Guatemala 2009

Since I’ve already written about the first half of our day yesterday, I won’t recap. Our story ended with us waiting for Bill Ray’s gang to come back from the bank while we waited in the lobby of our nice hotel.

When Bill and Don (his dad) and Daniel and Isaac returned, they had wide eyes and a story to tell. Apparently, going to the bank is an adventure around here. They had to go past several guards, one holding a rifle and one with a pistol on his belt. They had to go through quite a maze to even get to the bank teller, and then when they got there, the poor fellow was very surprised at the amount of money they were changing. They got a nice exchange rate, of 7.99 quetzales per dollar, so we were pleased with that. On the walk back. Bill felt very conspicuous with the many thousands of Q’s (as we call them) in his pocket. There was some thought about the advantages of not traveling with cash next time.

Once back on the lobby, Bill divided out the money again, handing quantities of the church’s money to the adults who are helping transport the money, and also handing out the personal money amounts to those who had sent some along to the bank.

With that done, Bill then went to check and see if our rooms were finally ready. After some more waiting, we were finally given our room keys, and the two carts of luggage were delivered to our floor. We all claimed our things, went to our rooms, and then prepared for whatever we were to do next. Bill offered to watch kids at the pool, and several of our kids jumped at the chance to go play. Meanwhile, our shopping team was forming. Originally we were going to take all who wanted to go. But then we found that the taxis would cost about $15-$20 each, so we pared down our group to just the four ladies who could squeeze into one taxi. Sarah Ray, Lorna Ray, Joyce and I headed out for our adventure, leaving behind a very disappointed Isaac who had been looking forward to this store I’ve been talking about.

We argued with our driver for a few minutes before we piled in, because he was saying it would cost 100 Q to go each direction. The guy in the motel had said it was about 60 Q to go in each direction. (Remember, divide by 8 to get the dollar amount for the quantity of Qs.) He finally brought his price down to 80 Q, and I decided not to haggle over the remaining 20 Q. We got into the taxi, and then plunged into the traffic. It took about 20 minutes to get to our store, and we enjoyed the ride very much. Our driver was happy to chat, so Joyce got to practice her conversational Spanish. Fortunately the driver knew a little English, so if we got stumped by a word, he was usually able to think of an English word to help explain.

One of our questions to him was how to get a return taxi, since we planned to shop for 1-2 hours. He offered to wait for us, for an additional fee, and Joyce worked on the details. The final deal was that he would wait for up to two hours, and would only charge an additional 10 Q per way. So now we were up to 180 Q for the round trip ($22.50).

We were dropped off at the door, and we headed in to complete our mission.  Sarah and Lorna took the list of the items to donate to Eagle’s Nest, and Joyce and I took the grocery list.  We agreed to meet back at the front of the store in an hour, unless we found each other before then.

Joyce and I had a great time looking at all the groceries.  They really have almost everything a person could want.

Sarah and Lorna couldn’t find the exact items on the list, but they did a great job of finding things similar that would be nice for us to donate.  Fortunately the prices were much cheaper than our top price, so that was really nice.

An hour and a half later, we were done and back out front wondering how to find our poor taxi driver.  Amazingly, he was parked in a close spot and watching for us, so he waved to get our attention, and then he hopped out of his car and opened the trunk.  He enthusiastically started packing the trunk, and actually filled it up completely with our purchases (that had filled two large shopping carts).  We even had to hold a few things on our laps.

The drive back to the motel was even more pleasant than the first, because now we knew our driver and jumped right back into visiting with him.  Joyce was even more relaxed with her Spanish, and she impressed all of us with her abilities.

When we got back to the hotel, the team members helped carry the groceries up to our room, with a little help from a man with a cart.  Then they explained that they had been waiting to go to dinner, so they were glad we were back!

We regrouped in the lobby, and then divided into two groups.  The Pizza Hut group had 8 people, and the Chinese-food group had 7 people.  Since I went with the Chinese-food group, I can’t report on the Pizza Hut experience.  But I sure can report on our expedition. We had Laura, Caroline, Annaleise, Daniel and Isaac, along with Joyce and me.  We walked several blocks and found a place that looked promising.  We sat down and tried to read the menu, but it was a Spanish menu explaining Chinese food, so it was very confusing.  Finally we decided to just get the “Menu 5″ selection on the back, which was enough food for 7-8 people.  We figured we would just see what came to our table, and eat what looked good.  I encouraged the kids to be brave and at least taste things, even if they couldn’t finish them.

The first course was a delicious soup, and we all agreed that it was yummy.  There were shrimp floating in it, and mushrooms, and tofu… and other stuff.

The “tacos dulce” were a little odd, with a won-ton wrap around a cooked banana filling.

Then there were four more dishes brought to our table, all mounded with amazing food.  A spicy beef dish was SO good.  The chicken and vegetable dish was a favorite of some of our group.  The skinny noodle dish was my favorite, and the fried rice was very popular.  We ate and ate and ate, and there was still food left over.  Each person enjoyed their Pepsi, served in a glass bottle, and they even managed to survive with no “free refills”.  (Oh, we made sure, before the meal started, to clarify that we could have no peanuts or peanut oil, thanks to Caroline’s allergies.  The waitress couldn’t speak English, so she hollered at another customer who could speak some English.  That lady came over and very nicely helped translate the specifics of “peanuts” for us.)

When we left the restaurant, there was a light rain falling, but that was ok.  We hurried back to our motel, where Joyce and I were so eager to collapse.  But there was another pool party happening, so we let the kids head to that, and we stayed in our room to wind down.

When the boys came back (Laura is staying with the girls in their room, so I don’t really know when she comes and goes.), we all tucked into bed, and fell asleep faster than ever before, with our heads swimming with the delights of our day.