Well this is it. Tommorrow I will climb the volcano and sacrifice Brian to the fire gods, and the next day we return home. Our last couple of days have been pretty relaxing. We have explored the ruins of colonial churches in Guatemala's colonial capital and we have done a lot of kicking back. Talking eating good food and contemplating what it will be like to reenter the real world.

Last night there was a carnival in our town for some historically significant event (I'd tell you except for I couldn't understand anyone when they told me) Anyways we had a blast being the only tourists grubbing on cheap tacos and fresh churros made on the spot (trey I now understand why there should be real churro stands in CAlifornia, they are awesome). We also pushed our way through the crowds to ride the bumper cars which looked incredibly unsafe but were fun as heck. It was a great night. To finish the night we foud some friends that had worked with us in Hotel Backpackers and talked with them for a while, it was good times.

Well thats it, no more to say for now, I am going to enjoy the rest of my trip now. Thanks for reading these crazy emails and hanks for you love and support. Look forward to contunuing the adventure with all of you and also look forward to sharing the stories and pictures. (there are too many of each)
Love you all,
Matt

Ok, so its been a while, I can´t be blamed however. I have tried. This is actually my thrid attempt at an email. I wrote twice about the events between here and now (long emails at least 2 pages each, but power in most of Guatemala tends to blackout alot. So I will fill in those of you who are interested when I get back.

As for the present I am thorouhly enjoying my last week. For the past three days we hae been staying in different villages around the lago Atitlan. A gigantic lake surrounded by five volcanoes. The water is a surreal deep blue, the sky is the brightest blue ive seen, and the voncanoes and mountains are covered in green crops and rain forrest. Today we decided to ascend the nearest volcano, San Pedro. It took us 4 hours to ascend the 500 feet from the lake to the summit, and 1 and a half to come down. The trail was almost straight up and now we are exhausted. We hiked with an English girl studying literature at oxford and we had good conversations between our gasps for air. We planned to meet up with her tonigh again but due to the unreliability of central American banks we had to return to the main Lake city.

Life around the lake is a bit strange. Tourists spending wads of money on cheesysouvenirs and food and of course alcohol, all sold by local inhabitants that range from tired old women to 5 year old kids. All carry bundles of handicrafts on their heads and do their best to convince tourists to buy. THe lakside life is some of the most beuatiful sceneryi have yet seenm and at the same time less than a block way form this internet cafe more injustice than you´d see in a year in America. Its still really hard to process and I don´t know if I ever will be able to.

as for tommorow on to the old Colonial capital of guatemala, anitgua. And in two days we will climb Central Americas largest climbable active volcano. With luck we will avoi the rivers of molten lava and poisonous sulfer clouds and return safely on wednesday, five days from now.

love you all
Hasta Luego,
Matt

trip mail 10

So today we leave, on to bigger and better. For the last couple of days, in stead of working as we planned in the orphanage or distributing beans to surrounding villages we have been stuck working in the bar at Hotel Backpackers. Granted this is how hotel Backpackers makes the money to keep the orphanage running (with the help of foreign donations as well) I did not travel 3500 miles to serve alcohol to a bunch of rich tourists or drunk Guatemalans. That may sound selfish so let me explain. In Costa Rica the organization we hooked up with, Pura vida, had on its premises a rehab center for alcoholics and former drug addicts. There were a lot of men who found community and a chance to overcome their addictions in the company of fellow believers. The strange thing is that now I am working at a bar that works in direct opposition of such an organization. The paradox is that Hotel Backpackers promotes drunkenness (all the locals are sloshed belligerent and encouraged in being so) and the money they take from them (people who are needy but in a completely separate way) and give it to the kids. In some ways it could be looked at as a Robin Hood type way of running things, rob from rich give to poor, but I see it mostly as creating one problem to fix another. Another disturbing thing we have seen in the bar is kids as young as fifteen drinking (drinks bought by other people) and prostitutes the same age with rich older men. It makes me sick, and though those behaviors aren’t encouraged here they are accepted. Unfortunately there is a need for the children of Casa Guatemala and this is the only way they have found to meet it (donations aren’t close to enough).

