Back in Paradise

The first picture is the tubs I have for Mayan Families.
This is the view from my hotel room.

At least it is my paradise. Got into GUA about 3:30 but since I was spending the night in Antigua, Guatemala and it is only a 45 min. drive I decided to take the tourist shuttle. EGADSS ..3 hrs later I arrived at my hotel.He had to wait until he had at least 4 people so that took an hour and a half so by then it was rush hour traffic which made the 45 min. drive another hour and a half.
By the time I arrived at my hotel it was dark and all I could think of was to get changed and hit the streets..for food. I had one of my very favorites...Caldo Real (traditional Guat chicken soup) and a Gallo ( local beer). Life is good. Please don't mistake that this is chicken soup like you have never had.YUM
By that time I needed sleep. This morning I showered..for some reason no hot water last night..and went on the hunt for saldo (minutes) for my phone then to a safe ATM. Armed with danero (money) onto Cafe Contessa for breakfast.

I've done some of my necessary shopping and some un-necessary. Now I am sitting in Frieda's Cafe on my 2nd margarita...again life is good...waiting for my ride to pick me up for the two and a half hour drive to Panajachel (Pana). To Kara...I am sitting at our table in front of the Frieda Jukebox. The picture below is not Frieda's..just one of those sweet sites.

Departure Day

It's the day of departure and we are doing it in shifts. First of all Dave and Beth went to Guatemala City yesterday after having lunch with us and visiting the convent/hotel. Beth had made arrangements to have dinner at Hotel Barcelo with the family that fostered her son Will until the adoption went through. I hear they had a wonderful time together. Getting up at 4 in the morning is painful but I got 4 of them off then. The remaining 5 had breakfast with Sherry and I then their ride arrived and we saw them off. I think I forgot to mention that Joy and Gladys along with Gladys' sister stayed in Pana to take Spanish lesson for another week.
Sherry and I are staying another night to relax and do some last minute shopping.....because heaven knows we haven't done enough by now. Sherry and I ended our day with a shuttle up to one of the hills overlooking Antigua. It is another property of the convent/hotel that we heard about today that has a great sculpture garden and views of the town. There is also a restaurant and bar . We had a drink then headed back to our room at Hotel Los Bucaros. We had a wonderful day and are ready to get back home tomorrow. It is always hard to leave the highlands so the only thing that makes it bearable is that I know I will return.

Day 7 Sat.

It is that time when we leave the highlands and head to Antigua ...not to be confused with the island....for that last night together. Antigua was the capital of the Spanish empire and is now a UNISCO heritage site. It is like a step closer to civilization. Once we get moved into our rooms we head out and have lunch at Frieda's cafe for great food and margarita's. Then it is off to see the Santo Domingo Hotel which was a former convent. It is now a very high end hotel and museum. The grounds are beautiful. There is still more to do and last minute gifts to pick up.
We all meet at La Fonda for our last supper together. The time has come to a close and we have all had some great experiences and made new friends. It is always bitter sweet at the end....your tired and ready to sleep in your own bed but also difficult to leave the grace of these beautiful people.

Day 6 Fri.

The sun is shining and it is a very welcome site. Some of us met at the coffee shop then proceeded to the used Quipil market. At 9:00 in the morning a part of the group joined my friend Michael who took them on a down hill hike that gives the most beautiful views of the lake. They hiked to San Antonio Polopo and visited the pottery shop. They took a launcha to Santa Catarina and had lunch at the hotel there. After that they took a pickup back to Pana.
I stayed in Pana so that I could be with my dear friend Nelda while she met her sponsored student. What a pleasure that was. He is one of the nicest and sweetest boys I have ever met. He is a perfect gentleman and such a sweet boy. I am so glad to have met him. His mother is very talented and so out of necessity she is an excellent beader and weaver and she also sews. She brought us gifts of her many talents. I was very blessed to be a recipient of her talents.
Then I met up with one of my favorite vendors and took him to lunch so we could go through his inventory. Juan is the most delightful person and so kind. He loves to show you pictures of his two girls and his wife who makes the jewelry he sells on the street out of his backpack. This is how they put food on the table. With not so many tourist this is not easy. He is always grateful when my groups are in town...along with all the other street vendors.
At the end of the day we all met at El Bistro for a lovely supper....tired but happy!!!

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I woke up to pouring rain on wed. morning. It was relentless but it finally quit. We have some that woke up with a bit of a virus so they stayed in bed for most of the morning and are gradually recovering. We gathered at MF to sort clothes and shoes to hand out at the gym where some families are having to live right now because of all the rain causing so much destruction.

