February-May Update

Sorry that it’s been so long since we have updated our blog.  We have been sending a few update emails, but realize we have some faithful fans out there that we haven’t kept in the loop.  So here are some highlights of the last four months:

February

I spent 10 days in Minnesota seeing family, starting to look at houses, went on a job interview and attended iLLUMINARE, my ongoing ministry formation program.  And as part of my labyrinth certification process, I facilitated two labyrinth workshops at Catholic parishes in the Twin Cities.  I hope to do many more when I return to Minnesota.

We started our Marriage: Theology and Ritual class which has proven to be one of the highlights for us both at the GTU.  It has two dynamic professors and a diverse group of students.  As a spouse of a full time student, I can audit one course per semester for free.   First semester I took Introduction to Anglicanism, also a great class with a seasoned professor.

March

Our trip to Guatemala also served as a “special reading course” for Phil.  Instead of writing yet another 20 page academic paper, he chose to use his creativity and created a hardcover book filled with essays and photographs from the trip.  Our family will treasure it always.

 

I went to Atascadero on the central coast of California with our friend Barbara from CDSP who lives there for a long weekend.  I got to walk two more beaches and three more labyrinths. Yay!

Barbara at Duckies in Cayucos

Labyrinth on Morro Bay

Joan Gecik, my friend from the Cathedral days, came out and spent a week with us.  I got to do the tourist thing and ride double decker buses and get another boat ride around San Francisco Bay.  We took in Sonoma Valley and Point Reyes National Seashore as well.

Joan at a wine tasting

April

           

While Phil continued to hit the books hard, I led a labyrinth evening at CDSP and did some organizational consulting for the President and Dean’s office at CDSP.  It has been great to be part of the wonderful community here.  We will miss our new colleagues and friends!

Our kids both delivered excited news in April.   Sarah called to let us know that she and her girlfriend Sarah got engaged!  We are so happy for them. They had a special experience working with a jeweler to design and make their own rings.  They are planning a wedding for the summer of 2013. 

Sarah and Sarah in Cancun

Justin called to let us know that he had taken a job as a Field Supervisor with Habitat for Humanity in Antigua, Guatemala.  He will be taking work groups on weeklong trips around Guatemala.  He starts his 15 month commitment June 1, immediately following completing his time at the monastery in Coban.  He plans on visiting Minnesota this August.

We ended April by attending our god-daughter Kelly Clark’s wedding in Cancun, Mexico.  Held at the Moon Palace all inclusive resort, it was a pampered, sun-filled four days and a nice break before the final countdown to graduation and moving back to Minnesota.  Sarah, Sarah and Justin joined us as well!

May

Phil graduates with his Certificate in Anglican Studies on May 18.  It will also be the completion of his second year of his MDiv.  Phil will be doing his CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) full time at United Hospital in St. Paul from May 29 – August 10.  He then will be looking to return to working full time and returning to complete the remaining part of his degree part time at United Theological Seminary.

I will be returning to the Parish Administration field at St. Richard's in Richfield 4 days a week starting June 1. I hope to branch out into some consulting work for faith based organizations on a part time basis as well.

We plan to leave Berkeley on Sunday May 20 to stop and visit Yosemite as several California friends have "insisted" we do this before we leave the state.  We intend to arrive in Minnesota Thursday or Friday.  When we get to Minnesota we will be staying in my dad's condo in Edina until he arrives from Florida on Father's Day weekend.  Bella will be going to stay with her cousin Tilda at Sarah and Sarah's house.  (Please pray for them as Bella will be invading not only Tilda, the large puppy but also Oskar, the cat's territory!)  Then we will move to Pete & Kyle’s (Phil’s brother) for a couple of weeks while they are on a cruise.

We are going to be looking at homes in the Richfield, Edina, and Minneapolis area immediately upon our arrival and hopefully will find one soon.  And since we had to be out of our house in 3 weeks, maybe we will get lucky and get to move in quickly!  Can’t wait to see everyone!  Love, Phil and Sheryl

Sunny San Francisco

Sheryl’s mother, Margot, came to visit the first week of January while Phil was in Minnesota.  We had beautiful weather - sunny and highs in the 60's - and that allowed us to spend lots of time by the water! 

One of the big highlights of the trip was a boat ride around San Francisco Bay where we got right under the Golden Gate Bridge, saw the seals at Pier 39 and got up close to Alcatraz island. 

  We also toured Grace Cathedral and particularly enjoyed seeing all the needle pointed cushions they use for kneelers.  Did you know each Episcopal parish in the diocese here is represented in a cushion?  Individuals also are memorialized.

This photo showing “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” was taken at Union Square in San Francisco. 

Another day took us out to a fishing pier in Berkeley that extends ¾ mile into San Francisco Bay.  It used to be part of a 3.5 mile pier for automobile ferries from Berkeley to San Francisco in the early 1900's  before the Bay Bridge was built in 1937.  Phil, Sheryl and Bella are regulars at this spot!

It was great mother/daughter bonding time as we spent most evenings drinking wine and playing cards - with Sheryl letting Margot win most the time!

