Week 2 - Wet Streets and Wet Diapers



Lorena - 2 months, 4 pounds



It's hard to believe that we are finishing up our second week tomorrow. We have had a busy week and we are still getting more and more comfortable. This week we started our volunteer job at Nuestras Ahijados (refered to as the project). We worked in the Casa Jackson which is a malnutricion center for small children. 50% of the kids in Guatemala are malnutricioned. When kids go the Casa Jackson, they have been referred by a court, brought by their parents or referred by the hospital. Our job is simply to hang out with the babies. We get to feed them and of course there is diaper duty, but mostly, just stimulate them. Kids recover very quickly with more attention.

 

Michael with Aracely

Next week we are not going to work at the Casa Jackson but with another part of the project. The project was founded by an american couple and really reaches out to the entire family. They have a school for children who cannot afford it, they have the Casa Jackson, and a homeless shelter. They give classes to parents on how to get jobs and how to feed their kids. They have classes to empower women and give them confidence in a very male dominated culture. They are all around helpful. Next week, we get to work in the homeless shelter which we are really excited about. We got posted with the babies for the first week because our spanish is limited. At the homeless shelter there are two sections, one for homeless men with addiction problems and the other section is for families. We only work for two hours serving a meal and hanging out. We are looking forward to it. Also next week, we get to go out to the local farms that donate crops to the project. We get to help collect from the farms. We are looking forward to seeing more of Guatemala and what the farms are like. Antigua, where we are at, is very touristy and rich by all standards. Ten minutes out of the city are the shacks and dirt floors --- we want to be there!

Guatemalan Slug in our room

This weekend we are going to try to go to Lake Atitlan. Click here to see more Its pretty close to where we live and cheap to get there and back. Like I mentioned, its been raining non stop for days. It looks like we are going to have a little break in the weather so hopefully we can enjoy some time away. We have been a little overwhelmed by all the rain. In the last four days, there has literally only been 30 minutes of sunshine. I thought there was going to be a landslide yesterday, it rained so much. Because our dwelling is not sealed at all, the moisture just collects and collects. Everything in our room is moist. Every night when we get in bed, the sheets are wet. This is one part we could live without and we had this little visitor on the wall last night when we went to bed. In Guatemala, electricity is extremely expensive, so no one has clothes dryers, which usually is not that big of a deal, because there is usually enough sun to hang clothes on a line. However, these past days, it has been too wet to put clothes out, so when our pant legs got wet, they stayed wet. And the same for our bath towels. I thought of my friend Jeremy yesterday. He refuses to reuse a towl even once. Our family gave us one towel to share and we have used it for about three days straight. In those three days, I dont think it was ever dry. Jeremy - you would not be able to live here....even with all the tequila!


Coffee Trees

 Our teachers have been really great. Each week they have a fun day planned for us. Today we got to go to a coffee plantation. Guatemala is the 3rd largest producer of coffee in the world (Brazil is #1). We got a guided tour by Spanish speakers and I am glad to say that we understood most of it. I learned that coffe has be grown in the shade, so all the coffee is surrounded by taller trees. Its really interesting how the coffee is processed from the tree to the cup. The beans of one tree will produce about 40 cups of coffee and they only produce once a year.  At the plantation, they also had a small museum of mayan culture. It included a mayan music room. It was really neat to see the evolution of the musical instruments of the mayas.
Here is a picture of me with my teacher, Claritza. I bent down so she didnt feel so short. I stand about a foot taller than her.

Me and Claritza

More to come after this weekend. Thanks again to all of you who continue to pray for us on our journey. We feel very much like God is directing our path and creating every next step of our bridge. Our teacher says, poco a poco, little by little. Thats exactly how we feel. Hugs and love from Guatemala. Shannin y Miguel



DONDE ESTA EL DICTIONARY!!

Hola Amigos,
WOW, so here we are we have had a full week of classes and today was our first day of our 2nd week. It is amazing so far how far we have come. and let me tell you I am very motivated to study, for those of you who know me (this is michael by the way)I do NOT study..lol. my attention span is like that of a 5 year old. But I am inspired( and frustrated) by my lack of ability to communicate. The good news is things are starting to make more sense. verbs are a very tricky part of the Spanish language and the process of how they work is becoming a bit easier. It's really funny to get here and only be able to say hola and bueno. and now i actually have some descriptive adjectives i can use. Well, any ways. Today we got to visit a not for profit organization that helps children, homeless families, malnutritioned kids...and many other services. click here to see their web site
we have our first day this Wednesday working with malnutritioned babies. we will be feeding, changing, and loving one these little guys for about 3 hours. we are very excited, and if possible next week we will get to go on a donation run where we will actually go to some of the local farms around Antigua and help gather crops to be donated. what a wonderful chance to help be the hands and feet of God. we also found a english,spanish church for us to go to this next sunday, totaly excited about that cuz sunday we went to our first service here at a HUGE catholic church by the park. the problem was that we are not catholic so we didn't understand much of what was happening and obviously it was all in spanish.lol so it was a pretty interesting experience.

for a weather update, tropical storm matthew has created a whole lot of rain down here. about 3 times more than normal so that's a lot. i think the worst is over for sure and lucky for antigua that's about as bad as it got for us. i know some places to the east got hit pretty hard. there has been some devastation, but luckily not for us. But it does mean that it has rained day and night for about three days straight now. everything is wet. Looking forward to sunshine!

