Shenanigans Part 2 - Mi Proyecto y más

So here we are, finally the update I know you've been waiting on, which will mainly be about how my project is going! Sorry its taken so long, but it gives me more to talk about at least haha ;)

So lets get straight to it.

It was so fab to get stuck back into my project after the time Id had off for Christmas.
Although it was nice to chill and travel and the lark over my holiday, having only been in my project for a month before the holidays started I was pretty eager to get back and continue to get to know the women more and hopefully play more of a part in the refuge, now that the women knew who I was and that I was around to stay for longer than just a week or so.

Its fair to say that going back in January was a little emotionally full on and also completely different to the first month Id spent there before Christmas!

Whereas when I started in November it was the 'summer' holidays for the kids, on return, there was only a week before they had all started back at school. When I arrive at 9am its very quiet as all of the younger children are already at school, and the older girls are upstairs doing their homework ready to go to school at 12pm. Seen as before, it was always the kids that made sure there was never a dull moment, I found it really difficult to adjust to it suddenly being a lot quieter in the refuge, with regular occasions when I found there was simply no one around as the women would all be upstairs in their rooms or out buying school supplies for example. Having said that, the loss of constant need for attention and games from the kids has meant that I have had a lot more time to just sit down in the lounge with one or a few of the women and just chat. Not necessarily about anything profound or deep about their pasts and experiences, but just about life in general and themselves, and they also like to ask me a lot about what England's like and the cultural differences between things such as food and greetings.

With my favourite girls at the project on Valentines day

I feel now, nearly having worked in my project for 3 months, that I am at home in the refuge and that I truly have a place there. Not because I have a specific role, that without, the refuge would struggle, but for the simplest things. For example, any time I've been away, whether its just for the standard weekend, or if its because I'm ill, or when I returned from the week away at the Latin Link conference (more on that in a bit); I'm welcomed back so warmly with lots of hugs and 'we missed you's and such like.
The cutest thing however, has to be Anjel, a 3 year old who doesn't speak much at all but has learnt my name - Ey-ye instead of El-le, as he's not too good with 'l' sounds. He's always wandering around the house and every day when I arrive I have him hurtle himself towards me shouting,
'Hoya Eyye Hoya Eyye Hoya Eyye Hoya Eyye!'
(Hoya meaning Hola).... Not gonna lie. I melt a little inside every time :')

I'm also finding that the women just find that they can really feel comfortable and themselves around me and I've found that a lot of them have recently really started to open up to me about their lives before the refuge. Not even because I've asked them or prompted them to tell me but because they obviously just feel able to do so now. I think a big part for this is the fact I came back after Christmas. Because they're so used to people just coming to work with them for a week max, for me being there a month, a lot of them were quite confused about why I was still there after a month and were almost waiting for me to jet off at some point soon. So to come back for them was like a, 'wow, she's really here to stay with us', and so have felt more able to let me be their friend properly, and a lot of them have also individually expressed how much me being there means to them.

One of the biggest struggles since being back has been dealing with the experience of a new woman joining the refuge. My second day back to work aswell!
Her name is Maribel and she is here with her 3 children, 6 year old Maria Fernanda, 3 year old Jennifer and 3 month old José Javier. Her story was one of the first I'd heard in full and it truly is heartbreaking, involving a lot of violence, rape and hate. For her privacy I'm not going to share it publicly in detail here, but if any of you would like to hear some of the womens testimonies then its better to message or email me privatley.
It has been so emotionally draining for me but also so amazing to get to know her from day one. I remember the first day she came. She was sat in the lounge with the kids huddled around her and she just looked so petrified and scared, but also in a strange kind of peace by her new, safe, surroundings. By the end of the day I'd had a chat with her and I remember her just being totally overwhelmed by my being there, not understanding why I would 'sacrifice' life in England to spend my time, unpaid, with women like her. All I can say is that I would never call what I do a sacrifice. It is most certainly a privilege and I've never felt happier or more like I'm serving God. Meeting her was definitely a big reminder for me about what God has called me to do in this life. To serve these women. Here in Guatemala, now. But also in the future in whatever country God leads me to.
God has put a heavy burden on my heart for his precious daughters around this earth that haven't received the love they were designed to receive but instead have received negativity and pain and disappointment and the message that they're unlovable. And all I can say is that I'm so glad to finally be living out that calling; and I'm super duper crazy excited for what Gods got planned next.
Since her first day, over the last month and a bit, me and Maribel have actually become really good friends. We chat most afternoons for a good hour or so and I am one of the people in the refuge that she always goes to and trusts with José. Which I will never complain about as he is literally the biggest cutie. Honestly. I mean just look at him...

