After breakfast this morning, we were treated to a tour of the Mission from Carlos himself. He is such a captivating speaker. I never grow tired of the tour (even though this was my tenth time seeing it) There is always so many new a different things going on here. He showed us these huge containers that he purchases from companies in the United States of clothes that he will then give away here or sell in the bodega. We also found out how they get the school buses down here. It always amazes me to see buses with signs on the side from the US. There is one from Harford County in Maryland and the one we were riding in was from West Virgina. Apparently, they hire a guy to drive them down to Guatemala (A ten day trip). They load them up with stuff to save the shipping costs. Margaret asked if he was hiring bus drivers! ( I think Dave - her husband might have something to say about that!)
This is a current model of the St. Luke's Hospital that carlos is trying to build on the mountain.
Here is what it currently looks like. They have started working n the fifth floor. We couldn't see it during the tour or work there this week since it is in a stage where it is dangerous to have people around it but they have been working on it all week. He hopes to have it up and running in August of this year.After the tours, we had lunch and then we were off to a feeding at the Dump. It is always a heart wrenching experience to see such poverty in person. Once you get past the smell and the extreme dirtiness of the people there, your heart just goes out to them. Especially the kids!!
Terri was happy to see that "Grandma" as we call her was still there with her many great grand kids but most importantly, that she was looking much healthier than when we saw her last time.
Here are Tessa, Terri, and Amanda at the dump.
Rick and Sarah help with the feeding at the dump. There were so many people there - it was almost heart breaking!
One little guy had a shirt there from Chincoteague Island. It always amazes me how a shirt from Maryland can travel all that way and end up in a dump in Guatemala!
After the feeding, we went back to the warehouses and got to unload ALL of those crates that Carlos had showed us earlier and had to separate them by gender. It was amazing to see all of the designer name clothing in the boxes that he was able to purchase dirt cheap. J Crew must not be selling too well in the US!
These were some VERY ugly sweaters that we found in the crates. Of course, we just had to try them on!!!
After we finished, we had some free time to relax either at the mission house or at the pool. Unfortunately, that meant that we couldn't get up to the orphanage today. Luckily, we had time to see the kids in the morning during the tour but i know that I wanted much more time to see the kids.
That's Julio being shy.
After dinner, we took a walk into the village of Llano Verde and hit the little store for some ice cream. the it was up to the mission House for devotions. Rick spoke tonight and we got to hear a testimony from Jonathon (another one of the group from Washington) he certainly has gone through quite a bit for a guy of only 19.
We are hitting bed now to be ready for whatever life throws at us tomorrow. Hopefully we will be able to continue writing about our trip.
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