Emma is f.i.n.e.

Incase anyone was curious... Emma is doing just fine.

She had a good day yesterday (save for three potty accidents). She woke up talking and went to bed the same.

We played international Mario Kart last night. Joy's brother Jon seriously trounced us. Humble pie. Actually, some might call it a slaughter. Either way is fine with us.

All for now!

-knme

Overdue update

Greetings and salutations everyone,

This update is long overdue. That is not to say that a lot has happened since 10 September but you know.

Saturday, 12 September we went to watch the school basketball game and then went over to the Woodby's house. They were having some computer issues so they asked me (Ken) to have a look at them. We turned it into dinner. They have two awesome boys who seemed to enjoy keeping the reigns on our two girls. We returned home late so we slept in Sunday morning and skipped morning church (shhhh!)

We went to "The Gathering" in the evening. It was the start of "Kids Bible Club" (KBC), a ministry Joy and Abigail thought up for the kids aged 3 to 6 at "The Gathering".

Tuesday, 15 September, was Guatemalan Independence day and thusly we had the day off. The Woodby's hosted a party. Again, much fun was had by all. I (Ken) had the opportunity to test my grilling skills over a charcol grill. Nothing was burned too badly except for one hamburger. The chicken was a bit hit -- thanks and credit be to Sherry Woodby for the family recipe.

Thursday night we had Elementary Open House. Joy and Abigail made some national styled flags for the cookie contest. They were delicious! Friday night we had Robert and Jonathan Loveall for a sleep-over. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun.

Saturday was pretty laid back. Joy worked with Deana and her girls on planning this weeks KBC. Sunday was a different story -- somewhat. Poor Emma woke up at 6:30a complaining that her stomach hurt. When I asked her and Abigail to go in and gently wake up Mommy... well... she threw up on our bedroom floor (good morning Mommy). She then threw up three more times before 9a. Emma and I (Ken) stayed home from morning church while Abigail and Joy got a ride with the Larimers.

Emma and I watched the ending of three different movies Sunday morning. We caught the last 45 minutes of "Surfs Up", then the last 30 minutes of "Garfield", and finally (she slept through) the last 30 minutes of "The Thunderbirds". Then we watched the Pats lose to the Jets.

Joy and Emma stayed home from "The Gathering" while Abigail and I (Ken) went. It was a good night all around.

Well... that about catches everyone up. Nothing too exciting but yet exciting enough.

Blessings to everyone.

-knme

What a Day!

It all started out so well, and looked to be a relaxing - do nothing sort of day. Then, I sat down at the breakfast table and looked out at the backyard. So many bushes, and tree branches, and not enough light. We had been saying for a while that we wanted to fix it up, but it just hadn't happened. So, at 8:05 I left Emma at the table, walked down to Francisco's house (gate guard/gardener/car washer/etc...) and asked to borrow some tools. Thankfully he agreed to come help me. I say thankfully because they don't use pruners here, they use machetes.

When he arrived and I asked what I could do, he declared he didn't think I could use a machete. Bad idea, challenging the redhead. I may not have used it nearly as well as he, but I wielded that machete pretty well, and didn't even lose any fingers. The backyard looks awesome now! We can actually see the sky and the girls can go outside to play, and the hammock doesn't run into the huge bee attracting bush.

So that was an eventful morning, but it kept going - for worse.

I got Emma buckled into the car on our way to the library, realized I didn't have the library bag - so I hopped out to go get it. Car is in the garage, Emma is in her seat, keys are in the ignition, doors are unlocked. As I'm looking for the bag (which it turns out Ken had already brought to school) I hear a beep from the car. Not a horn beep, an arming the alarm beep. Turns out our car locks itself. Unfortunately it locked itself with Emma in it, the radio running, and all the windows up. I was freaking out!!!! I immediately tried Ken's cell, to no avail as he was in chapel. He silenced it, and then forgot I had tried to call and went to his homeroom class. I think it was 10 minutes later when someone from the school finally found him and got him on the phone. So, at this point Emma has been locked in the warm car for 13 minutes or so, with no open windows, and I'm contemplating throwing a cinder block through the front window. We (Francisco and I) are trying to get Emma to unlock the car - but the poor child can't reach, and can't unstrap her legs from the seatbelt. She can reach the window button, but the child lock is on. I tried to call Carrie to keep me sane while I waited for Kenneth, with no idea if someone was coming to unlock or break into the car, and the Vonage phone was out - and my cell was locked in the car. (Oh, btw, we have no spare key for the car apparently - that will be remedied soon!) Finally Ken arrived (almost 15 minutes later) with Maynor (from the school) carrying a jimmy. Praise God that after 1/2 hour in the car Emma was fine! It was a scary parenting moment though that is for sure!

Trauma over, we went and got the kids and Mrs. Perez (Ab's teacher) and her daughter Natalia, and went to McDonalds. Now Natalia and Abigail are playing nicely together, and quietly, doing watercolor paintings. The door to the backyard is wide open and there is a nice breeze coming in, and no bees. The day turned out well after all, so far....

Next Encounter with Law Enforcement

Picture it: San Cristobal, 2009. Joy and Ken are on their way back to school after lunch when they happen upon a random traffic stop on the San Cristobal Boulevard. "License and registration", they ask for. I (Ken) hand it to him and he heads off to discuss with some of the other officers on the scene.

He comes back and explains to us that he is going to have to give us a ticket because our AAA IDP (International Drivers Permit) was not a real license. I'm guessing he has never seen an AAA IDP before... not sure how common they are down here.

