In God We Trust!

(Written by Beth "Teca" Mildren)


So far, our time in Guatemala has been stress-free and fun (minus James' Rumbly Tumbly). I feel compelled to enter one of the main reasons for our great experiences--God has put Kelly in our life, and there is no other way to explain it. Well, James and I have been praying that God will Provide for us. And He, of course (por supesto), has! Among many of the wonderful blessings we have already seen in the last week alone, Kelly Seagraves may be the greatest angel of them all. Seriously. She has been such a fantastic addition to the Mildren Familia! I already feel as if we have been friends for a very long time. She is extremely funny and sweet and caring and helpful, and we both feel lucky that she has befriended us! So, I will do a Top Ten list for the multiple reasons Kelly has been fantastico (in no particular order):

10. Kelly was a Spanish teacher in the U.S. in Georgia. She has a soft Southern accent (Tim, my twin, would appreciate it). Near and dear to our hearts are Spanish teachers-obviously-and Kelly definitely carries out her job with enthusiasm. BTW--she will be teaching 3rd grade here.

9. As eluded to in #10, Kelly is bilingual!! This has saved us many-a-time so far. Small examples, you ask? First, Kelly was able to check out how many minutes I had left on my cell phone, since the operator is en espanol. Second, she was able to tell James what kind of antibiotics he needed for his tum-tum tonight, and even get the pharmacist to bring down the price.

8. Kelly has lived in Guate City before, and she knows her way around this crazy, backward, chaotic-driving city. She knows where to go for groceries, medicine, apartments, and so on. She doesn't get lost. Also, she knows the traffic rules, which are insane. For example, if you are merging onto certain lanes, YOU have the right of way. If you are at a stop light at an awkward hour when no other cars are around, you can look both ways and just drive through it. If you see a stop sign, ignore it!

7. Hence #8, this also means that she has a car (her roommate's) and has been a dear and has driven us around, explaining the culture and the landscape, too. We have learned that sticking your hand out the window signals that you want to merge, or you want to turn. You turn on your emergency hazard lights if you want to do any or all of the following: emergency, stop, slow down suddenly, car breaks down, turn left, turn right, signal that the traffic slows down up ahead, touch your breaks in any way. Easy, right?

6. Kelly is caring and giving. We knew we were going to have to get a cellular tellular for James since we'll be at difference places often and will need to call each other, but we didn't know how to buy one or what the contract, etc. was. Well, Kelly just *happened* to have a roommate moving back to the States, and she just simply gave us her old roomy's telephone! How great! She also told us about "Double" and "Triple" days here in the city. Everyone's cell plan is pay-as-you-go, so you buy cards worth $ that you enter their PIN and get minutes on your phone. But randomly (often), there are days that you can get twice or thrice as many minutes as the card is worth. Kelly also gave us a bottle of contact solution when we were almost out, which is apparently expensive here. God provides, I tell you! Just earlier in the day we were lamenting how we needed solution. Incredible!

5. Kelly's penthouse suite is amazing, and she lets us hang out there! Not that this hotel isn't great, but her place has a view of all of the volcanoes, the city, the airport, and the greenery. It's breathtaking. We have politely invited ourselves over as many times as possible. We've seen the sun set, the rain, and the clear views. There are four separate giant balconies plus the roof at this place. Talk about beautiful!


4. Kelly has let us get to know her Guatemalan roommie, Rebecca (shortened and pronounced "Ray-vay" in Spanish). Rebe is also very smart and very bilingual, and we were lucky enough to be there for a get-together where Rebe's friends and cousins/brothers (most bilingual, too) came over. We got to ask them all sorts of silly Gringo questions, like which Spanish accents they thought were ugly and to do impersonations of different Spanish accents (things we could NEVER distinguish). They told us that the Spanish (in certain parts of Spain, anyway) and Ecuadorians have, in their opinion, the "ugliest" accents because they drop the s's off of the ends of their words and do "th" for "s" in Spain. They said that Mexican Spanish is sort of like singing. Their impersonations were hilarious to us!!

3. Kelly is outgoing and fun-loving. Both highly important characteristics for James and I. She laughs at our jokes (we're still warming her up obviously! ;) and is quick-witted with her retorts! She doesn't seem to mind us hanging out doing nothing at her place, and has lots of great stories of her own that she's willing to share.

2. Kelly seems to sincerely like us to! So it's great that we aren't having to drool all over Kelly without some Love being thrown our way, also :) We're so glad that she wants to be our friend, and is undoubtedly special to us.


1. Kelly is so GREAT! We have loved getting to know her, and we are almost sure we have found a co-founder for a CAG Bible Study. Hopefully on her rooftop. Everything else on this list is just gravy. :)

So that's my I Heart Kelly rant.