I hope you all had a great holiday season and enjoyed yourselves. Two weeks ago we moved into our new (rented) home (Before that we were staying in the Fickers’ cow pasture.). It is a typical Guatemalan, adobe house with an open porch all along the front. It had been vacant for a few years and while it was empty, the owner allowed his cows to move into the yard, porch, and toilet/shower house. Needless to say, we had to do some cleaning before we moved in, but we all like the house and the way it’s set up except for the fact that it’s too close to the road. The original structure only had 3 bedrooms but later a fourth bedroom was added. Later a large one-room addition was added to the original structure (the addition has an open porch, too), making it a nice, large L-shaped house. We use the large one-room part for our kitchen and living room. A great plus about the place is that it has electricity and water. Not only that, but there’s also a canal that runs past our house, too. That means we can water our meager yard and not worry about running out of water!
We spent Christmas at the Mayan ruins in Chijoj. Renee’s church hosted a large Christmas party for the kids and youth of Chijoj. They grilled over 300 pieces of chicken and everything got eaten! The day was spent visiting with each other and playing soccer. They also had 4 piñatas; Queo and I were chosen to pull the piñatas back and forth while the kids and adult tried to hit them. They had a 1 piñata for the boys, 1 for the girls, 1 for the men, and 1 for the women. Everyone themselves immensely and went home happy.
That evening, Pastor Renee and his twins and Nayo and his two buddies stopped by on their way to the hot springs. They invited Martin and I to join them, which of course we did. Besides encountering a drunk at the hot springs; we had a fun and relaxing time.
On Sunday Mom and Dad went to Antigua to learn Spanish at the same school I went to two years ago. They’ll be studying there for two weeks, so meanwhile we kids are holding down the fort here at home. The morning they left, most of us kids got pretty sick. Up until this morning the virus was still active and bugging us.
As a token of completing the year 2008, we ate our picnic lunch down at a creek about ½ a mile from our house. After getting back to the house I got a call from Duane Ficker asking us if we wanted to join their family in a game of volleyball. Of course we took up the offer! Their son Ryan and his wife Katie came down from the States for Christmas and because they were returning today, the family wanted to play one last volleyball game with them. The Fickers found a great sandy spot next to a river, so as a family tradition they play volleyball every Saturday afternoon. The only way to get down to the spot is by foot, dirt bikes, and/or 4-wheelers. The convoy of 3 to 4 quads and 3 to 4 dirt bikes, loaded to the gills, going down the cow path that leads to the river is quite a sight.
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