We ask to speak with his supervisor and he says we'll have to head down to the office to talk with them but we insist that we need to speak with the supervisor now. This is something that was covered in our New Teacher Orientation. When the supervisor comes over we explain what the IDP and explain that the copy of my passport is a certified copy (certified by a lawyer).

She goes on to explain that the copy is fine but they need to see the immigration stamp in the passport to know when we entered the country because, although the IDP is good for one year, our VISA stamp in the passport is only good for 90 days -- which we knew. We got in touch with the school who explained to her the dates in the passport and ... in the end... everything was fine. We did not get a ticket!

CAG takes special effort to hold new teacher orientation (awesome) every year to go over do's and do nots associated with living in Guatemala. They also gave us a list of names to contact if we run into trouble. It certainly paid off.

I think in the end the police did a good job of explaining everything and in being understanding of our situation.

-knme

6th Grade, Leather hat, and Mac Badness

Greetings from Guatemala! I've not said much lately... mainly because by the time I get home and we get the kids in bed I've been pooped.

Joy volunteered me to the principal to be a home room advisor. The principal asked me if I really was interested and I said, "Sure!" So, I'm one of three advisors for the 6th grade. There are fourteen kids (10 boys and 4 girls). They're awesome. They all have a lot of energy. I cannot remember what it was like to be in the sixth grade. I remember my teachers (Mr. Varner & Mrs. Peterson) but beyond that, nada.

Today I led our home room devotions on "bordom". They didn't seem too bored during it, so I guess that was a good sign.

One thing I've always wanted, yet never actually bought, was a nice hat. Not a baseball hat. Well, my waiting is over. I picked up a nice leather hat at the Guatemala City market this past weekend. At Q100 (about $12.50) how could I go wrong, eh? I look forward to breaking it in.

Anyone whose known me the last two years knows I've converted to Mac for pretty much everything. Well, when Joy and I arrived on campus the number of Macs on campus doubled. Then add in Jordan's Mac and we've jumped from two to five.

My bosses Mac recently had issues with the video card. The technicians diagnosed it as a a faulty motherboard. Well, thanks to his Time Machine and external hard drive we were able to save all his data. Sadly it wasn't all roses but I think in the end we'll end up alright.

As I was leaving today I was reprimaded by my bosses wife. She said, "Ken, you have to be more punctual at leaving on time." Yeah, you read that right... CAG truly is family first.

Well, that about does it.

-knme

Yeah Applington Parkersburg!

When your ministry is working with TCKs, you need to know what makes them tick. With the case of a few of our students (new to Guatemala) that would be football. They come from a very small town of 1,900 (now less 19 to us) in Iowa. Some of you may even have heard their story - but many I'm sure have not - so I will try to retell it.

As with most of Iowa, football reigns. This very small town had the same football coach for 30 some years - and boasts 4 current NFL players. No small feat for any town. A year ago a tornado hit, wiping out the High School, the football field, 200 houses and more. This high school coach, Ed Thomas, soon stepped out as a leader to help bring the town back together. It turns out he not only was a great coach, but a strong Christian man as well. In fact, the motto held was "Faith, Family, Football." May I add that he was a coach at a public high school - probably the only one in the USA with that motto.

Two of our new students here at CAG were members of the Falcons football team, one of whom is missing his senior year there. We can't even imagine how difficult it must be for him to move to a country where that type of football just doesn't exist. On top of all the adjustments they, and the two families making a total of 19, have had to make recently - they are mourning as well. See, this past June Coach Thomas was shot and killed in the weight room with students present. (For the whole story you can look it up in the New York Times online - it's really moving, especially when you know how close these kids were to the situation, which I don't feel open to share.)

Tonight was the season opener for Falcons football, and it was televised on ESPN. We were blessed enough to be able to go to this family's house and watch the game, and half hour memorial special, with them (thanks to a satellite dish.) We are so thankful that ESPN televised it, it was a gift from God to these kids. It was so neat, and sad, to watch their expressions as they recognized people, and cried over what they were missing. All in all it was a great night, and Abigail had more fun with their younger kids (who weren't watching the game) than she has had since we moved here.

To continue the blessing, the Falcons won (against their long time rival) 30-14! WooHoo!

And seriously, if you have time, read the story...

My Parent's Time

First off, let's set this straight - this is Joy writing - thus the title....if it were Ken that wouldn't work because his parents are so much younger than mine. Sorry, but it's the truth.

So - I think it would have been good before moving to get a crash course on life in my parent's day. Things like ice boxes, which our gate guard still uses. I now always have ice on hand for him to "borrow," since how are you supposed to make ice without a freezer.
Then there was this cleaning the carpet thing. I was outside washing down our new stroller, thanks to friends, and the guard comes over to help. In addition to helping he was determined to clean the carpet that we just had laying around in the garage. (A bit hard to clean without a good vacuum.) So we cleaned it by hand, a new experience for me - but I imagine maybe something my parent's may have seen. We laid it out on the driveway, soaked it down, swept it off with a broom, soaked it down, poured soap on it, worked it in with a broom, soaked it down, swept the soap out of the fibers, soaked it down, repeat ad nauseum. I finally decided it was clean enough and came in to get a drink (it is darn hot out there today!) As I was sitting down I heard the hose going again (an addition from my parent's time) - apparently I hadn't cleaned it up to Francisco's standards. Oh well.....Now I know the fine art of washing a carpet with a broom. (Hmmm...now that I think of it brooms are very versatile, they also use them as mops here by just wrapping a towel around the base. In fact, we bought a real mop and it has never been used.)