I hope it doesn’t sound as if this time here has been a total loss, because it hasn’t. we have met some great fellow travelers. A bunch of travelling French girls who we had to speak to in Spanish because it was our best common language and also a couple of Irish folks we worked with were incredibly nice. They all left on Sunday and now this place is lonely so it is a good thing we are leaving today. By this afternoon, we will be headed up to the ancient Mayan Ruins of Tikal and then on to Belize, so pray for new friends and good weather (right now we seem to be in the middle of a giant storm that dumps rain on us every other day.)

Love you all,
Matt

Trip mail 9

This week I will truly live up to my heritage.

They call us Los Frijoleros, its Spanish for the Beaners. Our job for the next couple of days here is to take all of the beans we moved to the Casa Guatemala earlier this week (in loads of 1500 cans) and distribute them to local people in villages surrounding the Casa. We did it yesterday and it was amazing. An hour with three people crammed into a tiny 2 person truck cab and probably 700 pounds or more of beans in the back, over some of the worst roads I have ever seen before. May time the guy had to get out and move big rocks out of way to keep from scraping (we still bottomed out numerous times though. When we arrived and pulled up to the school the women from the whole village were there in less than 3 minutes. WE handed out 5 cans to each family and then moved to the next town. They were all so incredibly grateful to receive the help from us, apparently Casa Guatemala regularly sends out aid to the people of the area. It was interesting because most of the people of these remote villages don’t even speak Spanish, instead they speak the native Mayan language of Quiche (which involves lots of throat scratching clicking types sounds its rather beautiful to hear)

We have also been helping out playing with the kids a lot and that is a new adventure every time.
So the next couple of days we will be the beaners by day and by night we will work in the Restaurant that helps pay Casa Guatemala’s bills. We have been doing about every job that you could think of here, constantly ping-ponging back and forth, I wish we could get a feel for one thing in detail but we can only do what we are told I guess (mostly because its hard to tell them anything-language barrier)

We have a lot of time to relax here as well which has been well needed. And in our relaxation time we have had some pretty cool experiences as well. Two nights ago we were sitting near the end of the dock at some tables with all of our books and such and one of the fellow volunteers noticed Brain’s Bible (the second time on the trip this has happened) he made a comment on it and then later on came by and sat down with us and talked about it. He asked us what out church was like and how we felt about certain things and we asked him about his faith and what he believes. He is studying Buddhism like many other travelers and we were curious so we inquired more. After a while of talking it really seemed like he had a firm grasp on the importance of loving God and loving others and on humility. We had a great time sharing experiences on the trip and in our lives and we made it a point to hang out more once he gets back from the doctor (he has to have a parasitic worm cut out of his shoulder) So I look forward to continuing our conversation with Dominique for the remainder of the time we are here.

So we’ll be here for another week and I will send another update near the time I leave
Love you all

trip mail 8

Buenos Noches Mis Amigos,
Happy belated fourth of July to everyone. I hope yours was fun. I spent it with the five Americans staying in the hotel we were in.

Yesterday we were finally put to work like we wanted to be on this trip. In fact in one day we did as much work as we ever anticipated doing on the whole trip. Ill get to that story in a minute though.

Our first day at Casa Guatemala was Saturday, and we spent the whole day trying to speak to kids (in rusty spanish) and also watching after them, But mostly just playing and letting them use us as jungle gyms. Casa Guatemala is a orphanage for about two hundred kids that have either been abandoned by their parents or pulled out of their homes for their safety. Some kids still have families but the ones that were there on the weekend had no one else but the staff and kids of Casa Guatemala. One particular fourteen year old was taken form her home because her mother was going to sell her into a prostitution ring. Instead the staff at Casa Guatemala is trying to send her to the states to get an education (she happens to be one of the brightest kids in the Casa.)

It was chaotic to hang out with that many kids for that long (14 hours) they can go forever, and they really cling on quick, I already know its going to be difficult to leave. As far as the way that the orphanage is run I would describe it as total chaos. Most of the kids have no idea of team play ) but that is true of most kids their age) and with so many volunteers passing through it constantly there is no way to enforce strict discipline, but the are still very obedient (One kid will do more chores than a whole neighborhood of american kids do). The camp is kept clean by the kids as well as the laundry and various other chores. The rest of the camp is run solely by volunteers who decide that their summer would be best spent working with kids. Most of the volunteers seem to be constantly at the end of their ropes, which is understandable. They only get two nights off a week.

