Celebrating Thankfulness

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ~Philippians 4:4-7

This Thanksgiving marked my 4th Thanksgiving abroad. Even though I should be used to it by now I always get a little homesick. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I love it even more than Christmas even though Christmas is a whole season and Thanksgiving is just a day. My first Thanksgiving away from home was when I studied abroad in Costa Rica. I remember having a dinner with my LASP classmates. Nothing too fancy. The second was when I lived here in Guatemala in 2008. I was lucky enough to be invited to a "real" Thanksgiving dinner by my good friends, Traci and Jared. We had an awesome dinner with other local NGO workers and volunteers. That Thanksgiving marked the beginning of my tradition of making broccoli casserole no matter where I am. It's one of my favorite holiday dishes and something my aunt has always made for Thanksgiving dinner.

Last year, Dan and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a married couple in Bolivia. It was also his first Turkey Day (my family's nickname for Thanksgiving) outside the US. While I don't think anything can really compare to our very special Bolivian Thanksgiving last year, we of course wanted to celebrate in some way.

On Wednesday night my bosses (a married couple who are Australian and American) hosted a grand feast. They provided TWO turkeys, gravy, stuffing, and more. They also asked everyone to bring a dish. With over 40 attendees it was packed and there was a TON of food! We brought along a green bean dish that I found via Pinterest. It was a hit! I was dying for pumpkin pie and my prayers were answered! We forgot the camera so you will just have to take my word for it. It was delicious! We had a team here this week working with Mayan Families so they came, along with all of the foreign workers and some other local Americans and Canadians.

Dan and I decided to host our own little gathering on Thanksgiving Day since after all, our bosses gave us the day off. Also, Dan loves cooking so he wasn't going to pass up the chance to be in the kitchen all day. We invited some of our close friends here in Pana and had a delicious dinner including: homemade tofurky (tofu cooked like a turkey), mushroom stuffing with walnuts, homemade mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, broccoli casserole (my contribution), corn on the cob, and cranberry sauce (bought at a local gringo store. A bit of a splurge but I just had to have it.). Dan spent ALL day cooking and everything turned out delicious!

the feast!

For beverages, we had wine and beer. And for dessert, we had carrot cake, brownies, gluten-free carrot bread with homemade cream cheese icing, and a special Swiss treat that translates to "moist cookie" I think. It was similar to a brownie, but with banana in it. I made a new friend here who is from Sweden and it was her first ever Thanksgiving celebration. It was nice to keep the tradition going of sharing Thanksgiving with people from other countries even if it was just in a small way! :)

my plate full of Thanksgiving goodies

celebrating with friends! :)

Besides from eating until I nearly burst, I also got a chance to go for a quick swim and reflect on what I am thankful for. Even though we are far away from family I am grateful for each one of our family members and I cannot wait to see them all during Christmas! I am also thankful for:

~ my amazing husband

~his patience, encouragement, & constant love
~ his fantastic cooking skills

~ the chance to live and work in a beautiful place. Guatemala is abounding in beauty 

from the lake to the people to the textiles. It's bursting with it!

~ jobs where we learn and grow

~ good health

~ our beautiful little family including the pup!

hoto credit goes to:  http://www.naomifigueroaphotography.com/

Lucia lounging in the yard w/ her chewed up ball

Photo credit (for the Lucia pic) goes to Naomi Figueroa Photography.

I leave you with this- A psalm for giving thanks. 

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!

It is he who made us, and we are his; 

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

his steadfast love endures forever,

and his faithfulness to all generations.

~Psalm 100 

May we all take a moment to spend time reflecting and giving thanks and praise for all the good things and people in our lives!

Something I’m Really Excited About

For those of you who follow me on Facebook you know that I am kind of freaking out about our upcoming trip to the States in December. One fried described me as ecstatic. :) Last year we spent Christmas in Bolivia and although we tried our best to make it “our own” it was still extremely difficult to be far away from our loved ones. We chopped down a tree, decorated it, and made delicious homemade Christmas cookies, but it just wasn't the same. Although there are some things I really dislike about Christmas (mostly the commercialization and extreme consumerism), excitement still wins over.

Last time we were in the US (this past June) we had a chance to speak at my in-laws’ church. We shared about what we’re doing here in Guatemala and how we see God working in and through our lives. After the service we stood in the lobby with a little table answering questions, handing out prayer cards, and receiving donations for ANADESA- the NGO I worked with here in Guatemala in 2008 and 2009. We brought some handmade beaded key chains and Christmas ornaments made by the women’s co-operative of ANADESA and we gave them to people who made a small donation. It was through this experience that my mother-in-law, Debbie, had the idea to do what we're going to do in December….

