the last week in san pedro

well. we're back at home and guatemala seems kinda far away. i'm going to try to remember things about our last week. wish me luck.
friday, july 22- that morning, norton went to spanish class with ana maria, and found out that her husband, eduardo, had been in a bus accident. eduardo teaches in another village around the lake. he takes a bus there every morning around 6am. usually their oldest son, erik, goes too. this morning, erik did not go with his dad. i didn't really get the whole story but apparently something happened which caused the bus to swerve and roll over on it's side off the side of the road. noone had life threatening injuries-i don't think. but lots of bones were broken. eduardo thought he had broken his arm but it turns out that he just had a really bad laceration. but he says that if erik had been sitting where he normally sits, he would have been killed. the whole family praises God for this miracle.
that afternoon our team from church arrived. it was great to see everyone. our family moved out of antonio's house down the hill to the gringo area. into a hotel right on the lake. with a balcony with hammocks! the kids were in heaven. i was a little sad to leave our home where we had started to know people. all locals. now we were in a part of town where all you see are foreigners. we spent the rest of the day/night introducing the team to san pedro and antonio and getting ready for our first day working in san pablo.
saturday, july 23rd-we headed over to the church in san pablo after breakfast and started work. cleaning rocks. then hauling the rocks up to the second story. we made cement and helped to pour a part of one of the walls. the kids and i actually stayed down below and played and colored. kids would stop by and come join us. after a group of three boys were walking away i happened to look over at where they had been coloring. all of the pens were gone. i walked out onto the street and saw one of the boys and called his name. as soon as he heard me he took off running down the street. funny and sad at the same time. this particular boy came back a couple of days later and i asked where my pens were-he just shrugged his shoulders.

sunday, july 24th-since we would be going to church at 5pm we decided to take the morning as a tourist day across the lake in panajachel. norton and i took everyone to crossroads cafe where we had ordered some coffee beans. they aren't open on sundays but mike let us in to pick up the order. he then was gracious enough to share his story with our group. a great guy. aubren, townsend and i went to the "big' supermarket afterwards. i love looking at grocery stores and aubren does too. as we walked inside, a clown came up to townsend and started talking to him. of course townsend had no idea what he was saying. apparently this was some promotional thing and there was a guy with a camera who took their picture and the clown made a balloon sword for towney. i think aubren took a picture too so i'll post when i get that. the other mission group was at church that night. they did some testimonies and sang and since antonio's church didn't cut anything from their service it ended up being two hours long. the kids were so tired.

monday, july 25th-tuesday, july 26th-in some ways these days were pretty much the same. working on the church for the adults and the kids and i played, colored and hung out with the kids who showed up at the church. the other mission group did a medical clinic so we watched that going on and then in the afternoon they did a vacation bible school so our kids participated in parts of that too. overall i was really proud of the three. they adapted to our simple lifestyle and although there were the usual fights and arguments, they didn't complain about missing their toys or having a nice couch in an air conditioned house to relax on or really anything.

wednesday, july 27th-we spent the morning with antonio. he took us to see the village of san marcos. it is the next village past san pedro. many years ago some new age type people started hanging out in this village and opening up "centers" and "spas." there are many big beautiful vacation homes built on the lake and these foreigners support the village as i understand it. we walked up the hill where the locals live and saw "world vision" handing out sheets of aluminum to women for use in their homes. i think on this day jessica and i went to see my teacher, ana maria. we got to hear the whole story about eduardo. she also invited us to stay with her when we were in san pedro again. i sure do like her. i got pretty teary-eyed having to say goodbye.

thursday, july 28th-this was our last day in san pedro/san pablo. we did more work on the church and walked around the village praying for the people there. it was a bit sad to drive away. but knowing that we'll be back was a good thing. this was also our last dinner with cata and antonio. cata told us that her heart hurt and she was going to miss us. especially the children. so sweet.

medical crisis-i don't remember which day this happened but one afternoon ellory came up to norton and me and said, "marin has been eating all the gummy vitamins!" i went to the room and it looked like she had eaten half the bag. maybe 20ish? we have been using these vitamins for at least two years and the kids know they can only have one a day. who knows what goes on in that little mind of hers?? fortunately, the other mission team was staying below us in the hotel and they had two nurses. i went right down and asked about this. they said the only concern would be getting too much iron possibly. since i didn't have the bottle i didn't know how much iron was in each vitamin. (turns out there isn't any iron in these) they said marin would probably be fine and just pee everything out. but to watch her and let them know if she starts acting strange. interestingly enough, the nurses said they had been having the same problem with the vitamins they had been giving the children in san pablo. i had seen kids walk out of the medical clinic with little bags of vitamins. apparently some of the kids were just eating all of the vitamins at one time. i guess kids are kids wherever you go. :)

friday, july 29th-we loaded onto a van and started the long drive to antigua at 8am. our family was in the very back. it was a long, windy, bumpy ride. really not fun at all. 4 hours at least. norton and i both were feeling a little queasy. the kids did fine though. whew! the van dropped us off a few blocks from our hotel and so by the time we walked there i was feeling much better. we stayed at posada la merced. this was the 4th time we had stayed there. right next door to our favorite cafe in antigua-fernandos cafe. but first up was lunch-pollo campero. the kfc of guatemala. but maybe even more popular. and tasty. after lunch we went to a market and did some shopping and then our family went to meet townsend's foster family. it wasn't quite as emotional as last year but we could tell that sara and erwin were so very glad to see townsend. townsend barely said a word the whole time. but after they left, the first thing he told me was that he was so happy to see his foster family and how much he liked them. we took the family to fernandos for coffee/snack/lunch. erwin's english continues to improve and since our spanish was better, we were able to communicate with sara a bit more. their daughter, karin, is also getting better at english so it was a really fun time to hear about their family and to ask questions about what townsend was like as a baby.

saturday, july 30th-up bright and early to get to the airport in guatemala city. everything went really smoothly. we ate breakfast at the airport. flight was on time. smooth flying. made it through customs in dallas and got to the next gate with 20 minutes to spare. another smooth flight to denver where our friend, laura, was waiting. so thankful for a nice day of travel. good to be back and yet i kinda miss our friends back in guatemala. can't wait to go back!