Highlights of today and yesterday included getting covered in chalk dust from a hundred kids playing with sidewalk chalk and tracing my hands feet and entire body. Also I got attacked multiple times in a game of basketball gone out of control. I also got worked in a game of barefoot soccer. All in all they were about the most active two days of my entire life.

As for the work I was talking about earlier, the day that we arrived happened to be the same day that the Casa was getting a shipment of 400,000 pounds of canned black beans. All of which were loaded in burlap sacks weighing each about eighty pounds. Then they were put on boats, about 10 large boatloads, unloaded and thrown (literally) into three separate rooms filling the rooms entirely. The total process took 7 hours and everyone in the whole camp helped out even the chiquitos (3-5 year olds). The incredible quantity of beans and the very unorganized way of transport ended up in about 60% of the cans becoming dented, which may become botulism bombs waiting to explode. I never slept as good as I did that night. We actually missed the boat the next morning we were so tired.

Probably the most inspiring thing is the constant determination of the camp and its volunteers despite the lack of money, terrible living conditions, mosquitos, and miserable humid heat. One such story was when the medical clinic with eight different doctors who were supposed to come and check up the kids and the poor people from the surrounding villages only, ended up consisting of only one optometrist.

So far this experience has been incredibly overwhelming and I have not had much time to think about it. Most my free time is spent gelling journaling and sleeping. Pray that we can do the best we can to bring love and the light of God into this secular orphanage we will be praying like wise

Love you all.
Matt

trip mail 7

Hermanos y Hermanas,
Well our time in San Jose is almost finished. We are off tommorrow to Guatemala and to the Casa Guatemala Orphanage in the city of Rio Dulce. It will be a full day of travelling and depending on the availability and price of emial in Rio dulce my email might be alot less frequent. (i hope not) We are definetly glad to be moving on, San Jose is beginning to wear us down. The noise and crazy drivers, and street merchants selling all kinds of incredibly useless trinkets at every area of human gathering. Perhaps the most difficult are the beggars every fifteen feet with out stetched hands and miserable looking bodies. Every twenty feet or so there they are. Last nigh we were stopped by 7 people who all had stories about why they needed money (they had been robbed or they need money for the bus to go home), One man yesterday told us how he despeately neede three dollars to fix his cars tire so he could deliver his bacteria to his veterinary lab, but the money we saw him spend on vodka at the bar would have easily paid for two or three new tires.

We look forward to the work atRio Dulce. Partly as a break form the insanity of this place and also because it is nice to to some work now and then (wandering around the city can be get old quick) I will probablly write in a few days to tell about how its going after I get a good idea about the place.

Yesterday we also got a tour of the oura vida centers and heard all the stories of success, its encouraging to hear about christians in other parts of the world doing their best to love god. Hopefully we will be able to meet more like minded people in Guatemala.

Also yesterday I sat down and figured out the rest of our trip and it is very exciting. We are almost halfway done but we still have so much ahead of us. Thanks for the prayers

Love you all,
Matt

trip mail 6

Hello again everyone.
This weekend has been another interesting one. Another buch of changed plans and revised iteneraies. Saturday we were supposed to meet up with the folks from pura vida again at a church service but our connection ended up being more seriously injured than he originally thought (he put a hole through his cheek bone with a soccer goal post) SO we most likely will not be seeing too much of him in the near future. We do however plan to volunteer the next two days at the soup kitchen with some other of his staff but we have to navigate the costa rican bus system to get there and that is a bit scary.

So this weekend we decided to make a trek out to the carribean sea to a town called puerto Viejo e Talamanca. One of the best surf spots in costa Rica (though it was wind blown and choppy. ) We spent the afternoon after the bus ride swimming in the monster waves of the carribean attempting to body surf. We also took a trek down the beach and met a couple fellow travelers, A dog and three little kids. The kids took us up to a cliff with one of the most spectacular views that we have seen yet and then we had a little conversation (in spanish }, as much as we could trying to understand their words through the thick carribean accent.

