Housewarming Party

Last night we had a housewarming party for the Agros Guatemala staff and a few of our local friends. Our little kitchen was full with about 15 people. Jeannette baked a chocolate cake in our tiny gas oven and Brian served coffee. A few people hung around to watch a pirated copy of Jorge el Curioso (the new Curious George movie). H.A. & Margaret Ray’s famous children’s books are not known down here, so it was fun to introduce them to a beloved character from our childhood. The event was a great way to christen our new home.

Youth Workshop & Community Interviews

We kicked the new year off with a workshop for all of the youth. The purpose was to teach the youth how to interview their neighbors about the history of their communities. The workshop went well, with 18 teenagers from 4 of the 5 villages in attendance. (Cajixay is a lot further away than the other villages and the roads proved too difficult from the rains for the students to travel.) The sad thing is that after planning the whole workshop we were too sick to help lead it. We caught a nasty dysentery bacteria that sent us to bed for 4.5 days with high fevers, diarrhea ---the works. Paola, an Agros Guatemala employee, led the workshop in our absence. We are feeling much better now, and have begun interviews in the villages with the help of the youth.
(To the RIGHT are several teenage girls inter-viewing a respected female elder from their community, Doña Teresa.)


Next week we will take a little break from the project to work with a service team from our home church. The team, who arrives in the Ixil this Sunday, will be working with La Esperanza. We are excited to see some familiar faces and spend the week serving alongside them.

Answered Prayer: A New House!

After 6 long weeks sharing a house with 7 other people, we have finally found a place just for the two of us. It is not as big (or furnished) but it is in a quiet part of town and backs up to one of the local rivers. It is private, cute and in a word… perfect. Currently we are in the process of setting it up but we promise to post more pictures soon. Thank you so much to those of you who prayed for a new living situation for us! God is so good! We are finding out how much a little bit of privacy---a quiet place to come away, rest and call home--- really affects our attitude and outlook on life. We consistently found ourselves irritable and just wanting to hide away in our old house. Now we feel refreshed and ready to greet the world! We are excited to host a housewarming party shortly and we have even invited some neighbor kids to come and play at our place. It really has been an answer to prayer.

The Project

At this point, we are settled here in the Ixil and our introductory / orientation process is over. We are excited as things are picking up and we are diving into actual “work.” Our desire and reason for serving with Agros in Guatemala is to serve the Lord and be a blessing to the people here. As a result of this desire we have embraced a project that Agros has asked us to be a part of. The project consists of documenting and creating booklets that will tell the story of 5 local villages: La Esperanza (meaning The Hope), San Nicolás (named for its founder Nicolas), Belén (Bethlehem), Cajixay (a little red bird) and La Bendición (meaning The Blessing). These booklets will serve as valuable instruments to educate staff, volunteers, and donors about the work of Agros. But more important perhaps than the stories we collect is the way in which we are collecting them. We are working with the youth of each village (teenagers ranging from ages 10-17), teaching them how to collect the information. They are learning how to use a camera to take pictures, how to ask questions and interview their community members, and most importantly they are learning the story of their homes, their families. The methods might be a little different than back home, but we are doing youth ministry. We appreciate your prayers for us and the youth as we work on this project.

Spontaneous Getaway to Monterrico

With all the holidays, employee vacations and many villagers working on the coast this time of year, things have been a little slow. So last week, with little to do here in the Ixil, we decided to be spontaneous and go on an adventure. We opened our guide book and randomly picked Monterrico: a scruffy little town on the west coast of Guatemala. It took 9 hours on several different chicken buses to get there. Exhausted, but excited we arrived at the beach. We found a hole in the wall, yet somehow charming hotel for only 120Q (about $16) which fit our spontaneous traveler’s budget just right. For two days we lay around in hammocks and drank a few fruity drinks. It was fun, but not your dream vacation. The bugs were almost unbearable, and the strong undertow made swimming nearly impossible. Several times both of us praised the Lord when we popped up after being sucked down by a big wave. However, the sunsets were incredible! One cool thing about Monterrico is the sea turtle reserve / hatchery they have there. We got to see recently hatched baby turtles awaiting their release and return to the sea. Now we are back in the Ixil (where it is still raining) and things are picking up again with Agros. Right now we are preparing a workshop for the youth of the villages to be held next week. More to come about that later…