Guats Up

We havn't had WIFI for a while so this post will be jam packed. For the past few days we have been staying at a youth hostel. It is solar powered and the only way to get there is by boat. The most fun thing we did was swing off a rope into the water and another hostel called Finca Titan. We also spent a lot of time playing cards. All the guests liked to play cards in the evening. While playing we came up with many new terms such as "Guats up, Guetever, Guatios" and some others. Several of our friends had traveled from Belize so they liked to say "you better belize it". We also spent a lot of time kayaking.  The first kayaking trip was very long. It was four hours of kayaking. It was hard but very fun. We were supposed to find a waterfall at the end of the river... but we didn't. Although we didn't find it we had fun swimming in a smaller one.

The second kayaking activity was fun but.. scary. We tried getting four people in one kayak across the river, but it did not work. The Rio Dulce (candy river) is about as wide as lake Macatawa and we flipped the Kayak in the middle. First we had started filling with water and then I jumped out, then Adam, and then my mom. My dad went down with the ship. Only  a foot of it was out of the water and we are treading in the middle of a lake. Adam was freaking out and all out stuff got wet. After like two minutes a boat came by and helped us. They dropped us off and we paddled back to a cave from where they dropped us off. When we got to the cave the opening was huge! We had to walk through a bit of water and mud. When we got to the end there was a place that you can jump through the dark into the water but we couldn't jump in without a ladder to get out. Apparently you need to phone ahead to get the guide with the ladder. I'm not even sure i would have done it with a guide. On the way back we took a boat... with a motor.            EK

After finding the scorpion in our room within the first few minutes of arrival...it took us a bit to get over the hibbiejibbies. Our flash lights were stuck to our hands like glue for a bit. However it only took a day to adapt, then the kids were swimming, catching crabs, and other crawling things. We even enjoyed family Yoga on the dock with Sarah who was running the hostel for a few months. I have never done yoga and am inspired. No, not by my husband's lack of flexibility, but by the relaxation I felt after. I think it helped us embrace the beauty of our surroundings. The backpackers staying there were also great about playing with the kids and engaging them in conversation.

We are now in Tela Honduras where we will meet the mission group on Saturday. We are going to avoid traveling and enjoy the beach for a few days before we begin working. Pray that we are a blessing to the people we meet.                                    JK

Just inside the cave of the Tiger

Bats

In the past few days we had many hard times but they were fun.  I am only going to tell you about one. Yesterday we went to the Lanquin caves. We first went during the day. These caves run for over ten kilometers back into the mountain. We only walked in them for maybe half of a kilometer. It was really scary because of how dark it was. We ended up turning off our lights and it was so dark! You couldn't even see your hand in front of your face.
After that we came back to our hostel. In the back of the hostel there is a fast flowing river. We were a bit unsure but we went swimming. There is a rope stretching across the river that you grab onto when you pass it. There are two ropes, the second one is for if you miss the first. But if you miss both you go off a water-fall and die. After swimming for a bit (well not swimming more like clinging to a rope and trying to keep the current from ripping your pants off) we decided to climb upstream and drift down to the rope. I was a bit scared at first so I caught the rope with my face. Apparently I tore my upper frenulum. I could need stitches but I don't think I will get them.
Once it got a bit darker we went back to the caves to see all the bats fly out. They were everywhere! We held a big spider. It was just a baby but and adult of that kind of spider can have a body as big as my fist and legs probably as long as mine!
Although we have faced some hardships, it is good here, but because of my Frenulum thing it hurts to smile... oh well, adios from Lanquin.                               EK

At the pools we swam,found caves,slides,rocks to jump off. We hiked a mountain. If you put your feet in the water the fish wold nibble your toes.                      AK

AC/DC

We took our 10 hour journey today to Semuc Champey. Not a highway, terrible winding roads. We all got sick except the golden child. After some relief from Boyd’s pharmacy we continued on our way. I thought listening to Evan’s iPod music would distract me...but after hearing his music choice from AC/DC about another familiar highway...I couldn’t decide if I was more distressed by his music or my potential journey to what felt like the end of that highway. I quickly switched to some Jimmy Buffet music to visualize myself in the islands. 

