Guatemala 2017 - A rainy visit to Chichicastenango

After a much needed night of sleep, we started today with a delicious breakfast of veggie omelets and local fruit. (Mission Guatemala feeds us really well.)  We went to the bank to exchange money and then we all piled into four vans for a ride further up the mountains to the market town of Chichicastenango - about an hour an a half away.

The visit started with lunch at the Don Tomas restaurant for kebabs and rice in a traditional Mayan setting. While we were eating, it started raining. And then it kept raining - followed by more rain. By the time we headed out into the market, the streets were like little rivers and we were wading between stalls filled with amazing merchandise and stacks of colorful fruits and vegetables. Today was market day for the farmers and the selection was amazing.  A successful shopping trip was had by all. Lots of colorful handiwork is coming home with us.

When we got back to the river house, they told us it hadn't rained a drop on this side of the lake. Dinner was very yummy, as always and the kids have some time to swim in the pool before we have a group worship service tonight.

Tomorrow, we start working on the project. We're continuing the construction of an administration building for the local education officials. Until this is done, they are working in a succession of borrowed spaces, often with several people sharing a tiny room. We'll be working on starting to build the walls.

2017 Zeba: Sunday

Are we there yet?

Yes!!! 

Around 8:30pm, we rolled into our home base for the next week. The accommodations are really quite nice, kind of like college dorm rooms, clean and tidy with comfy beds and 2-3 people per room.

The drive was long, but broken up with some nice stops along the way:
**lunch at a lovely park, right next to the Mackinaw Bridge
**several rest stops
**and for dinner, great burritos and quesadillas outside of Marquette

Today, Sunday, we are heading off to 11am church service at L'Anse United Methodist, but we have been busy already today.  A hearty (and delicious) breakfast, followed by morning devotions (about Life's Distractions), and then we made mailboxes to give and receive messages from our on-site prayer pals (see photos below).


 

Guatemala 2017 - we made it

We're here, safe and sound. We are all really tired - it was a long day.  Here's a couple of pictures at the airport and on the "Chicken Bus".  More tomorrow.

2017 Kenya Update #10 - Bittersweet farewell

From: Kathy Macdonald

This morning we packed and said farewell to all our friends in Meru. It is surprising how much you can get done in a week and how much more you wish you could have done. There is always next time …

A short list of the work completed includes:

• Continuation of the impact study of the feeding program
• A study of the crop production at Gichunge Primary
• The documentation of the daily process for porridge production
• Updating of the staff directories for BLISS and Gichunge
• Photographing of every class at Gichunge Primary
• Completion of the use and resilience of solar lanterns at BLISS; the gifting of solar lanterns to the incoming From 1 students
• The visiting of over 50 student homes
• Two full dissections in the BLISS science lab
• Worship with the Mwanika Methodist Church congregation
• … and hundreds of new and renewed friendships

We are seeing the "other" side of Kenya for a few days on the way back to Nairobi and our flight home. It began with a visit to the Women's Cooperative Spinners & Weavers site in Nanyuki. They began with 6 women in 1977 and now over a hundred single women work there daily supporting a high school for girls as well as their own families. Kenya has hundreds of wonderful stories … we are collecting a few more before coming home.

Kwaheri (Goodbye)

Final Photo of the Team

A favorite photo from our week

2017 Kenya Update #9 - Whose dust did you collect today?

From: Kathy Macdonald

Being selected to show your home is an honor in this community.  Early this morning the entire team gathered at BLISS and we were paired with groups of about 5-6 s

tudents.  We had earlier provided a list of how far each team member felt they could walk … I suspect the list was referred to for NAMES only.

Some of the homes were far enough away that a van was required to get the team to the place where the road led off to the homes these students came from.    Once you left the road, sturdy walking shoes, a sun hat, a couple of bottles of water and a bit of luck were required as the roads narrowed to single lane paths.   Most of our "2-3 mile" walks turned into 6-8 mile treks!  My fit bit read well over 15,000 steps and 42 floors!  I can attest to the paths that went straight up and then straight down … and then straight up again.

Most of us visited 5+ homes.  Only a handful had power.  Almost all grew crops and had farm animals.  Cooking took place over a fire.  The young men slept outside of the home in small separate quarters (often a shack) with older brothers or uncles.  Once a young man is "of age" he can no longer enter the home of his mother or sisters.  The majority of us visited with students who left for school between 5:00 and 5:30 each morning in the dark.  When they get home each night, they wash their uniform and hope it will dry by morning … they have only one.  ALL of them were joyful.  ALL of them were thrilled to meet their families and see their homes.  ALL of us were humbled by the experience.

