The Adventures de Ashley and Kassara: Long overdue post!

I know it has been forever since we have updated the blog. My head was about to be served on a platter! We have a few valid excuses. 1. Kassara has been sick and we haven't had much to write about. and 2. the main reason, our internet has been sooooo slow and it takes forever to upload pictures or to even load the page. Nevertheless, we need to be updating it more often! So much has happened! We went to the cemetery in Senahu, went to a Singles camp out, went to a church wayyyy up in the mountains, and brought happiness to little kids!

There were a bunch of funny little things that happened. We are really sick of being mean to the kids that stole from us, because we are nice people, so we decided to do a little test and see how trustworthy they are. We took a pair of crappy earphones that we got for free on the airplane and set them on the back of the toilet to see if they would return them to us or pocket them. We kept a close eye on them and the next day they were gone! Now we are wondering if the grandma just saw them and assumed that they were one of the kids earphone and put them away, or if one of the kids took them. We might have to try this one more time… but it didn’t make us feel comforted! I guess we will have to continue drinking our delicious liquados in front of them without offering any!

There are these tiny little ants that are ALL over the wall! They love my underwear and my retainers the most! Its so disgusting! The other day I was eating a roll and after I was halfway done I realized that there were hundreds and hundreds of ants throughout the whole roll! I was disgusted, but I did the world a favor and got rid of at least 50 of its ants!

Kassara has been brutally ill for about a week and a half now. If she is not bed ridden she has zero energy and it is hard for her to go anywhere. It is definitely putting a cramp in our style. We think she might have intestinal parasites which is no fun. There is not much that she can eat without feeling awful. We have some medicine for her called "la bomba" which is THE BOMB. We will see what happens with that! haha

One night while we were eating dinner at a comedor a little old man started talking to Kassara. He was asking her where she was from and complementing her hair (nothing too unusual). A little ways into the conversation a little lady came and secretly told Kassara that the old man wanting her. Confused Kassara asked the man if he wanted her hair and he said “no, I want the total package.” Needless to say Kass was a little disgusted. We told him he was too old and were on our way. He was seriously shocked and offended to hear that. CRAZY PEOPLE.

Apparently here in Guatemala, if you have a skirt on you are completely dressed no matter if you have a top or not! We have see people nursing their babies in the street and when the baby is done, they are in no rush to put it away and just let it hang out for a while. We frequently hear the moms asking their kids if they want “chi chi” which are boobies in English. We saw a little kid standing up to nurse in the street. He was probably about 4 years old. We went to visit the Choc family the other day and the mom was in the shower when we got there. Instead of waiting before she was completely dressed to come out and greet us, she came out topless and said “Buenas dias hermanas!” After a minute she decided to cover up, so she put on her sheer garment top and remained that way for the rest of the day. Not your typical United States behavior haha. We love her!

The church is trying to plant gardens all around the town and I helped them start their first on the church grounds! Kass was really sick this day L but I helped with tilling up the ground! And by tilling up the ground I mean cutting out the grass with a pick ax. My shoulders and back were so sore!!! It was an awesome work out. I am excited to help more with it.

Sunday was a bittersweet day. It was such an awesome experience, but Kass was sick and unable to spend it with me.:( I went up to a church way up in the mountains with Guillermo and the district presidency! It was a 90 minute ride in the back of a truck and then about a 30 minute hike up to the church. Not what I was expecting! I was wearing a skirt and sandals and having to walk through mud. Good thing I wasn’t wearing heels! When we got to the church, I was surprised that it was a one room building with folding chairs. There were only 30 people there for the whole meeting. It is crazy how unorganized they were. They didn’t know how to run their own church meetings. The district president gave a talk, Guillermo gave a talk, and I led the music. They asked someone to teach the Sunday school and relief society lesson on the spot and assigned someone to take the kids for primary. It was such a contrast to church in the United States! I am so grateful to have such an organized program every week. I want to help this branch get to that point. The cool thing is, no matter how unorganized it was, the spirit was still there and the gospel is still true. They were all very faithful members trying to do what is right. I would like to go back there again. The people there need lots of help!

This little baby loved me! He just kept hugging me over and over again.

We went on a campout with the young single adults. There are only like 10 in the whole branch! It was really fun. We went on a long hike and eventually ended up at this really awesome two story hut looking thing! While we were on our way, we encountered a man with a mega phone who was announcing something to a big group of people. He asked Kassara if she would like to say something into the megaphone and she of course said yes! She grabbed the microphone, and this is what she said J No one understood a thing! Everyone was smiling and laughing J

It was really dark when we got there. We started making dinner, which was grilled chicken. They were mixing the raw chicken with seasonings and licking their fingers afterwards! We were SO disgusted and told them that they will get sick from doing that! They thought we were the craziest people on earth. They cooked the chicken on an open fire and it was quite delicious! We were really excited because it was chicken breast for once instead of thigh or leg! When it was time to eat, Kassara was called on to say the prayer. She said it in English, which was understood by no one, but a prayer is a prayer no matter what language it’s in! The prayer started out normal, and then somewhere in the middle Kassara said, “and please bless that those people who ate raw chicken wont die.” I lost it and started busting up laughing in the middle of the prayer. After the prayer, no one would say amen, so Kass repeated, “That’s the end. Amen.“. No one had any idea what was just said, and they were looking at me like I was irreverent. Finally, Guillermo got there and explained to them what we said and then they understood! It was hilarious!

We had lots of fun there! They are a funny group of kids. We each took turns singing karaoke, and when I say karaoke I mean singing into a water bottle while music is blaring from a tiny ipod speaker, and had a dance off. During our dance off, this strange kid who is really nice but annoying named Jose showed his true self. We think he really wants to be a stripper. All of the moves he had were stripper like girl moves! It was so hilarious to watch! If it had been lighter we would have recorded him. Right before we went to bed, we started watching planet of the apes. Halfway through the movie Kass and I were tired so we went up to the room, which had a couple beds, and went to sleep! After the movie was over everyone came upstairs and the girls went in the room to try to sleep. The boys were SO loud and inconsiderate! Both Kassara and I are kind of like bears when we get woken up. We hate it! They were singing and laughing and dancing to music ALL. Night. LONG! They didn’t sleep at all, and in return, we barely slept. If I had known that they weren’t going to let me sleep at all I would have at least joined the party!

There is a really pretty pool where we stayed! We had planned on going swimming but Kass was sicker than ever that particular morning. You don’t mess with diarrhea. So we headed back home! It was a really fun trip!

Sonia, Sonia's baby, Jose and Corina.

It was so smoky in this room, that's why the pic didn't turn out so well! This was the kitchen! We cooked our chicken on an open fire! Left to right. Enrique, Miguel, Sonia, Corina, Me, Kass, Jose Maria.

GIANT grasshopper we found along the way! Keep in mind that I have big feet. This thing was HUGE!

Almost to the top of the cemetery!

We found a grave that was busted open!

So naturally, I stuck my camera in the hole and this is what I found! Zoom in! It's really interesting! You can see how many teeth they had when they died! It was so fascinating!