Mas en el Colegio...y Mas Gatos

For those of you on Facebook, most of this is a duplicate of what I've posted there.  But I wanted to share with those of you who aren't.

So, I gave my kids my camera to take pictures while we worked on our Father's Day gifts.
This is what turned out...

"Que cosquillas!" ("That tickles!")
But what great smiles :)

Hey, they got a good one of me!

There's like 6 pictures of him on my camera.
It makes me laugh out loud every time I look
through his series of shots!

This is the field where the big kids have gym class.  To get to it you have to leave the school, walk through a parking lot, go down a hill, then through a gate.

"Me and My Dinosaur"
this 6 year old girl can draw better than I can

And more cats...

This is how I washed dishes one week.



Last week we got to set up a pila
 (like a sink) all by ourselves.



Azucena attaching the legs.



"I see what you're doing there..."



I love getting to wash dishes here.
It's the only time all week I win the never-ending
battle to keep my nails clean.



This last month has been dragging on and I'm ready for a few months at home. 
Yesterday I went to get cheesecake and a coffee, but when I saw Apple Pie "in the style of an American grandmother", I didn't hesitate to change my mind. 
I prepared myself for disappointment.  Such high aspirations, but for sure no Guatemalteca could make American Apple Pie.  But a pleasant surprise... it was muy rico (or else I've just been away too long).
Oh, and I drink tea here.  Who would've guessed that?

En el Colegio

Some cute school stories to share from this week.

Conversation with one of my 2nd graders from ESL class:

     R:  Ms. Erin, Brittany is trying to kill Kevin.
     Me:  We don't have anyone named Kevin here.
     R:  (takes sunglasses off his head)  This is Kevin.
     Me:  Give me Kevin.

I asked one of my Kinder boys to run next door and ask Ms. Lisa for a spoon. 

     A:  What's a spoon?
     Me:  A "cuchara".  Spoon.
     A:  (walking out of the room)  Spoon, spoon, spoon, spoon...

And the highlight of our week...

     We had just started class, were singing our Good Morning song and seeing who got to school on time, when we heard a noise near the wall.  I thought that the high schoolers were moving something outside.  But then one of the square tiles comes crashing down and with it..

                              A Cat falls out of the ceiling!!

     I think the cat's more surprised than we were.  It dashes right for the door. 
    The kids could not stop talking about it.  One of my girls says "It's raining cats!" (so we got to talk about the English phrase "raining cats and dogs".  Just this time, literally.) 
     But God is watching out for the details.  I was just about to tell the kids to move over to that corner for Calendar and Devotions.  The cat would have dropped right onto a child's head.  And if my door had been closed (and I usually close it before we start class) it would have been stuck, panicked, in the room with the kids. 
     They then refused to do calendar or go in that corner for the rest of the day :)
     Everyday is a new adventure in Guatemala!

...Which is going to continue next year.  I turned in my contract yesterday.  I will be returing to school, and to Guatemala, for one more year.  They asked me to move to 1st grade and agreed to cap my class at 16 students.  So there will be two 1st grade teachers, and I will have many of the same students I have this year. 

Music Class and Mother's Day

From this:

To this:
Around the 2:50 mark, you will see Sam join the girls' group.  He had been sick so much during the practices that he didn't get to join a group.  Poor Sam didn't know what was going on, so he just followed the girls out.  I didn't know what was going to happen as there's no light green in the song!

I love the song that I found for them to sing.  Around 4:20.  So cute!

Are the videos working for you?  I had some trouble getting them to load.

And back to this :)

 

They did such a good job on their songs for the Mother's Day presentations!  I was so proud of them!  The mothers seemed to enjoy it, too.

Water Filter Distribution (Day 2 and 3)

On the second day of our trip we slept in just a bit then went to Burger King for breakfast (lots of fast food of this trip.  It's the safest when outside of the tourist hot-spots.  BK, McD's, Pollo Campero).

We left HueHue ( pronounced "way way" ) and headed through more mountains to the town of Nebaj.

How little we are!

All throughout the mountains, they are farming by hand.

More beautiful Guatemalan skies!

It was a tight squeeze down the alley to get to the center.
Nancy was a pro at backing the truck up.

One of three Compassion centers serving Nebaj. 

 

A news crew came to film the distribution.

Typical dress of this area of Guatemala.

Even the hotel had the typical red cloth.

Heading Home

We passed through a few towns that I've wanted to visit.
I'll have to head back this way sometime next year.
 

Water Filter Distribution (Day 1)

This past week I had an amazing opportunity.  Here in Antigua I've been attending a church called Iglesia del Camino.  It's a bilingual church- everything from the sermon, the songs, the announcements, the bulletins... are in English and Spanish.

A couple of months ago, they were asked by the organization Compassion UK to help distribute 1,000 water filters throughout Guatemala.  The church asked for volunteers and I signed up.  They split the volunteers into four different groups and I was assigned to the fourth and final trip.  Thankfully I was able to take those days off work.

This past Monday we traveled about 6 hours away to north-western Guatemala, up towards the Mexican border.  It was a three-day trip and we delivered over 300 water filters to Compassion families.  (some pictures by me, some by others in the group)

Our trucks and the group

Passing through Market Day in a small town

The first project we visited was near the city of Huehuetenango.
We met the district supervisor here and he lead us to Suculque.  This was a little village an hour drive up the mountain, with very narrow dirt roads.

 

An adobe house

 

Coming up to the center.

Unloading the buckets.
Each family that received a water filter
also got 2 buckets.

 

First the pastor spoke to the families.
Then our pastor demonstrated the filters.

The families received clean water to drink
and heard about Jesus, the Living Water.

Setting up the rooms

 

The little boy in red (waving at the camera)'s name was Erlin.
He wasn't quite sure how to take it when I told him his name
was very close to mine :)