I miss home!!!!!!!
Just thought I'd put that out there. The other day I was showing my Guatemalan friend my house on the google maps street view and then he showed me where he used to live in Oklahoma and we started really missing the states. Then on Monday I had the amazing privilege of getting to meet up with the First Pres adult mission team. Let's start there.
I knew that their flight landed at 10AM, so I was planning to jump on a bus from Xela around 2PM to make it to Huehue around the same time as them. That morning I realized they were probably going to pass through Cuatro Caminos (it means 4 ways...it's a big 4-way intersection and you can pretty much go anywhere from there) and I should see if I could meet them there and then ride with them the rest of the way. But I didn't want to call Edwin to ask because I wasn't sure how busy he was. Lo and behold, he called me around 1 to say that they were going to pass through Cuatro Caminos and I should try to meet up with them there. Ha! So he told me he'd get in touch with them and find out when they'd be passing through and he'd let me know. He called me back about an hour later and said they'd be there in about an hour and 15 minutes....unfortunately my phone decided to cut out right when he said an hour so I only heard 15 minutes. Yikes! So I jumped on the first bus I could to get there and I was praying that I'd make it on time....mostly I was praying that he meant 15 minutes Guatemalan time (which could mean up to 45 minutes). Well I got there about 30 minutes after he called (which was pretty good time on a bus) and I called him to see if they'd already passed. He said no, they'd pass in about 45 minutes. Crap!!! But at least they hadn't already passed through. So I crossed the street to Pollo Campero (it's like KFC, but in Spanish) and ate some food and read my book a little to kill some time. While I was reading it started raining....but like raining raining raining, POURING! And I had to go back across the street to meet up with the group. Just crossing the street my shoes got soaked and my clothes were pretty evenly damped everywhere, but a green van showed up and I saw familiar faces(!!!!!!!). So I ran over to give Mama Nalty a big hug and jumped into the van. Another Guatemalan woman tried to get in, but our driver (Duglas, he's awesome) had to tell her that it wasn't a microbus. Hahaha!
So we made our way to Huehue (pronounced way-way) and I had to answer lots of questions, but it was so great! I was remembering the time I went to Huehue with First Pres in 2010 and how everything looked so new and exciting to me and how this time it was so normal, everything! The way people drive, the landscape, the roadside markets, the chicken buses passing like madmen, and even the road between Xela and Huehue. I couldn't put myself back into the "all of this is brand new" mindset. But it was great. We got to the guest house in Huehue and I couldn't believe how close it was to the school where I taught on Saturdays for a few months...like actually, it was only 3 blocks away. But we walked into the house and it was like walking into my home, a familiar house where I'd passed a week with some of my very best friends. Anyways, we got settled in and then we went to Berea (the Bible Institute) so that Edwin could show us around. Once we got back to the house Katie gave me all my presents from home...well, she told me she put them on my bed and I got super stoked and ran upstairs and she said it would be like opening my Christmas stocking (sweet! Because I didn't have one last year). Oh my gosh! It was like being at home, reading the notes and seeing my new, one-of-a-kind Camp McCullough t-shirt (funny because I'd just been thinking about how this would be the first summer in 8 years that I wouldn't have a camp shirt). Day 1 ended with everyone super pooped out from like 24 hours of travel so everyone crashed pretty early. OH!!!! And we sang Johnny Appleseed before dinner, and my team did dishes, so it was really like being at camp. :)
Day 2 started out with a bomb.com breakfast (but let's be honest, every meal at the guest house is bomb.com). I was planning to leave that morning around 11 to make it back to Xela in time for my 3PM class, but Edwin asked me "Lisa, do you really have to leave today? Why don't you stay until tomorrow when we leave for the plantation?" Well, in all honesty I only had the one class and the student is pretty chill so I called him to see if we could cancel class for the day (which apparently I'm not supposed to do, oops!) and he's super buena onda (it's like 'cool') and he said that was fine. He knew I was in Huehue visiting friends so he told me to have fun. So I got to spend another day in Huehue!! We went to explore the park, market and cemetery in the morning and then after lunch the boys went back to Berea to build tables and the girls stayed home to paint. Vicky and I painted the downstairs bathroom and the other ladies painted the cabana. We had a great time painting.
Then the next day we all went to Berea to paint the tables that the boys built. Joe made me a Santa beard/Amish hat, it's pretty bomb.com. Then we headed back to the house for lunch and everyone got ready to go to the plantation while I got ready to go back to Xela. I haven't heard/spoken so much English in....I don't remember how long, but it was so much fun! I loved to see the difference between a youth mission trip and an adult trip. The adults have so many more stories and they're so much more independent during free time. Youth just want to joke around all the time, there's always a love triangle or two, they're always together, and most of their stories include half of the people on the trip. But whether it's youth or adults, the Huehue guest house is like home, always....well, at least for me. Hahaha! I was sad to leave them, but it was so good to see some familiar faces from home and have a few days to just be relaxed. It was pretty much like a party...just without the Moza.
