Hola from Guatemala! Yesterday was pretty incredible. I was with the group that went to Yalu. There were about 15 of us that went there and then we split up into 3 groups and worked on different houses. My group, consisting of Phil, Bill, Jessica, Bobby, and I, first went to a house that had just a little bit of stuff left. That one didn't take very long. After that we walked down this really big hill heading to the next site. I am not the most sure footed person but luckily all of us made it down ok. We were really excited when we saw the house we had to work on, because compared to the others that people were working on it was fairly simple. We had about 3 hours to work on it and got 2 of the 4 walls done. So hopefully that one will get finished up tomorrow. The other 2 groups both got about half way through their houses so I really hope that tomorrow there is enough time for them to all get done.
After the house building we walked over to the church for the block party that we were throwing for the community. That hill we had to carefully walk down earlier, yea we had to walk back up that. I am gonna blame the fact that all of us were out of breath when we reached the top on the altitude :). The block party was pretty awesome. We planned to do our puppets, our skit, a few songs, and then feed everyone. We were expecting a pretty good mix of people but mostly it was a lot of kids and a few women that showed up. We started out with singing. It turns out it paid off to down load the spanish songs that we were doing and listen to them on my ipod cause Jan was sick that day so Sue Ann called me over to help them sing. The kids seemed to like it and were clapping along with us. While the singing was going on we were also working on selling all the clothes we brought with us. We couldn't just give them away cause that would have created mass chaos so we sold every thing for 1 Q each and gave the proceeds back to the feeding center. After that the puppets performed all their songs. The kids really seemed to enjoy that also! After the puppets we did the skit "God's Love". We did this skit awhile back in church except this time the words were in Spanish. The message of the skit is really cool. It portrays people with their different problems, alcoholism, anger, lust, and abuse taking their problems to Jesus and Him washing them clean. It is a really powerful skit but I think it might have been a little over the kids heads. Hopefully some of the moms that were there got something out of it.
After we finished the skit Omar gave a message to the people. I am sure it was excellent, but I don't speak Spanish so I haven't a clue as to what he was saying. While he was giving the message we were working on setting up food to give out. We had hot dogs and chips. We brought 500 hot dogs, countless bags of chips, buns, and ketchup. It started out pretty well cause we already had some plates set up with everything on them but after those first ones went it was a little chaotic trying to get things ready for all the hungry kids. Poor Josh cooked 500 hot dogs with only a machete to flip them with. After awhile it started getting dark, but luckily Bill had a little helmet light so Josh was able to wear that to see the dogs. I am really hoping somebody got a picture of that cause it was pretty funny :).
So my job in our whole assembly line thing was tearing open the buns because some of them weren't precut. To anyone that thought I was crazy for going on a mission trip with acrylic nail, I just want to say that they really came in handy for getting those buns open :). When our lines were finally looking like they were getting a little smaller it started to rain. At first it wasn't bad, just a few sprinkles, and we were able to continue serving the food. Luckily it didn't start to pour until we were about done. We quickly gave out the rest of the dogs and saved the sound system from getting wet, so God was looking out for us.
The block party was a really amazing experience. If we would have thrown that party anywhere in the States, there definitely would have been at least something left over but there was not a scrap of food left. It really puts into perspective how blessed we are because we would have wined about not knowing what kind of meat was in the hot dogs or just simple little things like that, but these people just ate it all up. The bus drivers were trying to get us to hurry up and leave because they were worried about the road conditions, which didn't inspire us with much confidence, but luckily we made it back to the hotel safely.
This morning I decided to go to the coffee plantation instead of the volcano primarily because I am a good daughter and went to get my mommy her coffee but also because I really didn't want to be ready to go by 7 am to spend all day hiking :). The coffee plantation was really cool. The guide told us the history of coffee and then showed us all the different stages in the manufacturing process. It is pretty crazy. Six and a half pounds of freshly harvested beans only makes up 1 pound of the final product. While we were there the owner of the plantation was walking around and he talked to us some. I am betting it was pretty cool for Phil to discuss different roasting temperatures and stuff like that with someone who is a coffee master. All of us got to try some of the coffee, which was very yummy, and we all stocked up on the coffee.
After that we went to a monastery. It was pretty cool. This place was home to the first Catholic monk that they sent from Spain to Guatemala to evangelize. After that we went to a market, which of course I really enjoyed cause it's SHOPPING :). The rest of the afternoon our group spent just relaxing at the hotel and shopping a little more. Aside from all the sickness going around, this trip has been pretty awesome!
-Callie
check pics page to see updates on pictures. some video footage will be up soon as well.
