Last night was terrible! I felt like I hardly got any sleep. My window panes do not meet each other so my room is drafty and loud. Last night was the soccer game between the U.S. and Mexico. I don't know if that is why people were so loud or if was just because it was the weekend. A bar up the road put speakers outside and was blasting music. I thought that was bad until they started using those same speakers for karaoke. There were people walking, talking, and yelling outside my window until the wee hours of the morning. There was also the usual dogfight around 1am, but I did not hear the 2am rooster last night. I woke up very tired and have been tired all day.
I got up at 7 and took a shower (my first in this apartment). I have to give this shower higher marks than the last one. With this shower, you can have great water pressure (with very cold water) or hot water (with very low water pressure) instead of the lukewarm, low water pressure that came out of the other shower. I ate the biggest banana I've ever seen and a granola bar before heading out to meet Ryan in front of McDonald's at 8:15.
I stopped by XelaPan and bought a sheca con frijol and some anise rolls to have for lunch at the hospital. I met Ryan and he decided that he didn't want to walk to Bethania (the church which was about a 30 minute walk away) so we took a cab to the church. When we got there, we couldn't go in because there was a church service going on right inside the doors. We walked around the corner and went to a XelaPan cafe because Ryan had not had breakfast. I showed him my recommended items and he got a few things. We went to the cafe part and sat down. We had about a half hour before church, but by the time the waitress came to take the order, we only had about 10 minutes before church, so Ryan didn't order any food. When he had finished, we headed over to the church.
People were pouring out the doors and many people were waiting in the street for the church to clear. There are three morning services (7, 9, and 11) and each one lasts two hours. I couldn't believe how many people were there. We finally entered the church and there was already a countdown going on the screen. When the church service began, they turned off the lights and had a fog machine with strobe lights. It was pretty intense! We sang lots of worship songs that I knew from other Spanish churches but none that I knew from English. There was a dance team that danced with tambourines, scarves, and ribbons. There were really cute babies in the church service, some of them tied to their mother's backs. I want a Guatemalan baby to tie on my back! I already bought the colorful fabric that they use! The sermon was about having a family that is built upon the Rock (Jesus Christ). It was interesting because he started off talking about all the political candidates and how everyone hopes that if the right person is elected, they hope it will change Guatemala. His opinion is that what is going to save Guatemala is building strong families. He said to build a strong family by praying together, by loving God's Word, and by blessing the people in your family with your words. After church, about 11, we walked to the hospital to see Andrea.
Ryan only stayed 15 minutes because he was going to go to the hostel and change the sheets on Andrea's bed. Her pain meds were wearing off, so she wasn't feeling that great. We walked around the hospital and then she got into bed for a while. It is so hard for her to get in and out of bed that she often chooses to stay in the chair. She needed a lot of help getting around so I could tell she was hurting. She is supposed to go eight hours between pain pills. She said she had her first pill at 5:15 this morning, so she should have had one at 1:15. About 12:30, she gave in and asked for the pill, but they wouldn't give it to her. They said that she had to wait until 2 since morning meds are given at 6. It was a long 90 minutes. I tried to distract her with conversation and helped her move around as needed. We attempted the crossword in the paper (in Spanish, of course), but we could only get about one-fifth of the words. Holly showed up a bit before 2 and then Andrea's mom arrived at 2:30, just as the pain medicine was starting to kick in. Andrea and her mom talked for a few minutes and then went on a walk. Andrea's mom was hungry, so Holly and I took her to the XelaPan cafe where I had been that morning. She ate a meal and Holly and I had sweets. I had a piedra (rock), which is a dense cake-like cookie with chocolate on top. It kind of has a cinnamon flavor. It was huge and very sweet. I could hardly finish it. I also had Hibiscus juice. When we finished eating, it was pouring down rain (due to a tropical depression), so we waited a half hour, but the rain showed no sign of stopping. Andrea's mom had forgotten her umbrella in her car, so she didn't want to walk. I didn't really, either! Holly and I went out in the rain and tried to flag down a cab, which we eventually did. The driver was really nice and we were soon back at the hospital. We hung around for another hour or so and then Holly and I headed back around 6. Andrea's mom was going to spend the night at the hospital. It was still raining quite hard, so we looked for a cab, but we could not find one. We started walking back, still looking for a taxi but without success. It was so wet and Holly didn't have an umbrella. I mainly used mine to protect my backpack that I had on my front to protect my Bible and camera. We walked the whole 25 minute walk back and I was so wet there was really no point in trying to stay dry. I was wearing a long black skirt and it was soaked in the back from the rain dripping off my jacket and umbrella. It started wrapping around my legs and it was hard to walk. When I finally got back, every single item of clothing that I was wearing was wet, including my jacket, sweater, and shirt! In the photo below, please note that the dark black part is the wet part!
I changed and went upstairs to see about dinner. Sandy was on the computer and Alvaro and Kristen were over. Gabby came out and started playing Speed with Alvaro. I couldn't tell if they had eaten yet or not. I wrote about a political article I had read in class on Saturday as part of my homework. We had some popcorn (dinner?) and I played Speed with them. Finally, Sandy went and made some very greasy microwavable pasta with meat for my dinner. I also had some dry bread with a few raisins in it. I miss vegetables! I headed back downstairs around 8. I met one of my roommates (Javi) that I hadn't yet met. She works with med students who are doing clinicals and residencies here. I went to my room and caught up on email and other stuff. I still need to finish reading my Isabel Allende short story. I am really tired!
Here is a picture of Holly and me standing by Andrea's hospital door (#2).
No comments:
Post a Comment