Debbie is going to host a small open-house party at the Katyl’s home in Northeast PA where Dan and I are going to sell handmade, fair-trade Guatemalan goods.   Most of the items we’ll be selling are from ANADESA’s co-operative of 20 women located in Santiago Atitlan just a short boat ride from where we now live. I just visited them yesterday to put in an order and the more I think about this the more excited I get! We will be selling mostly jewelry since that is what people were requesting last time. We’ll have tons of handmade beaded bracelets, some earrings, Christmas ornaments and key chains. I also plan to take some change purses and small bags made out of used Guatemalan textiles. We will have a presentation of sorts that explains more about ANADESA and Mayan Families (where we currently work) and we will be using the profits that we make to make a donation or to buy more goods to sell the next time we come home.

An example of the types of bracelets we'll be selling

Lots of people that come to Guatemala do exactly what we’re doing so I think it’s a good idea. Many people in the US have never seen the plethora of amazing artisan goods here in Guatemala. It’s truly amazing what the people (especially women) here create and how they have passed on these traditions generation after generation. Although it is a little scary since we are investing a few hundred dollars in this venture, I am hopeful that we will have a good turnout and that people will want to buy the products.

For those of you that live in Northeast PA please come out to our open house on Sunday, December 16^th at the Katyls’ home and help us spread the word! (Dan and I plan to create an Evite soon to make inviting people even easier.) I realize that most of our blog readers live in other parts of the country or world so for all of you, please check out our good friends’ online store featuring hand-made, fair-trade Guatemalan artisan products- Las Casas: Make Life Fair. We met Jenny and David while they were working here in Guatemala with Mayan Families and they quickly became very good friends. They have since returned to the U.S. and launched their own business which is like a small scale Ten Thousand Villages. Please check it out and tell your friends! 

I think we can all agree that Christmas is a time of crazy consumerism. I know I have fallen prey to buying stuff I don’t need or even truly want. Why not use your dollars to support a worthy cause? With these products you receive a unique handmade product and you can also feel good knowing you are supporting indigenous Guatemalan women! :) 

And the verdict is....

What is that saying? "Tell God your plans and He laughs" or something like that. I think that is actually what happened up there in the Heavens a few months ago when I declared, "There is no way that I am staying here [in Guatemala] through December! No way!". My good friend and former co-worker, Jenny, may remember me saying this. It was during an especially frustrating time at work.

As many of you know (or may have suspected due to what one friend called my "cryptic" Facebook statuses), Daniel and I have been applying and interviewing for jobs for months now. At times I have felt like an interviewing machine. I was joking one day that I could interview in my sleep! Spanish and English. Individual interviews and joint interviews together. We have been busy and for me, it has been an emotional process. I don't know about other people, but when I interview for a position my mind starts whirling. I start thinking about what it would be like to live in such and such a place, to work with such and such NGO, etc. I envision what our lives would be like- the day to day, the adventures, and the challenges. I think of the good, the bad, and the logistics of how we would get there, how much time we would commit, what our finances would be like. For me, job searching is a complicated process that involves more than just an hour for an interview. It involves my heart, my mind, and considering how it will affect my little family. I say all this to explain where I have been the past few months. While Dan is way more relaxed when it comes to things like this, I tend to be much more high-strung. I am a planner and I like to know what we are doing and when. I often ask Dan on the weekends, "Ok. So what's the plan?". By that I mean what are we doing today?, what do we need to accomplish and how are we going to accomplish it?

Rewind to a couple weeks ago, Dan and I interviewed for a job with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Honduras. MCC is the organization I worked with here in Guatemala in 2008 and it has always been a dream for Daniel and me to work with them as a married couple. It felt a bit surreal to interview with our "dream NGO" and we were relieved that the interview went well. (Interviewing as a couple is a really interesting experience. Imagine doing an interview with your significant other, answering questions side by side! It can be tricky, but I feel like we are getting it down.). After the interview the waiting game began. As someone that is naturally a worrier, I tried my best to keep praying in order to keep the anxiety at bay. I won't go into detail because it'd just be too confusing, but while this process was going on with MCC we were also interviewing with a couple other NGOs here in Guatemala and in other Latin American countries. We were juggling a lot of possibilities and I found it challenging to keep it all in perspective. It was definitely a test of my patience, faith and trust. I kept praying asking God to give us direction, but Dan and I were both struggling to understand where God was guiding. For me, it was difficult to have all of this going on while also balancing work and our everyday lives here. We didn't tell many people here about all of this because the result would greatly affect how much time we have left here and we didn't want to alarm anyone.

