The Adventures de Ashley and Kassara: Fun adventures!

Here in Senahu they celebrate “Kid Day”. Why don’t we have kid day in the states? We have mothers and fathers day! Anyway, it was really fun. They had a giant parade that all of the kids participated in. This happened to be a day that we forgot our camera L but that’s okay!

The dance class that I (Kassara) am teaching is great. There are about 25 four year olds in one small class room with one teacher. At first I was nervous thinking this was a crazy idea because preschool dance classes are hard enough without the added language barrier. The kids are awesome though! They are all so excited to be there and feel so lucky to be learning dance from the American. They all follow me and repeat what I say no matter if it is in English or Spanish. It has become a spanglish class… mixed with some French dance terms. Haha I seriously wish that every class I taught was like this; the kids aren’t being forced by their parents to go to dance, they never get opportunities like this and they feel so privileged. They all try so hard, it is great.

We tried to go to the pool one day, but it was drained, so we decided to go off exploring looking for the cave! We never found it, but we had a beautiful hike!

This is a typical man here in Senahu! They strap this wood to their head to carry it, EVERY DAY. They are so strong.

On Saturday night we were invited to dinner at a families house in Seamay. We love the family and we were having lots of fun playing with the children and teaching them “a boom chika boom“. Seamay is about two miles from were we live and the tuk tuks (mini taxis) usually stop driving around 8:00; so when in Seamay for dinner we usually plan on walking home. As we were finishing up dinner at about 8:30 we heard a tuk tuk out on the road. I (Kass) immediately jumped up and ran out the door to catch it while everyone cheered me on. Well… It was really dark outside… and I ran right off a bridge and fell in the river. It didn’t stop me for long, I jumped out of the river and still caught the tuk tuk with sopping wet shorts. The funniest thing was the reaction inside the house. Everyone had heard me fall and started yelling “Our Kass, our Kass“. The father jumped over the table and chairs to run and get me and the rest of the family followed. The cutest little grandma would not let any of the gringos run after that, she kept yelling despacio, despacio and held on to each persons hips guiding them safely across the bridge. When the family finally reached me they kept rubbing me over and searching for cuts or bruises; I assured them that I was fine but they wouldn’t have it. The little grandma (probably my favorite person here) kept hugging me, telling me she loved me, and rubbing my bum (something she does every time she hugs me). What can I say? She just REALLY loves me. She is so cute. When we arrived home the father called both the Spradlins and us making sure that I was really okay and to tell us they were so worried about me. They are the sweetest family.

This is us with all of the kids and a cousin on the right!

We had a nail painting and makeover party!

Us with the mom, Elsie.

We watched conference today! For the first hour there was no English OR Spanish! Only Kekchi. That certainly made things difficult! Eventually, they got it all figured out and we were able to watch it in English! It was so awesome to hear our own language! I had been looking forward to it all week long! We made conference bingo cards and played with all of the Elders. We also brought a coloring book that Elder Asdel put to good use! Strawberry shortcake is his girl! We were so excited to hear the news that missionaries can leave earlier, Especially the sisters! I really wish that this had happened 3 years ago, then I might have gone on a mission! I have always thought that girls should be able to leave at a younger age. This will improve the quality of the sister missionaries for sure! They wont just be the weird 21 year olds who aren’t married so they decide to go on a mission! The very last session, we were starting to become very ADD. We were playing Pictionary with the elders. Most of the drawings were inside jokes about the Spradlins that we all knew. We were hoping that they didn’t see these drawings, and we came up with a few excuses just in case they asked to see what we were doing!

The construction team here in Senahu! Pay attention to the pregnant ape in the background! He is my favorite. Kassara's great grandpa dug his basement this way(with only a bucket and a shovel).

A chicken eating chicken... Is this disturbing to anyone else or just us?? Pollo Express baby!!!

The branch president Eric asked me if I (Kassara) would dance at a big town gathering to raise money for the youth to go to EFY. When we first got there it was a little crazy and very unorganized… which is how everything goes here in Guat. There were tons of people in a gym and little boys running around playing games. Whenever ash and I would stand up and walk over to get food, or test the music the crowd would cheer. One time in particular, Ashley blew a kiss and the crowd went crazy! It was really embarrassing. It is nice to have the attention at times but just awkward that people are watching our every movement just because we are the white blonde girls. We stand out like a sore thumb. When it finally got started they announced that Ashley and I would be having a dance off with two high school boys. We were so confused and were wondering if this what the president meant when he asked me to dance. We had the dance off and it was pretty hilarious. The boys had no comebacks and we were just dancing away. The boys refused to dance until someone turned on ” I’m sexy and I know it.” they then waited until the chorus, flexed their muscles a few times and did some uncomfortable pelvis thrusts in our direction. Needless to say, we dominated. After that they announced that I would be dancing. I had made up just a little minute long dance and improved some. It was not great by any means but they were in awe because they had never seen anything like it. People don’t really stretch or exercise that much here so their type of dance is just a lot of running in place and shaking their hips a lot. They boys here actually dance a lot more than the girls here and when they dance they do sexy girl stripper moves. I guess that is “cool” here because they never act like it is a joke and we have seen several of them do it. The Spradlins and their daughter also danced. The Spradlins did a swing dance together and Natalie did a clogging/folk dance/something. After the four of us danced there were several performances by youth and by two gymnastic classes. The gymnastic classes mostly marched into different formations and yelled things. It was pretty much a cheer routine and they were all dressed in cheer attire. The older group had some awesome lifts though! The top person in the lift would do front flips and the bases would catch them. It was really quite impressive.

So there is this one drunk guy who just happens to love me (Kass). Every time he sees me he walks up and stutters something great. Most of the time I can’t understand him at all (partly because he is stuttering and partly because my Spanish sucks) The first time he saw me he tried to teach me a handshake and then grabbed on tight to my arm and wouldn’t let go. I told him I needed to go to my house but he insisted I stay so I pried his fingers off of my arm. The next time he told me that he loved me and that he wanted my body. Definitely not my favorite guy in the town.

The Choc family invited us over for Caldo to celebrate Elder Spradlins birthday. It was so delicious! Probably the best caldo we have had since being here. They are such a sweet family! Towards the end of the night we sang hymns and had a little spiritual thought. When we were saying goodbyes, the parents thanked all of us for coming into their home and they said that it was such an honor. They said that they felt so blessed to have the daughter of Gordon in their house and that they consider me to be their sister. They also said that they are a poor family, but they have the spirit in their home and that is all that matters. They are so amazing!

We met another family today that has nothing. The little kids were dressed in rags and had no shoes. The babies didn’t even pants or under wear and were sitting in the dirt. The parents were not very friendly but told us we could play with their kids who spoke absolutely no Spanish, only kekchi. We blew bubbles with them and had a lot of fun. While we were playing with them the two year old little boy kept lifting up his shirt. Besides the fact that he had no pants or underwear, we realized that he was so malnourished. We are hoping that we can help this family as well. This is the family!

Cute little girl playing bubbles! Her name is Vilma. She wears the same dress every day.