We appear to be staying at a popular hippie hostel, but it is too dark to see anything else yet. At this point we think it is called “the middle of no where”.                                      JK

Tikal

We have made our way from one jungle to another. Not one starbuck's on the way. Not sure what to do  between we want an iced lemon pound cake and I need a grande skim mocha with light whip. Grande we can get but is is usually followed by chicken and rice. Oh well, learning to live with what you have.

Grande does refer to the ruins at Tikal as well. They are amazing. At its largest the city was approx. one million people. It ruled most of Guatemala,  the yucatan peninsula, and south to Costa Rica. The boys have enjoyed climbing the pyramids and temples. When our guide mentioned that the Millenium Falcon flew past one of the temples in "Star Wars", interest peaked a little more. The area is deep in the jungle. Still quite worried about our eight legged friend. I do not believe he has followed us here. There are new and interesting animals and many brightly colored birds around. Power is only by generator wich turns off at 10pm. I guess if we can't see the spiders they aren't there.

Amazing that the height of the Mayan empire coincides with that of the Roman empire. The Mayans were at their peak at the time of Christ with no knowledge of His existence. They developed the only written language in the western hemisphere. Their fate, unfortunately, was similar to the Romans. Their territories became too vast, the amount of people they were required to support became too much and the civilizations eventually collapsed.                                     BK

things that go bump in the night

Instead of staying in the town of Flores, we chose to stay at the Natural Park Ixpanpajaul. It is a park where people from Flores would visit for a day to hike, canopy tour, or ride horses. The best part about the park was that they let the horses run free throughout the park. They would graze next to our room or lay near the paths we would walk. Beautiful. We also enjoyed riding them through the park. There were also 4 resident donkeys that the boyz enjoyed playing with. Dan, Steve, Randy  and the noisy one Joe. I am not sure where they come up with the names, but it helps keep them entertained.

The Howler monkeys were also a highlight of the park. The first time the boyz heard them they freaked out. The monkeys are amazingly loud for their size and produce a lion-like sound. Adam did not want to walk in the dark after that.

It wasn’t the monkeys that made me fear the dark….                           JK

Sounds of the Jungle

Two days ago we stayed in a hotel in Guatemala City. It was really cool because while we were walking  to dinner we saw this party bus which was really a huge traveling bus with a disco ball and no seats. We looked through the windows when it passed and there were a bunch of people in it dancing. Yesterday we had to get up at four-thirty so we could make our flight to where we are staying now. We are at a national park in Flores. When we got here yesterday we first took a hike called the sky walk. On the way we heard a bunch of holler monkeys. It was really scary. When we got back to our "house" we went on a horse back ride. After that Adam and I followed some ant trails into the jungle.                                                                 EK

Birds of the sky

Tomorrow we leave the comfort of our condo for travels to the north of Guatemala. Although Boyd and I have been to this region before, traveling can sometimes lead to frustration and the unexpected. Fortunately, our devotional this morning was about "worry" and has reminded us that God even watches over every bird of the sky. We particularly hope he is watching over Taca Airline.

This afternoon when we went to the park for the boys to play soccer and baseball, we saw at least 12 young men playing wheelchair basketball. It was an amazing sight. Most of them had spinal cord injuries but were equipped with "sports" type wheelchairs. The concentration of men with this injury seemed disproportionate to the size of the city, especially because we were only seeing the ones who play w/c basketball on this particular day. We speculated that motorcycle or falling injuries as well as the lack of quality medical care has contributed to thier plight. What a blessing that they were having so much fun.

"Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you."  1 Peter 5:7

Coffee

In the last few days we have done a few fun things. The first was a coffee plantation. In order to get around we used mountain bikes. There was a lot of sand and it was hard but fun. Adam said it was his "thorn" for the day. (we often discuss our rose and thorn at the end of a day) While we were riding to the coffee plantation we met a really nice guy named Field. He was from Texas. He had been saving money and is now traveling around the "world" on his budget of saved money.

Today we did a really fun thing too. Went to a coffee plantation... This time we went with school though. We even learned how to make coffee. There was this huge machine that would separate the outside of the coffee bean from the actual bean. The machine was huge and it went so fast!

