Graduation

Today we had the privilege to go and see two of the boys from the home graduate from the equivalent of our Elementary School or 6th grade. There were 95 kids who graduated. We are so proud of our boys for this accomplishment.

As always, it was a cultural experience. As we were listening to the music waiting for the program to start, we heard a song by Air Supply (in English). Boy, that took us back a few years! :-)

The program started with a flag procession followed by all 12 verses of the Guatemala National Anthem. When this ended, we were pleasantly surprised to be led in an opening prayer to our Lord Jesus Christ! How refreshing to hear from a public school!

After this it all proceeded as we would expect, a couple short speeches, names called and diplomas given. The only cultural difference in this part was how lots of kids and some times adults just come and stand up front in the middle of everything so they can see better. That's when being tall North Americans comes in handy. Since we were in the 2nd row, we could see over their heads without standing up. :-)

This is the class our boys were in:

We are once again thankful that we could go and support these boys in this way! Thank you for your part in making this possible

Weekend Activities

We did alot of fun things this weekend. Thought I would share some pictures.

It was corn husking time:



We have learned that in October the rains stop and there is a nice breeze. Therefore, October is kite flying month here. A lot of the kids made homemade kites in all shapes and sizes. And they flew well. Below are pictures of the biggest kite we've ever seen!


Homemade slip and slide:


Made Guatemala Tacos:


We did crafts too, but didn't get a picture of that. It was a great weekend!

Pollo Loco el Segundo (Crazy Chicken II)

Okay, we were given another chicken today. This one likes the toaster. I guess she wants some toast with her eggs! There sure are some crazy chickens around here!

We are going to see what we can do to prevent that from happening again. Chickens on my kitchen floor are one thing. But on the counter is a whole different matter!

Pollo Loco (Crazy Chicken)

Every once in awhile someone will bring a chicken as a gift to the home. Someone brought one the other day. However, this chicken is having a hard time adjusting to a new home. She tries to stay as far away from the other chickens and especially roosters as she can. She regularly comes to our kitchen and talks to her reflection in the oven. Remember we have an outdoor kitchen so it is easy for her to enter.


She also likes the bathroom. She hangs out there alot.

And she sleeps in the bathroom every night too.

Poor lonely chicken.

School Projects

One of the hardest thing for me when my kids were growing up was helping them with their school projects. I am not super high on the creativity end. But thankfully Norman is! He had the opportunity to help 5 kids with their school projects. They had to make instruments. They made guitars, marimbas, and flutes.


Some of them also had to make dolls. Thanks to the internet, I was able to help one of the girls make a cornhusk doll couple. :-) Once again we are thankful for the opportunity to help the kids and take some of the burden off of Sebastian and Oralia. Today is the last day of school for the year for most of the kids and others go until Tuesday next week. They are then off until mid-January. That will be fun!

The Day of the Child

October 1st is the Day of the Child here in Guatemala. Since we were gone renewing our visas in Belize that day, they waited to celebrate until we were back. So last night we celebrated. Norman and I made enchiladas, Texas sheet cake and fruit pizza for the North American flair, Betty, the administrator's wife, made chuchitos (miniature tamales), Lorena, Lita, and Soila made refried beans and Oralia made lettuce salad. Then the Pastor's wife brought granisadas (kind of like a snow cone but with lots of fruit and lots more delicious). We had a grand feast. It was a pleasure to help make these kids feel special. Because they are in our eyes but especially in the eyes of the Lord! He has a special plan for each of them. Thank you Lord for giving us the opportunity to pour into the lives of these great kids!

Angelita carrying the big pot of refried beans:

Bennie has the pop and chips ready:

Luisito can't wait, he manages to sneak a chip:

Pastor Rodimiro prays over the children and gives thanks for the food:

Finally time to serve the food and dig in:

Grubs on Steroids

Norman planted some green beans here in Guatemala. They didn't grow and we figured out it was because grubs ate the roots. Well, we had no idea how big they grow grubs here in Guatemala until the other day when Norman was digging up the dirt. He found the grub pictured below. No wonder the green beans didn't make it!


By the way, it was a big step for me to put up this blog. That thing gave me the heebie jeebies! I don't even like seeing a picture of it!

Our Trip to Belize

We are in Guatemala under a tourist visa. They last 90 days. After the first 90 days you can go to the Capital City and get a 90 day extension. But after that you have to leave the country for 3 days. So we decided to go to Belize. It is fairly easy to get to and we have friends we met in language school who are there. We drove to Guatemala City, which took 8 hours instead of the normal 5 due to the horrible roads. We then took a 5 hour bus trip to the border (it was a VERY nice bus that cost very little!) and then a 1 hour boat ride across the Bay of Honduras to Punta Gorda, Belize.

One of many landslides we drove around on our way to Guatemala City:

Our boat. It wasn't quite what I expected but it got us there!

Our boat ride:

Our friend Charlie and his son Devon. They arrived in Belize a couple weeks ago to get things ready and the rest of their family will join them later.

This is the Spanish speaking church we went to while we were there. (The national language of Belize is English.) It was a great church with wonderful, warm people!

We discovered a little chocolate shop where they make their own chocolate on site. True Belizean chocolate. It was very good!

Noche de Pijama Takes 2, 3, and 4

We posted earlier that we had dinner and a slumber party with the 10-12 year old girls. Well that started something. We then had to continue the process till we got through everyone. Next came the teenage boys, 8 of them in fact. They chose to have pizza for their meal. We made 4 very large pizzas and all but 3 pieces were eaten very quickly!

Making pizza:

The boys also helped make cinnamon rolls for the next morning. I'm not sure how we got them all to put on an apron! :-)

Eating pizza:


Next came the little girls. There are only 3 of them who are between 8-10 so we thought this will be a piece of cake. We had no idea how much noise and energy 3 little girls could have! They chose to have hamburgers and french fries like the older girls did. We had great fun!

Making dessert:

Watching a movie after dinner:


The 8-10 year old boys were next. There are 6 of them. They too have lots of energy and I think they can talk just as much as the girls. They chose to have lasagna as their meal.


Last but not least we had the 3 remaining staff members for dinner who hadn't yet participated in one of the other dinners. We told them they could just come and eat, they didn't have to stay all night. :-)

Each night was unique and special in its own way. We are discovering that we are able to and enjoy using our gift of hospitality here! We are looking forward to extending hospitality more in the future!