I'm really looking forward to my last few months here to develop our relationship, as well as my relationships with the others, more and more, and especially that I might help them all draw closer to God and his truth in the way that I can show Jesus' love for them through the way I love them and serve them.




Left: making fresco (fruit pulpy juice) with Alba

Right: In the park pulling faces with Gaby :3





In general I've been up to the same kind of things in the refuge as the last update. I help with cooking (and am learning a lot about Guatemalan cooking and recipes through it which is pretty neat!), I help with the cleaning, I go on trips to the market to stock up on food, I help look after the kids (especially now with baby José!) and I try my best to entertain the kids too by playing with them and pulling faces haha. Since the kids have been back at school I also try to help if I can when they have English homework to do, making it as fun as I can. Although I am very aware that teaching English is not a strength or gift of mine which you might have gathered if you saw my facebook status a while ago which said:
'Part of me thinks I've slightly failed at trying to teach the girls at the project some English because all they've actually remembered are the phrases 'hokey kokey', 'poppy cock' and 'absolutely spiffing' ... Then again, I feel like this is very much a success. Haha ;)'
I'm still very much involved with the jewellery as well. I've been a few times on trips to the markets and shops in the city now, to stock up on materials source new beads and stones that could act as inspiration for new pieces. Talking of new pieces, I've also been busy designing more necklaces as well as sets of jewellery, some of which I've then made as prototypes using the materials we already have. Those at the refuge who take leading roles in the micro enterprise seem to be liking what I've come up with so far and have expressed interest in reproducing quite a few of them. I'm actually currently excited because at some point over the next few weeks me and Deysi are meant to be going to scout out/have made beads and pendants that fit some of my designs. Will be awesome to see them come to reality :)

The latest set I've come up with

Other than all this every day stuff we did actually have a group of women from the States come and visit the project, last week which proved to be a lot of fun and a great week in general. They led lots of crafty type activities such as making key rings and place mats for dinner on valentines day. A few of them also worked with some of the women to build a compost and also teach them how to plant a load of vegetables. There was a lot of sweet smells going around the house as well over the week, as being american (not a stereotype at all), they had lots of delicious recipes up their sleeves so we all rather enjoyed daily batches of cookies and biscuits and lots of other treats that had funny names but were to die for! :P Other things they did were daily devotionals with the women, a pyjama party with nail painting, and mini photo shoots of all the families. It was good fun to see all the women get their glad rags on and really pose for the camera as for a lot of them it was the first opportunity they'd ever had to have nice photos of themselves, if at all, and especially with their children. I had the privilege of putting some of my camera skills to use with one of the American womens DSLRs and shooting some of the families myself and it was just so lovely to see the womens reactions at how darn beautiful they look in their photos :) It really is the smallest things that make my time here the best.

Left: Me and the placemat I made - sticking to my roots with the British Flag obviously! ;)

Right: Painting the tiny toe nails of Jennifer at the Pyjama Party

With the Mission Group from America in our PJs

Me and Kim translating Mishelles testimony to the group

On a side note I will also just give some brief (well I shall try to keep them brief!) updates on how things are going in other areas of my Guatemalan life :)

Church:
Th main update on church would have to be regarding the youth group and how my relationships have been growing within it. You may remember from my blog 'The second chapter of my Guatemalan journey...' that God was pretty awesome in answer to prayer in that he put people in my path to enable me to get involved in the youths activities. It was an awesome start and reassured me that God was watching over it all and looking after me, providing me with the right people. Over Christmas however, was tough. After that first week of being there and going to the youth saturday night bible study group, it turned out that that was actually the last meeting before the holidays! And I only had one more game of frisbee before that too ended. I got a little sad cause I was desperate to establish some friendships in the church. But God was faithful and despite the circumstances provided me with friends. There was two families in particular that were especially kind and welcoming to me which included young girls my age and so I've come to know them really well. Over Christmas we had a day out together and went ice skating on Guatemalas city first ever ice rink (although in reality it was just a big puddle haha, fail.), and Ive been to lunch at their houses a few times. Since the New Year things have only got better and Im literally just in total praise to God for it all - I finally feel like I have a friendship group in the church. Quite regularly now we will go to POPs for icecream one evening, or gather in someones house to watch a film or go to someones house for lunch after church. Just casual stuff, nothing big or super spiritual, but enough to make me feel like I now have a home here in San Cristobal. Frisbee started back up in Jan and although Ive not been able to go every time its been good each time I have gone as its helped me to get to know more people in the youth group. Its at the point now, where they know me well enough for those on the opposite team to shout to my team to pass to me so that if they do in confusion the other team can sabbotage cause they know im not exactly the most talented in reflexes and speed when it comes to frisbee :( sigh. But its all in good fun haha! As for the youth group, it was meant to start back in Feburary but, well, that didnt happen! So its been a little frustrating as ive really missed having a weekly bible study group, to have fun but also to share in faith and encourage. Ironically, whilst writing this Ive had a wall post on Facebook telling me that its starting back up this weekend, so the beginning of March. Better late than never! Im excited to finally be part of it and get to know more people and to learn more about our shared faith but from the perspective of people who culturally differ on some opinions and topics :) It should be interesting and challenging, and fun! :)