The past two days were fun but the one bad thing is... I don't like coffee...                          EK

The tours of the coffee plantations gave us the opportunity to discuss "fair trade" with the boys. The farm did not advertise that it was "fair trade" so we were unsure of the expectations of the employees and children. Boyd's solution is that  he should just own a plantation and thinks we should start calling him El Hefe or El Senior. In spite of the plans to remove our "atrium" at home to make a more functional space, he is now planning to smuggle coffee and cocoa plants back into the states and maybe buy a horse for the yard. 

Although the work looks tedious the climate is nice. Coffee is also planted with shade trees overhead to protect it. The workers at the plantation Filedelphia live in one large house with one room per family. We are not sure if it has electricity or plumbing. I think I will keep my day job and hope my husband doesn't leave his.                                                                                JK

Homeschool.

Enough about the food already. I dont know why everyone is so hungry and complaining...I brought penut butter!

Adam taught us a card game tonight that his buddies Kebede and Tyler taught him. He appears to have inherited our competitive spirit but unfortunately for him, his father's card skills. It has been easier to engage the boys in games then homework. We have some kinks to work out with our home school system. Evan has made it clear that he prefers his regular teachers and does not agree with our ideas. However, we are all enjoying the book "The Cay" that was recommended reading for both boys. Evan has also started teaching Adam how to type using a computer program. Boyd and I have both enjoyed new books "The legend of Bagger Vance"  (about golf) and "Cheaper by the dozen". Guess which one Boyd read. As a family we are reading a devotional called "Jumper Fables". In addition to the books, we have daily lessons from the people we meet. We traveled this past weekend with 2 guys from London and 2 from Australia who have seen more of the world than we could imagine.        JK

Evan teaching Adam to type

Chocolate

We went to a chocolate factory today. I learned something new. I learned that the Mayans were the first ones to discover cocoa beans, and they learned how to make chocolate drinks and chocolate. They used it as money to trade with other countries. They had to make a stone pad and an oval rock to crush the beans and use fire to melt the beans. They would add spices to the drink and mix it all up.     AK

We could use a little chocolate. As we settle into somewhat of a normal routine, some comforts from home like chocolate are appreciated. Maybe we appreciate them a little bit more. Our little apartment is  comfortable, clean, and really has everything we need;  but has no oven. Safe to say Joan didn't notice until today. So far we haven't missed it as there is no frozen pizza section in the market.  We are learning to get by with what is available.

Meat is available. . . . .

We are now vegetarians. . . . . .  No meat related injuries here

Finished the day with a movie, "The Adventures of Tintin" at a small local coffee house.  In the morning we will attend school (unfortunately no field trip), then play soccer with a few neighborhood kids at the park followed by a coffee or cerveza. We will again end the night by sleeping on our spanish books hoping for osmosis.                               BK

Lago De Atitlan

This weekend we went to Lago de Atitlan. The lake was formed thousands of years ago by a huge volcano that blew up. The ashes blew as far as Panama and Florida. When it blew it made a crater 900 ft. deep. Then the crater filled with water and boom... a lake.
The first night we stayed in a hotel with a pool. We also did a lot of walking along the beach the first night.
Today was by far the best. In the morning we took a bike tour in some other cities around the lake. First We rode the bikes down to the docks. After this we took a boat across the lake to where were would start. We rode up and down the steepest hills I have ever been on for about ten miles miles. To end the day we went to a huge cliff over the water. You could jump off the cliff into the water. It was so high... We guessed about ten meters!    EK

The second hotel had 2 hot tubs, a dart board, fuse ball, ping pong, a wood burning sauna, a massage center, and lots of peacocks.
Before we got here we went for a hike to a nature preserve where there were spider monkeys, raccoons, and a butterfly cage.                          AK

I am on nose bleed number 7 and have decided to let doctor Strabbing fix it when I get home.                                                             AK


The ride to Lago Atitlan  was beautiful, however imagine your worst winding mountain pass and multiply by a zillion...in the back of the bus. We  also now appreciate of our country's emissions control.                                             
Since we are fairly obvious tourist, we are always approached by the locals selling their hand made crafts. The blankets, cloths, table runners, etc.  are amazing and require hours to make. We have seen many women kneeling with weaving looms for hours. I wonder about many things like arthritis and carpal tunnel and if they complain of repetitive use injurys in Guatemala. We also are suspicious that there may be a factory with machines making similar looking items in mass quantity, but so far have not spotted it. At this time I choose to be inspired by these patient and diligent women.                                    JK

boyz jumping off cliff
see photo gallery for more pictures

learning curve

After a few days of spanish school, Boyd and I have decided that we have passed our prime for language acquisition. Even sleeping with the books under our pillows does not help anymore. We shamelessly continue our efforts in the evening with helpless strangers and each other, but usually just end the day with a glass of wine.

