Guatemala 2017 - One last day at the work site

Friday morning dawned clear and beautiful - a good omen that continued all day. The skies were blue with only a few puffy clouds and the temperature was delightful. A great day to finish our time at the work site.

Breakfast was delicious, as usual. They really feed us well here. After breakfast, we climbed into the vans for one last trip up the mountain. Those of us who were also here in 2015 all rode together and our van stopped at the site where we worked before. Of course it's finished now and so we enjoyed seeing the finished product. It's very satisfying to see that our hard work is being used and enjoyed by the community.

There is one hairpin turn on the road up to the worksite where the canyon is crossed by a suspension footbridge. We've been driving past this bridge every day, but on this day, we stopped the vans and let everyone walk across the bridge. The view down the canyon from the middle of the bridge is spectacular - much better than what you see from the van.

Once we got to work, everyone was very energetic. We really wanted to make good progress, especially since we got rained out yesterday afternoon. The beautiful weather also helped. Including a break for the usual guacamole (hand made by the work crew on the spot), we put in a full day of hard work. Everyone was focused and we got a lot done.

When we arrived at the site on Monday, there were only bare foundations surrounded by ditches. When we departed, most of the ditches had been filled and four courses of block had been laid on many of the walls. It's actually starting to look like a building. Even better, Elias, who is the foreman of the local crew and the architect for the building, shared with us the renderings for the finished product. It was really interesting to see how what we're working on is going to look.

We left our mark on the building. As we filled the last form, each person placed their name tag in a bucket of concrete. Our names will now always be part of this building. It felt like a fitting way to close our work.

We also had one more chance to play with the local children. The weather was fine and they all had a great time making whirlygigs, singing silly camp songs, and playing soccer with our youth. Several of our youth were saying that they want to take the children home, they are so cute.

At the end of the workday, we had the opportunity to say goodbye to our new Guatemalan friends. It was rather emotional, even with pauses for Daniel to translate what we were saying to each other. We left them with some token gifts and our hugs and well wishes.

Tomorrow, we're going to visit some of the local sights and stay in a hotel in order to be ready to leave for the airport super early Sunday morning.

Guatemala 2017 - It's a good thing Noah is with us

Thursday started out clear and beautiful - sunshine, high puffy clouds with just wisps around the peaks of the volcanoes. Just like in Michigan, though, the Guatemalans say that if you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes...

We got a lot of work done before lunch. The walls are going up and it's really starting to look like a building. It's very satisfying to be able to walk through the site and say "That's an office, that's a meeting room, that's where the parking will be."

We've started every day on the work site with what's become a morning ritual - erecting a large tent for shade and shelter. Today, we were very glad for it. No sooner had we gotten back from lunch than the sky started rumbling. We all gathered in the vicinity of the tent as a few raindrops started falling, and then we all dashed under the tent as the sky opened up and let loose. There were rivers running through the worksite and all of us were trying to stay dry under one tent.

Not a group to let such an opportunity go by, our kids were enthusiastically practicing all their favorite camp songs under the tent. The Guatemalan workers were very amused by us.

When it was time to go visit the children, we actually rode in the van for the short trip, just to try to stay a little bit dry. They were able to open up the common room of the school for us and rain or no rain, we had 22 kids come to play. It was lots of fun making mariposas (butterflies) and bead creations. We also turned them loose with a bunch of balloons and of course, they did what children always do with balloons. There were smiles everywhere.

No work got done this afternoon because of the rain and we came back to the river house right after we were done playing with the kids. Dinner was yummy (they feed us well here) and the rain stopped in time for a local family to come by with more Guatemalan handicrafts for sale. It was nice to be able to browse in a more relaxed setting.

Zeba 2017: A few more photos and video links

Sterling has been creating some cool videos too.  Here are the links:

Sunday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZHDneOCBJ4

Monday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs8pYXQcGfM&t=24s

Wednesday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuA8-vzKSfo

And a few more pix:

Zeba 2017: Vacation Bible School - photos from the week

Today was the last day of our Vacation Bible School, and persistent rain sent us back inside to the Zeba church.  Everyone made the best of the small space, and at the end, there were many smiles and hugs.  It was great to see such relationships formed over the camp week.  

Zeba 2017: Copper Harbor Adventures

After another wonderful day three of Vacation Bible School in the great outdoors, we loaded into the vans and set out for the day’s adventure destination:  Copper Harbor. 

The two-hour drive was highlighted by passing through a few cool towns, Wendy’s alma mater-Michigan Tech (in Houghton), and stunning natural beauty.  In the last twenty miles before Copper Harbor, the natural setting was incredible with so many trees and vistas of Lake Superior. 

We took some time to explore Copper Harbor.  It was fun even though the famous candy store was closed until July 1!  Then on to Fort Wilkins State Park to prepare a delicious fresh fish dinner.  On our way back, we drove the Brockway Mountain Parkway to see some incredible views.

Dinner prep at Fort Wilkins State Park

Fort Wilkins exploration

Grilling the famous fish dinner

Views of Copper Harbor from Brockway Mountain