UPDATE #9

Another week come and gone, and my mind is continuously blown by the fact that in two weeks from this very moment I will be packed and ready to get on a plane the next day. Not counting the rest of this evening, I have 14 days left in Guatemala. I can't really wrap my mind around the thought that it's already almost over! I know that some of you had the date June 23rd pinned up on your fridge or in your office or just in your brain, but I actually had a change of plans and will be coming back the 9th so that I am able to attend orientation at my new school, Belmont University.

Anyway, thank God it's Friday. Update #9:

LA BODA

I love weddings; they are something that I have always delighted in, since I understood what a wedding really was. First and foremost there is the part where a wedding is a final coming together of two separate people into union, a sacred bond, a beautiful promise. Wedding rings are a reminder on your finger of a circle which has no end. Actually, it reminds me of that song I used to sing in Girl Scouts, "A circle is round, it has no end, that's how long I want to be your friend," or in this case, "spouse." What an amazing thing! True love! The thing that every girl unrealistically dreams about ever since she watched her favorite Disney princess discover it's power and glorious emotion.
Love and all of that is great, but the thing I really love about weddings is the wedding part. A woman gets to spend months designing, creating, imagining a special day just to celebrate herself and the person she loves the most. Play with colors, take pictures, pick out outfits, write vows, design tables, basically pour out the relationship of herself and her man into a themed party. Which sounds amazing to me. Then she gets to dress up in a beautiful gown that is arguably the most beautiful thing she will ever wear, and walk down a long isle passing through all of the people who have ever loved her just to meet at the very end the person who has loved her the most, and will love her for the rest of her life. And he gets to watch as this vision of beauty that he is so in love with glides toward him with her smiling face, realizing that this is the first day of the rest of their lives together. And then you kiss, and then you have a giant party. Amazing.
Let me reiterate, if my point was not made, that I love weddings. There was even a time that I considered being a professional wedding planner (and, to be honest, my unrealistic side is still drawn toward this vocation every now and again).
SO when the opportunity presented itself to attend a Guatemalan wedding, I promptly accepted. I was so excited. I had already been planning in the weeks before that I was going to do the hair and makeup of all of the girls that were going, and when I was invited into the wedding brigade it was even better. So I spent all of Saturday morning preparing myself and 9 other girls, doing countless braids and curls, and putting my Mary Kay make-up skills to good use. We started at 8 AM and I was still doing makeup when we took a last pit-stop at McDonald's before the ceremony. Finally we arrived and after all of the Guatemalans got used to the "cancha" (blonde) the wedding started. It was so different. Really great to experience a wedding in another culture. They had the wedding and reception in a building that was the size of, say, a swimming pool. It was big enough to fit all of the people, and they had decorated with twisted white streamers and blue and pink chairs (pink for the bride's side and blue for the groom's). They had a small band of drums, keyboard, trumpet, and vocalist performing and once we were all seated we had a good 35 minutes of worship music. Then the bridal processional began. It started out with a boy carrying the Bible, open to some passage that makes the amount of pages even on both sides. Maybe somewhere in Psalms, or better yet, Song of Songs. Anyway, I really liked that... I feel like I might like to have that in my wedding, one day far far away. After that came the girls carrying the rings and kneeling pillows, then the bridesmaid, and then the beautiful bride. No matter how different this wedding was, this part was the same: the glowing bride looks like a princess with her white gloves and tiara, massive skirt of toole surrounding her, her younger sister holding up her train, her groom waiting for her.
Once she reached the end of the aisle, the bride and groom sat down with their backs to the audience, facing a table and the preacher who was marrying them. He then gave a message about Jesus' first miracle, the water into wine at the wedding, and how the first thing that couple did right was to invite Jesus. This couple, then, should also invite Jesus, not just to the wedding but to their entire life together. After that they did the vows and the rings, kissed, and it was over. We didn't stay for the reception because it was already late and we really just went for the ceremony, but it was great. What a beautiful day it was in Guatemala. I am so grateful to have seen this part of another culture, and to have seen something that I love so much in a different light and setting.
We drove back to Casa Angelina with 21 people packed into the 12 passenger van, and after everything that day and including a squished ride home, I really felt like a little American-Guatemalan.