We came back exhausted and covered in the dust of a community that we care deeply about.  They have next to nothing in materials goods, but have hopes and dreams that we can only only in in wonder of.  

Below is just a small sample of those we walked with and collected the dust of today.  It was wonderful.

 

2017 Kenya Update #8 - You just never know ...

From: Kathy Macdonald

The Sunday before we departed Ann Arbor, I was handed a colorful homemade cloth bag after church. "Did I think the Kenya Team could use a few of these as gifts in Kenya?" Confession: I immediately thought of all the things we were bringing including a drum set for the BLISS band. I paused for a moment and said "sure." If nothing else, we could pack a couple of bags around the drums.

Later that afternoon, the doorbell rang and there she was with six more. Uh-oh … were these bags going to be like gerbils and I would soon be packing the drums around the bags?

By Wednesday, I had 16 that were carefully packed for the trip, still not sure what would happen to them. By mid-week, it was clear that we wanted to do something special for the teachers at Gichunge Primary … the bags!!! We would fill them with pencils and chalk for their classrooms as well as their Friday sack lunch.

Susan Baily … not sure if you could hear the squeals of delight in Ann Arbor, but the staff went nuts. The photo below does not do justice to the joy you created. We sure hope you had a good Friday … thanks to you, we did.

All in all, the sack lunches were a great success. Like last year, many of students "saved" most of their food for their families to share later. This is a student body that relies heavily on the daily porridge program … dinner isn't always there at night.

We celebrated our final day at the primary by planting trees along a ridge on the far side of the fields where they plant corn for the students. It was joyously chaotic. There were the 24 of us trying to maneuver ourselves over the freshly plowed field like a trail of army ants, about a third of the student population spontaneously nominating themselves as "helpers" thus tagging along, and then the "official" helpers carrying jugs of water and dozens of tree saplings. The Deputy Head Teacher marshaled us all into action and we were all soon covered in dirt as the samplings were dropped into holes and soil had to be packed in around them … forget the cute garden tools … this is done with your hands. Between the trek across the field (temp in the 90's) and digging in the dirt with our hands we all got back looking like survivors from the Great Dust Bowl. It was wonderful.

Things can get very turned around in Kenya … projects we think will be fabulous just sort of limp along … and then there are those so sweet surprises like the brightly colored bags that someone thought we might use, fleece scarfs made by Susan Salo and her women's group for the preschoolers (they freeze when it hits the 60's!), and the community created when everyone quits being cool and gets down in the dirt. It's a wonderful reminder that you just never know when God winks and something happens.

2017 Kenya Update #7 - When was the last time you had a P&J for lunch?

From: Kathy Macdonald

What's your record for number of peanut butter & jelly sandwiches made at one time? This evening our 8 high school students set a new Kenyan record of 130 sack lunches … complete with sandwich, juice box, chips, napkin and a few hard candies.

Setting the record is a bit easier if no one in the country knows what a P&J sandwich is, but that aside, we are ready to share a typical American sack lunch with Class 7 and 8 from Gichunge Primary AND the entire teaching staff AND the porridge cooks AND the van drivers and the entire mission team. Jeremy Punch was the brains behind this cultural exchange last year. Now as a high school senior, he has marshaled his peers into doing it with him. The adults stayed at a safe distance while they shopped at the local Nakumat (think Wal-Mart meets Kroger meets Stadium Hardware … an odd mix, but it works in Kenya) and as they assembled the lunches.

We are off early tomorrow morning to conduct the morning devotions at Gichunge Primary, which involves they-sing-we-sing-they-laugh-at-our-singing-they-sing-some-more, … and the flag goes up. A good way to start the day.

We then all leap back into the vans to get to BLISS for a round of tying off loose ends. We then head back to Gichunge to share P&J sack lunches and have them laugh again at what we eat for lunch. It will be great.

To honor us, they have decided we should plant "some trees" with them on the school grounds after lunch. We are hoping not to set another record on this activity. A few weeks ago they did several hundred plantings in an afternoon. We may need to burn off all those sandwiches, but …

Finally, we plan to end the day with a visit the Amani Children's Home and Dr. Karambu. It is always good to hear what she is up to in terms of the orphans and peace and justice issues here in Kenya.

We have a few more days, but tomorrow we are going to pause to celebrate our work and friendships with P&J sandwiches. We invite you to do the same wherever you are.