- Miguel

Missing dad

As many of you know, I lost my dad back in February of this year. It has been a year of many changes because of him being gone. Some times I feel like I don’t miss him enough; like I should still be crying every day. Then other times, like now, I am missing him more than ever. This trip has been another stark reminder that dad is not here to share my life with. He is missing out on this adventure in my life. Honestly, I’m a little annoyed about that. I wish I could tell him about the little women with big baskets on their head and about the volcanoes and about how he would love the food here. But I cant. I can only thank God for the times I did have with dad and the stories I did get to share with him for 27 years. Dad would like it here. Its very casual and the people are warm and welcoming. There’s lots of spicy food for him to enjoy. He probably wouldn’t like the cobblestone roads, but he would enjoy cigarettes that are only a nickel a pack! Miss you daddy.

The end of the first week

We have made it through our first week of classes in Guatemala. This week has been full of many experiences and emotions. Its hard to believe its already been a week and I am glad we have another six weeks to continue learning the language. Our teachers have been very patient with us but pretty hard on us too. We are constantly being corrected which is annoying but necessary. At the beginning of the week, Michael needed everything translated for him, but already he is carrying on conversations on his own and understanding a ton. Yesterday, he got a chance to spend a good hour talking to Anebil (the man of the house).


This week we met David and Debbie Amsler. They are Assemblies of God missionaries stationed in Guatemala City. They were very nice. We are hoping to go spend a weekend with them either next weekend or the week after. They have a ministry largely focused on youth. They are going to come down from Guatemala City, about an hour drive, and pick us up and let us serve with them for the weekend. They have been very gracious to help us out. We are excited to see what’s going on in Guatemala City.

We also took a tour of the local hospital here in town. it’s a pretty popular hospital with lots of specialist doctors so people come from all around. It was really crowded when we were there. It was pretty similar to any of our hospitals with the exception of lots of machines. In the states every patient is hooked up to an IV no matter what and there are lots of machines making noise. There were no machines and only a few patients with IV’s. The hospital looked like what I imagine our hospitals looked like in the fifties. The facility was very clean. Actually, everything in Antigua is very clean. Our host family must mop their floors twice a day. The streets of Antigua are clean, the stores are clean. Every where you look, someone is sweeping or dusting or something. Its very nice and something I would not have expected.

Next week we are going to visit some place that is equivalent to a day care. We are going to see if we can maybe volunteer there some. There are kids every where here. And of course, they are all adorable. Many of the kids are trying to sell you stuff. The little girls will sell handmade items like scarves or bracelets. The other day a girl followed us for about a block trying to sell us a scarf. She had some key English phrases memorized like, “good price for you”, “no problem to wash” and my favorite, “business is business”. We busted out laughing when she said that. The little boys work as shoe shiners. They carry around little cases that have all their materials in there and then double as a seat. For the equivalent of a buck, they will shine your shoes.

One of our activities this week was to go to the market and get some local fruits. We got to try the fruits and then we had to do a presentation on the fruits. The markets are really crazy here. Check out this video. In the video, you can see Claritza right in front of me. Ahead of me is Michael with his teacher. The people here in Guatemala are all very short. In this video, you can see Michael towering over other folks. He looks like a giant compared to these people.

Last night I went for a short walk in our neighborhood. There were some boys on the corner playin marbles in the street. I thought I would make friends with them. So, I spent a little time talking to them and trying to understand the game they were playing. When I got ready to leave, the oldest boy, Cristian who is eleven, asked me if I would give him a kiss. It was very flattering, but I had to decline. I told him I had to get home for dinner, which was true.

After dinner last night, we bought several decks of cards and taught the family how to play Nertz. For those who dont know, its like a fast paced, multiplayer solitare. It was interesting trying to teach a game in Spanish. It was good practice for us. I think the family is getting more comfortable with us being there. They are very shy in general and not very sure of us. I told Michael that it feels very much like Dances with Wolves, "the natives are warming up to us", "we still are not communicating well, but they can see our desire to learn their ways". lol

Next week we get to take a tour of the surrounding pueblos. There are several suburbs to Antigua. We will be sure to share some pictures.

We just found out there is a huge tropical storm Mateo. It has caused a lot of rain here. It rained all last night and so far, all day today. There has not been any other storm like conditions. Since it rains every day, its hard to tell a difference.

Shannon

Busy, Busy, Busy

Its amazing, even in Guatemala, the Skyles' are so very busy. We have class in the morning from eight til noon, but breakfast is served at seven, so no sleeping in here. At breakfast, we eat with the family and spend about 45 minutes talking, then off to clase. Class lasts until noon, at which time we walk 15 minutes back home. Lunch is served promptly at 1. Again, we talk with the family for 45 minutes to an hour. So far, we have been taking siesta after lunch. We need it. After siesta, we have to do our homework for the next class. We have also taken this time to go into town and explore and get on the internet. There is a nice cafe here in town that is similar to starbucks, the Guatemalan starbucks.

