Before We Go . . .

Day 7 Monday - June 14th, 2010

We visit Lake Atitlan (2nd biggest tourist spot behind the ruins) with the exception of the deathly-ill Lori (Frommer's exact diagnosis) and "Dr. J" himself. The rest of us head out into the lake and stop by a few of the local villages. The sight of the two (active) volcanoes is gorgeous.

One of these happened to have a celebration. Said celebration was a ritual designed to cure a few people of alcoholism. The method? The alcoholics drank themselves stupid in front of statues (idols) in the hopes that the saint for which the statue represented would cure them.

Not much of anything eventful occurred outside of John getting a brain freeze from a sunday and Loncar and Kelly taking turns at piloting the boat back to our shore of origin.

Steak dinner at the Leiva house (I have now consumed more steak outside of the US than in - there's probably something wrong with that).

Next Day, On the plane ride back:

Loncar's poncho-sun-glasses look resembles a South American uni-bomber.

And now, we are planning ahead to next year's trip.

Heading Back

Day 6 - Sunday - June 13 - 2010

Apparently, the rainstorm caused a mudslide on the road a ways away from the house. Greg W., Mike, Frommer and Lori go down to assist with the digging out of the road. The rest of us pack everything away minus the stuff we brought to donate.

At the gate, we figure a way for everyone to ride - with some of us riding on the vehicles. With the mudslide cleared away (It wasn't really that big, maybe two car-lengths of road was under mud) we pick up the others and are on our way to the nearby "bus-stop".

There, the bus comes along and we can all ride inside a vehicle with the exception of Greg W and Loncar. This goes on until we get to a point right before the popo have a trap set for motorists breaking the law (which happens frequently). (A.D.D. Moment: Espanol uses the term "popo" for poop.)

We have lunch at Saritas (again) and take a group photo.

Dinner at Karina's with awesome food, awesome coffee and some awesome fellowship. Zak at one point got tired so he curled up by the fireplace - pics were taken and Loncar become involved somehow.

Watched A-Team at the theater, it was alright considering the Mr. T character wasn't quite the same as the show. (Considering my age, I shouldn't know that, but with re-runs, I do.)

We then finish off the day with coke, rum and rap (we doubt if the missionaries who live in the house normally have that as their music selection, but, who knows).

Last Call

Day 5 - Saturday - June 12th 2010

Projects undertaken today:

A group went to finish the bunk beds.

Another stayed to do a VBS for the children.

Both Cory's, Frommer, Lori, Greg and I went with Armando and Paulino around the village area to talk to people, learn about them and find out just precisely how we can help improve their community. We also handed out Spanish Bibles. One lady had rocks in her yard that she needed moved out of the way, so we moved rocks from one spot to another (wait, what? . . . moving rocks again?). One rock was particularly heavy, but I happened to find that it easily cracked apart under a few strikes from a garden hoe. We chipped away at it until it was small enough to move.

Following:

A game of soccer with myself, Jeremy, Lori and the rest Guatemlans VS Waugs, John, Greg and Guatemalans with myself and Cory each teams respective net-minder.

Unfortunately, Lori suffered a minor foot injury and spent some time on the bench - only to return to play for the other team. Part-way through the game, a Guatemalan fellow named Julio came along and played for our side and really well despite wearing jeans and boots. John scored on me twice, Greg and Lori got off a few shots, but I kept those out.

Later that night:

Really heavy Thunderstorm. Dinner and packing for our morning departure.

There are plans to walk to the Church for a Saturday night service. The rainstorm is keeping up but we are going anyway. Going on this crazy venture are: Kelly, Mike, Zak and Natalie, Frommer, Lori, Paulina and myself. Lacking proper anti-rain gear, we wear trash bags. It wasn't too bad . . . until we get to the bridge where the stream is just below it or rather, I should say that the stream is just ABOVE the bridge. It's ankle deep and we hold hands crossing for safety.

Getting to the Church: We see that the Banos is still standing and also find that the locals appreciate that we would also brave the elements for the service. Karina expertly translates the message for us. I, unfortunately was still tired and missed parts of the message, but it was mostly to do with Genesis 39.

We make our way back to the farmhouse where we dry off and go to sleep.