Over the Mountain and Through the Mud

After studing in Antigua for about 3 weeks, Maria and I are back in Jalapa. We are here to help at the school and also to observe. This is our training session since next year when we come, we will be jumping right in. The kids are so cute and capture your heart. They have learned so much over this year and can understand most of what you say in English. This is a big accomplishment since, at the beginning of the year, they knew no English at all!

Br. Rickenbach travels to many different churches every Sunday. So this Sunday, we went with them. There were 12 of us all together. We were going to a church that was up the mountain about 6 miles away. It took us 30 minutes to get there. This road was very bumpy and we rattled our way up it. I say road but it was more like a unpaved trail. Its been raining here a lot and the rain left huge puddles. So going up you got your head rattled a bit. But the view was like none other. It was gorgeous!! The green hills backdropped by baby blue skies made it look like a painting.

The church was a small but very nice. There were about 40 people there including us. We had a good service there. I wish I understood more. It makes the service seem a little longer when you can understand most of what they are saying. Though they say mostly hymns that we knew in English so that was nice. Boy, do they love to sing. After service we went to the pastor's house and ate dinner. I thought we were going jump in our car and drive there. But no. We walked through the muddy trail (and I use the word lightly) to get to the pastors house. All of us brought other shoes to wear because of the mud. I was so afraid I was going to slide down the hill and land face first in the mud but I didn't. If anyone else would have seen us sliding up and down those hills they would have laughed.

We had a nice time at the pastor's house. They served us a chicken dinner with the best tortillas. Down here, they fix a chicken dinner different than we do but boy was its good. After dinner they served us roasted corn on the cob and a very sour fruit that I can't remember the name of. I thought that was different. After dinner was over then we slid our ways back up the hill to our car to go home

Being here makes me really realize how convient everything is in the States. We have so many things at our fingertips and it is easy to get what we need. It is also easy to get places too. I guess, lots of things I took for granted. Being in another culture opens your eyes. Not only do you learn about the way other people live but you see your own culture in a new light as well. But more on that later......