Day 1- Wednesday
For a couple hours in the morning, I had to babysit the
Block kids and the Ucherek kids. Then, Mrs. Christi, Mrs. Amy, Mya, Aleigha,
Addisyn, Finley, and I all went to the grocery store in San Lucas. Village of
Hope is in San Lucas, Sacatepéquez Sacatepéquez, but it was still about 30
minutes away. We got all the grocery’s that we needed for the week there, which
was a lot because we had 16 grown men to feed!!! It was about 600 Q. We went back to Village of Hope and made the
food for the men to eat that night. That day was just kind of a “get settled”
day! The men had to work on plumbing that day as well.
Day 2- Thursday
We went to a lady named Brenda’s house. Brenda is blind and
has 6 kids. 1 of which can’t walk at all. Her husband leaves the house at 3:00
am and walks 4 hours to the railroads in Guatemala City. He doesn’t get home
until almost 9:00 pm. He doesn’t have the money for shoes. So he walks to the
railroad barefoot. As a result, his feet are rock hard and very wide. Village
of Hope offers him shoes weekly but he can’t fit in any of them. While we were
there, the men built a stove for Brenda’s house because Brenda’s is very poor,
and the girls sat and talked to them about Jesus and prayed with them.
Day 3- Friday
We went to a little camp called Chetuk. I did a bible lesson
with them, did a puppet show, and gave them paper sacks to make their own
puppets. They thought the world of those paper sacks, which really shows us how
thankful we should be if that is their own “toy.” We handed out Frisbees, which
was a lot of fun; we did bubbles, and handed out a couple more goodies. This
little girl kept following me. I thought it was so sweet because she liked me
and wanted to hang around me but….little did I know that she only wanted to
play on my iPod and take pictures.
….we had to walk most places no matter if it was 3 miles
away. Well...the boys did. :)
Day 4- Saturday
This day was loads of fun. We got to take food to 3
different families in San Lucas. The first one we went to is Brenda, the lady
we had built a stove for. It was really hard for her to cook because most of
her kids weren’t at home most of the day and she was blind. The only kid that
stayed at home most of the time, and didn’t go to school was the one that could
not walk. Addisyn translated and asked her questions and told her why they were
getting food. She said “Gracias” and we went on to the next house. The next
house we went to was quite far away from Brenda’s. I didn’t know the name of
the family, but they had about ten kids to take care of. The mom wasn’t home at
the time, but the daughter, who was a little shyer, talked to us and accepted the
food thankfully. The last house we visited was a house right across the road
from the other family. They were cousins. They had a sweet girl named Yessica
who had polio. It was very sad to see her and see how easily it could be fixed
her in the states. They also had quite a bit of kids and they smiled and were
very friendly to us. They were very thankful for the food that they had received.
It was very neat to see how blessed we are and how we throw food in the trash
can because we don’t like it, when they would treasure it.
Day 5- Sunday
Today was a little different. We went to church in Antigua.
In this church, they talked in both English and Spanish. After church, we went
to an amazing Mexican food restaurant. They had a really good drink called
lemonade soda. Sounds disgusting, but tastes heavenly. After, we went to the market.
Here, we got all handmade present for family and friends back at home. It was
very fun, but a tiring day.
Day 6- Monday
Today was also very cool. We got to go to the school just
right around the corner from village of Hope. We had the privilege to teach
English, and P.E. which of course is a lot different from in the states. We
taught them actual English. They were quite good at it, too! (We taught 3rd,
and 4th grade.) They didn’t have many decorations or posters or any
cutesy stuff like in the U.S. In P.E. we just played games with them outside.
Ring around the Rosy, Soccer (which is called football), and racing games. It was
lots of fun this day!!! Afterwards, we went to a feeding program called Manna
Feeding Program. We fed kids soup and bread, then we went out and I did my
bible study and puppet show for them as well. The kids were sooo precious!
Day 7- Our last full day here, Tuesday
The men built soccer goals out of PVC pipe, and wanted to
take them back to Chetuk because they played soccer with no goals. (Or very
poor ones). We walked down to Chetuk and put the goals on the ground and staked
them in. We stayed there and played soccer with them for a while, and after
about an hour and a half there, we decided to leave. It was so much fun in
Chetuk. I really didn’t want to leave there and for sure did not want to leave
Village of Hope. On the Way back for our last dinner at VOH, I carried Finley
(the Uchereks 11 month old baby) all the way back, which is close to a mile. It
was fun, she is a really good baby :)
