The Village of Presbiteriana

This morning is December 1st.  Hard to believe, really, as I sit outside typing this blog.  It is sunny and warm and I'm in short sleeves, capris and flip flops.  I am in the shade, and thankful I'm not in the direct sun.  I am sure the majority of you, reading this blog, are knee deep into winter, with boots, mitts and jackets.  Our worlds are very different.  Yesterday, Rocky, Arryn and I went to a village, about an hours drive from Chisec, called Presbiteriana. 

The last group that was here left money so that this village could build some bathrooms for the school.  It is a one-room school house with between 40 - 50 kids, in 5 different grades with one teacher.  They do not have any bathroom facilities for the kids or the teacher.  The pastor of the church is very excited to see the school grow and the facility improve.  He has 6 kids and values education.  The community, along with planning the bathrooms (two toilets, waterstorage and septic system) are planning for 2 additional classrooms. 

 We arrived around 10:30am and as we drove in, the pastor was happy to show us his newly covered eating area that he had prepared just that morning.  The way that a community shows its gratitude is to prepare a meal for you to share together.  So he was super happy to show us that we would have some shade to eat in. 

 Rocky went to work with some of the men of the community, setting up the stakes and marking out where everything was going to go.  He had the opportuntiy to explain to them the "3-4-5" carpenter's rule of squaring things.  Here, they often use a small metal square to try to square up a large building and then wonder why it isn't square.  It was great to see all the guys gathered around as Rocky explained this simple, but very effective, way of squaring even large structures. 

 We are planning a bit of a septic system to deal with the waste from the bathrooms.  Normally, here, if there was a water system nearby, they would pipe the waste directly to the water and dump it in.  This is one reason why the water here is so contaminated.  So, the guys got to use a cordless drill to make holes in some pipes as part of the septic system.  They were a little nervous to use the big tools at first, but after a bit, they really liked them. 

 As always, as soon as we drive into a community the kids come running.  We had about 40 kids just hanging around watching us.  I knew this would happen, so I came prepared.  There were some containers of bubbles and candies left over from Arryn's wedding, so I brought those out with us, along with some colouring sheets, crayons and other activities.  As there really was nowhere clean to sit, all the kids hopped into the back of the truck and it became our little classroom. 

 When we first came to Guatemala, Les Peters shared with us that a good way to measure the poverty of a community is to look at their feet.  As you can see from the photo below, not one of these kids had shoes.  This was not because they had kicked them off somewhere; it was because they didn't have them.  Maybe they were saving their shoes for good occassions only so that would last, or perhaps (and more likely) they simply don't have any. 

 They loved the attention and the activity and Arryn and I were blessed to just hang out with this bunch of kids and get to know them a little.  I am so thankful that Rocky and I had the chance to study Spanish this year.  It makes interactions like this so much more meaningful. 

So, next week, we'll head back out to this village to check on their progress and outline the next phase for them.  It will be good to see what they have accomplished in a week and to see the kids again. 
Blessings!