Water Filters

We assembled water filtration kits during our Sunday afternoon in Antigua! We had enough sets of hands to make an assembly line, and we got through 500 kits. I'm grateful for the work we did, because each kit will filter water for up to 10 years. These kits will be so important to many families in Guatemala.

Tortilla Making

We've been too busy living the experiences to write about them! So we're all home from the trip, but we want to document them anyway.

Every day at every meal while we were at Casa de Sion, we ate tortillas. Tortillas go with beans, rice, eggs, noodles, anything! That's why we were so excited to learn to make tortillas with our cooks who made us so many delicious meals.
The recipe seemed so easy. Add water to corn flour until it feels like play-dough, roll it into a ball, and pat it from hand to hand, smoothing out the edges, until it's a nice shape.

We started patting out our tortillas, and it's not as easy as it looks! We dropped quite a few pieces of dough on the ground. The cooks were laughing at our attempts.

Can you guess which ones we made, and which the cooks made? Thankfully, they still tasted wonderful!

-Elsie

Outreach Program

We drove into the mountains on a dirt path that used to only be accessable on motorcycles. These kids from the village saw us and ran up in a big swarm. We broke into groups and played lots of fun games. We didn´t know we were supposed to supply the activities, so we thought quick on our feet. Duck duck goose, Simon says, and races were favorites. We had such a good time. We were also able to hand out school supplies and food for their families.

Piñata Party with Special Needs Kids

This morning we bussed to a nearby pueblo and got to meet some special needs kids and their moms for a party. When we arrived, a 17 year old girl named Ilaria Josefina came up and gave very single one of us big, long hugs. She reminds us all of our favorite Heather! The moms only spoke in quiche, a Mayan dialect, so we had to translate from quiche to Spanish and then to English. But it all worked out! Kate and Kaitlynn made balloon animals for all of the kids and they LOVED it. Then we broke out the piñata and they all got to have a turn hitting it. It was way bigger than any piñata we have seen in the States! The moms and the kids went crazy trying to get candy, it was great. Then we gave them crackers and Coka that they loved. We had enough to give every person two, which we were grateful for. After all of this, Susie was able to bear her testimony to the families. She told them that we love them and that she knows that God loves all of His children. She shared her knowledge of the fact that after we die, our bodies will be perfected. It was very powerful and there were multiple people (both from our group and the natives) crying. I am so grateful for this Gospel and the chance we have to share it. These people here love God, even if they are in a different religion. We are all so grateful for the chance we had to meet these kids today.

the orphanage

We absolutely love the orphanage. The kids here are to die for, they are so cute. We feel so blessed to be able to know them. They are extremely energetic and very hard to keep up with, so we havent gone home one day without being exhausted. Here are a few of their favorite things to do:
1. Play futbol. They absolutely love it. And they are actually pretty good! They never seem to run out of energy, they are always wanting to play.
2. Make us caballos (horses). Its basically like giving kids endless piggy back rides because they never get tired of it.
3. Hug. These kids love to show and receive affection. They will climb in your lap and just wrap their arms around you. They give so much love and you can tell how much love they need from you. They love your attention and affection.

We are so blessed to be able to know these kids, they are absolutely amazing. They all have a story behind themselves, some of them a very tragic story. So it is an honor to be able to love them.

Danielle

La Casa De Sion

I have loved spending time with these kids for the past two day. the first moment we walked through the gate, the kids ran up to us, started hugging us and talking to us. The kids are amazing and we had so much fun playing with them all afternoon. It doesn´t matter that we don´t speak perfect Spansih, play is a universal language:)

-Nina

Zip Lining in Reserva Natural Atitlan

We went on a ziplining trip yesterday, in a natural reserve next to lake Atitlan (google Lake Atitlan). There was a shortish hike up through the jungle to the start of the zipline course, and a beautiful view.

We crossed several rope bridges on the way up, and about half of the group thought it was super fun to jump up and down and swing the bridges side to side, and the other half were reluctant to get on, even before six people started jumping up and down on the bridges.

 There were four longer zips, one of which took over a minute from start to finish, and then three short ones. On a few of the short ones, you had to start braking with your gloves almost from the beginning of the trip. Afterwards, there was a short ropes course that was a party.