This week new missionaries have come. Here are some of their experiences from the first few days in San Ramon.
It is truly amazing how this group of missionaries came together... Adam and Chris Cole who have been here... Jess Pankus who graduated from Franciscan University a year ago and works as a graphic designer, Courtney Paquin who also graduated a year ago from Belmont Abbey College and has been working in Charlotte, Ariel Roland who graduated this May with Adam Trufant from Belmont Abbey College, her sister Sarah Roland who goes to Appalachian State but is taking off this semester for the purpose of traveling, Chris Link an incoming senior at Spring Hill College and Marie Celeste Robichaux an incoming junior at Louisiana State University.
(Jess) OK so we are staying in this Mayan Village of 400 residents. They live in home-made huts created from palm branches and shaved sticks and logs. Upon arrivial Adam took us on a tour of the town. Standing in the street in front of the school, Adam stops and points in all four directions and says..."that’s the end of town over there.......over there.....over there....and over there". We are staying at the school which is made out of concrete with tile floors.....(yes mom we are sleeping on the floor) which actually has been so great. Naturally sleep comes easily after playing around with these kids all day. The kids are great......they just love that we are here and cant get enough of us. They are taking classes for English, but speak it about as well as I speak Spanish.....(um....si...no.....que?) So its interesting communicating. Luckily a few of the missionaries here are pretty good at Spanish! Everyday a few of us....get to go to eat at one of the villagers house. It is most often black beans and eggs with tortillas. sometimes rice is added to the eggs. Sometimes you get served mystery meat....which we avoid. The last meal I had was a little more special in that they served us a broth with chicken and noodles in it (Mayan chicken noodle soup) which was excellent! We also got a delicacy of rice milk. (literally rice soaked in sugar and milk.....with the rice still in it) it was a meal in and of itself. The people here are so so simple but have so much joy. My all time favorite thing.....is the bucket shower time that we get. In between two of the school buildings are set up two sheets to give privacy......you take your bucket of water.....your soap.......and you clean yourself. Its amazing the things you realize you can live without.....when there is no need for them. It has been such a blessing to see how easy it is to live with nothing but what you need.
(MARIE CELESTE aka MC): Hola, Bax Cawalik! (bash-kawaleeek!) This is the Mayan greeting meaning “Hello!” These first few days have been full of new words, new foods, new faces and new lessons. When we arrived, we were greeted by Adam, sporting a beard which is an interested talent when compared to the relatively hairless men here. After we dropped our belongings in the school where we are sleeping, Adam brought us on a tour of the town. One of my favorite sounds on this trip so far was introduced then... a high-pitched call that carried from across the town, “AAAAAAAA-DAAM!” The honesty of these people is truly impressive, they are simple in their judgment of “new.” Adam’s joy and kindness quickly won him a celebrity-like status among the people, hence the throng of admirers that followed our group in the tour. It was intimidating at first, I was quick to doubt my ability to win the love of these people as Adam and “CHREEEEEEEEES” (Chris Cole) had. However, the answer to this mystery was revealed to me quite accidentally. After praying the evening rosary in the town’s make-shift chapel, we were standing in the streets with the children, who had not decided yet what they thought of us. All of a sudden, we heard a low rumbling coming from the back road. It took me a second to realize it was a bus! The children began laughing and screaming as they ran around, joking about getting out of the way of el autobus. Seeing the joy they got from this simple game, I began running and screaming with them! FREEZE. They all stopped and looked at me for a second, as if deciding whether or not it was ok to have this crazy girl join in, made up their minds it was a good thing, and then carried on! One of the best things I have experienced is the sense of humor of these people. I came upon three of the young boys calling Chris Link “Meees Chreees!” My first instinct was that they were calling him a bad word because they laughed SO hard when they said it! When I finally got the translation, I was suprised and laughed pretty hard myself. “Meees” is Mayan for “Cat,” and because it rhymed with Chris’s name, it seemed only natural to tack it onto his official title.
Ariel and I had a phenomenal time teaching in the village Tac Chivo, where the lesson began with walking along the streets and informing the people that “un lesson de ingles esta en la iglesia en diez minutos!”
(Ariel) One of my highlights was when we divided up into groups and went around to a couple of villages to teach English and catechism which MC mentioned above. Paul, a good (and goofy) friend from Cancun who has been joining Adam and Chris this week, Marie Celeste, and me were dropped off in a small village called Tac Chivo. After walking around to the different huts we went to more or less the center of town and we ended up having an English lesson of about 50 Mayans of all differt ages. It was so awesome!
(Sarah) I am so glad that, for whatever reason, i decided to come here. This is just fantastic. I can’t think of any place i would rather be. I want to build a hut like this in Louisiana and never leave... but then i would lack the community and abundance of palm leaves to keep me as content as i find myself here. perhaps i will wait for a midlife crisis to make such plans, and i could plant some palm trees so my lack of roofing supplies would not be my only limitation if/when the time comes. Kidding. Maybe. Yo hablo muy pequeno espanol. Because of this, i thought it would be difficult to communicate, much less teach english. It is much better than i had imagined. With everyone in good spirits in the classroom, it is easy to communicate, especially because the children are very smart and eager to learn.
This week there will be a large group of friends from Cancun coming to join the 7 of us in missions. More later!
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