Day Five (January 20)

Hola from the beautiful mountains of Guatemala! Weather is HOT! We had three crews working in the morning.

The first crew was the construction crew made up of Angie, Alexis, JimD., Sam, Rick, Steve, Chrys, Ken, Thom, and Sarah were at the hospital worksite. They had very hard and heavy duty work and brute strength was needed. The crew was down in a pit moving piles of dirt, rock and gravel. They also dug several trenches and worked with the rebar for the columns.

Another crew made up of Jim K., Katelyn, Josh, Nicole, Margaret, Preston, and Mel did landscaping or planting as they call it here. They had to plant trees on the side of the mountain between the tank house and the orphanage and it was very, very steep indeed. So far over 50 trees have been planted with many more to go.

The third crew, Joanne, Lori, Terry, Jessica, and Alisha (a young lady done here for a seven month mission), worked in the warehouse. They packed 110 bags with 3 ring binders, scissors, folders, booklets of graph paper, and notebook paper. The Guatemalan Public Schools are currently on Summer Break and will be going back to school on the 29^th. Packing these bags will allow 110 students in a small remote village the opportunity to go to school. The students are not allowed to go to school unless they have all their supplies. Two teachers in the group were very excited about this packing as they will be distributed at a village, El Modesto, near Zacapa. They were very excited to get done early and go to the Nutrition Center and rock the babies to sleep. They found that the Mayan boy they met earlier in the week was able to go home to his family and will just need to come back for check ups. They were pleasantly surprised to see that some of the other children that touched there hearts in the short time we have been here had their families there for a visit. (Dale, Lori says to watch out because she and Jessica have each felt their heart strings being pulled by two little boys, Carlo Alexandra and Horsio.)

In the afternoon we traveled to El Modelo, a little village in the desert. The village is made up of many makeshift homes, adobe homes and some homes constructed of cinderblock, such as the homes built by the team last year. There we distributed over 300 bags of rice and beans. The highlight of our time was playing with the children and giving gifts and candy. We stopped at a house in the neighborhood to check on a 20 year old mentally and physically challenged girl, named Alba, in the neighborhood who Joanne, our team coordinator, cares for. We found this girl ill and a baby there with no one care for him. We found the mother for the baby and brought her back to the house to care for him. Alba was given loving attention by Preston and Josh. Then Angie and Melanie bath her and changed her into clothes that better suited the weather. While attending to Alba a boy living few doors down came to ask for help for his mother. We reviewed her medicine, and prayed over her. The team then went to visit the homes that they constructed last year. It was a grand reunion. On the wall of the first home hung pictures of the team from Soul Discovery that built the home because the mother prays for the team daily. The mother next door planted flowers and had added a nice little pathway.

With empty bags of candy and hearts full of love for the people we headed back to our compound. We truly felt like we were the hand and feet of God doing both work and sharing ourselves with those with the least. We were truly blessed.

- Terri and Preston Frallic

On a side note here in Guatemala – we have had more ¨issues¨ with little friends this year than I can remember in past years. The room that Mel and Rick are living in is now called the Jungle Room. They have killed, from last count, at least four scorpions and more spiders than we can count. There is a skunk living somewhere on the guys side of the mission house. No one has really ever seen him, though Alicia does swear she saw a small black critter running by one night, but we have certainly smelled his presence.

I honestly believe that Angie is becoming an insect magnet! If there is one anywhere nearby, it´ll find a way to either land on her or walk directly at her. We have also started a new contest. We call it connect the dots. The goal is to take the bug bites on your legs and see if you can connect the dots to make a picture. Margaret swears there is a cross on her leg. Josh and Thom are bringing up second place for the most bite marks. Lori´s legs are so bad we had to make a new category for her. She refuses to let anyone take a picture of her legs but I can honestly say that I am OK with that! The other day we commented on how white her socks were. Unfortunately she wasn´t wearing any socks! Just bandages! OOOOOPS!

Nicole awoke on day two to a lovely little tarantula lieing in her bed. Dead of course but now each night she goes through her little routine to make sure there are no relatives of his. And speaking of tarantulas – Lori and I came across one that was a good three inches across in the room with the computer. We have now dubbed it the tarantula room! More critter chat should be forth coming!

-Ken