Since I haven't updated since November I never got to share about the beautiful Thanksgivings that I had down here in Guatemala. I went into Thanksgiving this year with a bad attitude since I wasn't going to be home with my family for the first time, but I ended up having 3 Thanksgiving dinners here with different friend groups which made up for it. Thanksgiving morning I traveled from Xela to Pana to celebrate the day with friends. My first dinner was at Tom's house with his son Manny, Wayne and Janet, and Dave. The picture below was captured from that dinner. It was cooked by a couple of Guatemalan women and it was delicious. I was very grateful to have been invited to this Thanksgiving dinner.
My Thanksgiving number 2 was with my friends Carol Ann and Deborah. However, Deborah was sick so besides a few minutes with her when we took her some mashed potatoes it was really just a date with Carol Ann. The Japanese restaurant Hana was advertising a "traditional American Thanksgiving dinner", but really it was just bad. Since neither CA or I eat ham we just had the veggies and a salad which I was too scared to eat. While the food wasn't my favorite I loved hanging out with CA. I can't remember if I have blogged about her moving to Pana yet, but she is the one who came to visit me here with my friend Scott then I went to visit her in Costa Rica. She is now living in Pana and is the new volunteer working in our school at Salud y Paz. I absolutely LOVE having her here. She is such a great friend to have in town and I am really looking forward to when I have more down time and we get to hang out more.
Now onto my last Thanksgiving dinner. This one actually happened a few days after Thanksgiving. I was back in Xela with Archy and Jacky and we were celebrating little Nicky's 1st birthday! I bought a mini turkey at the store and told them I was going to make my mom's famous pumpkin pie which let me just say was SO MUCH MORE DIFFICULT THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. Here's the deal. I have watched my mom make it so many times, but that is so different than trying to make it by yourself for the first time in a 3rd world country. I went to all the stores in Pana then to Walmart in Xela and still couldn't find all the ingredients I needed. I know some of you may read this and laugh, but I had to make pie crust from scratch and whip actual cream instead of cool whip. Maybe not a big deal for you, but I couldn't stop laughing at how hard it was. Anyways while making the pie at their house they told me that they had never tasted pumpkin before. I felt like I really wanted to make something delicious for them to try to represent a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. They kept telling everyone I was making them a "traditional American Thanksgiving dinner". So much pressure!
Jacky and Dona Yoli helped me translate my mom's recipe while we were cooking. It was really fun trying to explain in Spanish what everything meant. It was probably especially hilarious listening to me try to translate "Dreamy High Pumpkin Pie" into Spanish!
Finished product! I was actually pretty proud of myself with how great it turned out! When Jacky and Archy were eating it they told me that they were pretty sure that they were not going to like pumpkin. However, they both ate second pieces and the next day asked if they could finish the pie. I felt so happy that they loved it and that I didn't disappoint since they seemed to have VERY high standards for Thanksgiving dinner.
One of the last days that I was in Xela with the family was Nicky's first birthday. Jacky's parents and brother came into town and we spent the day celebrating precious little Nicky. It was very neat to be included in the family celebration. On a side note a few weeks ago I was invited to Archy's mom's birthday party and his brother's high school graduation party. There was a celebration church service for them and then a dinner for about 400 people that his mother had made herself. It was really sweet walking into the church with them and having so many of their family members come up to me and kiss me hello and welcome me to the party. Then when I congratulated Archy's mom and brother both of them thanked me for coming. Archy later told me that it meant a lot to his mom that I went which is so weird to me. It's the same feeling I get when Archy and Jacky constantly invite me to their home and say how much they appreciate me staying there. In my mind I am the one who is constantly showing up at their house and being taken care of like I am with family. I truly hope they realize how extremely precious their family is to me.
Ok... now onto Houston for December. I LOVED being home for Christmas. If you have been reading my blog (you know before I took my 3 month break) then you remember me talking about how my dad has CIDP. It was really hard in November not to be home with my family while my dad was in the hospital. When I went home in December it was much harder than I thought it would be, but at the same time easier since I was actually there surrounded by loved ones. It seems like my month home went by MUCH quicker than I wanted it to. Before I knew it Christmas was here then it was time for me to fly back to Guatemala. Christmas time is by far my favorite time of the year. My family has beautiful Christmas traditions which I love and look forward to each year. Here are some highlights from my Christmas home with my family.
