One Week

We have now been in Guatemala for a full week and it feels like we almost belong here. We have gotten into a routine the past two days of walking down the street to the farm where some of the mission´s projects are. Today, we were in charge of building rebar columns that will eventually be used as support columns for a future building. The Guatemalan working with us today showed us some new techniques that helped improve the strength of the columns. When our work was inspected before, the Guatemalans would be hesistant to say it was good and now we know why. We spent almost 2 hours today and only completed 1 1/2 columns, but at least these columns are the first quality products we have created. It was kind of frustrating at first hearing that we had done it wrong before, but we also felt accomplished to know that the Guatemalans at the site we were with the work we had done today.

This afternoon, we listened to a talk from Chona. She is one of the cooks at the mission, and she talked to us about the projects the mission is participating in and the civil war that occurred here in the 80s. Her stories from the civil war were very difficult for her to talk to us about and it was such a gift to listen to here first hand account of the experiences of the people in the region. We have heard about the civil war from most of the speakers we have listened to, but the emotion they show always make us realize what a difficult time it was in Guatemala.

One thing that has not been mentioned in previous posts is how much the children love getting their pictures taken here. When we walk down the street, many of them will ask us to take their picture, and then laugh when we show them the picture on the camera´s screen. I have added some pictures below so you can see them.

-Michael Sauer