Skip to main content

Guatemala 2016: August 5

First of all, may I note that when Friday arrived I literally could not believe it was Friday already, and had no idea where the time went? I don't think I've ever had a week in Guatemala go so fast!

For part of the morning we split up again, with Kristen, the men, and a few adult ladies going back to San Bartolomé to do some more work and give out blankets and stuff while the rest of us went to a new school for ministry. And since all of the guys were at the work site (minus Ryan, obviously), Miranda had to drive the other van! It's ok, all went well. ;) (Well, all except for that rude little Guatemalan cut off...gotta love those Guatemala drivers.) At this school the youth did the Superhero skit first, and I think it was their best performance yet. Then Carly gave her testimony - which she had already written in Spanish - and then they did the signs skit, which also went fabulously. Then Nic gave his testimony as Katy translated. Ryan then did a little talk on the meanings of the skits and the history of the candy cane, and as they went back to class the youth handed out candy canes.


 Handing out the blankets and more construction (courtesy of Kristen)

Ryan preaching

We then returned to Getsemani, where we waited for the rest of the team to return and chapel to start. It was rainy again for a lot of the day. Once chapel began, we joined them for worship (Isaac was playing the drums) and then the youth did the signs and angels and demons skits and Sarah and Pierce gave their testimonies. Then almost everyone else went back to the compound to eat and rest, but Kristen, Miranda, Pam, Peg and I stayed to hear Ryan give his 20-minute sermon. Then we went back to eat and nap. I will say a half hour nap was not enough...oh well.

My van group - Grandpa's van (the party van - literally, we had the most fun) - left early to stop at McDonald's to pick up the 200 hamburgers. Only six of us went in (the rest stayed in the van) and Miranda (she wasn't part of our van group, but she speaks Spanish...) ordered 200 hamburgers...and a chocolate sundae for Grandpa. ;) We - Grandpa, Miranda, Kristen, Troy, Gracie and I - chilled as we waited for them to be done. They packed them in two boxes and carried them out for us and we loaded them into the coolers. Then onward to the hospice - the HIV orphanage - when we met up with the other two vans. We found out that the three times our group has been there are the only three groups Jodi has taken there, and they apparently asked Jodi why we haven't been there in a year, and they went on to tell her the exact times we were there the past two years - that's how much our visits mean to them! Incredible! We saw several kids we remembered from previous years - many of them did not grow; thankfully a couple of them had grown a tiny bit. The youth did the Superhero and sin chair skits even though we had no props - very impressive. Then Ryan spoke via Jodi for a little.

Char got out the stickers - after all, they were our last kids, so we could use them up. They were a major hit! The one little boy that Grandpa was holding for a while was putting stickers all over himself and Grandpa. :) So cute - eventually all the kids had a sticker sheet or two and were putting stickers on us and themselves. We also did some games and songs with them - Tricia (with Jodi) did "Going on a bear hunt" and I found it amusing to look around at all the dads (Ryan, Greg, Troy) being so into it. :) The kids loved it. Then we did London Bridges and they had a fun time with that! We just kinda hung out with them then before they set up for their supper of hamburgers and then we left.

We went to Pollo Compero again, but they didn't have enough tables for all of us, so as they had tables ready we split up to go eat. As we waited we watched the opening ceremony of the 2016 Olympics in Rio, which was interesting. Back at the compound we did info, debriefing, and worship.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Germany 2015 - June 18

Thursday was our trip to Salzburg!  Our German hosts also went with us, which made them happy, since they missed a day of school.  It was a long bus ride, as usual.  But finally we arrived. Our first stop was Schloss Hellbrunn.  We went on the Wasserspiele tour - in other words, the noble who built the place built it basically as a joke for his (drunk) guests and there are water surprises all over the place.  It would've been fun if it was a hot day and I was in the mood to get wet, but I totally wasn't.  Oh well, I dried off fairly quickly.  Then we got to play on the most amazing playground I've ever seen.  I didn't go close to see it, but I got a distant picture of the gazebo there that they used in The Sound of Music (it was originally at the Leopoldskron Palace, where much of the back patio part of The Sound of Music was filmed, and later was moved to Hellbrunn).   Then we parked in Salzburg and walked around and saw a bunch of st...

Germany 2015 - June 19

Friday again - it was unbelievable that a whole week had passed already!  On the way to school our bus stopped and shut off at random places at least six times.  Apparently that bus doesn't always work.  The first class I sat through was chemistry, and then English.  After the Pause (a 20-minute break that they can eat and talk and whatever) we had German and then French and lastly, art class!  Officially my favorite class to sit in, because Cassandra and I got to draw with colored pencils and talk with their art teacher in German, and she was really cool.  For lunch after school we had goulash and a sort of doughy ball and salad. Later we went to Burghausen with Nici, her mom, and Cassandra, and Elli's mom.  It was the most awesome place I had been yet.  Burghausen is the longest fortress/castle in Germany and it's amazing.  We checked out the inside museum part and I loved hoe it smelled so old!  We also got to go up to the very top,...

Favorite US Travels: North Carolina Mountains Edition

Ah, the mountains of North Carolina. This was one of my favorite vacations. My family (minus my sister) rented a little house outside of Asheville, NC. Asheville itself seemed like a cool city to check out, but we didn't have time to do that...because we were too busy doing lots of other cool things! In fact, one of my favorite things we did there was visit the Biltmore Estate, which I will cover in another post after this one. Grandfather Mountain This place had some really neat hiking trails, including some that had ladders and ropes straight up rocks. My mom wanted to go on and check out that one further, but the rest of us declined - especially since it was drizzling off and on and the ladders were wet. Grandfather Mountain has an elevation of 5,945 feet and quite the bridge to walk out to the highest point. It's an amazing view, but it's also very windy and chilly up there. Gorges State Park Gorges State Park is also gorgeous ! My favorite hiking trails were h...