Awkward things...

I was walking home today and encountered an awkward moment...  And that reminded me of the many times there have been awkward moments here in Guatemala.  Thought I'd share a few with you, beginning with the one that happened today.

Its awkward when...
1)  You look up and realize that if you continue a few more feet on your path you will walk right into a man relieving himself on a lamp post.   This happens quite regularly actually.

2) You basically are forced to sit on strangers' laps on microbuses. 

3) Someone goes in for the traditional kiss on the cheek greeting and they catch you off gaurd. 

4) Crawling into the back of the teacher bus or any crowded bus in a skirt/dress. 

5) Seeing highschool students everywhere.

6) Sitting behind, in front of, or beside a couple that is seriously making out.  It seems to happen to me everwhere I go, especially on long chicken bus rides...


Something else that was awkward today, but not in the laugh about it later kind of way, was the Guatemalan church service I attended this morning.  I've been trying some churches out.   There is only one English service in Xela that I know of, so I've been looking into Guatemalan churches lately.  Its hard because my Spanish is limited and I feel like I'm not able to get a lot of "meat" out of sermons in Spanish.  I can usually get the gist, but not like I would be able to in an English service.  Anyway,  I thought I got a good idea of the Spanish sermon today and I wasn't super impressed...
First of all, I'm more of a fan of when pastors take a chunk of scripture and preach from that...breaking it down and really diving in.   And perhaps adding in some supplimental scripture.  But the guy today was totally picking out random verses...trying to make the point he wanted to get across.
He started out okay...Saying God's Word is perfect and given to us as a guide for life.  And that in this day and age there are lots of external/worldly influences that can kind of cloud things.  And then he went into his examples...  That's where I got a little frustrated.  Very random (yet pointed very much at the things this culture is very judgemental towards) and cherry picked selection.
Example 1--  Female modesty in dressing (from a male pastor- who happened to be dressed quite fancily).  Presented in a super condescending way-- at points referring to women who walk the streets...
Example 2-- Homosexuality. 
Example 3-- Transgenders
Example 4-- Marking your body with tattoos.
 The last three having scripture from the old testament laws and read without any context whatsoever.  I don't want to get in a debate, but I will say I thought the way it was presented seemed super legalistic and judgemental--like literally making jokes.  And that's what I take issue with. 
And I'm not ruling out that some things got lost in translation.  But Guatemala's evangelical community can be pretty legalistic, and at times hypocritical.  And there's a huge divide between the evangelical community and the catholic community.  It is hard to see sometimes.  Ugh. 

Anyway, it lead to a good discussion with the people I went with afterwards.

On to week 3!!