Soulful self
Anything you do from the soulful self will help lighten the burdens of the world. Anything. You have no idea what the smallest word, the tiniest generosity, can cause to be set in motion . . . Mend the part of the world that is within your reach.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

A Moment to Meditate

God IS love
This is the lesson I have learned.
You never know what form love will take
You can't predict how it will come to you
And the way in which it will come
Because love is truly a bigger power than our hearts can actually hold
And so often we block it for the fear of its power
Yet if we truly lived in a world of love we would see no fear
It is fear that blocks us from the full experience of God as love
Fear that keeps us trapped in our bodies
Unable to express all that we were created to be
Because we are love
Truly, we are created in the image of God
And God is love
Did you get that?
God does not represent love
God does not exist as a mere face of love
God IS love
When we love in the world, we are sharing God
When we allow love into our lives we are experiencing God
So often we are afraid of love because it's power is so encompassing
I'm not talking just sexual love .... I am talking about love that seeks justice
Love that seeks to clothe itself into compassion
This is the type of love that God is
Too often we espouse love as a feeling
But just as God is multi-dimensional, so is love
So don't pretend that love comes only in one form
At one point in time
In one body
God is not limited to the constructs that we define Him as
The boxes that we put Him in
God is love
God IS Love!

Charlene Nafziger

Los Patojos

Here are a few pictures with the children....did I tell you that I have grown to love them? Every individual personality. They are doing well. School's out for the year and so they are quite happy!We just finished a nine week class on the Fruit of the Spirit. We had a puppet called "Gusanito" - the little worm. The other pictures are of us singing a 'joyful noise' unto the Lord...and I do mean 'NOISE'! We are out of tune and the kids are using our rudimentary instruments, marachas, penny whistles, drums made out of bamboo, tambourine, and eggs that I filled with beans. But I love to hear us bellow out a tune in Spanish! I remember when I had to write out everything and would hardly try and say anything to the children for fear they might respond and I would have to answer with the few sentences I had memorized. Oh the ego of it all. But it has taught me that simplifying our speech can be a good thing. We have a tendency to fill the world with words and less meaning.



























This is Anayeli, to the left and Paola to the right of her. Anayeli is Paola's aunt! Anayeli's mother has 14 children! They follow me around like my shadow when they are here. I'm thinking of teaching them how to bake and maybe we might even try a little sewing. I had a great time with them and my friend Alicia. We had the girls over for an afternoon sewing doll clothes by hand. I was amazed how Alicia could whip out a cute little dress with t-shirt material. I'm grateful that I have a girlfriend here. We actually can have a pretty good conversatin though she speaks at the speed of light. I have stopped asking her to slow down, I'm just trying to catch up. I think it's working......









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Goodbye Rain

Another wet season come and gone and here are the results in no order of importance! Ahhh, to have dry clothes is really a gift. I am not used to living in so much humidity. The cement walls hold the dampness and we end up having to hang not only our laundry but clothes that have been hanging inside the house during this time. My leather jacket was producing some mildew which could have been the next pharmaceutical wonder drug. Another interesting tidbit, wood furniture also likes to produce it's own green carpet if left to itself. I try not to leave the house without checking out the 'scent' of my clothes first.

This last tropical storm did a number on our roads. Potholes here and there and everywhere. But the real problem are the homes lost to the torrential downpour. And, ofcourse,crops lost, especially the corn that is so important to the people here.

Here is Margarita at her finest, just about ready to 'dar la luz' which in Spanish is 'to give light'...I love that expression for giving birth.

She really was a belly dragger for quite some time, swinging that belly back and forth....kinda reminds me of middle age hehehe.....

She gave birth to 5 little kittens, 3 black and white, and one that looks just like her. Twenty four hours later she gave birth to the runt who is black. We adore them all. Now, you'll love this, I thought she had tumors, I was too naive to think that a young cat, whom we just got could go off in the blink of an eye and do the hanky panky. But she did, and THEN the day she gave birth I heard the crying of her first one and thought 'that darn cat has drug another live mouse and is eating it alive!'. Time to read up on cats on wikipedia.

And here she is with the first one.....(the little rat)















8 weeks later..