Well, on Friday we finally got some clear direction. We were not accepted for the position with MCC in Honduras. The other jobs we applied for did not work out for one reason or another and although we were offered a position with an awesome NGO in Costa Rica, we decided that it is not the right fit for us right now. After receiving the news from MCC, Dan and I both felt a sense of clarity- God is not calling us anywhere new right now or in other words, God is telling us to STAY PUT! Well, surprise surprise! I can just imagine God up there in heaven having a good laugh at my expense. :)

Celebrating our 1 year wedding anniversary in August

This was obviously neither the plan nor the answer that we were expecting, but I guess God likes to throw curve balls sometimes. Although our lives are not perfect here in Panajachel, as I posted recently we are finally feeling settled and content. Despite the challenges we face with our current positions, we feel like God is working in and through our lives here and like staying a little while longer is the right option for us right now. Just how much longer, you ask? Well, we don't have an exact answer to that. It all depends on what happens and on which doors open. Right now we are thinking we will stay until spring or summer 2013. We are hopeful that there will be new positions opening up with MCC in Latin America that we may be a good fit for, but at this point we really don't know. Our hearts' desire is to work with MCC, but I am trying to trust in God's timing with that. As I was telling someone recently our "next step" could be something we don't even know about at this point. Time will tell.

So for now, we are digging in our heels and committing ourselves to being here. We are being present and taking a break from looking for what's next because honestly, it has been a pretty exhausting process! We are focusing on work and play, on friendship, community, and our lil' two person, one puppy family. AND we are really looking forward to traveling to the US for Christmas! (Thank you to our very generous family for that amazing present!!!) Thanks to all of you for your prayers during this difficult time! I know it hasn't been easy on our loved ones, especially our immediate family, when we tell them we don't know what we are doing or where we're going. We appreciate the prayers and encouragement we have received from many! And remember if you have been thinking about coming to visit us in Guatemala, you still have time!! ;)

I will leave you with this verse that was shared during our worship service today. It was reminder to me that God is working and continues to work in our lives here even if at times, we struggle to see it.

Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹ Behold, I am doing a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:18,19 

What I Really Do

Hello! Hello! First of all, I apologize for the lack of posting lately. Not having internet in our home has been good in some ways, but it has also made emailing and blog posting much more challenging. For this reason, our blog has been a bit neglected lately. On the other hand, not having internet has encouraged us to rely less on the world wide web for entertainment, to focus more on our lives here and has forced us to spend time doing other activities like reading (which I have been doing a lot of lately) or going on a walk with Lucia.

I was sitting back and thinking about what I should post about and I realized I haven’t written much about my job. Aside from my family and very close friends I feel like most people don’t know what I do here so I was inspired to write this blog post titled “What I Really Do”. When people find out that I work in Guatemala I think they envision something awesome and perhaps even glamorous. Or at least something like me in the middle of a village playing soccer with a million children while also simultaneously saving lives.

I am not hating on Angelina (she does some great things!)
Just wanted to give you a visual.

Well, I hate to break it to all of those dreamers, but the truth is my job is mostly an office job. This means I spend most days at my desk in front of my computer writing and answering emails. Woooooo! Let me explain. My job (Education Program Coordinator at Mayan Families) can be broken down into two parts:

#1- Administrative work With over 2,000 sponsored students to keep track of there is a LOT to do administratively. My co-worker, Laura, and I were the only TWO English-speaking people working in this department until recently a really hot new guy was hired. Haha I am talking about Dan (my Dan). He is now working at Mayan Families and we sit side by side. Awww :) Having him working with us has definitely helped us share the load. Before I was hired Laura was doing our job solo!

Laura and I share the same position so we try to divide the tasks. She deals a lot with payments (sponsors pay throughout the year for their sponsored students and it can get really confusing) and I deal a lot with asking for money. Mayan Families allows sponsors to be as involved in their sponsored students’ lives as they desire. In some cases the sponsors have requested to be contacted if their student needs anything, but in general, we write sponsors if their students have an extra school-related need. These are things that our yearly sponsorship fee doesn’t cover things like parade uniforms, graduation fees, and field trips. Lately, this has taken up a huge chunk of my time. In the past three months, I have written over 100 emails for extra school costs! Every email is personalized so I write them one by one. Ah! (Just a side note: ALL of Mayan Families’ money comes from individual donors and sponsors.  No grants or government funding.)

Something that Laura and I both do is answer questions from sponsors. They vary from legit concerns to questions that make you want to bang your head against the wall. Recently, someone asked if I could send a map marked with the location of Mayan Families’ office and with the location of where her student lives. Really!? Even though answering questions can be extremely tedious and time consuming, it’s a really important role because we act as the connectors between the sponsors and their sponsored students.

