Thursday, December 1, 2005 Travel Home

We left Guatemala and are heading home. We will be entering the United States through Houston, TX and then catching a flight to Minneapolis. See you then.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005 U.S. Embassy

Today is our appointment at the U. S. Embassy. We were told that Sandra's sister "Stephanie" was going to be our translator and would be going with us to the embassy. We also were told that another couple would be going with us because they had the same court time.

We met Dave, Janet and Charlie Holdsworth (photo at bottom left). Oddly enough they are from Maple Grove, MN and was working also with IAS. Wierd how everything works out.

Stephanie arranged for a taxi (a mid-size vehicle) that the 8 of us crowded into. In front was the taxi driver and Steph with Vivian on her lap and in the back seat was Cory, Dave, Janet, Charlie and Stephanie (the translator). This felt really strange to have 2 children on our laps without car seats. The culture is so different.

On our way we had to stop and get photos of the children for their visa's. We stopped at this photo booth that was just along the side of the road. It was nice to have another family with us and we all didn't really know what was going on, but just went with the flow of things. Once we got the pictures done we all piled back in the taxi and off to the embassy. The embassy was really crowded with people, thank God for the interpreter. We are not allowed to bring the camera in the embassy so we are unable to get any more additional photos :(

That evening we celebrated with the Holdsworth down in the bar at the Marriot. There was a "band???" playing typical Guatemalan music. Vivian was mesmorized by them. Happy days ahead!!!

Monday, November 28, 2005

We thought today we would be tourists. The Marriot had a shuttle that would take you to a few places not too far away from the hotel. We wanted to see a bit of Guatemala, but not comfortable enough to make a day trip to Antigua. We chose to go to a local market and a couple of museums. This is a picture outside of the market. The day was beautiful and was an amazing day as a family.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

I think all of us slept pretty sound. Vivian slept until 3 am. Cory gave her a bottle and she was back to sleep until about 7 am. We took our time on getting going and went down to breakfast around 9:30. Vivian was so good. For the most part, she slept in the stroller. Her routine seems to be eat and then nap for 40 minutes or so.

After breakfast we got a taxi and went to the closest Catholic Church, Immaculada de Tivoli. The mass did not start until noon, but we left early around 11:00 not knowing the how long it would take. Well it ended up taking only 15 minutes and the cab driver told us he would wait for us.

We were the 2nd people there so we had the opportunity to look around the church. Vivian slept through most the mass that was very similar to ours. We could easily follow although we didn’t know the language. The local people strolled in 30-45 minutes late. At this point we thought we would be there for 2 hours or so. However, mass lasted an hour and our taxi driver was waiting.