All the kids in the gym eagerly lined up to receive some fresh clothes. We tried to see that each one got a top and a bottom. Then shoes here handed out but as is usual there is never enough.

When that was done it was lunch time. After lunch some shopped their way down the street towards MF office and some went straight to MF to bag the food that Beth and Dave purchased to help families in need. Even some of our girls who were feeling puny were doing better and able to come and help pack food. We always have a dinner party for the team and friends in Pana on Thur. night but because of so much rain Mathilda, our wonderful resident chef was afraid food might run out in the markets so we moved it up to wed. We had a great evening of relaxation and wonderful food. Susie from MF makes the best brownies I have ever had and she brought a pan fresh from the oven. Also MF set up a video of our week in Pana and it was so much fun to see some of the things we experienced and went through. The evening was wonderful.

and the adventure continues

The rains have continued each day with some periods when it lets up but it then returns just when you have a little hope so on tues. since it was a bit clear we decided that we would take a private launcha (boat) over to San Juan. Because the lake has risen so many feet they have to keep building higher docks. So when we arrived they had raised the dock considerably. Men were diving down to retrieve the wood from previous docks to build the new ones...this included a man in full snorkel gear. However it wasn't complete yet so they had to help lift us down about 4 ft. to the wood planks that took us to dry ground. This required a bit of balance beam skills. NO ONE fell in thank goodness. We just used our airplane arms for balance. This is a village of artists co-op's. There are painters and weavers. The weavers in San Juan use natural dyes that they make themselves. At one of these shops the ladies showed us how they make a blue color from bugs and they were also demonstrating backstrap weaving for us.
There is virtually no tourism in Guatemala and particularly in this village. They were so happy to see us and everyone in the group did their part to boost the economy in San Juan. Many paintings and textiles were purchased including a surprise for me from my friend Kay who purchased me the most beautiful painting of a maya woman. It is already on my wall. Also Gladys was able to handout some glasses to some of the women to help them see to thread needles and do other close work.
One other thing you will see in the Picasa pictures of our trip is a water filter system on the wall of one of the co-op's we are interested in installing in the preschools to produce clean water for the school and to be able to sell the extra to help support the school.
Then back to the docks we went....remember the 4 ft. drop ?....well I was the first to approach it and the men were encouraging me that they would get me up and up they did by me standing on their knees and with all dignity lost I finally made it. In this picture of Dave you can see how much higher I am than him. Our launcha driver saw what was going on and brought the boat ladder so several had it a bit easier.
About two thirds of the way back the boat died and of course it was raining steadily. After several attempts to get it started I called Sharon and she contacted the tour company and they sent another boat out to help us. It turns out we ran out of gas. DUH!!! The driver was about to syphon gas into the tank...with the motor running...until there was a great outcry of protest by those who, thank goodness, have some safety sense. Long story shot we got it started and arrived back to Pana a little later than expected and a little worse for ware but in one piece.
Lunch and drinks were seriously called for at this point. I have to say I have an amazing group. They hung in there and just went with the flow. My stress level was a little high only because I feel responsible for the group. After all I'm the one that said what a great time they would have!!! EGADSS!!!

This was the first full day of work. We arrived at MF early in the morning to sort through the donations that everyone brought down. Then the items we were taking to El Barranco were loaded onto the trucks along with beds and mattresses that were donated by the Lutes family.
The main road that goes from Panajachel to El Barranco is closed due to the rain causing so many problems with the roads. There are land slides everywhere and many roads are closed so we had to go the back way that is about an hr. longer. The conditions of that road are barely passable and not for the faint of heart. This is one of those trips that separates the men from the boys.
We were not to be stopped since there was celebrating to be done. Beth and I along with Sue who was with us in spirit wanted to celebrate the new preschool that we have all participated in supporting. There were tamales for the kids and cake. Hunger is such a huge part of everyday life so this was a big day for the kids. I watched as one little girl picked every grain of rice off of the banana leaf they were cooked in.
Beth and I were presented with beautiful hand woven table clothes and received many hugs which of course made us a bit teary. On top of all that they had a birthday celebration for me and I received even more hugs. Couldn't have been a better birthday.
We handed out donations, had an eye glass clinic that Gladys and Joyce head up so that women who do close work like hand stitching and beadwork could continue to earn a living, installed two stoves and did two home visits of sponsored students. The return trip to Pana was adventurous to say the least. Not only had it rained all day and deteriorated the road even more it was foggy on top of all that. We freshened up and had dinner at El Bistro where there was a lot of shopping going on since some of our favorite street vendors came in to show there wares.