Q'eqchi' y Vida Real

Well... we have completed one week and one day of Q'eqchi', and it has definitely been more of a challenge for all of us (except for maybe the Colvett twins) than Spanish ever was. However, we can say that we are all growing through the language learning experience, and we're getting pretty good at that back-of-your-throat-hock-a-loogey sound that is so prevalent in the Q'eqchi' language. Although there are very few word associations to be made between Q'eqchi and English, we thought we would share a couple of our favorites:

Chu (Q'eqchi')= smells bad= our interpretation: someone waving their hand in front of their nose and muttering "Shew!"

Atink (Q'eqchi')= to take a bath= our interpretation: "I stink"

On a different note, for the past two Sundays, we have visited Vida Real Iglesia Cristiana in Antigua. We have really enjoyed practicing our Spanish as we sing some more contemporary worship songs such as "How Great is Our God" and "God of Wonders." Thankfully, they include a set of notes in their morning pamphlet so that we can follow along with the sermon (since it's kinda hard to follow a preacher who seems to speak at warp speed). This past Sunday one section of the sermon notes had this list that we'd like to share with you... fairly simple but quite profound if we truly believe it and live it out day-to-day:

"Paradojas de la vida cristiana (Paradoxes of the Christian life):

1) Dar es mejor que recibir (To give is better than to receive)

2) Perdonar es mejor que vengar (To pardon is better than to seek vengeance)

3) Humildad es preferible a la soberbia (Humility is preferible to pride)

4) Servir en lugar de ser servido (To serve in place of being served)

5) Morir para vivir (To die in order to live)"