Getting Around Guatemala

One of my favorite things about the Guatemalan culture is their “carpooling.”  I rarely saw a car, truck or bus with only one or two people in it.  Some of that is the dismal economic conitions, but a bigger piece is their strong sense of community and generous spirit. On Christmas morning in Antigua, we saw a family of 5 riding a motorcycle into town!  The concept of personal space is different in Guatemala than it is in the U.S. or at least not in Minnesota.  People just don’t mind squishing 5 people in a seat meant for 2 or up to 20 people standing in the back of a pick-up truck.  And many are riding for several hours this way!

People stand by the side of the road waiting for buses or trucks to pick them up. Once when we were in a pick-up truck on the way to one of the aldeas (rural villages) supported by the monastery, Fr. Pedro our driver, kept stopping every so often to pick up someone on the road and they just climbed up and stood in the bed of the truck.  We did eventually find out he knew them and that they were helping him at mass and it was the only way they were going to get there.

 Our primary modes of transportation while at the monastery were a 30 year old Land Rover and a "vintage" Suzuki with no back seats.  Driving to see some schools with Fr. Bernie in the Land Rover over mountain trails full of rocks and mud was so ludicrous for Sarah and I bouncing in the back seats that we several times burst out laughing, even when we almost tipped over.  There was no other appropriate response!

Earlier that same day, we put gas in the Land Rover at a gas station in town.  All the stations are “full service”, something we haven’t seen in the U.S. for years.  One of the main jobs for the gas attendants is to stand on the vehicle being filled with gas and rock it back and forth so that the gas gets in smoothly and the tank can get filled up!

Our most (read LEAST) favorite aspects of getting around Guatemala were the “tumulos” or speed bumps.  In Guatemala, everyone drives as fast as they want to and the police don’t seem to enforce any traffic laws – if there are any.   So the towns out in the country that the main roads go through put in “tumulos” to get people to slow down.  However, there is rarely a sign, nor do they paint or stripe the bumps.  You could be going 100 kph and not see the bump right in front of you until the last minute.  We were traveling at night to get to Coban from Guatemala City in a stick shift rental car and one of the times it decided to just die halfway through one of the 40 or so tumulos on that road.  Luckily, two nice police officers with machine guns pulled us over to make sure the gringos were okay!  Sorry, no photos of tumulos due to their "invisibility "  :)

Guatemala – Installment One

 Our family trip to Guatemala over Christmas was amazing.  We are all still processing what we experienced.  We will use this space over the next few weeks in an attempt to share what we learned and encountered, altough words can hardly capture the essence of what we experienced, we will do our best to describe this incredible journey.

Antigua

Since Coban (where Justin is living) is several hours from the airport and we were arriving on Christmas Eve, we decided to begin our journey in the colonial and historical town of Antigua, a mere 45 minutes or so from the airport.  Justin met us at the airport around 8:30 p.m. in a rental car after waiting several hours for our late plane.  He had purchased a map so that we could find the hostal we would be staying at, but of course if there aren’t any street signs, maps don’t do you much good.  In addition, there were few street lights and people were standing everywhere in the streets lighting off firecrackers – a Guatemalan Christmas Eve tradition.

After asking for directions from a policeman, two store owners, calling the “concierge” at the hostal 3 times and then eventually finding and hiring a cab to follow – we finally arrived at our destination at 11:45 p.m. on Christmas Eve.  We had not had any dinner and were in no mood to attempt to find the midnight mass we were originally planning on going to.  Luckily, our hostal was wonderful.  We had a table in the open courtyard, bought two bottles of wine and dug some granola bars out of our plane bags.  Sarah brought “tradition” with her in the form of tiny felt stockings with our initials on them and snowflakes to decorate.  She also brought a candle for each of us to unwrap so we could have our traditional Christmas Eve story sharing ritual.  It was an extraordinary Christmas Eve.

On Christmas Day, we had beans and eggs for breakfast and opened gifts Sarah had brought from Minnesota family.  We got specific walking directions and headed off to the Cathedral for noon Mass only to find that 12:00 on Christmas Day was another traditional time to set off firecrackers! Although we were delayed by about 10 minutes getting into the Cathedral, the priest didn’t seem to be in any hurry to get mass started and people kept arriving for another half hour or so.  Of course, the mass was in Spanish but we could keep up with what was going on, especially with the help of our personal translator, Justin - who out of necessity has become fluent in Spanish.

After mass, we walked out into the main town square where we were immediately accosted by people selling their wares.  My first thought was that of Jesus when he overturned the money changers tables in the temple.  After all, it was Christmas Day when the stores are normally closed and we are supposed to have Sabbath and family time!  However, it became quickly clear that the people (mostly indigenous Guatemalans) working the square relied on selling goods to tourists as their primary source of income.  The women were selling tapestries at a “special price for you”, girls were wrapping hair braids or selling candy, men were selling jade jewelry and boys were learning the shoeshine trade.  We decided it was important to help the local economy and started bartering :)  

Stay tuned for Installment 2 -

Getting around Guatemala or “the U.S. could learn a little about carpooling from these guys”