Christmas eve dinner at Taste of Texas. Every year we eat dinner there before going to church. Favorite tradition.
Parker and I with one of the big Christmas trees at our church before the Christmas Eve service.
Just posing for a super cute picture with my super cute pup (who I adopted with my grandfather and then abandoned) on Christmas morning. I am pretty obsessed with this pup Toby.
The next day my whole family on my dad's side (all 13 of us) went to Brennens for brunch (another of my favorite traditions). We have been going to brunch/lunch at Brennens in December for maybe the last 15 years. The year it burned down my aunt cooked my favorite meals from this restaurant at her house for my college graduation party at their house. Every year we pose for pictures out in the courtyard together. I don't have any of the pictures with our whole family, but below is a picture of my cousin Ashley and I.
Like I said before my time in Texas went by way too fast. I flew back to Guatemala on the 30th and was picked up at the airport by Archy and Jacky. I spent New Years in Guatemala City with them at Jacky's parent's house. Guatemala City isn't the safest place, so really other than the airport and driving into the city for random errands a few times I hadn't spent a lot of time in the city. It was really fun to spend a few days there with people who actually knew their way around. I never would have thought I would have felt that safe in the City. On New Years eve we went to a church called Casa de Dios (House of God). This church is expanding to a new location which when we drove by it looks like a huge stadium which will be called Ciudad de Dios (City of God). Church started at 10:00 PM and let out a little after midnight to fireworks in the sky while we were walking to our car. You can see by the picture below that there were about 6 thousand people in this church for the service. Jacky got a seat, but Archy and I had to sit on the steps in the isle. At the end of the service the minister called his family up on stage and then invited everyone to hug and pray with their families. Jacky and Archy were hugging and I was just standing there starting to cry since I had just left my family back in the States. I was standing there starting to feel sorry for myself that I was all alone when at about the same time both Archy and Jacky reached over to me and included me in their hug. We stood that way for a few songs and I just started crying thinking about how lucky I was to have them in my life. They are truly my family down here and I am so grateful for their friendship. I didn't know what to expect from a Guatemalan New Years, but I don't think I could have had a better one.
Ok... last update for the blog. I know it's been really long! A few days after New Years I hosted my first team of the year. It was a medical, dental, and optical team from Heather's home church. Heather also went on the trip since it was her 5th year to be with the group. This is the trip that she came on which helped her make the decision to move down here. This team had a lot of team members who were around my age on the trip. It was really fun getting to spend the week serving alongside and laughing with some great people. The cool thing about this team is that we stayed at the Lemoa Center which allowed us to have more community time with the group. Each night after dinner we would stay up playing games and just laughing. It was really a great way to get back into hosting teams.
Another thing that made this week really special for me is that the Lemoa Center is where I worked when I first visited Guatemala. On the mission trip that I came on a year and a half ago I stayed in Chichi and worked in Lemoa on the Retreat Center. I spent that first week in Guatemala looking around Lemoa and asking myself if I could actually live here. It was at this place that I first started picturing what my life would be like if I actually quit my job and moved to Guatemala. It was at this place where I tried my hardest to talk myself out of what I was feeling because I was so scared that I would be lonely if I decided to move to a 3rd world country by myself. However, now it was at this same place where I sat watching a sunset with Archy whose family has become my family down here. Then it was at this place where I broke down crying one day out in the community and realized that I had Heather with me who I could lean on. She has become a best friend to me and I am so thankful to have her here going through this experience with me. It was really special to be able to look back over the past year and a half and realize how completely different my life is now. That first week when I thought "well maybe..." I never actually thought I would go through with it. I don't think anyone thought I would actually go through with it even when I went home telling people I was going to. It was so not like me and I know I surprised many people by actually seeing it through. Me especially. Anyways, it was a beautiful week of reflection that yes I did actually change my life, move to a foreign country by myself, gain independence, challenge myself daily, and am actually doing ok. Below is a beautiful moment that I captured on my crappy iPhone camera. :)
Wish me luck!
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