Negrita" small black one






Now, this bottom picture is not for the faint-hearted. This is something that Izzy, the chicken killing Rottweiller got a hold of one night. She actually punctured the armor of the armadillo. I was horrified, but what can you do when you live on a farm? I think the animals here are re-populating. I heard that a local man used to hunt on this property and sell the meat. Who knows what we will find in the future. If only our dogs would leave them alone. Even seeing squirrels are not usual, at least while I'm walking around. People like to capture them and put them inside a very tiny cage where they just run in circles all day long. I wonder if this is where the idea of a hamster wheel came from ......

Just an Ordinary Day...

"The Sacredness of Ordinary" by Pema Chodron
Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite.It actually takes guts. Each time we drop our complaints and allow everyday good fortune to inspire us, we enter the warrior's world. We can do this even at the most difficult moments. Everything we see, hear, taste, and smell has the power to strengthen and uplift us.

Once upon a time, if I needed a break I would jump into my car and head out for a cup of coffee, or to a park, or go see a movie, or shop. But living up on the mountain away from suburbia and living in the rhythm of a much simplier lifestyle, I find that I am learning to find the 'sacredness of the ordinary' in my daily life. Sometimes it's just going to feed the animals or watching the baby kittens wrestle with each other. I'm learning to be aware of what I'm doing, even if it's just washing a counter top or hanging up our clothes on the clothesline (haha to all those homeowner's associations that won't allow THAT!). Today, I found this in my daily devotional also:

"The common drudgery of daily life can be a Divine Calling. We often speak of a young man as "being called to the Ministry"; but it is as fitting to speak of a carpenter being called to the bench, the blacksmith to the forge, and the shoemaker to his last. "Brethren," said the Apostle, "let every man wherein he is called, therin abide with God." Remember that your life has been appointed by God's wise providence. God as much sent Joseph to the drudgery and discipline of the prison as to the glory and responsibility of the palace. Nothing happens to us which is not included in His plan for us; and the incidents which seem most tiresome are often contrived to give us opportunities to become nobler, stronger characters. We are called to be faithful in performing our assigned duties. Not brillance, not success, not notoriety which attracts the world's notice, but the regular, quiet, and careful performance of trivial and common duties; faithfulness in that which is least is as great an attainment in God's sight as in the greatest.....Take up your work, then, you who seem to be the nobodies, the drudges, the maid-of-all-work, the clerk, or shop assistant. Do it with a brave heart,looking up to Him who for many years toiled at the carpenter's bench. Amid the many scenes and actions of life, set the Lord always before your face. Do all as in His presence, and to win His smile; and be sure to cultivate a spirit of love to God and man. Look out for opportunities of cheering your fellow-workers. Do not murmur or grumble, but let your heart rise from your toil to God your Maker, Savior, and Friend. So the lowliest service will glisten, as grass-blades do when sun and dewdrops garnish them. - Fred Meyer


Have a Blessed, Sacred, Ordinary Day!!!!

