Saturday, July 14, 2012

We had a very kind group visit us this past month, Mike's Angels! They have a desire to help the children in Guatemala. They had a chance to hear the children sing and hear our story. They generously brought donations of shoes, clothing and toys, books and the thing the children loved most of all A PINTATA!

This picture above is called a Guatemalan 'mosh pit'........








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This is a 'wide screen' picture of our school that is finished on the outside. If you look real close, you can see it smiling! The foreground is our fruit orchard/coffee too. Sometimes I just stand outside and imagine how busy it will be once it is finished. This is where I see the gardens, the aviary, the children playing soccer. I hope that it is a place where children feel at home and can learn much more than book knowledge. Speaking of which, yesterday the school principal had a meeting with the mothers (majority) and fathers (I was told 5 came). It is illegal to charge the families in order for their children to receive their report cards, nevertheless, this is what the man is doing. Cost? 90 Quetzales, a little over $10....per child, mind you. It's hard enough to get the $10 to buy their school supplies but now you have to cough up quite a bit especially since most families may have anywhere from 5 to 10 children. In this meeting, he decided to fight back the protests by insulting the community. We had donated one of our donated old desktops but later Will went to the school and on this man's desk was a slew of new computer equipment. He then proceeded to tell the people that we had donated it but it was full of viruses. Right.....I was surprised that their wasn't an uprising, 3 women stood up and denounced his actions. It sounds like the rest of the women sat and whispered to each other. Some may know their rights but this man does not expect anyone to do anything, infact he dared them to make a public complaint with the minister of education. Either he wants to lose his job, or he knows that the red tape will prove too much for anyone to take on. We think we are going to make a little trip up to the minister's office.....


This is a view inside our chapel. The view is pretty incredible, you can't help but want to meditate, pray, just worship here. It would be a beautiful place for a small wedding. Our lesson this past week was 'The Heavens Reveal the Glory of God' or in Spanish "Los cielos revelan la gloria de Dios". It was not too hard to get them to look up and see the truth through these windows.



These are some of our kids that Will picks up in the Tuktukote Tuesday through Thursday. He has actually fit 20 in this vehicle. That would never fly in the U.S.!


thought I would try my hand at animal training. Pacote (parrot:) likes to chew on the pens more than learn to draw.


And at the end of a long day, this is what we have to tuck us into bed. I'm grateful for the beauty of this land, it reminds me to look up and to lengthen and widen my gaze, especially when we are sometimes so frustrated with problems that crop up, or misunderstandings or the work of blending a community so that we truly love one another. I found myself the other day doing the usual, cleaning the kid's dishes, straightening up etc. I decided to go watch the kids playing soccer out in the field. The kid's invited me to be one of the goalies.....that is one harsh position. But lo and behold, I was surprised by happiness and joy! Our german shepherd Allie, unbeknownst to us is quite the soccer player herself. She was right in the middle catching pop flies (I know, I know a baseball term)and running after the kid's trying to steal the ball away from them. I haven't laughed like that in so long. Just an unexpected moment when I thought "I LOVE BEING HERE, I LOVE THESE KIDS, GOD THANK YOU!!!!!" I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. God took me by surprise....again.