Goooooal!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry, it´s been a while since I´ve updated my blog. It´s hard to share 4 computers with more than 20 people when we all have similar schedules and time to use them. Last Saturday, we left for Coban, which is beautiful and about 5 hours from here (Guatemala City). We left in the morning and arrived at our destination in the late afternoon. Our destination was Bezaleel, which is a Kekchi Mennonite School (junior high and high school age). The kids there speak Kekchi (a traditional Mayan language) and Spanish, although some barely  know any Spanish. We had supper with 2 Mennonite Central Committee volunteers who have been working here for over 20 years with the Kekchi communities. On Sunday, we visited the Kekchi Mennonite Church. We were late from the beginning because of a flat tire and I´m  pretty sure our drivers of the vans wanted to make up for lost time. I have to say that that trip to the church was the bumpiest ride I have ever experienced in my life. But we survived. :) The service was over 3 hours long, and it was partially in Kekchi and partially in Spanish. During the service, many kids were smiling at us and playing with us. The music was very loud, which didn´t bother me that much but other people got headaches. We sang a few songs for them, which they absolutely loved. After church, we split up to eat at the houses of a few families from the church.

In the afternoon, we played a game of futbol (soccer) against the boys at the school. We didn´t win, but we didn´t get crushed either and everyone had a lot of fun! :) On Monday, we bought paint and painted one of their buildings for them. We were able to sit in on a couple of classes for a little bit, which was very interesting. We visited a coffee finca in the afternoon. We got to learn about the different coffee plants, see how the process works, try some coffee and purchase some. The evenings at the school were always filled with singing. Sunday evening we went to their chapels, and I went to the boys (girls and boys are seperate most of the time) and we sang a song or 2 for them there. We sang ¨How Great Thou Art¨ in English and they sang with us in Spansih. Wow, it was incredible. We also went to the girls chapel another night and sang for them and they sang for us. We even sang a few songs together! It is amazing what happens when you combine the powers of music and something as simple as a smile. I can say without a doubt that we were all feeling God´s presence after that night. :) While we were at the school, every meal included beans and tortillas. Although our group was expecting worse from what Profe told us, we were all feeling very grateful to be back to our regular meals and humbled by the extreme poverty that 60% of Guatemala suffers from.

Yesterday was Ash Wednesday, so we had a hymn sing and that was really fun. We also had a surprise baby shower for Christy, one of the staff members here at CASAS. She is someone that we are all in close contact with and she has a special place in our hearts. We celebrated with chocolate pudding cake and ice cream. :) Tomorrow, we leave again and this time we are going to Lake Atitlan, which I hear is beautiful. If you feel so led, you could say a prayer for the health of our group. So far, we have been very healthy, but this weekend one person got sick with what we think is a cold and it has already spread to several others. It is getting more and more hard to believe that we only have a couple weeks left in the beautiful country. I think we are all trying to make the most of our time and not think about saying goodbye just yet. All I can say is that we are so blessed to have this experience and enjoy the love and friendships here that God has given us! :)