Journal #25

This weekend was our last one in Antigua. Friday night we had dinner with our “gringo” friends at a little Italian restaurant. It was a great time. Saturday we were invited to go with our family to a town about 30 minutes from Antigua called Chimaltenango. They wanted to go to Guatemala City but had heard the traffic between here and there was terrible. There is a new “mall” in Chimaltenango that they wanted to go visit. There were tons of shoe shops and cell phone stores. There was also a big grocery store so Maria did some grocery shopping. We walked through the grocery store with them and found things we have not seem since we have been here in Antigua. We found peanut butter, something I have been craving for about 2 months now. We also saw different kinds of cereal, Ramen noodles, Aunt Jamima Maple Syrup (we have been hoping for some on the table on the days we have pancakes for breakfast), and other things we have missed since being here.

When we got up to the counter it was one of those moments that made me take a second look. The cashier had rung everything up and the total came to 1,131.95. That was Quetzales, but I at first thought it was dollars. It shocked me for a second and then I thought about it. I told Chad that if I went to the store and saw the total as $1,000 I would flip. I guess the people here do not have that problem due to they are used to it. I know that is it something I am going to have to get used to especially in Honduras because the exchange rate there is 19 Lempiras to $1.

We loaded the car with groceries and headed back into the mall area. We had found a food court while we were there earlier and so we decided to eat dinner there. It was about 5:30 and our family had a Lions’ Club meeting to attend, so we thought that would be the easiest way to take care of dinner. I had Taco Bell and everyone else had McDonald’s. It was really good. I had been craving nachos!

Sunday morning we decided to get up early and go to Hotel Casa Santo Domingo for their famous breakfast buffet. We have talked to many people who have recommended we go there. We arrived there about 8:20. Our breakfast was very good. We had fresh omelets, hot chocolate, bacon, sausage, muffins, fruit, cereal, hash browns, and coffee. As you can see it was huge but wonderful. We did not eat lunch because we had such a big breakfast.

We walked to the church building after our breakfast. There was a guest song leader and speaker. The song service was beautiful. There were about 45 people present and it seemed that every person was singing to their fullest. The lesson was very powerful. He spoke about how we as Christians can defend ourselves in spiritual warfare.