Guatemala!

Buenas from Guatemala City!

We´ve been here nearly 2 weeks now. We arrived in Guatemala city, driven by an extremely irritable mini bus driver who liked to mutter gringo insults under his breath. Now you might think that this is a bit harsh, and it is, because we could never have done anything to aggrevate him at all... Well... When we were about 20 mins into the journey, Guy and i realised that we had left something at the hotel. Not just an item of clothing or some possesion, it was a very part of ourselves. I am talking of course about our cowboy hats. So.. after about a minute of discussion - we decided to return for them (massive amount of credit goes to Faye who helped sway the minds of other less convinced team members that we should go back.) So when we arrived once again at the hotel i jumped out and ran in. Slyly, I had put my passport in my pocket so that when I came out again - I hid the cowboy hats as best as I could while proclaiming I had what I went in for and waved my passport about in front of me. Despite the laughter/disbelief from the team, the driver was still not amused... When we arrived in Guatemala City, the driver asked us for directions to the address we had given him. Our response - completely blank faces. So after another 30 mins of driving around the city we eventually saw Suzanne waving crazilly from infront of a house. We quickly unloaded the van and said goodbye to the driver (after he tried to scam some more money out of us for apparently having too many bags!)

We are now living in a student house with 6 other Guatemalan students near the University - Norberto, Julio César, Aldo, Sergio, Eder, Eduardo. Ouselves included there are 17 people in the house which is most definitely cosy. The lads we are living with are awesome and already feel like family - nothing like paint fights for breaking the ice! The house we´re living in is the headquarters of GEU, the Guatemalan Christian students union, it’s a space for all the students to use as well as providing living space for 6 students who wouldn´t otherwise be able to afford accommodation. The house is pretty old and a bit of a mess so our first project is renovation inside and outside, building a new outside roof ( which we´re pro´s at now) and sorting out the garden. Work on the house takes up 3 days of our week (tues-thur), Friday we´ll be helping the students with any outreach programs they have running in the morning and giving English lessons in the afternoon, Saturday we have another English lesson in the morning and sports outreach in the afternoon and Sunday is various church stuff.

Work on the house is going well, we have alreday repainted the main living area and the front courtyard which definately bright up the place. Unfortunately, some bright spark decided to pebble dash all the ceilings inside which makes painting them an absolute time consuming, arm aching nightmare. But despite that, we buckled down and the ceiling is now nice and white which brightens the room alot! Another task we are doing is sanding and repainting balcones, which are basically big metal grates which cover all the doors and windows. Scraping them of rust and sanding them so they are smooth is no easy task and takes alot of will power to stop yourself from going crazy... Painting them, however, is just as frustrating. Not the painting but the paint itself. We are using this black anti corrosive paint which when you get it on your skin, refuses to come off unless it is scrubbed with white spirit. It also means that cleaning the brushes and pots is not at all fun. Anyway - we are looking forward to getting started on the roof on tuesday and will continue with the painting and sanding nonetheless.

We have recently had the pleasure of a visit from Andy Lawrence (the Step Coordinator) It was good fun having him along for a few days, sharing stories and generally having a laugh. He very kindly shouted us all to a meal out at a nice restaurant (no idea where). Guy and I sufficiently topped up our protein intake by sharing a huge platter of meat (various steaks, sausages and chicken). For a couple of the nights, as there wasn´t enough room, all the lads came and slept over in the living room so Andy wasn´t on his own (he is scared of the dark...) Guy made him feel very comfortable by sharing a double lilo with him and holding his hand while he slept (well maybe not holding hands but they shared the lilo...) He and Suzanne led a devo on Wednesday evening, before going to bed and seeing him off at 6 on Thursday morning.

Devotions are going really well. Since we arrived here we had a mini series on Acts, before starting a series on Revelation on Thursday. It is going really well so far and im excited about the discussions we are going to have as we go further. We have just about reached the tricky stuff in chapters 4 and 5 but there is plenty more to come!!

We have 1 huge prayer point. Behind our garden there is another house occupied by someone who delights to play music ridiculously loud at very unearthly times of the night. He has positioned his speakers so that they are facing out of his windows at the back, basically at our house. Music sometimes starts at about 3-4am and continues for hours. It is also played most of the time during the day. This is obviously incredibly annoying. I have been woken up pretty much everynight by it and it is having a really bad effect on the team as a whole (health and attitudes). Last night in particular I got hardly any sleep, came downstairs ready to give an English lesson, only to be sent back to bed by Helen and Claire. Apparently my face was quite green and i couldn´t keep my eyes open. I feel much better now after sleeping most of the morning but this really cant go on. Please please please pray that this stops, im not sure what state we will be in if we have to put up with it for another 6 weeks.

There is probably more I could write but cant remember because i left my diary at home. If you guys fancy sending any post (maybe with chocolates...) then the address is:

Joel Pambakian
c/o GEU
11 Avenida 30-23,
zona 12,
colonia santa rosa II
Ciudad de GUatemala
GUATEMALA

Dios te bendiga…

Joel