Sunday, June 30, 2013

Guatemala- Day 3 and 4

Sunday
Sunday was our "free" day so we made the two and a half hour drive to Antigua.  We started at the look out which is a beautiful place where you can overlook the city of Antigua.




Then we had a short "church service" with Peter leading music and Andy leading the service.  Peter was our black translator from Nigeria who lives in Guatemala and plays the guitar.  What a combination!  The best thing is he is hilarious and kept us laughing all week while still loving the Lord with a servant's heart.



Here is our entire team in front of the cross on the lookout.


Then we drove down to the city of Antigua and made our first stop at the most beautiful McDonald's I have ever seen!  It has a gorgeous courtyard where you can eat and look out at another volcano in Guatemala.


Ava ordered a Happy Meal.  Instead of apple slices, they give you a mango.  I wish they would give mangos here.  It was delicious!


This McDonald's also has a queso pie which is like their apple pies only it has a cream cheese filling.  YUM!


I love this picture of Peter photo bombing in the background.


After lunch we headed to the market where we did lots of shopping.


Ava and some of the girls got their hair braided.


I love this picture of Kevin in the background pulling money out of his wallet.  That is pretty much how it was that day in the market.


We ran into Mike Parker and his family at the market.  I was amazed at how grown up his sons are now.  It has been 2 years since we have seen them.


On our way to dinner it started pouring down rain.  We had left our backpacks on the bus and our ponchos were in our backpacks.  I made this poncho out of a shopping bag.  I am sure the locals thought this Gringo was a nutcase.


For dinner, we ate at Los Palmas which has wonderful food.  It was delicious!


At the end of dinner, Ava got to try out her new musical instruments she bought at the market.  Andy told her they would do a performance that night.  It made her night and she told me she had her first gig.  HA!


Here is a picture of Ava's first gig.  Andy and Ava are sitting on the bottom bunk playing instruments so it is hard to see them.  Kelsey and McKell are doing sign language to the song.


Here is our group sitting outside that night watching the volcano erupt.  Kevin called it their HD TV every night.


Monday
This is how every morning in Guatemala started off!  We walked down to the tienda and bought bottled coke which was SOOOO good.  I have not had soft drinks since Christmas but I broke that habit just for the week.  The cokes were only 50 cents and they helped get us going every morning.


Our team put in 5 more stoves on Monday and we got started on VBS.  First we had to load the truck full of bricks for the stoves.


When we first got to the village we saw this turkey wandering around.  I definitely kept my distance from this ugly animal.


Ava had to ride traditional Guatemala style.


Ava and Allison had fun chasing the baby ducks around.


I am sure this cute little duckling will be turned into duck tamales.


While part of our team was putting in a stove, the rest of us found a sweet little old lady making tortillas in this house.


She invited us in to try making our own tortillas.  We were terrible at it but she was so patient with us.



After we finished making terrible looking tortillas, we headed to get started with VBS.


Ava had a ball leading the music with Peter.


Here are some pictures from our first day of VBS.








We had fun having water bottle fights with the kids.




Once we got back to the camp, Kevin decided to climb up a huge steep hill to get a picture of the camp from up high.


Then we went up to where they were working on the house.  I am pretty sure this is the last picture I got of the house.  We did end up finishing all but the roof of it but that was only because we ran out of supplies.  The next team in will be able to finish it for the sweet family.


Then we played with the kids on the basketball court and soccer field.  Ava made friends with a little boy she called "Beep Beep".  He is one of the kids of the lady with 13 kids.  I honestly could have taken him home with us and I know Ava would have more than welcomed him home!


Ava and Allison had fun being silly at night and playing Ava's instruments.


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