Seven Celebration of 9/24/04

Tonight we had a beautiful celebration of our calling to Opal House seven years ago today. Will made some homemade pesto (our basil is doing well)and I set up a cozy table for dinner in the center of our chapel. We lit candles on the table, on the children's altar up in front and on the back wall. It was so peaceful. Will,Ryan and I ate dinner and we shared our story with Ryan on how we came to live here up in the mountains of Guatemala. Then we spontaneously had a worship service afterwards. We held candles while we sang songs, each of us read a Scripture and just enjoyed the beauty of our chapel with the view of luminous, billowly clouds hanging over the lake at sunset. Ryan felt that we should close this special night with s'mores made over our propane stove. He really had to force us to do it....
Today was so sunny, it was easy to forget that we are still in the rainy season. Really, they should just call it the 'flea season'. This has been a never ending battle with those tiny creeps. I drowned them with the garden hose the other day. I felt somewhat joyous doing it. It doesn't help that we had one momma cat and her 5 babies and JoJo living in the sunroom. I can't spray more Avon Skin So Soft or Off Insect Repellent than I do now without creating a health hazard for myself. It's just an irritation but it can make you crazy! Speaking of insects, Ryan is now learning all about those creepy creatures, fleas included. I'm homeschooling him here this year and I'm enjoying re-learning alot of what I have forgotten over the years. He has alot of visuals around here.He happened to be reading up on quails and it just so happened that we have added a couple of quail to our menagerie of animals. He could immediately make up close observations. And we planted a wild flower garden and have many different types of insects visiting it daily. I see his excitement over learning from life that is happening around us every day. He found a dead possum...no, it wasn't playing dead..it was dead. The first one seen here. I think the Mayans have somewhat cleaned out the mountains of most small mammals. Ryan is now the head caretaker of the animals. I hope he'll take it to the next level and clean out those pens. We still want to add chickens and maybe a pig (hopefully one that does not look like Wilbur, I will not have the heart to make it into pork chops)
On another note, Guatemala had their elections on the 11th of this month. The guy who won has a campaign symbol of an iron fist...'mano dura'. He's an ex-general of the 35 year civil war here. It's an indication that the people want someone who can do something about the violence in this country. Unfortunately, it's like they don't remember that it was the generals and the army that killed over 200,000 rural mayans. There were protests in the streets in some of the pueblos around here afterwards. But we heard that it was over the election of the local mayors. The people feel that many votes are bought.
It is amazing to see how the past seven years have flown by and where we are today. We are grateful and are content with where we are. We have learned to just live in the rhythm of the day like our neighbors and stop to enjoy the beauty that is surrounding us. Yes, we have had to make adjustments, especially living in the rural mountains....like flea season, keeping the mice from turning our roof into a condominium, bats in the belfry, picking out insect parts out of my teaching supplies, run-away goats, disobedient dogs, fighting rabbits, falling into mole holes, african killer bees that are just passing by...well, you get the picture.

The Little Yellow School Bus

With gas being at an all time high we thought why not do what the locals do and so we acquired a tuk-tuk. We were able to sell a van that some wonderful people in the states donated. Tuk-tuks are used in most majority world countries. They are in India and Vietnam. They're just little scooters. But this one is much bigger than the others around here. A local mission helped us to get it. We can coast down to the end of town and though it can only go up to 10-25 rpm's uphill, it's going to save us on gas money.



This is Will giving it a test ride in Panajachel. It's rather loud, but it's diesel and that costs less here. The kid's love it! The locals, well, some just smile, the guys wave (they don't see women driving tuk-tuks around). Some people wave us down for rides. We thought we could get 5 kids in back and 1 in front, but we stuffed 14 in it, just like a telephone booth!!

New "Kids" on the Block

This is Margarita. She is one of our latest additions to our family. She came from a hardware store in Chimaltenango. She was sitting outside minding her own business with her sibling and here she is. Will and I thought that a cat was needed with all the field mice we have around here. They seek shelter during the rainy season and seem to be attracted to living under the adobe roof tiles. She came to us somewhat ferrel but after running away for a few weeks (or Allie wouldn't let her come back)she appeared to become domesticated overnight. She follows Will and I around like a dog and needs to be scratched like most cats. She's keeping the sunroom free of geickos, insects and sad to say some type of bird that I only discovered feathers and maybe it's head (hard to recognize some things after a fight). Will also throws her on top of the roof and yahoo! we don't hear the patter of itsy bitsy feet anymore!

As you can see Jojo is not thrilled with her. First Izzy, our Rottweiler came to live with us, then Allie, now Margarita. Life was much simplier for him then. But they all know who is the alpha, I think......






Meet the 'Familia Cabra' (goat family :) We have TONS of monte or brush here, TONS. We have workers that have to cut this brush down underneath the avocado trees or the trees suffer. The goats love to eat this stuff and we love to see them eat it. We call the mama goat 'mamacita' and the little boy is Billy, hehe, that's pretty original huh? And his sister 'Coco'. Will got to see them butt their heads last week, just like kids......Now Jojo isn't the only dog having a fit over the new additions. Allie is keeping her eye on them.....a little too much if you ask me. But the week we got them Izzy and Ally broke into their pen (which originally was Allie and Izzy's so who can blame them for the confusion?) and Izzy had Coco pinned with his mouth around her neck before Juan got a hold of her. Izzy needs to go to jail. She is just a breed that will hunt other mammals. So, she is now tied up during the day while the goats are grazing. Here's a picture of Allie and Izzy. Izzy is doing one of three things that she does well, eat....sleep....and look for prey....




