Wellshire Group in Guatemala: Post 5 from 3/25/09

Wednesday was a day of building houses, building relationships, and changing lives (both the lives of the Guatemalans and our own lives.) I don’t think that anyone on this trip will be the same person. We are forever changed, the Guatemalan people have made their way into our hearts and we will never be the same for it.

On Wednesday morning, half of the group went to visit a public primary school in a rural area about 20 minutes outside of Chimaltenango. This visit was arranged by the church we are working with that has the Healing Waters International project. The pastor has a vision for reaching out and serving his community, and he works with a lot of local area schools, using the proceeds from the water system to help in this much needed community service.

The group arrived and was greeted by over 600 children singing and reciting their lessons. The feeling was indescribable to see so many children who were so excited to meet the gringos. The school was very poor and the classrooms were overcrowded and in need of a lot of work. The group had a presentation from the school; the kids had made US and Guatemalan flags and were waving them. Our group went in to each classroom and did some arts and crafts activities with the kids. We also took a photo of each class which we will print out and send back to the school later. During recess we had the opportunity to interact with the kids as well. It was an incredible morning for everyone!
Healing Waters employee Daniela and Rachel Wildrick getting ready for the presentation from the kids.

Kids holding hand drawn Guatemalan and American flags

Pattie Kitchen and Daniela Rosales greeting the students and teachers at the school.

Contagious Smile! One of the kids at the school.

Janie Johnson playing with the kids during recess

Hannah Johnson and Rachel Wildrick enjoying their new friends.

Typical classroom scenes

The other half of the group was back at the Habitat for Humanity site. We added more layers of cinderblock to the house, mixed lots of cement, and basked in the fellowship of each other, Esther (the woman getting the house) and the masons who were instructing us and helping us build.

Heave-Ho on the cement blocks!

Esther, the woman who is getting the house, mixing concrete. Habitat requires their house recipients to work on the project site to provide a sense of ownership and a "hand up not a hand out"

We did take a break mid-morning and decided to play a game of soccer with the masons. You should have seen their grins, playing soccer with the gringos in the street! It was a site to behold.

In the afternoon we headed back to the public high school where we had been working and painting for the past few days. The school had put together a program and basketball game for us. They brought out their “seleccion” (the best players in their school) to play against the team of gringos. While we towered over their players, these kids had played together a lot, so their passing, ball handling and team work was amazing. I guess I am just making some excuses, because we lost to them. It was a lot of fun.

After the game was over, they set up tables and chairs and the school put on some presentations for us. They did a traditional dance, presented us with gifts they had made in shop class, played the marimba for us, and then served us a traditional meal of tamales and horchata. This was the first time that this school had ever had a group of foreigners visit, and I think both the students and that group of foreigners got a lot out of the interaction.

We returned to the hotel exhausted and happy. As we were getting ready to go out to dinner, the electricity went out all over Antigua. So we improvised and a few of us ran out to the one restaurant in Antigua that we knew would have a generator: Pollo Campero. This is a Guatemalan fast food chain that serves lots of chicken dishes. We brought the food back to the hotel and ate in the lobby, and enjoyed a quiet night.

The electricity did eventually come back on, so an adventurous group went out last night to listen to salsa music and dance.

It was another blessed day in Guatemala. I will update again tomorrow. Thanks for reading and LET THE CLEAN WATERS FLOW!