"Life is So Dull Here"

Said by no missionary to Guatemala, ever, I'm quite sure.

This past weekend was a perfect example of a relatively normal weekend here in Guatemala.

Saturday started off quite calmly.  We took the older girls to gymnastics and then went on to campus to get something I had left in my office.  Driving through campus they were ripping up the sidewalk and part of the parking lot because someone had clogged the sewage system by flushing their toilet paper.

We then ate lunch, which we cooked quite normally on our stove.  After lunch we headed downtown to the zoo.  It is really quite reasonably priced and one of very few places we can actually get out and walk around.  Most people bring their cameras to the zoo and take pictures of the animals.  Not so much the people behind us in line - they lined up to take pictures with our children.  You may think - weird, arrest them - we think, just another day at the zoo.  Abigail once commented she thought we should be on the other side of the fence with the animals with the way people stare at us when we are out.  I think it must partly be the red hair, because it's not like there aren't any gringos that live here.

After leaving the zoo we decided to take the van by the mechanic.  The air conditioning hasn't been working, and we can't drive with the windows down.  Now, I know some of you are thinking "air conditioning, do you know how cold it is here?"  To which I say "do you know how hot it can get here with windows so black you have to put your face right up to them to see through."  Okay, enough hypothetical arguing...not having air conditioning here is not just losing a luxury.  Proof of that - it got so hot in the car that I got sick.  Literally.  Praise God the trash can was between two cars at the garage and none of the workers could see me.  I just know that could have turned into a "watch the crazy white lady get sick" kind of moment.

That led to a day of sleep, and a night of sleep, so that we could get up at 6 for church.  (That seemed early to me until earlier this week I learned that my friend's church starts at 6 a.m.)  Just as we are getting ready to go out the door I remember that Emma had been scratching her head, and Ken had seen what looked like a bug on her head at the zoo.  Just in case, I thought, we better check her for lice - a horribly common occurrence in this country.  Sure enough - little buggers on her head.  So, scratch the original plan for church and an annual meeting.  Daddy stayed home with Emma, washed her hair, combed her hair, repeated process.  Then, when we all came home we tag teamed doing all three girls heads, and Ken checked mine.  Whenever we do that I am reminded of a story I heard about some third world Asian parents eating the lice of each other.  Praise God we are not that short of food.

After finally clearing all the lice from the child(ren) we went to school today.  Back to another normal day behind the walls, where pretty much everybody looks and talks like we do.  Normal, until the nurse declared that Emma had to be sent home - and we have to repeat the process again.

Yeah, never a dull moment around these parts :-).  (No Kenneth, that is not a pimple, it is a punctuation mark.  Joker.)  Oh, and we never did get the AC fixed...