Behans Never Quit: 14 April 2014

Hermanas Behan and Gonzalez with Roger and Patricia at Patricia's baptism.

 ¡Hola familia y amigos!

So I finally figured out what Hna. Lopez reminds me of. You know the pigs on the game Angry Birds? That's what she looks like, in a more attractive humanized Tongan-looking womanly sense. Something about her facial expressions are exactly the same. She isn't Tongan, she's Guatemalan, but she's got this androgynous Pacific Islander thing going on which is cool. Really thick, defined eyebrows..super long jet black curly hair..and she rolls her eyes a lot. Like the pigs! I wish you could see her so you could congratulate me for how right I am.

I also may or may not have lied to Ana Rosa (our food cita) and told her that I have an aversion to gluten (aka rice and tortillas), and it may or may not have been the smartest thing I've done on my entire mission.  "Thou shalt not lie unto thy fellow men, but unto the woman who makest thy food, thou mayest change the truth slightly, so that thy waist line may wax smaller in the land." 1 Caribbeans 12:14

Tsunami? 7 April 2014

¡Hola familia y amigos!

First P-Day in Corinto. A cruise ship pulled in today so we just kind of walked around and laughed at all of the tourists who were bumping into each other and taking pictures. I wish that they weren't so blatantly stereotypical, but they were. Several American men with pot bellies strutting around saying loudly in English, "We want BEER! and COLD!" and tiny little Asian men dressed in lime green pants and riding some sort of weird, modern looking bikes, covered from head to foot by clothing, including white bandanas attached to large sun hats to cover their faces (they kind of looked like futuristic Bee-keepers, haha).  I think they'll probably be sunburned, but fingers crossed they make it out of Nicaragua okay.

I also ate half of a salad that I thought was full of pepper, but turned out to be ants.  Awesome.

Starfish and Streetlights: 31 March 2014

¡Hola familia y amigos!

This email is going to be really long. So, prepare yourselves.

Actually, all of my letters are long, so, it won't really be that different for you. Anyway. Moving on.

There. Is. So. Much. Dust. Here. Right. Now.

I swept three times in our house yesterday, and when I woke up this morning, there was so much dust my flip flops left footprints on the floor.  It's disgusting. And we live on the third floor with a less than effective ceiling (yeah . . . we might as well just take the ceiling off all together. Make it easier for our pet pigeons to enter), so it's even worse.  Renewed respect for those who survived the Dust Bowl, that is for sure.

Viva la Vida: 24 March 2014

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Viva la Vida is a Coldplay song, but it also means "Live Life." I'm not trying to sound like an American Eagle commercial when I say that we really do have the ability to just go out and live our lives, but we really do. Sometimes I feel like we tether ourselves down with unnecessary boundaries.. an ever growing list of "What if's" and "if-onlys" and etc etc etc..but they're mental. Take them off, untie them, and throw them on the ground Andy Sandberg style. And then run and do the thing you've always wanted to do but have never done.

Suitcase Heart: 17 March 2014

¡Hola familia y amigos!

They fumigated all of Fundeci (the apartment complex we live in) this week, which means our house is basically just a graveyard for cockroaches.  I wonder how many times I've used the word "cockroach" in my emails.  Far too many. Someone should count and tell me.

Walking on Water: 10 March 2014

¡Hola familia y amigos!

So I thought it couldn't get any hotter here, and then it did.  If I die here, just know that I love all of you. And that you won't really have to miss me because you can just google Justo Llamas and remember me in the version of my ugly Argentinan Doppleganger self. He sings and everything.

Also, to celebrate my official 6 months in the mission (wooooo!!) we went to a French bakery called "Pan y Paz" (or "Bread and Peace") last Monday, and it was sinfully delicious. A double chocolate mousse for dessert (dessert first, naturally) followed by a goat cheese sandwich on crisp freshly baked french bread.  Worth the calories.  If anyone is coming to pick me up in Nicaragua post-mish, we're going there. We're also going to drink Papaya Milkshakes, because they too are delicious and I tried my first one today. Or maybe we drank two.

Fat for life.

Siete Oop: 3 March 2014

¡Hola familia y amigos!

Siete Oop is how my Nicaraguan friend pronounces 7Up.  (In Spanish the letter "U" is the "oo" sound.)  I believe I mentioned this in a previous email, but Pizza = Pixa and Pepsi = Pexi as well, haha.  

Other random Spanish fact: there are two forms to express the word "you"--Usted (the formal version), and Tu (informal/personal). Here, they use a different version, the "vos" form. It's pretty much just like tu but maybe even a little bit more personal. I didn't pick up on it until recently, but now I hear it all of the time. Not allowed to use it (missionaries, ya know . . gotta use the more formal form), but there ya go.