Wednesday, July 18, Day Four

Today was what they called a 'normal day'. We went to hope and served lunch and played with the kids. The guys have been working so hard on building the second story of Hope. Really proud of them.

 

After working, we went to the seminary and ate with Jose. Then, he took us to his church. It was really cool and a lot of fun!! Everything was in Spanish (big duh here), but I knew most of the songs in English, and Jose translated the sermon for us. It was really cool to see how free the members of the church felt to worship, they danced and shouted and raised their hands. They didn't care what we thought about them. They just wanted to praise God.

It occurred to me that even though it's rainy season here, it hasn't rained at all. It's supposed to rain almost every day... Odd.

Tuesday, July 17, Day Three

Feeling pretty sore right now, but it's been totally worth it.

Today, we went to a huge outdoor market to ask people to donate food for Hope. At first, it was kind of strange just walking up to people and basically begging for free food was a little strange, but once we warmed up to it, it was actually a lot of fun.

After six hours, we filled up a trailer full of food. While eating lunch in a little restaurant at the market, Jose told us that it was the first time in seven years that he's ever gotten donations from a certain two big-time sellers. Pretty cool.

The girls then went with Jose and Kevin to the bank to exchange our money for Guatemalan currency while the boys went back to Hope. The bank was inside a mall, and the mall was super cool. There were fountains that shot out colored water, and a waterfall that somehow got water to fall in the shape of different words. It was weird going from a neighborhood of people so poor, to a mall full of people so well off. The mall reminded me just how much it's the more blessed peoples jobs to lend a hand to the less fortunate. It was also a shocker to walk into a mall much nicer than the one at home.

After the mall, we went back to Hope to start handing out food to Zone 18 families. The boys had already unloading everything and sorted it while we were at the mall, so all we had left to go was hand it out. It was amazing to see how much these people depended on Hope, how much faith they had that they would receive enough food for the week.

After that, we all got into the trailer -- The one that recently had food in it, as the bus was still not working -- and headed back to the seminary to eat dinner with Parromos group.

Then, we went to bed. (Yay!!)

Monday, July 16, Day Two

Today is mom's birthday... I wonder what she has planned.

This day has felt really long. We made our first trip to Hope for Guatemala today. It's really cool! For the entire two weeks, we're going to be serving the Zone 18 kids breakfast and lunch, and a few of the guys are going to work on building a second story expansion on the Hope building.

Zone 18 is pretty rough. I mean, many of the houses are made of concrete walls and floors, tin roofs, and have no running water. Hope has water, but a limited supply for every day. They make every drop count!!

My goodness, the kids are adorable!! The majority of them were friendly and they tried to teach us a little Spanish...

Good luck with that one.

We worked all day until 4:30, then loaded the bus. Which is where I am right now. Something's wrong with the bus and it won't start. It's starting to get a little hot... But we're all trying to keep up a good attitude. Morgan, Henry, Ian, and Anna are talking about movies they've seen recently. I was considering joining in, but decided not to. By the time I watch 'new' movies, they're already out on DVD.

We're supposed to eat dinner at 6:30... I'm starving.