Day 1!

tonight was Halloween and yes i went out ;) i know im 18 and i may be too old but i didnt go last year so im making up for lost times!! :) this blog is not about tonight...its about the first day of my missions trip...10/16-17...im sorry if its long! ;)

(^cloud layers during descent into Guatemala City^)

i know there are two dates but theyre both pretty much the same day because we met @ LCF (church) late Thursday night(16th) @ 12am so it was pretty much Friday(17th), we met @ the church and got our things together and we were on the road by about 130am - our flight was due to leave from Newark,NJ airport @ 530a...so we arrived by 245am and were plenty early - thats good considering it was for a layover flight and if we missed it we would be in major trouble

our layover was in Houston,TX and i was so excited to finally go to Texas!! we made it to the airport and boarded our plane flawlessly. we were more than 1/2 way to Guatemala City...before the plane ride was complete we had to fill out some papers. these papers were for immigration into another country...we unboarded the plane and headed for immigration - @ the Guatemala City airport there were police dogs and something about that airport made me feel so...uptight

the team made it through security, claimed our baggage (all of it), and proceeded outside to meet John Ramos (missionary)...we waited & waited & waited...we finally called him and found out that he thought our flight was coming in later, our original flight was scheduled to arrive @ about 130pm and it ended up coming in at about 1215pm-ish...he apologized for being late and we all introduced ourselves and said it was cool because it was...we were in no rush.

we loaded our luggage and hopped in the van (PB drove) and Josh rode w. John in the Speed-The-Light truck...we followed him FOREVER!! the drive from Guatemala City to Quetzaltenango (Xela) was about 4-6 hours...on top of the initial travel time it was raining and we ran into construction which totally stopped traffic...i wouldnt really know how long we were stopped for because i slept for most of the ride ;)

when we finally arrived in Xela we were told to leave our belongings in the van because the cooks @ the place we stayed had dinner ready for us! how awesome is that?? of course we were hungry because we hadn't eaten since right after the airport (Burger King). after we ate we had "orientation" about John's expectations and what our week was going to look like...it didnt seem so bad, because it wasnt!!

John explained to us that our week was going to be full of work and fun. He told us that he wasn't going to place a goal on our week because he didn't want us to be bummed if we didn't succeed. he also mentioned that our plans are meant for failure, God's plans are never failing. John wanted us to work hard and not rush so he just said to do our best and what we accomplished is what we could do and to work at the best of our abilities.

we went to bed && awoke the next morning (saturday 19th) prepared to start our work week...that was our week in a nutshell...okay a rather large nutshell! ;) any questions about details you can ask...im totally open to suggestions!! ;)

peace out ppls! ;) :p
~Kali

Guatemala Info...finally!

ok so its about time i get around to this...you've all probably been waiting(right?) i've been wanting to update you all but i've been blog lazy ;) starting tonight, my blog will be a running series on my mission trip Quetzaltenango, Guatemala; Xela for short. This is just the intro and my next posts will include thoughts, pictures and events that occurred in Xela (shayla).

(^"Welcome to Quetzaltenango" sign outside of Xela^)

First, I will let you know why I went to Guatemala...it was for a short-term missions trip: 1 week. we were building up the second story of a Bible school. our task at hand was to put up the walls and form the outline for the windows...the walls were made of concrete block and the outline for the windows were made of rebar and twisted wire...but i must admit, it was enjoyable.

There's just something about working hard for Jesus that's just soooo addicting...okay maybe addicting is the wrong word its---okay well i dont know what the right word is but i do know for sure that it is a TOTALLY different feeling than just working at McDonald's

ALL of last week was just so memorable but i am really glad i journaled it...i mean memories can only last so long but if you have it written down they'll last forever right? either way Guatemala will be written on my heart for years to come as will the work we did and people we met.

(^team @ Lake Atitlan^)

(^a volcano shot from our bungalow^)

WAY TO GO PHILLIES!!

our PHILLIES phinally did it!! we won the World Series last night for the first time in 28 years...tomorrow there is a parade at 12pm on Broad St. starting @ 20th & Market and ending @ the sports complex

we are planning on going and im REALLY excited. theyre expecting about 5 million people...im not sure if that would be an understatement considering the amount of hype i witnessed last night in a suburb of Philly...in Springfield, PA on Baltimore Pike there were tons of people running around and honking horns and yelling and cheering it was unbelievable.

Modell's was open & there was a line out the front door all the way to Baltimore Pike and then around the corner past FiveGuys. i took some pix and video before the camera battery died.

maybe this will be the beginning to a Philly team winning streak! ;)
here's to hoping!
~Kali
ps: Guatemala info and pix are coming soon...i've been a lil preoccupied w. work and school and stuff so i will update as soon as i can. peace!

Just The Beginning

yes...this is just the beginning. i have a blog already but not on Blogspot so i thought id check it out...some people were surprised to know that i had one. i then explained that ive had one for quite a while...xanga was where it was @...back when blogs were just becoming popular! ;) here's the link in case you were interested in checking out my previous posts...www.xanga.com/kalirox4jc

as for me right now ive decided to create a Blogspot, yes i know it seems a little comformist but its just easier in the long run...it seems that all my friends have a blogspot so its easier to just keep track of stuff that way. below is just a glimpse of what's to come.

• Guatemala Missions Trip pix and notes




• Daily Thoughts




• Concerns




• Futuristic Notions (mine ;) )

i will be back later to update you lovely ppls on the adventures that occur; not only physically but spiritually and emotionally as well.

heres to a bubbly Blogspot beginning!

~Kali