This last weekend I went with the whole family out to Tino's again (Don Salomon's nephew, the guy with the monkey). Up until then I’d been in Guatemala City since I got back from my trip to Seattle. I don’t know how, but in two weeks I had almost forgotten what most of Guatemala looks like. Before whenever I came here I was always so surprised at how there aren’t many Guatemalans that help out in the poorest parts of the country, but it’s almost as if Guatemala City is a different country. It’s very separated and entirely different. Sure the City is very different from the U.S., but it’s also very different from the real Guatemala. It’s so easy to not think about how the rest of Guatemala lives while you are in the Capital. I feel bad saying that, but it’s true.
        And I’m not saying that the change outside the City is all bad, although the people are poor by American standards, the have other types of riches. The communities are much stronger because everyone needs each other. It’s not like the U.S. where you have coffee shops full of people that don’t talk to each other, everyone knows the people that live in their town. Sure, they might have a lot to learn from us about business, economics, and entrepreneurship, but we have just as much, if not more, to learn from them about community.
        I haven’t been back out to Uspantan yet because of Don Salomon’s health. Right before I left for Seattle he went to the doctor and the reports were not good. He’s had heart problems for about the last ten years I think and has had a few surgeries in the U.S. for them. I’m not exactly sure what the problem is, I think a clogged artery or something, but he’s flying out to California in two days to have an angioplasty (I think). It’s a pretty risky surgery too, so please pray for the surgery to go well and for a quick recovery so he can enjoy some time in California with his friends. Him and Doña Mery fly back here on February 2nd, but I won’t see them until the 10th.
        I decided to spend my continental gift certificate to fly to NYC and take the Chinatown Bus to DC for the National Prayer Breakfast. I’m pretty excited for that. It should be pretty cool to get to hear Obama speak there. I fly out on the 31st and get back on the 10th.
        The trip out to Tino’s was really fun. He’s got some new pets, “Pavo,” he calls them, it means Turkey, and when I looked at them up close I guess they are pretty much Turkeys. He’s got peacocks now. Maybe he’ll have like a Zebra next time I visit. The peacocks were pretty cool though. We went to the Mayan ruins again, that was pretty cool. When we were heading out we went to a hot springs, that was a lot of fun. One of the cars broke on the way there so we all had to cram thirteen people into two cars for the eight hour ride back to the City. Haha. I got lucky and was put in the car with five people, the other one had eight. Not really sure how that worked out. The hot springs was a lot of fun and we had a barbeque there with delicious steak and chorizo (best chorizo I’ve ever had). Huehuetecan Chorizo’s are real strange looking though. It’s a small sausage that a perfect ball. They taste delicious though.

                Johnny

        P.S. The above photo was taken on the road out of the opposite window of the car. Lucky timing, huh?

            Heather, Bo, and I made a short video the other night. I rented the Nikon D90 and wanted to try out the video mode on it, so we decided to make a mock how-to video. Follow the link to view it in HD on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT2-6vPUC_Q or watch it here.

Enjoy!

            Hey everybody, sorry about the really long delay between posts. In case you hadn't heard I was in Seattle for the last month. I decided to surprise my family back around Thanksgiving. I flew home on December 7th and surprised my mom on the 8th, the day my dad died last year. I heard that she had to put Indy down and was pretty down both about that and the anniversary of my dad's death, so I decided to do something to cheer her up. I filled the kitchen with balloons, all in my dad's favorite color, lime green, and then about 20 people came over and my face was on Skype (video chat on the computer) and I was sitting upstairs in front of a white wall so she didn't know where I was. Then when she got home she saw the surprise party commemorating the one year anniversary of "Dancing in Heaven," my dad always said his last year that he was, "dancing on the edge of heaven." I talked with my mom on Skype for a few minutes and then excused myself and walked downstairs into the kitchen. She screamed when she first saw me, it was pretty funny. So for the most part I just hung out with my family when I was home, we went to Yakima for Christmas with my cousins (yeah, I know, the title of this entry is kind of a lie) and then went to Sun Valley for a few days and for New Year's. That was amazing. The weather here has been a big difference from Guatemala, that's for sure. Right now I'm sitting in the President's Club at the Houston Airport because I volunteered to get bumped to a later flight and I get into the President's Club for free. It's pretty classy. Then I get to fly first class the rest of the way to Guatemala and get a $300 Continental Gift Card. Pretty good deal, huh?