Fleas, Extreme downhill walking, and P-day carrot farming

First of all, I got a large amount of email this week since my birthday was last Saturday, but I still have the same amount of time to write, so if I don´t write you back, or only write a little lame response, don´t worry, it probably doesn´t mean I don´t love you!

I forgot to mention last week the best part about my new area. The flea infested bed! Whoop! These fleas die harder than Bruce Willis! I sprayed a whole bunch of stuff that supposedly kills any insect for 6 weeks... and still got bit by a ton of fleas during the night... Oh well...Este copa... No la he de beber? The house we live in is super tiny, but we cleaned it up really good on P-day and it´s fairly comfortable now, despite being the size of a large playhouse.

One part of our area is up on a mountain that is near the main town. We usually try to hitchhike up to the top, but a couple of times we have had to walk. The footpath is just a straight shot from top to bottom, with a few minor curves, and a few major drops (like 1 meter). It is a serious drag walking up. But coming down is super awesome! It´s like a 15 minute downhill extreme mountain biking trail.... But on foot! We just tighten up our shoe laces and our backpacks and bomb all the way down the huge hill... It´s super fun!

We have pretty much decided to almost exclusively work just in the center town and the little towns nearby, because even though the people farther away are a lot more friendly and receptive, it’s super difficult for them to come to church. And they learn REALLY slow because of the Spanish to Quiche language barrier, and  the lack of education and ability to read- Some of the nicest people though! And they seriously know how to get along with pretty much nothing.

Yesterday for P-day we bought some seeds for an activity that we wanted to do to help people understand better, but they only sold seeds by the ounce. Carrot seeds are super tiny, so we had WAY more than we needed. So we did the obvious and planted carrots in the tiny strip of dirt that we have by our house. What can I say, farming is in my blood.

With the cooler weather here I can finally use that sweet jacket that has just taken up space up to this point J It probably is from being in the heat for the past 6 months, but the cold here is killing me! It’s going to be even crazier coming home to the super cold!

I didn´t really do anything too special for my birthday.. I had a mini panic phase when I realized that I was 20 years old, but I got over it. JWe did buy some massive calzones from some restaurant here.They were seriously massive!

Gigantic 20th birthday calzone
 

 I saw a cool folder type thing, with hard covers, a notepad inside, a place to put papers and stuff, and various cool features, with a Guatemalan fabric and style the other day that I thought about getting for my birthday-but I have turned into somewhat of a cheap skate and couldn´t bring myself to pay 30 dollars for it-but I may end up getting it.

I don’t have any info on the Mother’s day call. Mothers day call via skype.- Thats all I have… sorry! I´ll let you know as soon as they tell me, just make sure you know how to use it. My laptop has it all set up and all.

 

Love, Collin