Loving life in Guatemala

Hi all! Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. We have all been so busy with everything from working incredibly hard to meeting new people to eating tons of amazing food. There's lots of stories... but I'm just going to give you a short version because I don't want to miss all of the devotional Les is doing tonight. Tonight is our last night here in Tactic... I think it's pretty sad, but when I look at what has happened in the last week and a half, I am absolutely amazed.

I celebrated my 23rd birthday on Friday. It was SO much fun... a face full of cake, fireworks, and a bunch of Spanish people at our work site singing Happy Birthday in Spanish. It's definately a birthday that I won't be forgetting any time soon!

We have done 3 days of VBS at the Chichoy school. There have been about 50-60 kids out each day. Today was our last day at the school... it was sad to leave because some of the team had developed some relationships with the kids. Things I'm sure the team will not forget! It was so great telling these kids stories and singing with them and helping them with the crafts. Even the teachers of the school were doing the crafts! It was so neat to watch!

On Saturday, we went to a coffee plantation. It was really interesting to find out how coffee is processed. We also found out how the different grades of coffee are sorted. A very interesting tour... even if you don't appreciate coffee as much as I do! Most of the team have bought a few bags of High Altitude coffee (Starbucks buys it for $17/pound... we bought it for $4/pound).

On Sunday, we did a scavenger hunt in the market. Sunday's are the busiest days in the market. We were given a list of items that we needed to buy (all in Spanish) and 100 Quetzals (about $15). We got points for the biggest items, if we got it for the cheapest price (my bartering skills came into action!), and if we actually bought the right thing! It was so much fun! Because we were on a time limit, it kind of felt like we were on the Amazing Race.

Monday, we used muscles that we have not used yet! I know that the whole team is stiff and sore today! Yesterday, we filled a truck with bricks, drove 1/2 hour to the work site, unloaded the bricks, drove to another town, loaded the truck with some wood, unloaded that, drove back to Les' (1/2 hour), loaded the truck again with bricks... and then finally got to eat some food. I think that lifting and stacking bricks use totally different muscles than mixing cement! My shoulders are SO sore! But, with every brick, we said that we were moving the bricks for the kids who were going to be in the school. The trench the we dug is now finished... that means that the school in Purdulha now gets breakfast in the mornings! It's awesome to see the immediate results of our work!

Some of the team have sponsored a child. When we sponsor a child, they get to go to school, get breakfast, get some new clothes... and it helps out the family too! It was amazing to see the quality of life that some of these kids have, but they are still HAPPY! They get to go to school and they know Jesus... what more do they really need! It's so great to see these kids light up when they realize that someone from Canada is going to be praying for them, sending them letters and pictures, and that they get to go to school! There were about 6 or 7 kids that were sponsored while we were doing home visits. While we were doing home visits, we also visited the two children that RCS sponsor. It was such an eye-opener to see everything!

There's lots more stories... but I'm missing out on Les' talk. Plus, I want to leave some stories for the team to tell you! Tomorrow, we are heading to Antigua, the old capital city, just to be tourists. The team is really excited about bartering... they all want to shop with me because I got Jesse a pair of jeans for really cheap (they started at 135Q, I got them down to 50Q... which is about $7!). Haha! We'll see about that.

Hope everything is going good back home! I know everyone sends their love back home!