Arrived in Guatemala Sun. Oct.21 with my friend Lynn and we spent the night in Antigua. We did a little shopping and ate my favorite food there..Caldo Real..the best chicken rice soup you have ever eaten and unlike any other. I made arrangement with my driver to pick us up on Mon. at 3PM.It is amazing how close tres and seis sound. So at six in the morning he is calling to let me know he is at the hotel. We had a good laugh and he returned at 3PM. As soon as we arrived at my place we unloaded and headed into town to meet up with friends. I love being here. There have been luncheons and diners to attend. The week has passed quickly with buying items to bring back with me. I will use it to raise money for some projects here at Mayan Families. Today we went to El Barranco to visit 3 sponsored students. One of Lynn's and one of her friend Charlottes. Lynn had gifts and a bag of corn for her and Charlotte's students. Her and Charlotte had a good time shopping for them. Charlotte's family had a beautiful gift for her. I am always humbled when I see people who live in extreme poverty giving a gift they can little afford to do but it means so much to them to be able to do that. I also visited another student whose sponsor, Wendy, sent her a birthday package. Seeing the delight in each of these children receiving gifts just for them is always so special. It is a rarity if ever that the children here get a present. It doesn't even have to be anything big and they are delighted. We then went to San Jorge to visit 2 more students. One is sponsored by a flight attendant friend, Mary, who has done some favors for me so to repay her I visited Ulises, her sponsored student, and took a bag of corn for the family to be able to make tortillas. Then to one of my sponsored students whose home is on the side of a cliff and it was corroding away with each heavy rain so I had a retaining wall built this year and wanted to see it. They gave me a beautiful shoulder bag that the mom had made. Humbled again. Photos of today can be found on my Picasa site to the right of this blog. You will also see Mayan Families Picasa pictures also.