Today started out with a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and fried plantain bananas. After breakfast, we piled into three vans and headed up (note that "up" is quite literal) to the Mission Guatemala clinic, where our hosts explained to us all of the many projects that they are involved in. In addition to a doctor's office, a dentist office, and a well stocked pharmacy, they feed children using chickens they raise themselves, host a computer skills classroom for a local middle school, provide space for a preschool, feed school children, supply water filters for individual classrooms, and provide efficient wood stoves for families. Whew.
It is inspiring to see everything that they do with very limited resources. Truly, God provides.
Today was our first day at the actual worksites. We divided the group into two work teams. One team went to the community of Xepec (pronounced "shepek") to work on expanding the kitchen where Mission Guatemala provides after school snacks for hungry kids. Our team worked today on placing cinder blocks to build the walls of the new room. This includes making the mortar from scratch. This site is above 7000 feet elevation and there were several times during the day when clouds (fog) moved through.
The other team drove to the community of Xecotoj (pronounced "shekatoe") to continue work on expanding the elementary school from two classrooms to four. This community is composed of people who were displaced a few years ago by Hurricane Stan. The government of Guatemala built the houses that you see in the background of one of the pictures, but didn't supply much else. Our team worked on pouring concrete for the footers that will become the foundation for the new classrooms. There was a lot of shoveling of gravel, sand, and concrete.
Everyone came home dirty and tired, but enthusiastic about doing work that is really helpful for these communities.
Tomorrow, we will stay after the work day to play games, do crafts, sing songs, and perform dramas with the local children.
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