Holding Babies, Salsa Dancing, and Planting Trees

 I can't believe I've already been here for a week.  Somehow it feels like I've been here forever but then at the same time I feel like I just got here.  I've adjusted into the lifestyle pretty easily.  Thursday consisted of painting a room at Kelly's house, the special need's house.  Since we were done pretty early in the afternoon, we played with the babies in the baby rescue center for a little bit and helped the nurses give them baths before trekking all the way back up the hill to shower and change before our fiesta.   The babies are sooo adorable!

Hard at work painting

Even the little ones are fascinated by cameras

They had a banquet of sorts for all the church groups leaving this week.  They served a bunch of food that we served.  After we ate, they did a sort of presentation where the girls from the orphanage sang and danced for us.  Carlos Vargas talked a little bit.  He is quiet possibly one of the funniest men I have ever met.  We also salsa danced for a little bit which was fun since I've never done it before.  It went pretty late so we all went to bed right after. 

Connor danced too!

On Friday they took us (our mini group, the Marist group, a group from Austin, TX, and another group from Tennessee) to Pueblo Moderno, a village outside of Zacapa, Zacapa.  The Austin group painted a house and moved in furniture.  Meanwhile, the rest of us split into 4 groups-- a translator, two Tennesseens, and two Marist/us.  Our job was to plant trees and evangelize.  They give us college kids all the physical labor so I planted trees.  We started by walking up to people that were outside their house, explaining who we were, that we were from Hope of Life, and asked to plant the tree on their property.  We planted these trees that produce breadfruit.  If you cook it, it apparently tastes like fresh bread.  While Steve and I dug a hole and planted the tree, Hannah and her grandmother talked to the people about Jesus with the help of the translator.  Once we had done 3 or 4 people saw what we were doing and starting walking up to us to ask if we could plant a tree on their property.  They were literally invited Jesus into their house.  The last one we did was at the pastor's house.

First tree planted!

I really loved today because we got to see how the people live.  I've noticed that Guatemalans are very hospitable.  They will always invite you into their home.  In this village, a lot of the "houses" were not much more than a hut made out of a combination of sticks, plastic, and metal.  The property is marked by tall sticks and sometimes barbed wire to make a fence.  They still invited Hannah, her grandmother, and Andrea inside and gave them chairs to sit on while they talked.  At the end of each little session, the girls prayed for them and also with them.  A few people would pray at the same time as Hannah which I found peculiar.  In the U.S, most of the time only one person is praying aloud.

A pretty good view of some of the village

Praying with the family

Once we finished planting our trees, we headed back to the meeting spot where a bunch of children came and asked for trees for their places too.  We didn't have time to plant them but we still gave them away.  As we were about to head onto the bus to pick up the painters and head to lunch, two girls came up to me and started talking.  One pointed down to her foot which had a quarter-sized open black sore.  I called Nina over since she can speak Spanish and is also a nursing student.  We found out that the girl had fallen and scraped her foot about 3 weeks ago.  She had been to the doctor 2 weeks earlier but the doctor just gave her a pill.  She had been cleaning it with water but the water there has parasites more often than not so it got infected.  We cleaned it up a little with alcohol swabs and covered it.  Unfortunately we couldn't take her to the hospital but we very strongly encouraged her to.  If she doesn't go soon, the gangrene will eat her foot and she'll lose it.

The bus we take everywhere

We stopped by Guto's, a restaurant in Zacapa (the capital city of Zacapa), for lunch.  They served us these delicious taco like things with pork and coleslaw.  We were all so exhausted from working out in the sun all day that almost everyone took a nap when we got back around 3.  After getting showered and cleaned up, we headed down to the baby rescue center and played with the babies for a little before dinner.  They were especially squirmy but still just as cute.

Herninio!

 After dinner, the pastor from the village came up to the Rancho to preach.  There were about 16 of us just sitting in a circle listening to him.  We started with some worship, led by Jill.  I think that was my favorite worship session ever.  It was so quiet and intimate.  We didn't have any words in front of us but we were all familiar with the songs.  The verses were quiet but then when the refrain came in, we were so strong and you could just feel the Holy Spirit flooding the place, just like in the song.  The sermon was interesting as well.  The pastor doesn't speak any English so Julio translated.  One sentence in Spanish, the same translated into English.  It broke it up a little but it really made you pay attention and remember what he was saying.  I was able to recognize some of the words in Spanish too!

Anna Paula

 We finished the night watching the movie Salt outside and then going to bed.  Saturdays are free days for us so we can do whatever we want basically.  We started by skipping breakfast and sleeping in.  We might head down to the river and the waterfall this afternoon.