Central American Travels.

This part is hard for me to write.

because change is hard,
change is good and a sign of life,
but i am so easily adaptable and attachable
that i didn't want to leave Guatemala.
i mean in a lot of ways i knew our time was "up"
but it's never easy to turn that corner
stomach turning with the aching of things gone by
and the uncertainty of things ahead.
but we turned the corner,
we boarded a chicken bus and we left Guatemala.

sample chicken bus.

this sums up a lot of our travels, overheating and lying in front of the fan all over Central America.

a lady in San Salvador, El Salvador preparing for a days work, these short colorful aprons were common

horse and cart in Grenada, Nicaragua, the oldest Colonial town in Central America

no, not the ocean, this is Lake Nicaragua on the Island of Ometepe. we chose Playa Santo Domingo, there was a crazy thick layer of bugs constantly swarming until the evening breezes swept them away and then i understood. This island is made up of two large volcanoes and a connecting ithmus and incredible sand beaches and warm fresh water waves.

the highlight experience for me in our travels:: staying at "the monkey hut" on Lago Apoyo, a crater lake inside of a giant volcano (right outside of Grenada, Nicaragua), the water was impressively warm and calm. i just adore floating in an inner tube, which we got to do a lot of.


this is funny, i didn't even realize what i was standing in front of but Matt did, haha, my hands are on my hips because i was hot and tired and my chacos were falling apart and giving me blisters

this was our beach of choice and our only Costa Rican beach experience: Playa Samara on the Nicoya Penninsula

welcome to the jungle, kind of the closest i've ever been. after too much heat at the beach we headed for the highlands of Costa Rica::: Monteverde Nat'l Reserve, a

here we are hiking through the Nat'l Reserve with two great Swiss guys we met at our hostel. the bridge allowed us to look down over the top of the canopy of the cloud forest.

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i could upload a photo of the colorful furry tarantulas we saw if you wanted, but then i would be too frightened to check my own sight.

Family Time!

Matt's parents and my brother CAME TO VISIT!!

man, oh man, there is nothing like being with family in a foreign land! i'm telling you - i cannot get enough family time. all that stuff about in-laws being annoying or something does not apply to my life -- i absolutely love Mark and D.J. -- and i can't even begin to tell you the depth of my love for my brother, what an incredible guy! I didn't want our time with them to end. maybe heaven will be a lot like that - like an old family get together.

Here we are exploring some of the ruins of the Spanish-colonial city of Antigua. a must see on any trip to Central America. Antigua is full of luscious, verdant gardens hidden in lovely European stucco courtyards. Nothing is casual in Antigua - only absolutely extraordinarily old and beautiful.

Mark and DJ treated us to a super charming colonial-style hotel. matt and i just almost didn't want to leave our room it was that nice.

My brother actually traveled to Lake Atitlan in a chicken bus (pictured above) by himself with hardly any Spanish and it worked - we found him. he was the only gringo on every bus he took and everything seemed to go very smoothly. way to be efficient and user-friendly, Guatemala.

here we are at our fav restaurant in Panajachel on the Lake. everything is wonderfully whole grain, with great meat substitutes and everything is hecho a mano (made by hand). and don't even get me started on the tropical/botanical-garden ambience with celtic or classical music playing in the background. i absolutely love this place.

We also celebrated Matt's 26th birthday together which was SUPER SPECIAL!!

We also got to visit CASA DEL MUNDO, a hotel right across the lake, which if you're ever on Lake Atitlan I would now totally recommend. A completely whimsically tropical, paradisical setting.

hammock = pure bliss


with a labyrinth of beautiful, Italian-villa style dun decks.

and because the owner of the hotel is friends with the couple we are volunteering with, we got to kayak for free!

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THANK YOU, FAMILY (and those who weren't able to come) = you mean the world to us. your love, generosity and kindness for us and others inspires us to no end! If i could bottle of that time we had together i would - all those warm feelings of togetherness and belonging and freedom and awareness = completely priceless = i love you!

The Quest for the Holy Wash Basin

The holy grail we all know of, but what of the holy-foot-washing-basin? Through reading over the stories of Jesus' last week in the gospels I realized that John does not have an account of Jesus breaking bread and sharing wine at the last supper instead the gospel writer tells of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. So in John's gospel the foot-washing-basin replaced the chalice as the sacred vessel of God's new covenant with his people.
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I see a connection between these two sacred vessels: if we want to remember Jesus and drink the cup of sacrifice we should also turn in humble service and love to our brothers and sisters in Christ. the second part is perhaps the most challenging: "submitting to one another out of love for Christ."
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to set the scene John writes "Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love." LOVE:LOVE:LOVE
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The French writer Charles Peguy said, "Everything begins with mysticism and ends in politics." (excerpt from The Ascent of the Mountain of God)

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I don't have to remind anyone how we've seen politics play out in the church: it always becomes my way of doing things vs. your way; us vs. them; etc, etc..

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my prayer: Father, let the water of the Holy Wash Basin of humble service and love flow over your church today. give us new eyesight and divine love for one another. help us to be gracious and humble towards one another. amen.

Semana Santa

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the biggest holiday in all of Latin America and Guatemala in particular is famous for making Alfombras (rugs) of beautiful, vibrant colors over which walk the Easter floats which are carried on people's shoulders. The Alfombras are made of painted or dyed sawdust pieced together using stensils. All week in almost all towns around the country in the middle of the roads you will find these lavish rugs.


Here is the main "Jesus Float" about to walk over an Alfombra depicting Jesus' face.


the men carrying the Jesus float on their shoulders, with the soldiers who arrested Jesus walking alongside

Here are the women dressed in mourning clothes (black and white) carrying Mary's float, there were scores of women dressed in mourning clothes walking in front of the float and the whole parade crowd was very silent, it was a very somber procession very different from a festive 4th of July parade.

Here are the kiddos we took with us to watch the parades in Antigua. They had never been to Antigua and were a bit shell shocked most of the time, with all the crowds and beautiful buildings and processiones (parades).


Antigua, Guatemala in particular is most famous for the best Processiones and the best Alfombras. Hotel rooms in Antigua for Semana Santa are booked over a year in advance.

Kid's CLUB

In addition to all of the construction projects that Matt has gotten to work on the biggest draw for me to volunteer at the Opal House has been the opportunity to interact with the kids from down the street!!

Here are some photos of our times together:::

Here is a group shot of the pequenas, the little ones, who come every Friday for three hours of play, nutritous snack, Bible story and craft, these guys are adorably fun!

These are some of the older kids who come every Saturday for three hours of similar fun. they absolutely love art projects. there is no such thing at their local school.




here we are singing:: "Mi Dios es tan Grande"

(my God is so big)
i absolutely love teaching kids about worship and then singing together!

Here is a group shot of the kids who sleep over every Tuesday.

They come over right after school to play, then we help them with their homework, then a nutritious dinner, then a warm shower and bedtime stories and breakfast in the morning before school.

here we are showing off one of our art projects.

another art project. that day we planted sun flower seeds and then we danced around to Bob Marley and made artistic flowers out of scrap materials and trash.

Love these girls!