A Trip To The Countryside

Ah, so a much needed update has been long overdue. Apologies for my web absence, but in the life of the real, many a thing has happened. Wow, so the last thing I wrote about was an earthquake!? That was AGES ago! :p Well, not long after experiencing the earthquake, Lorenzo, the head construction leader that works for Shalom invited Ivan and I to his son�s 7th birthday party to eat duck. I didn�t know this at the time, but for a guy like Lorenzo (a typical poor Guatemalan who lives in the countryside,) to invite someone to have a special meal with him at his house is a huge sign of respect and friendship.

Ivan and I met together the Saturday morning of Lorenzo�s son�s birthday and started to take the long drive to his house. Along the way Ivan started to coach me about how to act in this situation, for example, �Don�t ever reject food when they offer it. They have been fattening this duck for a special occasion for a long time, so make sure you eat some. Make sure you don�t pass gas at the dinner table.� (That last one was a joke BTW.) Ivan was kind of starting to scare me a little when he began to talk about the foods that I need not eat as an American who was accustom to an American diet. When I asked him, �So what if they offer me some of the polluted water they drink?� He responded with, �Let�s hope they don�t offer something like that to you, because you will have to drink it; all of it.�

When we arrived to the little town and met up with Lorenzo, he gave us a small tour of the water plant of the town. Now when I say �water plant,� I don�t mean a multi-billion dollar facility with state-of-the-art water filtering techniques, but a small hut with a water pump in it that drew water from a well. Lorenzo is one of the leaders in the government in his town and he is the leader of the water division.

After the small �water treatment plant� tour, we made our way by foot to Lorenzo�s house. As we walked along the dirt road, the smell of burning wood filled the air. The sound of chickens and horses grew stronger as Lorenzo�s neighborhood got closer. When we arrived at the neighborhood gate (a piece of tin roofing hammered into the form of a gate,) we were greeted by all kind of smiling faces and �Hola!��s from his neighbors.

We walked along the dirt path that lead into Lorenzo�s neighborhood of about ten houses and reached the end of the road where Lorenzo�s house was. His wife was preparing the duck in a pot that was carefully placed above a wood fire. The children were waiting patiently at the front of the house to welcome the guests. His horse was tied up as he feed and his chickens were pecking at the ground in their cramped, fenced-in area like little crazy men in solitary confinement.

Lorenzo wanted to show us his land that he was farming on, so he pulls out his �farming gear� which included a few bags of water, a hat, a �man purse� and most importantly, a machete. As we started to walk up the hill towards the land, Lorenzo�s dad was coming down the hill with a full load on his horse. He stopped to give Ivan his machete and a new weapon � a slingshot. At first I thought the slingshot was some kind of joke, but they were very serious when they said that it is for their protection. Apparently it doesn�t matter if you are Goliath; they could take you out with this slingshot.

As we headed up the hill, I soon realized that this wasn�t a hill that we were climbing, it was a mountain. I also soon came to the realization that his land wasn�t �next door,� but on top of the mountain. After hiking forever up-hill and taking a quick water break for Lorenzo to teach Ivan a few lessons in machete fighting, we finally reached the land. He had all kinds of crop growing including corn, apples and peaches. When we got to the peach tree, Lorenzo offered all the peaches on the tree to Ivan and I; another huge sign of respect and friendship. After taking a whole lot of peaches off the tree and sticking some into a bag and others in our mouths, we finally called it quits when the bag started getting too heavy and headed back down the mountain to have duck with the rest of the family.

This past Sunday at church, we had the Lord�s Supper. It was the first time I had had the Lord�s Supper with Shalom. When we all drank the grape juice in unison, I immediately squinted my eyes when it touched my tongue and thought, �Ugh! This grape juice is awful, it�s nothing like the Welch�s grape juice in the States that Immanuel uses for their Lord�s Supper, this stuff isn�t even sweet!� But after I pulled the tiny cup away from my mouth, my reaction changed a bit, �But the aftertaste is quite enjoyable.� Then I felt this warm sensation move down my esophagus then it hit me, my mom used to give me this cough syrup that had quite a bit of alcohol in it and it had the same warming sensation as this �Guatemalan grape juice.� �Wow! That was real wine!� I thought to myself, �Real wine in a Baptist church!? That would be UNHEARD of in the Sates!� :p

For those of you who know me, you know my stance on drinking any kind of alcohol, the bible does not forbid it, but it does say that if what you do makes a weaker brother stumble, it is a sin. Since there are so many that associate drinking any kind of alcoholic beverage a sin (especially in the Baptist church in the Sates,) it is not wise to go out and drink. The fact that I don�t drink has even become a witnessing tool on many occasions (one that helped open up a conversation when I first got to Guatemala.) So I say this to my defense, I DIDN�T KNOW!! :p Besides, what better place to have your first real taste of wine than in church during the Lord�s Supper. But don�t you guys worry, although I liked the aftertaste, I am not going out and hitting up the bars now, my witness would be shattered in many different ways if I did that.

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