WEIRD

You know those days when you just wake up and feel weird? Welcome to Sunday for Kellie in Guatemala. It was just that one day where I got up on the wrong side of the bed (which I didn't think possible since my bed has a wall on one side). I guess it all started when someone woke me up in the morning asking me for a favor. I mean, I love doing favors for people and being friends with the kids here, but Offense #1 has always been waking me up. I didn't like it when my parents did it, I didn't like it when my best friends did it, I just don't like it. I want to wake up to the annoying sound of the alarm and know that I meant for myself to wake up at this time. More than that, I prefer to wake up on my own, of my own will. Anyway, not a great way to wake up.Got out of bed and stepped barefoot on a June-bug. Unappetizing. We didn't have any food for breakfast, so I just ate a spoonful of peanut butter. Someone walked in on me while I was showering, and took a shirt without asking me. Which would have been fine had my morning been a little less... well. You know. It was raining this particular morning and I really felt like I had just cracked open my own version of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day. And I just felt weird. Someone told me once to dress up and look good when I feel bad, because then no one will notice and also you look awesome, and consequently feel better. So I put on my favorite vintage blue and white polka dotted dress with a ribbon tie at the waist and walked down to children's church. Most days I like the fact that I'm genius enough to understand a sermon in Spanish, but today I didn't like the fact. I was longing for some worship music in English...
Somewhere in between the children's service and the adult service, I got a headache and my blue umbrella broke. And then I decided that today wasn't going to happen, and that I was going to lock the windows and doors and draw all of the curtains and watch Big Bang Theory on my borrowed computer and eat peanut butter and post stuff to my Pinterest boards.
And then I walked down to the adult service. Because I am an adult. And adults do not hide in their beds when they're having a bad day. At least, not often.
And then I just laughed. Really, this day was so weird, so... over-the-top bad, that it just had to be funny or else it would have been really depressing. And that's how I got over that.

ADOPT-AN-INTERN

It's almost like adopting a pet. Except it's a person, and her name is Kellie, if you live in Guatemala at Casa Angelina Orphanage. And if you adopt an intern you don't have to take them on walks or clean up after them when they go to the bathroom, but you do sometimes have to feed them and you also will feel obliged to do things like entertaining them and inviting them to Family Movie Night.
That's pretty much my life here. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being an adopted intern-pet, but I hate feeling like an imposition. But, Bethany and the Frazers are wonderful friends and make sure that I am included in everything, well-loved, and well-fed. Bethany and I worked on a project that she's doing in her house. It's a photo wall, and it's adorably whimsical. So many different frames, different sizes and shapes, colors, exactly the kind of thing that I adore. We positioned the frames in an aesthetically pleasing layout and then spent time supergluing backs on them so that they could hang on the wall that way. After that we headed to Living Water's House to celebrate the birthday of a very adorable Jenni, who I have had a secret handshake with since my first week here. She is so cute, and was a little princess on her birthday. Some children very nearly escaped some terrifying collisions with the baseball bat during the pinata-hitting time, and then we all enjoyed a bit of strawberry shortcake and strawberry-filled jello. Then it was time for Family + Kellie Movie Night with the Mondal and Frazer families. It was so much fun, and I didn't feel like such an imposition after all. We ate popcorn and pizza and all crowded onto their couch with the kids and the moms and the dads and me, and we watched Journey 2: Atlantis. At some point in the movie, between the bumble-bee riding and the submarine rescue, I got this amazingly overwhelming feeling of... something. Maybe a few things. Excitement, gratefulness, maybe some motivation thrown in there, about college. I know, I know, you're probably thinking, "Whaaaaat?" And yes, I did just say that; I got excited about college and really grateful that my parents are so willing to do everything in the world to have me there. All of the sudden, I was ready to take this thing in stride. College.
Mom and Dad, I know that you think this is a joke but it's not, and I probably won't have a lot to say about it other than this: I'm just ready now. And, you know, thank you, and you're the best, and cherries on top and all that jazz.
At long last, after years of rebellion and denial, Journey to the Center of the Earth 2 brought it out in me. What has become of me!?
After that, the kids all went to bed, and Kerry, Bethany, and I went to the Frazer house while Yuri and Andrew held down the Mondal Fort. We watched that movie This Means War, the one with Reese Witherspoon where she dates two guys at once. It was really a fun movie, and so nice to spend time with Bethany and Kerry, just hanging out. A really lovely day.

