Happy Birthday Elija! 4yrs, craziness.
Not that he’s going to be reading this or anything, but it’s the thought that counts right? Haha. My first little nephew, ah. Anyways, sorry Cari about the call today. It cut me off because I ran out of money on my phone apparently. Oops, the only house he that recharges the phones was out of saldo (what they call the balance on your prepaid phone), so I had no way really of calling back. Such is life.
I didn't take any pics of the holidays, so here's a new one of coffee drying. Eat your heart out Megan.
Got in bed last night, to a lovely family of ants that were chilling there. Jerks. Some were conglomerated around a box of tissues I had near the head of the bed from the night before when I had one of those lovely sneezing frenzies during the night. That came from my table, so maybe something had spilled or was on the bottom or something…whatever it was, it was an annoying mess. On that note, I’m pretty sure I have a bat that is living in my room at night. I always hear a bird flying around at night right before I fall asleep, but I’m too lazy to do anything about it. Don Raul and I were talking about it today…he told me I needed to kill it soon before it pooped all over my bed haha. Little does he know PC sends us out with mosquito nets that double as pooper scoopers.
Random pic of the front of the church building in town
Today was overall pretty good. I made banana pancakes this morning with blended bananas straight off the tree mixed in the batter…not too shabby. Went to Mass, where I was cracking up at the culture here….in a good way though. They had another guest priest, that make Colombia, Honduras, US and some other place in the last three Sundays for at least one of the Masses. What was funny, was that the guy was harping on the family as one of the most important Christian mechanisms etc etc, and then started to wail on the homosexual marriage deal, as has been popular in the past few weeks. He said, “I mean, there are men who actually want to marry other men, and women the same….I mean imagine that.” Then people kind of looked at each other and giggled as if….haha, that’s obviously craziness. I can’t but laugh in those moments, and be like… ha, little do they know that kind of stuff has already been breaking denominations apart in the US for a while….not to mention the public in general. Apparently though, there has been a council of the Central and South American bishops in Brazil in the not too distant past that has really put this ministerial level of the Church here in Latin America in gear, they are pushing quite a few agendas pretty hard.
Random pic of my wall.
Lets see, what else…. Oh yeah, I had cow stomach/foot soup today for lunch…. I know right!...it actually wasn’t terrible, but then for dinner they had pupusas, and I ate….well….more than I should have. AFTER though, Don Raul and his older daughters’ husbands invited me out to hunt ‘mapache’ and ‘cosuco.’ For a while during the night. Apparently cosuco is like armadillo, but mapache is supposedly like a dog, but lower to the ground and likes to climb trees. They love to eat it here. It was fun, we climbed all around the ridge… well really I had no idea where I was, but I followed along and acted like I wasn’t picking too many mandarins to eat. We didn’t find any though.
Tomorrow is another big day here, lots of family time here tomorrow for New Year’s Eve night.
I think they do hugs here instead of kisses. Palabra.
Beatrice speaking to Dante while exploring the First Heaven on what she considers God’s greatest gift in Canto V of Paradiso:
Of God, as He created, gave, the gift
Most suited to His goodness, gift that He
Most prizes, was the freedom of the will;
Those beings that have intellect—all these
And none but these—received and do receive
This gift: thus you may draw, as consequence,
The high worth of a vow, when what is pledged
With your consent encounters God’s consent;
For when a pact is drawn between a man
And God, then through free will, a man gives up
What I have called his treasure, his free will.”
January 1, 2008
Happy New Year People! I hope everyone had a wonderfully enjoyable time ushering in another year of awesomeness (that encompasses the good and the bad).
Here has been pretty nice during the holidays. Lots of Masses, but thats cool….its the Christmas season. There was Mass on Christmas day, then that Sunday for Mass of the Sacred Family, then today for Jan. 1 and the feast of Mary, the Mother of God, and then the Epiphany which luckily falls on a Sunday this year so one less Mass haha! Just kidding of course, its always a cool experience, although today was the last day of the dude from Colombia visiting.
They call the day before New Year’s day, straight up 31 (and Christmas Eve 24). It was nice, I hung out with the fam during the day, then chilled in the hammock and washed clothes and dishes during the afternoon, with a little bit of reading on the side. Before heading over, as has become my tradition on special days here, I made a dessert to bring to the evening events haha. This time it was flan and chocolate pudding. The chocolate pudding was left by Aaron, but I found the stuff for the flan in the supermarket when I went to refill in the capital of the department on Sunday. As is 31 custom, they get things started later on, and people are spread out all of the houses on the street visiting other family members, and later in the night some of the guys go missing while they are drinking “troika”….apparently the liquor of choice here. It’s the first time I’ve run into to any local families and alcohol so it was a good learning experience to see how that works. I didn’t get to try any of it though. Sad….I would like to have compared it with the stuff from the states. I don’t know if its sugar based or what….I’d imagine so though.
