Sunday March 28

Today was a fun day! This morning, we went over to Casa del Mundo which is a beautiful hotel across the lake. Pana, the town we are working in, is situated right next to Lake Atitlan, a huge lake formed by a volcano. We had brunch there and had the rest of the morning to ourselves. Our team opted to walk to a tiny village close to the hotel. On the way there we looked for pumice stone along the shore.

The village was fascinating! It’s really amazing how little most Guatemalans live on, yet they seem so happy!! In our walk through the village, Joe found a couple of kids to do magic for. They have never seen it before. Soon he had a crowd gathered. He did just one trick, but they followed us out to the end of the village.

After that, we just lazed around for a while. The hotel was gorgous. It was set in very lush vegetation with lots of terraced areas. Marjie and I both agree it reminds us of the hotel in the movie “Mama Mia” with all the different levels.

We swam in the lake and laid in hammocks until one then we boarded the boat back to Pana.

When we got back, we decided to go to the market. It was mainly a produce market, but had other stuff as well. I had never seen so much fruit and vegetables in my life, and many thing we haven’t seen before. I didn’t take pictures of the meat section though. It was pretty gross. They chopped off sections of the animals and threw them up on the counter. Pigs legs, chicken feet, that kind off stuff. I think they had been sitting out for days and were turning a funny color. Several of us bought fruit. I bought mangoes and bananas. On the way back to Porch, we stopped at a bread store and bought several kinds of bread to try out.

At 4:30, we had a worship service at Porch. Lloyd and Melanie led the worship and Lloyd taught scripture about Palm Sunday. It was designed to be very social, so we met more people. After the service we shopped at the market. Joe bought a shirt and juggling balls and I bought a really cute skirt and matching pants for Joe. We then all went to diner at Jose Penguino’s where we learned the story of the Mayan people, made our own tortilla, and had a special dish ( I don’t know the name of it: but it had chicken, rice, and spices) served on special occasions, such as weddings. There was also a marimba band. It was a lovely evening and the food was good. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and crashed.

We Made It!

Right now I am sitting at the cafe at Porch de Solomon.  It's a really cool place for people to gather.  In addition to a full service coffee bar, it also has a pool table, a room to gather and watch movies, a restraunt, and a beautiful patio on the roof.  Tonight, Lloyd (who is a founder of Porch de Solomon) is playing with his band, but more about that later.

The trip here was thankfully uneventful.  We left E3 around 4:15 pm on Thursday.  We drove to Atlanta and stayed overnight at a hotel there.  Before heading to bed, we worked on the bags we will be giving to the village kids.  We crammed 5 of us in the room together, but only 2 snored so I guess that is good.  We had breakfast at Denny's before boarding the plane at 9:30 am to Guatemala City.

Guatemala is fascinating.  The first thing we saw leaving the airport was lots of other volunteers.  A couple things we learned on our 3 hour trip to Panajecal was that motorcyclists here are suicidal and that the Guatemalan version of construction cones are painted rocks piled on top of each other.  We also saw many locals in their traditional clothes along the way.  We checked into the hotel, and hung out at Porch de Solomon for the rest of the evening.

Today, we had a devotional time, then orientation
about Porch de Solomon.  In addition to having a
great coffee house, Porch is responsible for many
great things in the community: providing housing for
people in the community, helping provide much needed surgeries for babies with cleft palates, holding vacation Bible school for children, and helping to raise funds so parents can send their children to school (you have to pay to go to school here).

After orientation, we went to the site where we were to help built a home for 7 women.  I tied rebarb most of the morning and Joe made a new friend ( a chicken).

Later that afternoon, we went to the local cemetary and walked by the lake.  The cemetaries here are so beautiful and colorful.  Many of them have paintings on them showing the deceased doing something they loved.  Even though I couldn't read them, it was easy to learn something about them just by looking at where they were buried.

Kristen and Joe's Mission Trip

Today we are on our way to Guatemala with a team from our church, Element 3.  We will be doing construction work for a local "Coco Lady" (more about that later) and having Vacation Bible School for the children from different villages.  Stay tuned to hear more about our adventures...