against the back of the seat. I willingly fell into the pit to avoid any more pain. No sooner did I enter the smooth slippery inside of the beast that I saw a wallet full of quetzales sliding in front of me. It looked strangely familiar. It was headed straight for the gate where people enter/exit the ride…the one place where it could potentially fall out of the ride into the crowd below. Luckily a kind soul stuck their foot out to stop it just as it was about to fall. I scrambled for what seemed like a full minute to get my hands on the wallet. As soon as I had it in my grasp a strong jolt from the ride sent it flying out of my hands and sliding into the pit once again. I was able to get a hold of it again and immediately took the fetal position to avoid further separation from my wallet. I slid to the side of the ride and hit a few pair of feet. I look up to see Matt still holding on to the side. I decided to allow my brother to fully enjoy the ride, so I grabbed his arm and pulled him in with me. I reached the middle of the pit and managed to get to my feet. I balanced myself, standing up in the middle of complete and utter chaos. I glanced at the on looking crowd and managed to make eye contact with my dear wife. I could see the look of concern in her eyes (or maybe she was laughing at me, I couldn’t really tell), and I gave her a meaningful look and hoped she knew it meant that I love her and hoped she would be able to move on with her life without me if I didn’t make it out alive. I saw Matt stumbling like a buffoon out of the corner of my eye. I turned in time to see him fall into a poor stranger’s lap that was still sitting on the side. (side note: Matt claims he jammed his middle finger during this moment so hard that he couldn’t even shuffle a deck of cards during our rigorous game of spoons the night after, which left me to shuffle the deck every single round because he was being a baby and apparently every Guatemalan is incapable of shuffling cards. {Side note to the side note: Matt lost the game of spoons and I came in second place because I let my young nephew win}). My laughter caused me to lose my balance and I slid into the side of the ride again. Seconds later a portly fellow crashed into me and nearly knocked my glasses off of my face. I managed to get them back on and get to the side again. I held on until the ride ended. I exited the ride and tried not to make eye contact with anyone in the crowd. All in all, it was a pretty fun ride.

Matt’s Perspective:

I had been to the fair the night before and thought I knew what I was getting into. I had seen the people stuck in the middle of the ride, not being able to move, at the mercy of the machine, but I thought I was better than them, more capable, more athletic…(and really I was, it took Mike pulling me in to get me in, but I digress) So the ride began as it always began, with a lot of spinning, and then it began to lurch. Mike and I were next to each other, at least for the first few seconds before he immediately fell in due to his weak upper body. He had put his arm behind me for support and quickly had it smashed by my body as the ride jerked. He removed his arm with pain written in his eyes, without that support though he had no chance and into the pit he went. I saw his wallet fall and I saw his face as the realization set in that it was, in fact, his wallet and not someone else’s. He began to scramble with a look of fear on his face as the wallet skidded to and fro with Mike desperately trying to reach it. A little girl (who, unlike Mike, had not fallen in the pit) saw his plight and took mercy on him, trapping it under her foot. Mike tried with all his might to reach the girl and his wallet, and each time he would extend his hand to grab it, the ride would throw him again. Eventually, Mike was able to retrieve his wallet and make his way back to me. With a look of fear and pleading on his face he begged for help. It was reminiscent of the Lion King when Mufasa is hanging onto the edge of the cliff with Scar looking on, however, unlike Scar, I took pity and took his arm… and was promptly pulled into the fray. I stumbled, rolling into a random girl before being flung into the center by a sudden lurch of the machine. There I was in the center of the beast, being mixed around like a tossed salad with the other poor souls who were with me. I quickly jumped to my feet, having to move quickly so as not to fall back to the ground. I slowly made my way to the edge where there seemed to be a space for me to sit. I had no thoughts for Mike, based on the past couple of minutes I assumed him crippled or dead. I made it to the edge and threw myself at the empty space. Right as I did this the machine again lurched and sent me, not towards an empty seat, but directly into the lap of a very surprised looking Guatemalan. I gave him a quick smile and a nod of the head and slid into the empty seat I had previously been aiming for. Unfortunately, I had jammed my left hand against the ride when falling into my new friend’s lap and so only had my right hand to hold on with. Fortunately, without Mike to pull me in I was able to manage the rest of the ride without anything else happening to me. Now that I had myself safely in a seat I was able to again turn my attention to Mike. There he was, still in the middle trying to make his way to the edge as I had. He eventually made it but quickly realized that he was not able to survive the ride sitting normal in his present physical condition. He opted for a new position. The position where he held onto the edge of the ride with both hands while standing up and facing out. So, with his behind facing everyone on the ride he bounced up and down with each jerk of the ride, looking very similar to the new dance crave known as twerking. The ride slowly came to an end and we shakily exited to the admiration of the whole crowd. All in all, it was a pretty fun ride.

Brenda’s Perspective:

Mike and Matt got to get on a ride where you just have to hold on and try not to fall. Well….. They both fell in the middle and were there for a while just going everywhere. From the beginning I had the feeling they were going to fall because they were trying to be too cool by not holding on tight. Quickly they got a big audience and they were all having lots of fun watching them. I did too! I just wish I would have been recording it because it was hilarious. Mike didn’t realize his wallet had come out of his pocket until he was down on the ground. He was chasing his wallet and a girl was helping him get it but it took him a while before he got it…. The funniest thing was that I could hear all the people behind me talking about the “gringos” and they were cracking up to see them laying on the floor and not been able to get up. They were screaming “look at those gringos”. At the beginning before the ride started they said “let’s see which one can stay on it longer” then you see mike flying out of his seat onto the floor, so people started screaming “look there goes one” 2 seconds later there goes Matt too and people thought it was the funniest thing to see them together on the floor trying to get up. Man I really wish I had a video lol. As soon as Matt was able to get on his feet he started looking for a place to sit, you can see him going straight to this tiny open spot and there he goes almost sitting into another guy’s lap. His face slammed into the guys shoulder and on his leg. From my angle it looked like Matt was going in for an awkward teenage kiss. As soon as that happened all the people were screaming “ohhhhhhhhhhhh”. I think this is a ride I would like to see all the family doing. It would be awesome haha. All in all, it looked like a pretty fun ride.

Colton and dogs have become pretty good friends.