So after Izzy's little escapde, the worker's quickly built a new, secure house for them. You can easily picture this as a vacation home near a lake somewhere....The goat family is now content in their secure shelter and even enjoy having guests over for a quick bite :)

Happy Belated Resurrection Day

Happy Belated Easter to one and all! It's hard to believe that another celebration has come and gone! Will and I celebrated Easter with Juan and his family, Diego, and Veronica and her children. We all headed to Antigua to watch the processions like last year. We were grateful that there was cloud cover as last year we baked in the sun and there is not a bit of shade normally by the time they start the processions. I believe it was the first time Juan and his family had been to Antigua and they seemed to enjoy it. Last year we had gone to see the processions on Good Friday, this time on Thursday so there were different processions from other churches. The streets were swamped. But like all celebrations here and I suppose whereever there are people, there are vendors EVERYWHERE! You would think every vendor from china had made their way to Antigua! All the stuff that you don't want your kids to see because it becomes a battle to keep it about the celebration of the Resurreciton of Jesus and not about toys and trinkets. Will and I attended the night time mass at San Lucas....a beautiful mass. We all had our customary candles lit and midway during the service the lights went on and people came out to adorn the altar and the church with beautiful lillies and other flower arrangements as part of the dawning of a new day. That was Saturday, Sunday was a quiet and reflective day. We had our chapel dedication on Easter Monday. Father Greg and about 4 other priests came and held a mass. We had our children and their mothers here along with the construction crew and their families. About 40 or 50 people total. We had a reception afterward and all in all it was a day of celebration with our community. I was glad for the opportunity to show the mothers how we teach the children with the props from Godly Play. They were able to see from the baptism of Jesus through his resurrection all the little figurines that we had glady received from a church in Connecticut! It really helps to seal the lessons in the children when they can see something tangible. We want to thank all of you that donated in helping us construct this Chapel of Peace. We thank Fr. Dave for helping us with the sign and hanging other things before the dedication. We miss you all and wish that you could have been here......

Boys will be Boys

This is our class time at the cistern: Diego, me and kiddos! The next pic is Will and some of my little ones after picking our sunflowers. For Valentines Day, our lesson was about Mr. Lovebug and his lack of love for his classmates. I surprised the kids with their own puppet. Will took the boys on an ATV ride. The boys love the machines...anything that makes LOTS of noise :)

This is a pic of my caballeritos (little gentlemen). They were on the letter "B" and we made masks. The next one is reading time with Guillermo (William in Spanish). The kids enjoy reading with Will and he quizes them on colors or the names of different things on the pages which seconds as a Spanish lesson for Will!

As I said, boys will be boys! Here is our guardian Juan, the lenadore (treecutter) also Juan, our two visiting college friends Peter and Alex and the little guys. Juan fell a huge pine tree that was threatening to land on the big workshop and the house where Veronica and her kids live. Lots of noise that day. Treecutting in the back and power-washing old brick patios with years of moss in the front. I couldn't hold the boys attention with all that racket!

This last picture is of a stove (plancha) that we put in for one of the boy's families. Will happened to be picking the kids up and noticed that their stove was actually half a burn barrell with a fire inside. The walls were black with soot and this becomes respiratory problems sooner or later. This is a picture of a typical stove that most families have here. No one can afford a stove or the electricity to run it. So this is what they cook on and heat their homes with. The wood is loaded on the left side.

