Need I say more?
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The Plan
We are flying out Saturday, arriving in Guatemala City early Sunday morning which is Easter. Thus arriving in the midst of "semana santa" a very big deal for Latin American countries.
On Monday morning, bright and early, we show up to begin building a house for a family in need. At the completion of the house, the following Monday, we plan on celebrating with the family and then leaving to get "hitched" and ending with a dinner celebrating the "boda".
Hopefully we can bring you along on our journey both through photo's and written communique. Thus you will all feel just like you are there.
Background
In the fall of 2007 I had returned home (with my dog Madelina) from Mexico; tan and unemployed. The things parents can only hope for their 35 year old daughter. Thankfully I also had a carefree attitude that allowed me to not really care about what people thought about my employed or unemployed status. Plus, in my mailbox an exciting job possibility loomed. One filled with many benefits; two hour lunches, no work on Fridays...ahhh...only good things could come from this.
A summons for Jury duty. In Superior Court. Making $10 a day + bus passes.
It wasn't really an option to go or not to go, I was summoned. And in red it stated "special jury selection". Wow, even the Superior Court thought I was special! Did they know I was tan and unemployed?
Well, it turned out 300 of us were summoned and they were only selecting (12) people to sit on a murder case of a 15 year old gunning down/killing a 50 something year old Boeing employee while he was driving to work. Apparently there had been a lot of media coverage, and some special information that the Judge had decided to have be "inadmissible in court". Thus the tan, unemployed girl that had been traveling through Mexico without TV was a good jury candidate.
The first day all 300 of us arrived, eager to serve (only written to impress any Judge reading this). They brought us in to a large room and made us wait for a couple of hours before even starting the process. Thus the 300 of us sat around and tried to occupy our time; reading, picking our cuticles or talking to our neighbors.
In steps the over-eager Lorin Jovag, who was sitting across from me looking anxious and probably, like the rest of us, bored. He strikes up conversation with the girl on his right who was so perfectly dressed in her yellow business suit and a couple of other neighbors, finally including me in what they were talking about. Then lunch was called out, and the three of us began our next two week tradition of eating lunch together.
After two weeks, the verdict was in; I was selected as juror number 4 and Lorin was selected as juror number 5 in the Superior Court with Judge Steven Gonzalez as presiding judge.
Over the next 4 weeks, juror number 5 and I ate lunch every day together and he even started riding the bus home with me. And then finally, after our 2 day deliberation and the verdict of "hung jury" came in, he asked me out. For Valentine's Day. I'd say that is a lot of pressure for a guy, but I was leaving to travel back to Mexico for 14 days thus he had to do it then or not for awhile.
Happily we've celebrated two Valentine's Day's since then and in July of last year he woke me up singing with a small black grey jewelry bag in his hand. He is lucky that he has a career as an Engineer...I don't think the singing would take him too far in this world.
A summons for Jury duty. In Superior Court. Making $10 a day + bus passes.
It wasn't really an option to go or not to go, I was summoned. And in red it stated "special jury selection". Wow, even the Superior Court thought I was special! Did they know I was tan and unemployed?
Well, it turned out 300 of us were summoned and they were only selecting (12) people to sit on a murder case of a 15 year old gunning down/killing a 50 something year old Boeing employee while he was driving to work. Apparently there had been a lot of media coverage, and some special information that the Judge had decided to have be "inadmissible in court". Thus the tan, unemployed girl that had been traveling through Mexico without TV was a good jury candidate.
The first day all 300 of us arrived, eager to serve (only written to impress any Judge reading this). They brought us in to a large room and made us wait for a couple of hours before even starting the process. Thus the 300 of us sat around and tried to occupy our time; reading, picking our cuticles or talking to our neighbors.
In steps the over-eager Lorin Jovag, who was sitting across from me looking anxious and probably, like the rest of us, bored. He strikes up conversation with the girl on his right who was so perfectly dressed in her yellow business suit and a couple of other neighbors, finally including me in what they were talking about. Then lunch was called out, and the three of us began our next two week tradition of eating lunch together.
After two weeks, the verdict was in; I was selected as juror number 4 and Lorin was selected as juror number 5 in the Superior Court with Judge Steven Gonzalez as presiding judge.
Over the next 4 weeks, juror number 5 and I ate lunch every day together and he even started riding the bus home with me. And then finally, after our 2 day deliberation and the verdict of "hung jury" came in, he asked me out. For Valentine's Day. I'd say that is a lot of pressure for a guy, but I was leaving to travel back to Mexico for 14 days thus he had to do it then or not for awhile.
Happily we've celebrated two Valentine's Day's since then and in July of last year he woke me up singing with a small black grey jewelry bag in his hand. He is lucky that he has a career as an Engineer...I don't think the singing would take him too far in this world.
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