Guatemala otra vez – el dia cinco

Last night I really didn’t do justice to the complete day. I wrote in the afternoon after returning home for the day and then didn’t come back to the blog after dinner. We had an interesting conversation over dinner. Aside from sharing our family history, we had an opportunity to discuss various customs, such as, the quince años celebrations and weddings here in Guatemala. We compared the customs with those we have experienced in the United States. Leonel tried to get me into a conversation on politics – in particular individual politicians – but I let him know that I was happy to discuss issues, but I do not discuss politicians. After dinner I returned to my room to conjugate “verbos reflexivos”. The only problem was that I had loaned my dictionary to one of the other group members and most of the verbs I needed to use in a sentence (conjugated of course) were not in my verb book, so I had no definition of the words. I explained to my teacher this morning that I could not complete my homework because I didn’t have the definitions to the verbs. My verb book only has 501 verbs in it – as if that isn’t enough! She replied that I needed to get a book with 1,001 verbs in it (with a smile on her face of course).
This morning began as the others with an early exit from bed, shower, devotions, breakfast and then catch the bus at 7:00. When our team gathered for devotions this morning, we had 4 teachers that joined us. It was a great experience as we asked those that felt led to share how God had been working in their lives. That led into an interesting conversation about discrimination in Guatemala. Of course here the people being discriminated against are the Mayans and Asians. Our prayer time was wonderful once again. There is something powerful about having persons from different cultures that speak different languages joining together in prayer. I am looking forward to what will happen in the days before us.
Class was brief this morning as we had a morning activity that began at 9:00. We drove to Guatemala City and there took a tour of the Gallo Cerveza (beer) factory. It was interesting observing the process and hearing about the history of this brewery. We took a tour of the museum at the brewery, toured the actual plant itself, and then settled in for our free samples! Before we left the school, I reminded all of the pastors that drinking alcoholic beverages is not viewed favorably by the evangelical Christians here in Central America, and so we would only sample the soft drinks and water that was offered.
In the afternoon, we had a free day. I spent a little time posting my blog, uploading pictures to Facebook and then Michael and I walked around Antigua. I love the colors, the architecture, the views of the volcanoes, and the diversity of the people. Michael wanted to purchase a Spanish Bible, so we walked around a good part of Antigua trying to find bookstores. We found two that carried Bibles, but Michael was not satisfied with either of the two. Maybe tomorrow he will have better luck. We rejoined the rest of our group at the school and waited for our bus to take us home. The bus drops us off at the gas station and then we all walk different directions to our host homes. I would love to be able to just spend time taking in all of the uniqueness of this place. Unfortunately, I do have to go to school. Tonight, now that I have my dictionary back (Kerry bought one in Antigua this afternoon), I get to complete my previously assigned homework! I love verbos reflexivos – Me encanta verbos reflexivos! Hasta mañana!