Mid-Summer Activities

I don't seem to be getting any better with this cut and pasting of pictures! Anyway......Here we are mid-summer and already thinking of the rainy season and some of the preparation to plant a few things. The second pic is me painting some of the kid's shelves for their books. To think our furniture for our escuelita came from the Opal House property. We still have more at the carpenter's that is being made into chapel side tables. And we want to build some cabinets for Veronica's kitchen. We have 'visitors' that come into her house and leave their 'calling cards'. We are trying to show her that there is definitely a connection between the food she leaves out on the counters and her little friends that know where they can get an easy meal! The first picture is at San Lucas, actually from our coffee harvest from last year. This year we didn't do so bad about 125 lbs. We have more than 500 more plants to get into the ground this year. We want to work on that aspect of the farm. The other two pictures are of the grand opening of the San Lucas' Women's Center. This is a place where the women of the parish can meet, weave, I've heard bake bread (we sampled some....mmmmm)and I believe receive educational talks and things of that nature. Chonu, Fr. Greg's assistant had tears in her eyes as she shared what the center means to her and the parish. It's a very beautiful building, big kitchen and medicinal herb gardens surround it. It's just one example of the solidarity that we have witnessed in the parish. We are grateful to be a part of that community. One of the pictures that I can't seem to find in our camera, is of me and the beginning of a preschool. I have 4 little 4 yr. old boys who are a treasure to me. I have them for a few hours, 3 times a week. I read to them, and am helping them become familiar with the alphabet, we do little crafts and ofcourse...PLAY :) The first week, Will and I took them out 'avocado hunting'. One of the boy's big brother was out of school early and climbed the tree to shake them down, while the little guys ran here and there collecting them. We got quite a basket full and brought them home to their moms. We picked sunflowers and ate little apples off of a struggling apple tree. Our great discovery this season is that we have 2.....count them 2! Peach trees. Now I don't know plants and trees like country people do but the flowering of a particular tree caught my attention one morning when I was running. And I see lots of peaches for the future. Will and Juan cleaned and watered them and hopefully with some care we will have our first taste of them soon. The boys were thrilled when they found a bird's nest as they hunted. This is the part of being on this land that is starting to bring the seeds of a dream in the future. God willing, maybe we can have a holistic preschool where the tending of animals and having gardens for the children to take care of are part of the curriculum. I'm going to be receiving my first little critter (baby chick) here soon. A family who wanted to say thank you to Will for helping with some minor surgery is giving us one of their pollitos. They already gave us a freshly killed chicken which Veronica made into one of their Guatemalan dishes called pepian. The chicken was a little tough but it was a really delicious dish. I don't think I have the guts to watch this baby chick grow and kill it, so I told Will this one will be a pet. Unless of course, our Rottweiler, Izzy gets a little hungry for another kill. She just kills chickens but doesn't eat them. She's probably waiting for someone to cook them for her.

So, it has been a beautiful summer. We have made new friends and God continues to bring visitors to us and we are grateful. Even with our continuing struggle to become fluent we can carry on conversations now. Diego continues to be a blessing to us. Will is teaching him to drive and so one day we will release one more young person onto the streets of Agua Escondida. At least he won't be driving a chicken bus.....

Every Dentist's Nightmare

This entry is Will's as he had first hand experience of taking our kids to the dentist today!
Wow-fourteen children, ages 4-13, all for their very first dental visit at the San Lucas dental clinic, the same hospital/clinic where Diane and I volunteer. All 14 needed anesthesia, with seven having mulitple abcesses needing both needles and extractions of one or more teeth, most needing 2 or more. ALL 14 need more work as the 2 dentists and 3 technicians could not complete all of the necessary procedures. Many children had two or three abcessess on one side of their mouth, and will need to come back for needed work on the other side of their mouth, so at least they can use one side to chew properly. Angelica, our special 5 year old who has such a bad diet of coke and chips and no fruits or vegetables, has a history of complete bowel impaction with fissuring and bleeding not long ago(we immediately took her to the visiting pediatrician at San Lucas who diagnosed fecal impaction and dehydration) has equally bad teeth(Surprise!) She had so many abcesses in her teeth that the local anesthesia could hardly work and I held her hand as she cried and cried during her procedures-she couldn't have had a higher dose of anesthesia safely! My heart and soul goes out to those sweet children(all students of Diane and mine) who are suffering from Coca Cola diets and single parent syndrome, moms who are abandoned and overwhelmed and just placate kids with sweets, processed chips and Coke. No wonder Guatemala is the most malnourished country in all of the Americas.(G8 data 2009). Not one of these kids had ever had hot water for a shower(before our mission), much less floss for their teeth. May God give us the strength to always love unconditionally, come alongside those around us and be Christ to our neighbors. I'll blog about part two of the dental nightmare visits soon. Love, Will

Reflection.....

