Between Christmas and New Years

December 27, 2007

My phone broke again. Bummer, it still works, but I can’t see or look up anything on the screen. It’s been a good phone, but I fear its days are numbered. Although, it saves me money cause I can’t call anyone. Just in case this thing happened though, I saved 2-4 on the quick dial one random day for Daddy, Rick, Cari…..1 is voicemail haha…one from each fam. So, if I decide to call anyone, it will be one of your cells :)

Let’s see….Christmas night, there were more “cuetes” or m80s, wonderful….as well as the procession of Nino Dios….Child God, from the son’s house to the manger scene in the Lopez house. They sang songs on the way, and had candles and the twinklers and roman candles lol. The scene ended with Rosary, still having trouble with that one in Spanish….and the Our Father…. And the Creed…. And the Mass, hahaha. Oh well.

Getting their prayer on.

Ummm yesterday, I got stood up by a high school chick. Haha. Naa… well actually yeah… the third day of distributing clothes came, and she didn’t show, nor did the other part of the group, but their attendance wasn’t necessary. Anyways, after a while, I returned the clothes and then got a quick cut of the thing on my face, and then hit up the internet, before walking back to me hoose with Don Raul.

Their manger with Baby Jesus just arriving.

Today, I distributed clothes with what was supposed to be the last day of this, but that will be Saturday with the girl that stood me up, apparently she was waiting in her community. Anyways, we left and got all that out of the way, in my own community, La Comunidad. We visited places, and helped out getting oranges that were out of reach for a while, that was fun….and then I ate lunch in the scholarship girl’s house. Wow. Super Catholics. I think I have a picture of their living room…it was a collage of Jesus in the living room, and FC Barcelona, the soccer team, in the next, haha. Naa, but they are very, very religious….I made the mistake of asking where he got a poster that quoted Matthew 26 as “Esto significa mi cuerpo”… “This signifies my body” below the painting of the Last Supper. I gave him a brief background and how people want it to say that in the States, but it doesn’t, and that translation is how you can distinguish between different faiths there. All other translations that I have ever seen have been “Esto es mi cuerpo…” etc, as well in English. Well, he was full of questions and explanations etc etc after that about that whole deal, oops. I really didn’t mean to bring that whole thing up, but I couldn’t help but ask where he got that poster after knowing he was a diehard Catholic. Apparently, “people” were giving them out outside of the Cathedral in Zacate, the dept. capital. Sneaky.

This is a pic of that mistranslation. The shiny Eucharist symbol in the middle was the fam's addition.

A new sign that is showing up on all the doors of the Catholic families. The Latino Church is calling their new program for the coming year, the New Evangelization. This decals for doors are part of the program to stand up for their faith, warning other "sects" of their "propaganda" is not wanted in this "hogar" or house....haha. I find lots of cool things doing house visits.


Tonight, I cut more bananas, tried the sole tree that has oranges that taste like mandarins, and then cooked and peeled Cacao beans after dinner. Fun stuff.

One of our scholarships girls, Carmen, and a fam after giving out clothes.

Actually though, this morning I also got into another religious conversation with a Pentecostal pastor of all people…. Assembly of God I think he specified it as. He is the brother, that I mentioned before, of my boss who was trying to send me a book he wrote on the town. I was sitting down the main road of the city, away from where I was going to meet the girl to give out clothes (because the bolos…drunkards had been bothering me the past few days). I sitting on a bench reading Dante’s Paradiso of all things when he walked up. He started the convo in English, but it quickly turned Spanish haha. He small talked, and then went to asking me if I went to Mass….do I believe in what the Catholic Church teaches, he doesn’t believe me, and then finally if I went to confession. HA. Awesome. He cracks me up. He then went straight into the fact that Spain conquered with the sword….yawn…. but then corrected his implication on religious doctrine with the fact that the Protestants did the same to the Indians and took their land in the US. Then there was discussion on how that Europe perceived native’s souls, and some Papal encyclicals and councils that we disagreed on in the 16th century, but it was good. He said the Pope decreed that natives were just animals with no soul, but the only bull I’d ever heard of at Furman, was one where the Pope pitted the Church against the conquistadors/hidalgos by saying that the were human beings and needed to be respected as such. Anyways, we then talked of the situation in America with the emerging interdominational megachurches and shrinking mainline Protestant traditional etc. Then he ended with telling me that the people here worship idols. Yawn again. Haha, that was mean. No, I just mentioned that I’m sure some people do, but in my community that I’ve yet to see it….but that I would agree with his condemnation if people were. That answer always seem to draw a …lack of response :)


Oh yeah, he also said that the US is going to fall by 2040. Whether that’s a fall of Rome fall or a Soviet fall I’m not quite sure.
This is the bugger I killed the other night by my desk.

