For those of you who don't know, Amanda and I are home again! After leaving Guatemala we flew to New York, spent the day there and then flew to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. In Calgary, we met Amanda's friend, Serena and spent the night at her place. Early the next morning we jumped on the greyhound (I know...the things we'll do to save money...) and spend the next 14 hours travelling from Calgary to Langley. Phew!
We've always wanted to show up at home unexpectedly and we managed to on this trip. Our parents expected us home on Sunday, May 9th, and we showed up on Wednesday night! :) There we were standing on the balcony with all our bags staring through the window...and no one noticed! Okay, it only took them haf a minute or so, but it seemed long!
I am currently at home until I return to South Africa at the end of August. Amanda is home until she goes to Germany at the beginning of June.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Back to Guatemala
It was great to go back to Guatemala--it was sort of where my trip started a few years back...and where this blog started, now that I think of it!
Amanda and I split our time between Guatemala City and Zacapa. While in the City, we helped out with two organizations. One: SonRisas, a local outreach organization that ministers to families in one of the big cemeteries in the City. Every Saturday they offer songs, a short sermon, games and lunch. The Sunday after we left they also did a big dental clinic. We helped out one Saturday--you can see some of the kids in the picture--and also helped collect donations for the dental clinic.
One of out last days in the city, we went back to helping out SonRisas by driving around and picking up things people/organizations had donated for their dental clinic. It was quite funny, actually! At one stop there were just too many donations to fit in the car, so after filling the truck with boxes, we started opening other boxes and stuffing things into the car wherever they'd fit. The whole back window was full of toothbrushes and the backseat (and Amanda and I) was covered with Crocs!
At the end of the week, Auntie Clara came to Guatemala to meet us--which was really cool!! The day after she arrived, we jumped on the bus and headed off to Zacapa. The big even in Zacapa was the first annual Guatemalan ALC convention! The three of us (Amanda, Auntie Clara, and I) were helping out with the kids. The kids under 10 had their own program during the services. The theme for the kids was "Christian Family" and so we talked about obedience (to your parents) using Jonah as an example and forgiveness (of your 
family members) using Joseph as an example. It was fun--even though we couldn't interact as much as we'd have liked since we don't speak that much Spanish!
We spent the rest of the week visiting villages and telling kids Bible stories, playing with them, singing songs and doing home visits. Amanda, Auntie Clara, Tim Aho, Jill Aho, Alison Aho, and I acted out the stories with the kids while Ryan Ruotsala translated. It was fun! (Side note: Tim & Jill were on vacation in Guatemala with their daughter and--oddly enough--we found out that we're second cousins... small world!)
We also went and taught English one day at the local school in one of the smaller villages (Juan Ponce), helped with a bit of Sunday School curriculum development/planning, attended a woman's group, and spent time just visiting. It was nice to get to know the new pastor and his wife as well as visit old friends from before.
Amanda and I split our time between Guatemala City and Zacapa. While in the City, we helped out with two organizations. One: SonRisas, a local outreach organization that ministers to families in one of the big cemeteries in the City. Every Saturday they offer songs, a short sermon, games and lunch. The Sunday after we left they also did a big dental clinic. We helped out one Saturday--you can see some of the kids in the picture--and also helped collect donations for the dental clinic.We also helped out for several days at the Little Lambs daycare in the city. You can see some of the kids in the picture--and they were great! :) However, most of our time was actually spent in the storeroom where we were organizing donations. I was really excited to be back at Little Lambs (I was here two years ago when the building was still being renovated--look back to the 2nd or 3rd post in this blog to see pictures and get more background info.) Little Lambs is a great organization! Little Lambs is currently working on an orphanage in Jalapa and their funding is running low--anyone who may be interested in supporting them can get more information from their website: http://www.littlelambs-intl.org/
One of out last days in the city, we went back to helping out SonRisas by driving around and picking up things people/organizations had donated for their dental clinic. It was quite funny, actually! At one stop there were just too many donations to fit in the car, so after filling the truck with boxes, we started opening other boxes and stuffing things into the car wherever they'd fit. The whole back window was full of toothbrushes and the backseat (and Amanda and I) was covered with Crocs! 
At the end of the week, Auntie Clara came to Guatemala to meet us--which was really cool!! The day after she arrived, we jumped on the bus and headed off to Zacapa. The big even in Zacapa was the first annual Guatemalan ALC convention! The three of us (Amanda, Auntie Clara, and I) were helping out with the kids. The kids under 10 had their own program during the services. The theme for the kids was "Christian Family" and so we talked about obedience (to your parents) using Jonah as an example and forgiveness (of your 
family members) using Joseph as an example. It was fun--even though we couldn't interact as much as we'd have liked since we don't speak that much Spanish!Vivian (wearing blue in the picture) is the leader of the Sunday School in the Zacapa church. She was leading the Sunday School program and translating for us. At the end of the week, she also arranged a Sunday School Training session where we spoke to all the teachers. That went really well too.
We spent the rest of the week visiting villages and telling kids Bible stories, playing with them, singing songs and doing home visits. Amanda, Auntie Clara, Tim Aho, Jill Aho, Alison Aho, and I acted out the stories with the kids while Ryan Ruotsala translated. It was fun! (Side note: Tim & Jill were on vacation in Guatemala with their daughter and--oddly enough--we found out that we're second cousins... small world!)We also went and taught English one day at the local school in one of the smaller villages (Juan Ponce), helped with a bit of Sunday School curriculum development/planning, attended a woman's group, and spent time just visiting. It was nice to get to know the new pastor and his wife as well as visit old friends from before. The week in Guatemala flew by and then we were heading back tot he city. The day we returned, we ended up doing some informal curriculum development for both Little Lambs and SonRisas. We were able to use a lot of what we had developed in South Africa, which is great. After that we were free! A little shopping--a little eating--a little visiting and then off to the airport again.
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