Sorry for the lack of posts yesterday...we were beat! We started the day off with 8 of our group going to a soccer game with some of the students from the school. There job was to watch the younger kids at the game and hang out with them as they enjoyed the games. They went to the Guatemala National Team Stadium to watch two games...the first was two under 15 teams (El Salvador and a South Korean team that were Christians) and the second was one of the Guatemalan professional teams (Rojos) and they played the older South Korean team. It was a Christian outreach event and our team had a great time...though some of them came back a little red.
While that group was gone, the rest of the group continued working at the home. One group worked on painting the gym which we are very close to finishing (only have 3 tall ladders to be able to get the top rafters so it makes it go a little slower) and the other part of the group worked on shoveling more dirt to fill in holes in the yard by the boys and girls houses while others filled up planter boxes with rock, sand, dirt, and top soil. Needless to say this was a really draining day, but our kids kept smiling and kept working. We even had more of the little kids from the home come out and work alongside of us.
By the end of the day we were spent, but we headed out to dinner with the kids again. Now just so you can get a glimpse of what dinners are like for us, we have split into four groups that will make the rounds to the four different houses. Each group has now gone to the younger girls, older girls, younger boys, and older boys houses. Each house has a long table that the kids sit at and our team joins them to have lots of laughs and some awkward moments of no talking with the language barrier...but those are ok because laughs tend to follow. Each dinner has some form of black beans with tortillas and some other added dish like eggs mixed with tomatoes, baked plantains (which are like small bananas), chips, and every night we have had some kind of sour cream sauce.
Then later last night we got to sit and listen to how the Wheelers came to Guatemala and what God has been doing in their lives since then. It was really cool to hear them talk about the children here...you can tell how much they love each one of these kids by how well they know each one of the children's stories. Our kids asked questions and we got a better picture as to what life is like here in the Children's Home.
So then today we took our trip to Antigua which was a great break in the middle of the trip. We had breakfast at Casa Santa Domingo which was so incredible...homemade omelets, sausage, bacon, pancakes, fruit, tamales, and more. We all got our fill and then some. After breakfast we began our tours. We started by going to Azotea Coffee Farm and got an education on how to be a coffee farmer. Then we headed to a nunnery to tour around and see an old church building that was around 400 years old. It was really impressive and there was actually a room down in the basement that was kind of an echo chamber where we spent about 20 minutes singing Amazing Grace, How Great Thou Art, and some other songs. It was really cool to get a moment of worship on our fun day, but also it sounded really awesome! After we finished touring the nunnery, we headed over to get some chicken at Pollo Campero before going into the open market. It was a really great and relaxing day.
We came back in time for dinner in the homes and then headed over to the gym for a little soccer with the older boys. We had a massive game with about 25 or so playing in the gym...needless to say there wasn't much room to move around, but we had a good time anyway. After the kids had to go to bed, our team played a little friendly game of 7 on 8 which got everyone tired out before a little game of 5 on 5 basketball.
I'd have to say it was a good day! Tomorrow we start back on our work projects and hopefully will get finished with them because the kids are out of school on Friday and we're hoping/planning to play with the different aged kids throughout the day. Keep praying for good connections and safety while we work. You can see some pictures on Ronny's or David Woodard's Facebooks.
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