PANCAKES

I like pancakes. I really do. What a great food. You can make it literally however you want. You can add bananas inside or on top, or chocolate chips, or blueberries, or many fruits at one time, you get to add syrup on top or honey, or powdered sugar if you're feeling especially daring. You can make them thin, dark, thick, fluffy, giant, mini... there are so many options! If you make enough to have leftovers you can pull them out of the fridge and eat one as a snack. You can make a pancake sandwich. You can make pancake dippin' strips. You can make pancakes and eat eggs on the side, you can make pancakes and eat yogurt, you can make pancakes for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Pancakes are the ultimate food. Just like pizza.
We were out of propane one day but I didn't realize this until after I had already make the pancake batter. So I used my giant brian to improvise and learned something marvelous. You can make pancakes... in the microwave. Serious. Just put batter in a pancake shape on a microwavable plate and stick those badboys in the microwave! The best part is that they get so fluffy AND you can't burn them. You just can't. You can overcook them, in which case they become a pancookie, and are equally as delicious. But I mean give them a good zap for a minute and a half or so, and you have perfect pancakes. What a great discovery. I know that this paragraph literally had nothing to do with Guatemala or orphans or me, but I just am so proud. Pancake history.

THE USUAL

I guess that the reason that I haven't said much about the kids in this update is that you already know everything I'm doing about now. It's an interesting difference between a one or two-week mission trip and a really long term one. Because in the past 2+ months of calling this place home and spending every moment of most every day here, it has become just that. My home of sorts. And sometimes at home there's a lot going on and really exciting things happening, and sometimes everyone just does their life. Kids go off to school and various extracirriculars while parents go to work, on Saturday each to his own and on Sunday everyone goes to church and maybe lunch. There's nothing very unusual about day-to-day life. It's just a routine, a schedule. But that is lovely. It's really lovely to have something to do everyday, all morning, after school, and have a week where everything just stays the same and is peaceful. I've been able to read books and take scheduled naps, get my jobs done and spend time loving kids, without any maddness or unorganized chaos going on at some point in the day. Of course there are always the unexpecteds that pop up in the day, but that's just life, too. Honestly, I think that's a really great thing here. It's such a normal way for these kids to grow up. No, there's not a party every day and some days it's rainy outside and things are just humdrum regular old life. But they have a system, something that they can count on, 3 meals a day and a warm bed. They aren't sleeping under buses anymore at night and they aren't fighting for their lives, scavenging for food, and trying to protect their siblings from nightly abuse. I would chose a day of having to stay inside and read a book over their up-in-the-air street life pasts every day of the week.
Bethany left this week for the States to go to a friend's wedding, which leaves me missing a friend, but it is going to be an amazing week, and I don't mind if it's filled with activities or just filled with breaths. I am alive here, and even in the middle of the day when I'm stuck inside, I am thankful to be where I am.

BACK TO SQUARE ONE

... also known as bedroom one. I found out that I'm going to be moving again, this time back to the apartment that I started out in with Monica. Some girls have to move from Family Faith House to the Sam Maple House, and the guy that's living in the Sam Maple House has to move here to Assembly House, so Lucia and I are being evicted. She's going to Sam Maple and I am going to live in Hospitality alone for my last two weeks. Alone, alone. Alone for the first time in two months. I am so looking forward to that. I really have loved living with all of these people, and I was challenged in every possible way by having to share so much space and time with people. What a beautiful experience that was! I learned so much and had my patience stretched beyond belief, something that really was a huge growing pain for me. Man, knowing that I have just two weeks left here is ridiculous, and I feel so blessed that I get kind of a debrief time in the Hospitality House. I'm going to have so much more alone time, and be able to really spend time with God, winding down after this crazy ride. I feel like I just went on an insane double-loops, forward, backward, upsidedown and every which-way roller coaster and now I'm at that bit where you feel the brakes kicking in and the wind softening at your face; that part where you come slowly to a stop and then sit there and take a few breaths, waiting for the seat-belts to release you back into the theme park, daring to pick your next ride. This ride was absolutely insane. And I'm so glad I picked it. No doubt that one day soon I will return to this very same roller coaster and ride again. There's no keeping away from it once you've tried it.


I know that I didn't really post much about the kids this week, or about much that happened, and I know that there weren't any amazing self-discovery stories really this week. Just kind of dumping my thoughts out on here as well as some miscellaneous activities. I mean, one of the most exciting parts of my week was finding out how to make pancakes in a microwave. That tells you something about the intruigue of my week. But I am still spending time with kids, learning things from God, and really enjoying the Guatemala wonders here! Right now not much is new, but just because it isn't new doesn't mean it isn't wonderful! Know that I'm loving every minute here, even if it's just sitting around the house. I know that God has me here for a reason and so I'm okay if it's not constant excitement, because obviously that's what God had in mind for this week. I love that. But I'm on the downhill now and as my time here grows shorter and shorter I know I will experience even more amazing things. I'm ready to finish strong!

14 days.

With very, very much love,
Kellie