Later on we decided to head out to where the locals said was the funnest nigh club around, and on exageration every young person and tourist in the town must have been there, as well as every drug dealer in a 50 mile radius. We offered pot a total of 7 times (one guy actually shoved the bad of weed up to our noses), and we were offered cocaine twice. We were forced to stay longer than we wished in that place because it had started to pour outside. AS soon as the rain let up we headed back our hotel and played rummi ( we are incredible nerds)

Everyone we talkd to the next day was so incredibly stokedabout the night before many were planning trips to the local bank so the could afford to stay longer. It is sad that the most exciting thing about international traveling, for most people here, is the cheap drugs and lack of responsibility. The trip to puerto viejo reminded me of how glad I am to have more in my life than that. Kind of contrary to my initial judgements of these people I also thought about Jesus and his desire to be around those who needed him no matter what. SO the question that plagued me the whole bus ride back was what would jesus have done in the same situation( good old wwjd)

Today was also as weird day. We decided to take a stroll down our favoirite street in dan jose, and bring our bibles and journals along. Not more than 50 meteres from the hotel a man saw brians bible and pulled us into the street and asked us to pray for his alcoholism, and we did. He told us his story and we did our best to encourage him in spanish and tole him we would be praying for him for the rest of our trip. It is strange how god is using us on this trip and we are doing absolutely nothing different than just asking him to and taking advantage of such oppurtunities when they come up. What a ride.

So be praying for Cory and now also Oscar, thanks again for you love and support and prayers,

much love,
Matt

trip mail 6

Hello again everyone.
This weekend has been another interesting one. Another buch of changed plans and revised iteneraies. Saturday we were supposed to meet up with the folks from pura vida again at a church service but our connection ended up being more seriously injured than he originally thought (he put a hole through his cheek bone with a soccer goal post) SO we most likely will not be seeing too much of him in the near future. We do however plan to volunteer the next two days at the soup kitchen with some other of his staff but we have to navigate the costa rican bus system to get there and that is a bit scary.

So this weekend we decided to make a trek out to the carribean sea to a town called puerto Viejo e Talamanca. One of the best surf spots in costa Rica (though it was wind blown and choppy. ) We spent the afternoon after the bus ride swimming in the monster waves of the carribean attempting to body surf. We also took a trek down the beach and met a couple fellow travelers, A dog and three little kids. The kids took us up to a cliff with one of the most spectacular views that we have seen yet and then we had a little conversation (in spanish }, as much as we could trying to understand their words through the thick carribean accent.

Later on we decided to head out to where the locals said was the funnest nigh club around, and on exageration every young person and tourist in the town must have been there, as well as every drug dealer in a 50 mile radius. We offered pot a total of 7 times (one guy actually shoved the bad of weed up to our noses), and we were offered cocaine twice. We were forced to stay longer than we wished in that place because it had started to pour outside. AS soon as the rain let up we headed back our hotel and played rummi ( we are incredible nerds)

Everyone we talkd to the next day was so incredibly stokedabout the night before many were planning trips to the local bank so the could afford to stay longer. It is sad that the most exciting thing about international traveling, for most people here, is the cheap drugs and lack of responsibility. The trip to puerto viejo reminded me of how glad I am to have more in my life than that. Kind of contrary to my initial judgements of these people I also thought about Jesus and his desire to be around those who needed him no matter what. SO the question that plagued me the whole bus ride back was what would jesus have done in the same situation( good old wwjd)

Today was also as weird day. We decided to take a stroll down our favoirite street in dan jose, and bring our bibles and journals along. Not more than 50 meteres from the hotel a man saw brians bible and pulled us into the street and asked us to pray for his alcoholism, and we did. He told us his story and we did our best to encourage him in spanish and tole him we would be praying for him for the rest of our trip. It is strange how god is using us on this trip and we are doing absolutely nothing different than just asking him to and taking advantage of such oppurtunities when they come up. What a ride.

So be praying for Cory and now also Oscar, thanks again for you love and support and prayers,

much love,
Matt

trip mail 5

Gods plan is bigger than our own

The sky light in my room this morning woke me up around 7:30 which would not normally be a problem except for today we had to wake up at six. I checked the time and sprung out of bed, angry that our hotel hadn´t given us a wake up call. I made it clear the day before six o clock nice loud knock on the door ( but nothing) So then I tried to figure a way out to meet up with the group for the field trip we were supposed to go on. After a couple of minutes of pacing I realized there was absolutely nothing I could have done and I layed back down frustrated at the fact that we missed the oppurtunity. we had planned to go to sleep earlier than 1 am last night but we ended up talking with someone from the hotel. God had different plans for our time the last two days than we had.