Anyways, so as I’ve come to realize Pan Rellenos is the big thing here on holidays for food. That’s the sub sandwich like thing with chicken (with bone) and lettuce, tomato, cucumber. Very tasty. Everybody hung out blow up “cuetes” …fireworks… and dancing…til about midnight, when all of a sudden I think every household in the municipality began to set off there m80 on steroid fireworks about 3 mins before midnight. It was crazy, they are much for colors here, just the bang for their buck. Actually the big ones here, which they call “morteros”…not like our mortars, are only 20 cents. They are basically a crapton of gunpowder put in the middle of wrapped up newspaper, with a fuse…haha. Its all good.
At midnight, every one gives each family a hug wishing them happy new year….then they fire off more cuetes and eat more pan rellenas…..how awesome is that…..fooooooood.
Although, right now I’m drinking hot powdered milk with cinnamon sticks, and I made the peanut butter, banana, and honey (substituted for molasses) mix to quickly get rid of some more bananas that are maturing way too quick in my house. I tried a new type of banana today though, oh so good. Add it to the list.
Today, there were only two exciting things…..well three. First, the Masses were packed!....craziness. Second, the Jehovah Witnesses invaded! I was watching the video of the wedding with some of the kids after lunch, and when I came out one of the kids gave me a leaflet and then ran off, and I saw Don Raul sprawled out in a hammock, shirt off, both hands on his belly, quoting Scripture to two well dressed ladies…..HA. I wish someone else could have saw that (by the way, just found out he has no top teeth, not sure about the bottom). He called me over as I was leaving to come listen to them “discuss the Word of God”. I listened, and these two were actually really nice, they just kept bringing up the fact that the world could end any day, but never really would address any of the touchy issues. After they left, I told him he was too nice, and he said that yeah, but these ladies were nicer than the ones that normally come…. “repugnant towards Catholicism” I think is how he phrased some of the evanglizers that come every once in a while. I left somewhat quickly, thinking maybe they hadn’t got to my house yet, but they all walked on by, I think they were finishing up. When I got back later for dinner, Don Raul and Dona Amalia were discussing a book they had left when they passed by a second time as a group…..it was called “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”….MAN (HOMBRE) being in the biggest letters. He was laughing when he showed it to me, because I had told him to ask about the Trinity if they came back. Oh well, fun times with the crazies.
Its frustrating and comical at the same time for me, when it comes to these house to house evangelizers. I say that for two reasons. Its frustrating to me, because these well intentioned (sometimes, I think) people come in search of Catholic households with a primary and secondary goal. Primarily, I’d say most come to bring the basic message of repentance (immediate) because the world could end soon. The secondary goal is usually to show how most of what you Catholics believe is unbiblical and hogwash (therefore immediate repentance is required haha). The secondary goal though is usually where the discussion ends up though, because I can’t think of a Catholic household that wouldn’t agree with the primary goal….preparedness and perseverance have always been key teachings. The second however, haha, obvious problems. The frustrating part though, is that they are just trying to break to bonds the families have to the Catholic Church. Most don’t believe their church holds all correct teachings, but that they are better than Babylon reborn. There isn’t a real conversion to anything, just a breaking away from something (hence, the moral dilemma of the world today). And then comes the second reason…and I find it comical. The community I have been posted into, I can only say from Him who has the greatest sense of humor, is nearly 100% Catholic, and unlike most in the US, actually very well organized and well read on the Bible. Its actually the opposite of the US….there we have many people who are familiar with the history of the Church, and the concatenation of teachings from the beginning, but who are very weak when it comes to the Bible. These people actually quote Scripture to these people off the streets the whole time, but really have no idea of things outside of the Bible, mainly because of the economic situation they live in, access to these kinds of things are basically nonexistent.
Whew. On that note….awesome news. I finished Dante’s Divine Comedy. It took me about a month to read a little under 800 pages (250 pages of it was endnotes though hah). I know right, ouch. It’s thick stuff at times. I would highly recommend it though. It brings the whole responsibility of one’s actions into a whole new light, how they affect your soul, and how that all works itself out after death. I’m going to save that whole thing for the next entry though.
PS…my phone came back on this morning in celebration of the New Year….hoorah.
Rock on. This book has so many good quotes, but…. More than one just bores people… d’oh!
Do not be like a feather at each wind,
Nor think that all immersions wash you clean.
You have both Testaments, the Old and New,
You have the shepherd of the Church to guide you;
You need no more than this for your salvation.
If evil greed would summon you elsewhere,
Be men, and not like sheep gone mad, so that
The Jew who lives among you not deride you!
Do not act like the foolish, wanton lamb
That leaves its mother’s milk and, heedless, wants
To war against—and harm—its very self!”
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