We also sign up new sponsors, promote students needing sponsorship on the website and Facebook, and write newsletter articles and stories.

#2- Field work The other part of my job is getting out of the office and into the field. I think it goes without saying that this is the part I love the most! Oftentimes sponsors come down to Guatemala to visit. Mayan Families offers all visiting sponsors the chance to get to meet their sponsored students. My role is to coordinate the sponsor visit with the student and his/her family. On the day of the visit I accompany the sponsor to the student’s home and act as a guide and a translator.

Mayan Families (MF) works in various villages in the Lake Atitlan region. MF runs 7 Preschool Nutritional Centers in 7 different villages, but our students are not limited to just these villages. I’d guess MF has sponsored students in over 20 villages so when a sponsor comes down we could be traveling over an hour (usually in the back of a pick-up truck!) to get to a village. This past week we went to a village about 45 minutes away and then hiked almost half a mile to a student’s home! Mayan Families has vehicles and drivers on staff that transport MF staff and visitors. I am always accompanied by a local Guatemalan that speaks Kaqchikel- the local indigenous language. It’s very common for the entire visit to be translated twice- I translate from English to Spanish, then the Guatemalan worker translates from Spanish to Kaqchikel and vice-versa. It can be time consuming, but it’s 100% necessary since many of MF’s sponsored students and families do not speak Spanish. Oftentimes the parents of our sponsored students have never studied and cannot read or write or only have an elementary level education.

Checking out a family's kitchen during a home visit

For me, this is by far the most satisfying part of my job. The visits are really meaningful for both the Mayan families and for the sponsors. For the families and sponsored students it’s really special to put a face to a name. Oftentimes, they do not even know their sponsor’s name until they meet him or her. They just know them as “godfather” or “godmother”- the translation of the Spanish word we use padrino or madrina. For the sponsors, the visits are usually a really touching experience. Most of the families in our program live very, very simply and it’s extremely humbling to see their living conditions. Many times the families have dirt floors, cook on open fires, sleep on woven straw mats and do not have clean drinking water. The conditions vary, but I have seen some very difficult living situations that have brought me to tears. It’s very common to enter a kitchen and see no food or hardly any at all. What a contrast to our stocked fridges and pantries.

During the visits I interview the family and take notes writing down basic info and also recording their greatest needs. This is information I then pass on to the sponsor in case they want to meet any of the family’s needs. Sponsors are never obligated to provide anything beyond the yearly sponsorship fee, but many times they purchase items for their sponsored students and families; gifts include things like water filters or a fuel-efficient wood burning stove.

Visiting another family who was very much in need

Today at church the message was on humility and upon seeing the subject my mind was immediately drawn to the many home visits I have participated in. It’s incredibly humbling to see people living in very challenging circumstances yet despite them they are kind, loving, and grateful for the support they are receiving especially for the opportunity to give an education to their children. It’s common for these families to give the sponsors (and sometimes me too) a thank you present during the visits. Families that can barely afford food go out of their way to purchase or make a present to say thank you. It’s pretty incredible and heart-warming. I have had the opportunity to witness some pretty magical moments in the field. Sometimes I have to struggle not to burst into tears! In fact, this past week I was doing a visit with a sponsor and he brought clothes for his sponsored student- a little girl about 5 years old. He was handing her the clothes (a sweater and a couple of pink long sleeve t-shirts) and all of a sudden she BURST into tears. I was confused about what was happening until her mother said that the little girl was so happy because she had never been given such beautiful things. It was truly a moving moment!

Although I love being out in the field it can also be very exhausting. This past week we were busy with a group of 10 and after two very long days in the field I was struggling. I felt run down and like I was fighting a cold. I love being around others and being that bridge between visitors and locals (something I am passionate about and feel gifted in), BUT I was reminded this week of the importance of rest.

Cheesin! Walking through a corn field
to the home of the family in the photo above.

Thanks for reading this post! I hope it gives you a better idea of what I am doing here in Guatemala with Mayan Families. If you have any thoughts or questions please send them my way! Look out for a post soon from Daniel about what it’s like to make international cuisine here in Guatemala.

ONE LAST THING.... Sometimes someone just really makes an impression on your heart and that's what happened to me with the family above (the photo where I am sitting on the stool). This family was so kind and very poor. They lived in a very isolated location and their house was in rough shape. They only have one child sponsored through Mayan Families. If you are interested in helping them especially by sponsoring one of their children to go to school please shoot me an email at my work address- rachel[at]mayanfamilies[dot]org
Thanks!