The night before I sat writting in my journal on the balcony crowded with hippies smoking tobacco amongst other things. About an hour into my writing time Someone from the other side of the balcony asked if he could see my journal and he showed me his. We met earlier in the week but ionly briefly. After acouple minutes he pulled up a chair and we all began to talk, Mr brian, Cory and Jueves. Eventually after talking for a while we told them we were Christian and about our plans for this trip. And as the nigh progressed Cory began to share his past backgriound with the church and his problems with it. So we asked him to share what exactky he fekt about it and we headed our way into a conversation that would last three hours. He asked many deep (and some silly ones) having to do with every aspect of christian doctrine and thelogy. We didn´t have a clue about how to answer most of his questions, but we did share our opinions and we listened intently to what he was saying. Eventually it got late and his friend came back out and persuaded him to go out with him and smoke a joint. (its a great place we´ve been staying in).

So when we woke up the next day we were upset but not that upset it was worth it that we missed out on the field trip. Later on that day while writing on the balcony again we talked a little more. We talked about the bible verses i was reading as well as more church stuff about how his mom was involved in the church and how he resented that she spent almost everyday there. I invited him to come with me and brian to lunch and a movie, we offered to pay because he lost his credit card (it was not a scam but we have seen plenty of those since weve been out here)
So today did not work out at all like we had planned it to and we did not get to meet up at all with the pura vida peiple (we were supposed to hang out and go to a church dinner later but our ride called us and tole us he wasnt going becasue he had hit his head on something , random) SO we don´t know if pura vida is something we are ever going to be a part of while we are down here but we have so far had a chance to share life and love with someone who needs it a fellow seeker of the truth.

So we pray that god coninues to guide our trip and give us oppurtunites like that one. pray for our friend cory as well.
goodby all and thank you again
Mateo

trip mail 4

Buenos,
So today I just found out that for sure it is impossible to hang out with Don Salomon and Mery Hernandez (they will be ravelling with their family until august, and i am a little bummed.

However the good news is that things are going really well in Costa Rica. Today I met up with th people from pura vida coffee (www.puracoffee.com if you are interested in what they are all about) they were so hospitiable and willing to let us get involved in their ministry for the short time we will be remaining in CR. Tommorow at six in the morning we will be meeting up with them and heading to an amusement park with about 50 5-7 year olds. That should be a heck of a day. and tommorrow night they have invited us to have dinner with them and even offered a place for us to stay. I wished we could have hooked up with them earlier. They do some pretty crazy stuff down here and work with some kids who are in incredible need. Currently their plan is to organize, so that when kids stop showing up they can pay them a visit and see if there is anything they can do to help. Eladio, the guy in charge, said that sometimes when kids stop coming it is because their family neede money and the kids had to be sent to work and even some kids from the group have been put into work in child prostitution rings. This is quite disconcerting, everyone say that Costa Rica is like a little America. But as it turns out, only three mile away for the major mall and food district thing like that are happening, on a regular basis. Today after meeting up with the pura vida people me and brian went to the grocery store where a girl who was no older than 7 bagged our groceries. She was the cutest little girl I have ever seen and it astounds me that she has to be working as young as she is. Today has been a full eye opening day. i thank god for the oppurtunity that i have to work with the people in pura vida and i also pray that they continue to make a difference down here with what they are doing. Hearing about something like this reminds me of what a needy world we live in. So far we have a couple of sightseeing trips planed at the end of our trip but if things keep going the way they do i think we will want to spend as long as possible with places like pura Vida, places that are a lights in very dark places.

Thank you again to those who have supported me on this trip I am so incredibly grateful to you. So far there has been a new lesson to learn everyday. I look forward to sharing my trip with you when I get back.

Vaya con Mios,
MAtt

so The trip is almost over and I decided it would be good to post my emails to my blog, they are full of typos and may often be incoherent becuase I was in a hurry to beat the hour or half hour time limit in addition to fighting with the slow internet speeds and ridiculously old computers this is email number 4 and on.