Navigators - Guatemala trip - Day 3

Another full day today – we are moving around Guatemala at an incredible pace. 

We had breakfast at this little restaurant at 7:30 this morning – even though the place didn’t officially open until 9.  We ate eggs, rice and beans, and drank some great Guatemalan coffee.  Afterwards we stayed at our tables and talked through the first 3 chapters of Romans.  I am excited about the fact that they prepared ahead of time by working through the first 3 chapters before they came, but I wanted to walk through the passage together with them so we were on the same page entering chapter 4 tomorrow.

Eventually we made our way back to the hotel to pack our things into 3 Tuk-Tuks (motorcycles with enclosed areas) and 3 guys rode with our luggage to a boat on Lake Atitlan.  The rest of the team walked about a mile or so down to the shore.  We loaded up on a boat and headed across the lake. 

An hour later we arrived in San Pedro and we had to carry our luggage about 1 ½ miles to the hotel.  Not a big deal for most, but I had a lot of luggage.  Thank goodness for the team being helpful.  Anyway we settled in and eventually headed to the child care center.

We had lunch at the center and then headed to the bank to exchange money.  When we returned, they were ready for us to begin working, and we were ready to get to work.  The task??  Digging out the dirt in the basement – carrying rocks out of the basement and eventually leveling the area for concrete.  This is going to be a lot of work, but the team is up to it.

However, the men were not familiar with women helping with that kind of work, so the ladies had to find other things to do while the men broke rocks up and carried them out of the basement.  They ended up playing with kids, working on skits, and helping with the other women.  They seemed to have a wonderful time.

Eventually we finished the days work (the men only work till 4) and all of us began “playing” with the kids.  I went into classrooms and disrupted class (as I tend to do) and had a lot of fun interacting with the children.  They are very open and very friendly.  This is going to be a great week of working with these children.  They love to laugh, they love to play, they love to interact with us.  We are practicing our Spanish, and (as is usual) I am helping people laugh by attempting to speak the language.  I am understanding more as they talk, but I still have a ways to go.

By the way, Elias and Manuel worked with us in the basement and they were teaching us what the tools were in Spanish and we were telling them what they were in English.  We will probably spend all week with them – I pray that we have opportunity to encourage them in their walk with God (assuming they are Christians) and that our help will be beneficial to them.

 
Tomorrow is more of the same – for the first time we will be staying at the same place 2 days in a row.  It is nice to finally “settle in”.  Enough for now – it’s almost bed time.