The most important events make no stir on their first taking place, nor indeed in their effects directly. They seem hedged about by secrecy. It is concussion, or the rushing together of air to fill a vacuum, which makes a noise. The great events to which all things consent, and for which they have prepared the way, produce no explosion, for they are gradual, and create no vacuum which requires to be suddenly filled; as a birth takes place in silence, and is whispered about the neighborhood. Corn grows in the night. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Back to School

Ahhh, it's that time of year for all the little ones to give their moms a little break! I know...we're a little behind here with the school year. Here's a great picture of Diego and all our little munchkins and some of the bigger kids in the background. We had planned to only take the small kids and make two separate trips but ended up with 19 on this trip. Like a worry wart I was worrying that we didn't bring enough hot dogs and all the other stuff, but we had more than enough. It would have been mayhem but with Will, Diego and I it turned out to be a fun time for all of us. And the older kids, some not more than 8 or 9 yrs. old are very responsible for taking care of their younger siblings. They learn that pretty early here. Sometimes I think it's so funny to see a 4 yr. old carrying a two year old. They are strong and hard-working kids. The lake water is cold which is wonderful if the sun is out but the wind was blowing which with the wind chill factor made going in sound insufferable. But there they were wading and laying down in that freezing cold water having a good time. Some of the kids were very, very focused on collecting bottle caps.......all the bottle caps in the country of Guatemala from what I witnessed. Thank goodness for Pepsi and Coca cola, huh?

This year, Mishel, our little 4 yr. old is now entering a Montessori school especially created for 4 yr. olds at the San Lucas parish. This is the town that Will and I volunteer at their hospital. We were all so looking forward to her experience in this new school that we took her there one week before she needed to be there! Guess that's better than forgetting her at the house :) She is pretty intelligent and we couldn't see her attending the public school. The schools are under-funded (no surprise for a poor country) and we just thought we should take advantage of Fr. Greg's invitation to us in the beginning of Opal House, that whatever kids we had here he would educate them. We are very thankful. We hope that she has a running start. The first day I took her she looked so small and lost. But she enjoyed it all. Very grown up now after one week. I like the scene in the movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan called "You've Got Mail". He tells her that he really enjoys autumn and the whole back to school scene. It makes him want to go out and buy a dozen pencils. Like a bouquet I suppose. That's how I feel watching the kids come in so timidly at first but with their new backpacks and supplies, called 'utiles' here. Lots of utiles. We sponsored some of the same children again this year and so I took a few of the older girls to the local town and shopped for their new school stuff. I treated them to a wonderful (and I mean WONDERFUL) apple fritter and some tea. Made by the shop that donated the christmas donuts. Man, I have that ladie's number! And where in the U.S. can you get tea for .25 cents and a huge fritter for .60 cents? That's a bargain. The shopping was as simple as handing our lists, about 6 of them, to the guys across the counter and watching them in one fell swoop gather it all together for us. Yahoo, that's the way it should be! Very simple pleasures, and for the girls this is like taking your girls to the malls. They don't get out to 'shop' very often. And when they get a new backpack or whatever it is something of which they are very grateful. These girls were hanging out in front of their homes to talk to me because they had not started school because they had no supplies, like last year. Just $10 can keep a kid from attending classes.

And a Belated Happy New Year

I forgot to mention what we did on Christmas morn'. Will and I were a little tired but had received a donation from a generous lady in Panajachel who owns a donut shop (can you believe that you can buy a huge fritter and a cup of coffee for about .70 cents?). She gave us lots of her Christmas donuts and so we got our ATV out (red, mind you....) and jumped on with the donuts and chocolate bars that make hot chocolate, and drove to the neighborhood where the majority of our kids come from and handed out those donuts for breakfast. After that, we loaded up our old Subaru (again red, like a very old sleigh) with trinkets and a large bag of candy and drove out along the main highway and threw them out the window yelling "Feliz Navidad". Now, this is not something new we conjured up in our heads. In 2007 when we were heading up to Opal House during Christmas time, we were met on the mountain highways with children, as well as families, waving and yelling to us. I actually thought "Wow, they're wishing us Merry Christmas, Will!" Until I saw the car in front of us open up the passenger window and toss out some candy and saw the families running and gathering up the goodies! We had a good laugh over that one and then I thought next Christmas we'll do that. It was a wonderful, joyful time for us! It's one of the best Christmas' I've had.....