Oh well, overall the past few days have been fun…. Religious bickering, cultural traditions, chocolates, bananas, coffee, broke up worthless phone that won’t show me the texts I have, long talks with the host fam, and other random things that I don’t remember that would be cool to write down….haha.


Finally, I begun to bring some order to my 45 gigs of pics and videos on the computer at night. Mainly, because I only have 8 gigs left free on the computer. It’s fun…. Traveling=fun.

“Even if we allow necessity as source for every love that flames in you, the power to curb that love is still your own. This noble power is what Beatrice means by free will; therefore, remember it, if she should ever speak of it to you.”

Dante’s Purgatorio, pg. 300…Canto XVIII, line 70

December 28, 2007

Life is good.

Those beasts of bananas. That poster is actually kinda big in the background.

Hugest bananas ever here, and I’m not kidding. I mean, one banana is three times the size of one in the US. I had to cut it into three horizontal slices and then three vertical to fit it into the skillet to be able to cook. They also have a different taste here, they are almost a pinkish color in the center…they are awesome. I also had 3 freshly cut coconuts donated to my cause, I love cutting those things open after drinking them dry…fresh coco flesh, very tasty.
I’m going to have to go on a banana eating frenzy though, I got lots to eat before they go bad…although I’m told they last a short while. I’m thinking maybe adding them in the pancakes Sunday morning… we’ll see.

This morning some nuns from San Sal came in for the day of the Holy Innocents to the community and there was a big hoorah at my fam’s house for them. Apparently this older Franciscan nun has been coming to the community every year for a while to visit. They bring a pickup loaded with candy and toys and cake and piñatas and shoes for the poorer families and stuff, its pretty cool. They use it as propaganda to get young kids out to encourage them to go to Mass during the Christmas season, and give to the poor communities etc. At the end they gave out big sacs of pasta and corn flour to the moms. Once everyone left, we took them around to the older fams where they chatted and laughed etc…and tried to recruit the daughters lol. The older nun was really funny…. She would just be talking to someone and then turn around to the 25 year old daughter… so when are you coming to visit my convent? Crazy ole kat. What really surprised me though, was the community’s response. As each family came into the yard, they all brought bags of fruit and other things. By the time the religious left, the community had filled the entire back of their pickup with fruits, other foods, chickens, and a turkey, haha.

During part of their visit, while talking to Don Raul’s dad, I got to have the popular subject of religion and culture in the US with Don Raul’s bro, and somewhat Don Raul. The brother as usual pushed to the point of getting to my personal story to which Don Raul (my host dad) likes to talk about. He even brought it up in discussion with the nuns so we had a nice discussion on the American religious environment. I think they see me as a beacon of hope that there is hope for Catholicism and religion in America. So the topic always comes up in some form or another, hence me writing about it often here.

Following around the religious with their box of goodies.

I ate some sort of weird thing for dinner tonight at Don Mauricio’s house (my counterpart), it was the flower of some plant… but was really bitter. Oh well, add it to my ‘wall of weird.’ If you picked up that reference, shame on you. OHH and then, get this… when I come over, before dinner, I try and teach him a new thing on the computer to help with his bread business and the ADESCO. Afterwards, he always likes to show me something new on his kids Encarta haha, and then likes to ask questions about the world, or a country, or my time in Spain or something random. Well, this time, he went straight to point. He found the topic of the evolution of man on Encarta….I mean of all things. He went into how can he reconcile this with the Biblical account of creation, etc etc. Now how in the world am I supposed to explain this in Spanish, MUCH LESS English. I tried to throw out some general ideas, but I think that really threw a wrench in his train of thought. Sigh.

The Franciscans doing what they do.

Anyways, I’ve regulated on all my pictures on the computer, with the exception of the 2005 Mediterranean trip with the parents…I have mine, Daddy’s, and Cari’s that are extra gigs I could use if I could combine them. I just finished the Study Abroad pics, and the Rome 2006 pics from this past October. Good memories. We need to travel more. There’s a big world out there… I think, I haven’t seen all of it yet with my own eyes, but other people have told me so. :)

Picked up this quote during a wall of a neighbor while I was visiting their house….comments?

"No puede tener a Dios como Padre, quien no tenga la iglesia como Madre.”

You can’t have God as a Father, if you don’t have the church as a Mother.