With some of my girl friends from church

Latin Link stuffs:
As I will have mentioned before, we meet up as Team Guatemala every month to share in experiences and encourage and pray for one another. I've particularly enjoyed the last few meetings as I can finally talk all about what's happening in my project and also, because my Spanish is a lot more developed and I'm a lot more confident in it, I am able to talk more fluently and in detail, which is proper great for me, as I find speaking Spanish with other English speakers (so 80% odd of the group!) uncomfortable and intimidating and generally just don't like doing it! But I am getting better :) Thankfully aside from team meetings I've been able to stay in pretty good contact with other Striders in Guatemala which has continued to be a great encouragement. We also had Amy Ward join Team Guate in Jan so its been lovely to have some time to get to know her a bit more.
In other Latin Link news you're probably aware that at the beginning of Feb Team Guate jet off to Costa Rica to join Team Costa Rica and Team Nicaragua for the annual Central America Latin Link Conference. If you don't already know, the week basically served as an opportunity to get to know other members of Latin Link, both Striders and Stayers; to receive more teaching on cross cultural mission and that kinda thing; to share with the other teams the work we are doing and testimonies of how God has been working; and to have a bit of a refresh too! Although in truth, the week left me knackered haha ;) A highlight of the week had to be the talent night, in which Team Guate put on a spectacular performance of out of water synchronised swimming. Honestly, it was great.
Link here, although you may have to be on Facebook + my friend to see it....

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151460100157164

On the last night of the conference

Group photo at the conference - Team Guate, Team Costa Rica and Team Nicaragua

Getting four months worth of hugs in with Louise <3

I think thats about it! Phew. Didnt end up that long did it now? Pretty good going for me anyway.
The only other thing to mention would be regarding my health as I know a lot of you are praying hard for this due to the fact I've not been too lucky during my time here! I've done pretty well considering - I went from mid November to mid January with no major issues. However in Jan I did get pretty ill with what turned out to be amoebas, a intestine infection and a kidney infection. It wasn't pleasant. But lots of meds sorted me out and I've been well since :) Thank you to all of you who are praying for my health and to those who always ask my mom how I'm getting on.

And just a general thank you to all of you who are keeping me encouraged with support and love and prayers  and who are making the effort to stay in touch over facebook and skype. If there's anyone who hasn't get added me on skype who wants to, just add elle.deakin - its a pretty easy one!
And please don't forget I'm here to be praying for you guys too! So if there's any prayer requests or situations I can be keeping in my prayers please do let me know :)

For those of you who pray:
Things to be thankful for:

• That I feel settled in my project now and that Ive started to build strong friendships with the women and girls
• That God is giving me opportunities to show and talk about his love, and is giving the women opportunities to open up and confide in me
• That he has continued to be faithful regarding friends in church and that he has provided me with a great set of friends to go forward with
• For all my close friends in England who God has so obviously put in my life to encourage, advise and support me through all the tough times I go through here
• For continued communication and friendship with the other Latin Link members, despite me now living further away and it being a bit harder

Things to be praying for:

• That my relationships within the refuge would continue to grow and that Christ can shine as a light through them
• That I would be able to teach the women more about Jesus' love for them and what it means to be a follower of Christ as well as for me to learn from them 
• That my friendships would continue to grow in the church and that I would be able to find support and encouragement from them as well as share more in Guatemalan culture through them
• That the restart of the Saturday Night Youth Group would go well and that I would find it a good place to be spiritually recharged.
• For health (always! haha)
• That God would give me the strength and support to get through the slight homesickness I've been experiencing over the last few weeks (unusual for me, but getting me a little down at times - still love life there though!)

