Wednesday summary

What a busy day! We started the day by heading down the the lake and catching a boat across the lake. For those of you who have wondered "Is it pretty there?" or "What is the scenery like?" this should answer your questions:

We departed the boat for a walk up the hill (the side of a mountain) into Santiago. We hiked with a tour guide to the site of the Mayan idol "machiman". We were admitted to the home of the shaman where Machiman is on display for worship.

We visited the large catholic church that was the site of many masacres in the 1980's and early 1990's. The church was beautiful and set in a courtyard where the steps were built by the Mayan people in the 1500s. This is Jenny from Mayan families who has been interpreting and taking care of us this week.

After a gormet lunch at a resort (yes resort) we headed back across the lake to get back to work. Jim and Rick jumped in the back of a pick up truck for a one hour truck ride through the switch backs to meet Rick's sposored child and two of Jim's.  Other than a slide down a corn patch hillside on Jim's back-side, it was a fabulous trip. What a joy and blessing it is to be welcomed into the homes of these beautiful people.  The adorable 6-year old on the right is Julio Alexander, Rick and Carla's sponsored child.

This is Rick with the entire family.

 And Jim with his sposored family:

Meanwhile the rest of the team went back to the job site to pour more concrete pillars on the house. We are having a great time learning the spanish words for all the work tools and today we started learning some Kachaquel. The guatemalan construction team loves teaching us and is learning English as we go. It is amazing how with very little language in common we have learned to build together, laugh together and even poke fun at eachother. Scott has been tagged the "pide piper" of our team. Not only do all the vendors follow him through town, the small children just flock to him. He spent a good part of the day yesterday manning the water spiket. And between calls of "Scott mas agua,"  he was playing soccer with the small local kids. Then they all followed him town to the local store to let him buy them snacks.

We ended the evning with dinner and a devotional led by Steve and Tim focused on the friendships and relationships we are building with eachother, our guatelaman co-workers and all the lives we touch.