We can get a carmel latte and unlimited internet for about three bucks. Not a bad deal. The signal leaves something to be desired, but you cant have it all. Dinner is served at 7 pm. All of the family is usually at dinner. So far, the portions have been enormous. At almost every meal, we have had to tell them to give us less. We have two teachers, Claritza (who shannon works with ) and Aracily (who michael works with). We are staying with Claritza and her family. Claritza is married to Anibel. They have been married 22 years. They have five kids. The oldest is Fernando, who is married to Carmen. Carmen is the one who cooks all the meals. They have a two month old baby named Marcos. Next is Daniel, who is 20, then Nancy who is 16 and Diego who is 12. There is another son Pablo, but he works out of town during the week so we have not seen him too much.
There is mucho mas to report, but we must leave for dinner. It's a little bit of a walk and it's important to be on time for dinner. Hasta Luego!

Bienvenedos(welcome) a Guatemala

A beautiful way to start our trip

Our new room on the left and our bano on the right

Our famalias casa

our famalias kitchen

WOW, well here we are. we have arrived in Guatemala. and WOW really is the only word to describe it so far. We had a fairly smooth transition from one airport to the next and even managed to make it through customs without getting arrested, lol.  If you did not get our e-mail from yesterday i will go ahead and fill you in about our casa and our familia. Our host familia picked us up from the airport in Guatemala city and brought us back to Antigua. Antigua is a descent size town with a outstanding mixture of old world and new. The streets are small and made of brick shaped stones, and the houses are very rustic and colorful. we went winding up some streets that a bicycle would be challenged to make it through up to our home. When we arrived our family built a new room and a new bathroom in one week in anticipation of our arrival. apparently they had many late nights working on it. We are amazed, and we feel so welcomed and privilaged. They built our room apart from the rest of the house so we feel more like we have some privacy too. but not too much. the neighbors walls are attached to 2 of ours and also the whole home design is completely open. So unlike america there is very little noise barrier. Here is a picture of our famalias casa with the rooms on the left and completely open on the right. they have 3 rooms, a tiny living room, a small bano (bathroom) and a good sized kitchen. We have had a few meals here now that are typical for Guatamala and i'm happy to announce that none of them are beans and bananas (yet!). lol We have also had a chance to look around the city a bit and it is a big mixture of poor and not so poor. in the central park here you will have a poor famila in old customary myan indian clothes and a familia in holister t-shirts and jeans. but no matter their status they seem to be a very content and easy going, happy people. we feel very safe and very excited to be getting to know the culture and the people. We are very excited to be here, it still feels almost like a dream, but i will tell you that after our first 4 hour class today we might be waking up a bit.lol Thank you all for continuing to pray for us, we know that God is still directing our journey down here and has a great plan for this adventure.We will post again soon so we can keep you up to date with all the exciting and funny things that are happening. Hasta Luego! Miguel y Shanin

What a week!

What a wild ride we have been on for the last couple weeks. Two weeks ago we received an email from Orbitz, the people we booked our flight through. The email said our airline, Mexicana, went bankrupt and our flight had been cancelled! We had no way to get to Guatemala! Michael started making calls immediately. Praise the Lord! He was able to book us on another flight through Delta that left the same day. The flight cost about three hundred dollars more but we were just glad to be able to get a ride! Also, Orbitz said they will refund our money...eventually!
As if that was not heart stopping enough, last Saturday we got an email from our host family. They told us they had overbooked their house and we could not stay with them now. WHAT??? So, we were homeless. We jumped on the Internet and emailed our teacher to ask if she knew any families that might host us. She was so gracious to say we could stay at her home! She has 5 kids and a grandchild that live with her. I am so excited to meet them all. She is also going to pick us up at the airport! What a blessing! God is clearly directing our path very specifically. I'm so excited to be able to trust him to get us where we need to go!
Currently we are still in Chicago with my work. This is where I have been spending all week.

I have been working long days here at the trade show. But, every night I get to go out to delicious dinners in Chicago paid for by the company. REGO-FIX has been kind enough to allow Michael to stay with me for the week. We have been been relaxing in a king sized bed on the 19th floor of the Marriott downtown. Last night we got to talk a walk through Millennium park and see some really cool stuff. Like this giant piece of art with reflective properties.

                                    

We fly out from Chicago on Sunday morning. Its hard to believe that we will be in Guatemala in three days. Wow! We are very excited and very ready to start our new journey. Here at the show, I have met a lot of Spanish speakers and thought to myself, oh, I wish I already knew Spanish so I could communicate better. Very soon!

We will update you all as soon as we land so you know that we made it alive! We cant imagine the journey God has prepared for us!

Thanks to everyone who provided for us on our trip. Many people have provided support for us through finances, gifts for the orphans and gifts of service to us while we are gone. Thank you so much. It means a great deal to us that you are willing to invest in us. God has certainly surrounded us with loving people so that we may follow his call on us.