Love you all :) Thanks as always for reading,

Adios! xxx

Shenanigans Part 1 - Navidad y más!

Righty then.
I guess I need to start with a whopper of an apology for not updating you all in so long! I realise its been over two months now, but you just wouldn't believe how busy I've been and how quickly time seems to have slipped by (now over 5 months in!? Whaaaaaat).

To start with I want to take you back to December to fill you in on all the shenanigans that occurred over the festive season :) There was a lot and all were a tad bit crazy! I shall try to keep it concise but do please bare with me if I go on a ramble, because as we all know, I just cant help it ;)

Christmas with my project: 
So Christmas in The Refuge was a pretty fun time. As soon as December 1st hit, the Christmas tree came out of hiding accompanied by tons and tons of tangled tinsel and bells and lights. Fair to say it was a fun week working together with the kids to get it all in order and decorated. Over the month we actually had quite a few afternoons celebrating Christmas with hot chocolate and (strictly rationed) marshmallows and sometimes cake as well, normally if there was someone visiting or if it was bible study day or something along those lines. For my last day at the project before I had my holidays, we went all out and added the traditional food, Tomales to the mix of food (and even had unrationed marshmallows) as well as a musical accompaniment of Mr Bublés Christmas album which both the kids and the women were dancing along too. The only way to describe the whole day was cheery. Just cheery. Baring in mind all of the situations they have come from, it was such a blessing to see them smiling and enjoying the freedom they now have in Christ and in their new lives. Over my holidays I still popped into The Refuge a few times to visit and catch up with everyone. On one of these days we had another Christmas party, with pass the parcel, crafts, more music, more tomales, more hot chocolate, more marshmallows and more smiles :)

Christmas at Church:
Other than the standard lighting of the advent candles each week and the singing of carols to death all month not much happened at the church that was that Christmassy up until Christmas Eve. Although we did have a Christmas party for the last prayer meeting, where we had food, a (very hard and intense) bible quiz, some Christmas themed games and sang yet more carols, led by my Guatemalan Dad on his accordion. Fair to say I got to know all the carols in Spanish off by heart pretty quickly! ;)
Another activity we did was over 3 days. Each day lots of us met up at the church, got into groups, grabbed a load of 'canastas' (or rather, boxes full of basic food items), squished into various cars and travelled around the city to different houses of people in the church who are ill or haven't been able to come to church for a while for other reasons, sang carols to them, prayed with them and gifted them with the canastas. It was a good opportunity to get to know more of the youth as well as build relationships with some of the adults in the church. It was also good for them to get to know me more, as a lot of people in Guatemala presume that people like me who come to volunteer, are only here to stay for a week or maybe a month and no more (as most people are), so for them to see me still around, getting involved in the church's ministry and get to hear more about what I'm actually doing and why I'm here was good :)

with one of the families we visited

Noche Buena:
When it comes to actual Christmas Christmas, Guatemala, along with a lot of Latin America only really celebrate on Christmas Eve (noche buena) and kind of just, well... sleep and recover from the food, etc on Christmas Day - just like we English do on Boxing day haha. So my Christmas Eve went a little like this.... For the few weeks before I had been trying with all my effort to get to the supermarket and buy ingredients for and then make, mince pies. However I had no luck up till Christmas eve due to the sheer unreliability of Guatemalans. For example, one time we were actually in the car on our way when suddenly my Guatemalan pops casually mentioned he'd changed his mind and we ended up at a Christmas fair on the other side of the city! Crazy. So yes. I finally got the ingredients. BUT THEN. On our way home I received a call and was invited to a meal with one of the families from the church that has been really welcoming and lovely to me since I arrived. So that caused another delay in the mince pie making :( I ended up eating dinner with about 30 members of their family and it was really fun - I got to sit on the youth table and so got to have a good joke around with them. There was a few funny moments where Id used sarcasm and they just thought I was crazy and didn't make sense, and so, laughed at me.... Sigh. Still not used to the fact they don't understand/use sarcasm. By the time I got home we had to go straight out to church for the service. So still no mince pies made. The service was fairly standard with a sermon and lots of carols. But there was an awesome part at the end where the whole church was only lit up by a couple of hundred candles. Beautiful. And then at the end, we had a greeting part. This is normal in Church - to have a part of the service where you greet those around you with a hug and a kiss on the cheek or a handshake and a quick catch up, maybe for about 5 minutes.... but on this night it was pretty much the whole church that I greeted! Tiring work. Lasted about an hour!
I have to admit it was during the service that I got my first bout of homesickness since arriving in Guatemala. It was quite honestly just the lack of the usual SBC lot doing a hilarious, witty, Christmas themed sketch that did it. Then the lack of having my SBC friendlings around me as we sung the carols. Then the realisation that everything was different, and the realisation that whilst I've never thought of my family having traditions - I wouldn't be spending Christmas day with the Russels, or going on a chilly boxing day walk with the Jacksons which I always moan about but secretly love, or going for a New Years meal in Cardiff with The Roeves and Mog the Dog.
Don't get me wrong though, in general I loved my Guatemalan Christmas and enjoyed (and wouldn't change) 'sacrificing' one year of the norm for one year of the random and culturally crazy different :)
After the service my fam headed back home and whilst Dina (momma) revved up the food for our Christmas feast I finally started on the mince pies! It ended up taking me till 4am to finish them due to a lack of experience in how to make them (first attempt, and made everything from scratch), lack of certain ingredients and therefore having to come up with alternatives, and a lack of the needed cooking equipment - as in... the family don't own a baking tray.... so I had to makeshift something to cook them in, but could only do 4 at a time! :/ Our Christmas dinner at 11pm was an interesting one to say the least. Pork... apple, pineapple and marshmallow salad....carrot, raisin and yoghurt salad....mashed sweet potato with melted marshmallows on top.....and rice with sweetcorn and marshmallows mixed in. Unlike any Christmas dinner I've had for sure! After dinner we went up onto the balcony and with our amazing view of the city, Mixco, we watched thousands of fireworks go off as soon as 5 to 12 hit. It was truly amazing. And loud.
And that was my Guatemalan Christmas Eve!

