August 1, 2011

(Google Map of El Estor)

Ma Sa' L'aa Ch'ool!!

WOW Clara is REALLY rowing up fast!! 10 months already!?!?!?!¿?¿!?¿!?¿!?¿!?¿!¿¿!?¿!?¿!
shes gonna be a child prodigy i tell ya!
Thats awesome that you guys are going "camping"! Im totally jealous! Literally, Brother stapps place is like a walk in the park compared to this place.. jejejeje!

In other news and additional info, Elder Hexum is my Zone Leader in Teleman, where I spent the 22-26th of July with them while waiting to find a house in our new area. Teleman is about 2.5 hours from where I live right now.

My area is well...its ginormous. We cover 5 kekchi speaking branches, all no less than 15 kilometers apart from each other. We spend a day at each area, and then move on to the next area by the next day. To get to each area, we either hitch-hike, or we simply HIKE, up to several hours, up and across mountain ranges in tropical weather...LITERALLY. I havent taken a shower since saturday, aside from the rain I walk in each day. My pants are stained red, and my shirts are turning orange from the mud here. Its hard to breathe, since we are at about 7000 feet. My boots are rust colored now, ..from the mud. So ill be getting some rubber boots today. no worries about that. Those things are bulletproof here, i hope.

This past week has been mentally difficult for me, because for the first time in my life, I cannot communicate effectively at all. I think I was even talking to myself a few times from sheer insanity. Nevertheless, I think Im fine now, as my kekchi skills are rapidly desarrollando, so I can do greetings, basic questions, aknowledgements and goodbyes, of which there are a few different forms of saying them.

However, despite my personal mental struggle this week, the hikes here have been very relaxing because of the sheer beauty here. its INCREDIBLE.

As for our house, we dont have one yet, so weve been living inside the church, while our house is being built. Its pretty creepy at night, since they shut off the power during the week while the church is not "in use". As for showers, I'd rather not say how or where.

The camera has no viewfinder, its just the little screen thats totally fried. The camera can still take perfect pictures, but I cant see what i took a picture of until i take out the memory card and put it in my companions camera to see how it came out.

Zip lock bags are nonexistant here, as are waterproof containers. Socks are the best choice, or even leather pouches. As for CD players, i havent heard of anyone asking for them, or being a necesity here. Everyone just buys a little MP3 player and fills it with church music downloaded from the internet. Then they buy the 2.1 speaker set and bump music in their apartment.

My companion is Elder Chanchavac, who is district leader over 4 other Sister missionaries, exluding me. My comp plus me, plus the 4 sisters makes us 6. Right now, since we have no technology, and our area being the most rural in the mission, we are in El Estor, in Sister missionary territory. Its on the shore of Lake Itzabal, here in Alta Verapaz, about 2 hours from my ....church. we woke up at 4am to get here today, and hitch-hiked on the roof of a minivan, in the rain to get here. I feel fine though. Im totally happy, because I finally ate something other than tortillas and beans for the first time in 2 weeks.!!!

Anyway, i totally planned to write more stuff, but i forgot most of it.
So rahoc,
Laj Jay (my new kekchi name)
Pronounced Laj HAi