The highlight of today was making the boys get their hair cut at a local barber. We had some concerns that our translation of “dont cut too much” may turn out to be “dont leave too much”. Alas, all went well and they still have some hair but are refusing to post the pictures on the blog.

muy Guapo                                                   Jk

Too Familiar with the Chicken Bus

We have had two adventures in the past two days using the chicken bus. The first was yesterday. To start off the morning we did the same fun thing we do almost every school day. Eat breakfast... No, of course not we went on a field trip in school. We walked to the public market. It is all outside except for a few connected meat and other food vendors in the back. It took a while to get there but we learned a lot about different foods. After school we went to the macadamia nut farm.(as we call it, tree hugger farm)

Back to the chicken bus. A chicken bus is really a school bus with many colors. It is like a taxi that carries lots of people. It is crowded and hot, and the exhaust was black and stinky coming from most of the busses. But the fun part is that it goes so fast it feels like a roller coaster. Adam and I thought it was awesome but dad was a little claustrophobic, and mom did't like the speed.

The nut farm was really cool because they were trying to use the macadamia trees to cure global warming and pollution. One of the other fun(or should I say tasty) things there was the macadamia pancakes. They were made with macadamia nut flower and macadamia nut butter over it. It was so good.

Today was fun too. In the morning we only did one hour of school before going on a field trip. After lunch we went to a convent which is a home for nuns. There were tiny bedrooms and it was kind of weird but they were really cool. We thought that one of the cool parts was the holding cells that people think they would torture the nuns in. People think they tortured them by locking them in a standing position and doing the chinese water drip on them. This this would make them go crazy.

After this we went to a park and played fut'bal(soccer) with some neighborhood friends. Since it was so hot we got back on the chicken bus because that was the fastest way to get home. EK

first days

We are now here. After two three hour flights we stayed at a hotel in the capital of Guatemala, Guatemala city. Then we taxied to Antigua which is where we are doing our language school. Sadly when we got there we could not get into our room so we went for a walk. We passed a lot of horse drawn carriages… peyew! It stunk so bad we had to hold our breaths. About an hour later we got into our apartment, and had to walk back to the market for groceries. It felt like we had walked five miles with two weeks of food on our backs, but it was really only one, and it’s eighty-five degrees down here!.                                                                                                                                       EK

On our flights we met two gentlemen that we decided to pray for as a family. The first man “Army guy” was being deployed from GR to travel to the “far east”. He was leaving behind his wife and his four home schooled children under the age of ten. That puts things into perspective. The second man “Tex” bought the boys movies on the flight because he felt bad that their parents wouldn’t.                                          

                                                                                                                                                JK

Today (monday) we did things twice as fun. In the morning we started our language school at San Jose el Viejo. It is a very pretty campus and we learned a lot. After that we walked up a mountain so we could look over the whole city of Antigua. We could also see the volcano called Volcan de aqua(water volcano). This volcano is about 3,765 meters above sea level. After this we went to a hotel that was made from a restored ruin of a church. There were a bunch of parrots on big sticks. It was so much fun with them only one could talk but we got him to say “I am an idiot” haha it was so funny!. The last thing we did today was going to the jade factory. Jade is a precious stone that is almost as hard as diamond. In fact the only thing that the factory is able to shape it with is… diamond.                                EK

Our first day of language school was not a surprise. Evan embraced it with enthusiasm, Boyd coasted by, it only took Joan one hour to convince Maestra Judy to go for a walk for local banana bread, and Mrs. Hossink at Holland Chr. just moved up a level in Adam's eyes since he doesn't like the spanish school because he cant understand his teacher. :)                                                                     JK

departure day

January, 5

Today we leave.
Today we thank God for this beautiful day he has given us to travel and for the blessing he has given us to take this great adventure.