Christmas with the Latin Link Team:
Over my Christmas holidays I had quite a few opportunities to meet up with other members of the Latin Link team for various days out and catch ups which was really nice. We also had two ex-Striders come and visit, Amy and Gemma so it was great to spend some more time with them. One of our outings was to Zaragoza to watch a live Nativity which was pretty cool if not odd! There was literally donkeys, cows and other animals walking around the town square as well as tons of the local children not really knowing what they were doing. But it was great fun. We sipped at cups of boiling hot chocolate attol (a rice drink) in the cold as we laughed along with the locals at the cute little narrator who loved to emphasise the word 'mucho' (a lot) to 'muuuuuuucho' as well as at the stray dogs that kept trying to join in the other animals.
Due to the fact Guatemalans don't celebrate Christmas Day, we all gathered in Suzannes house in San Lucas for a proper English Christmas Dinner. We had crackers, party hats, a secret Santa  and of course - to keep in the Guatemalan spirit, cuetes, which are basically firecrackers. There was a lot of dashing and yelping as we set them off, as on more than one occasion the swirling, colourful, firey ones flung themselves in our direction! But it was all safe good fun ;)

Christmas with my host family:
Other than what I mentioned we did on Christmas Eve, there wasn't many Christmas themed events with my family (minus the random trip to the fair!). However I did go on two trips away with them over the Christmas season. On one weekend Victor Hugo - my Guatemalan pa took me on a veeeery long trip to a town called Agua Blanca, far over on the right side of Guatemala. It took us about a 7 hour drive through hills and mountains to get there. I went only with the knowledge that it was a family gathering. Turned out it was the year anniversary of one of the oldest members of the family dying and was therefore the traditional get together of all the family and some close friends to mourn again. So the first night there was spent in a small dingy room, talking about him and celebrating all the good things he did in his life, singing songs and eating tomales. After a night spent sleeping with 15 other women on just two mattresses and a vast amount of mosquitos buzzing around, we all got up early and trekked up a mountain to redecorate his grave. As Day of the Dead wasn't that long ago (Nov 1st), a lot of the other graves were still very colourful with plastic wreaths and streamers, but our job was to clean all of the family grave where he was buried last year, and cover it with even more tacky decorations and fake flowers. We prayed over the grave and then trekked back down to the house where we all feasted on tortillas, frijoles, guacamole, and beef, before all then returning home. It was a weekend unlike anything I had expected but I imagine if it had been what I was expecting it wouldn't have been half as good!

the grave

some of the family preparing the maize to make into tortillas

The other trip was very different! The family have a membership at a chain of hotels around Guatemala so we went and stayed in a little flat for a few days in San Jose at the beach on the south coast. It was very relaxed and veeery sunny and veeeeeery hot (and for this I got some pretty good tan lines as well as burnt patches). I got through a good few books and every day we took a trip to the pool. On one of the evenings me and Andrés (my bro) took a quad bike out for a spin down the beach (secretly terrifying). Another night was spent all squished onto one bed to watch the Avengers. On one afternoon we took a trip into the small town to get some food supplies and it was ridiculously hot but so interesting to see how easy going everyone was and how another side of Guatemala lives, out of the hustle and bustle of the city. The trip wasn't exactly anything incredibly special or cultural but it was a great opportunity to relax a tad bit, regain some energy, have some extra time with God and get to know my family some more over meals and the various walks we did. There was also hammocks. And I love hammocks. So that made me a happy girly :D


New Years:

Well my New Years wasn't especially jam packed as my family, being a little bit older, were just planning on an early night, without setting off fireworks or cuetes or anything (also because Andrés doesn't like the noise), and so I went over to San Lucas to spend the night with Amy, one of the returned ex-striders. It was a pretty cajj night. We watched a film, ate popcorn, made rocky road, ate rocky road, got freaked out when the lights all went, and at 12am went outside and watched all the fireworks seeing in the new year with hot ponche in hand from the balcony of Suzannes neighbours house who'd invited us up for a better view. (For the record, ponche is a sweet fruity drink that is basically made from a load of random mulled fruits, which then sit at the bottom ready to fall on your face when you get to the bottom, but that does indeed taste preeeetty darn good). We also went a bit OTT on the cheese on toast, eating 4 slices each. Cause, well, y'know - its a typical New Years food isnt it? haha. hmm....
Seeing in the New Year provided a good time of reflection just for how much God did in 2012 and just how blessed it was in lots of aspects and areas. So far so good for 2013 as well! I have no doubt that his blessings will stop any time soon. :)

Trip to Tikal:
To finish off our Christmas holidays, me, Nahum and Amy took a trip over to the National Park of Tikal in Flores, Guatemala, up in the north, which holds the mystery and awe of some of the worlds most famous Mayan Ruins. It was truly an awesome two days and probably one of my highlights of my time in Guatemala so far, although I have LOTS of highlights haha!
Starting with a 4am pickup from San Lucas on the 2nd of January we headed to the airport, and after a short flight on a tiny aeroplane arrived in Flores we went straight to the Park and got straight on with our tour which took us till lunchtime. We did a LOT of walking, which certainly is not advisable in TOMS, especially ones that have big holes in the heel (which I can now say from experience). It was VERY hot. Like, really. Every part of me was sweating, even my legs and arms. I don't think I even knew that was possible! It wasn't exactly pleasant :P We got to see a lot of the ruins and even got to climb to the top of one of the biggest ones which provided an absolutely stunning view over the top of all the jungle of which you could see various other ruins peaking out of the top of. There was the constant sound of monkeys howling and hooting around us all day and it was all just great :)
The next day was spent in Flores, which is a little island in the middle of a big lake. We tried a few of the local places for our various meals and also took a tour of part of the lake in a little wooden boat. As part of this tour we basically got forced to visit the little zoo in the middle of the lake on another small island due to the fact that the guy dropped us off and said he'd meet us on the other side (there was no other way than to pay to go through haha!). Funny. The zoo wasn't anything special but we saw some funky animals and lots of birds and the odd croc too. The highlight had to be when Nahum befriended a Spider Monkey and named him Manuel. He was a pretty groovy guy. We even held hands with him! Although, Amy got some feet thrown in as well, haha. Afterwards we caught our last holiday ice cream and then headed back to Suzannes house where we reunited with other Latin Linkers who'd taken a trip to El Salvador and ate pizza and the left over rocky road.
There are lots of funny stories I could tell you from this trip but I'm afraid it'd take all day, bore you, and well, embarrass certain members of the group! So we shall leave that for another day. Our brief trip to Tikal was most certainly worth it and a great way to finish off an awesome Guatemalan Christmas before heading back to our projects and something I'm sure I'll remember for many years to come :)

Golly. Think we covered enough for one post don't you think? I'm sure you're all ready to switch off at this point, and so am I. Sooooo I shall leave this here for now but leave you in anticipation for Part 2 which I should hopefully get up in the next week or so which will be all about general updates in my project, church, friends, life, etc, etc. All that fun stuff ;)
Until then friends, much love and hugs and blessings :)

Oh, and Thanks go to all of you who went to the effort of sending me Christmas cards, letters, Cadburys, gifts and even just the Facebook messages. I certainly felt missed and loved and appreciated them more than you know! :'3

Adios, Deaks  ;) x