February 2016: Working, Playing and a Place to Call Home

In 2016, I went to Guatemala 3 times, starting in February. By this time, I had made some "permanent" living arrangements. My plan was to be in Guatemala about three times a year for around 6 weeks at a time, so it felt great to have a place there to call home instead of always being a visitor in someone else’s house. In April, I had volunteered at Shadow of His Wings, in September at Gotas de Esperanza; this trip I had no set mission. Though I loved being in Guatemala and felt called there, I didn’t know exactly why. I felt sure, however, that God had a plan and would, in time, reveal His purpose. In the meantime, I was happy to make friends, practice Spanish and was really loving learning about coffee, hanging out at the coffee shop and helping out however I could. During the February trip, I was scheduled to "babysit" Ali while her owner was away on a trip (a job which I was more than happy to accept!) My La Fábrica “jobs” were to help with coverage in the owner's absence and to help re-organize some things on the restaurant side of the business. It was a wonderful time for building relationships with the La Fábrica crew. We developed a system for organizing the kitchen, a schedule for cleaning, a system for maintaining proper hygiene and a prep schedule to increase efficiency in service.

It is always great to be back in Monjas!!!

El Parque Central... The Central Park in Monjas

Market Day

Big news this trip...a grocery store in Monjas!!!

La Fábrica

Yum!

A little latte fun!

Our friend, Victor, came and made us green drinks...I never would have imagined wanting to drink vegetables but they were actually really delicious as well as being beautiful and healthy.

Guatemalan Coins (Monedas)
The quetzal comes in a Q1 bill as well as in a 1Q moneda, and they are used interchangeably. The other coins are 50, 25, 10 (which is the size of our nickel) and 5 centavos (which is the size of our dime.)

Enjoying getting to know our new student, Dario, who continues to do well in his studies and has also secured a good job working in a bank.

.Visiting the nursing home with Cyndi and Gabriela. Cyndi, who runs a youth center and a language academy, also loves to crochet and here we are delivering her hats and shawls.

Out and About Town.....

-with Walfred being silly

-and with Deena, her sisters, and her mother, Angelica, who is one of my favorite ladies in Monjas. She always has a warm hug and a huge smile... and she loves selfies!

Beautiful People, Beautiful Place

I met Mrs. Rosa one evening when she came to the coffee shop with her son. As we visited, they informed me that she would be baking a large quantity of bread the next day in preparation for her upcoming 88th birthday celebration...I was invited to watch the bread production and, even better, to join them in eating it!

My first Guatemalan birthday party was a wonderful experience. Several of her family members, including her 3 living siblings (she was 1 of 7), came for a delicious lunch... followed by cake, presents and singing... followed by coffee and 2 types of homemade bread.

Eating for over 2 hours may not be an ideal path to weight loss (haha), but being surrounded by such joy and generosity is an ideal path to a happy heart.

....a cheerful heart has a continual feast. (Prov.15:15)

Missionary friend, Mandy Wilson, met a literally starving baby Jeffery several weeks before I arrived in Guatemala and had been ministering to his needs. Thanks to Mandy's efforts, nutritional counseling, and the medical attention she was able to arrange for him, he was finally beginning to thrive (8 months old in these pictures). Here we are visiting baby Jeffery along with his mom, several of his siblings...there are 12 ranging in age from adult to Jeffery... and the various animals including a pet hamster with nursing babies of its own!

MEGA MEN
The La Fábrica Team... what a great group of guys!
I was such a pest as I kept coming up with projects and work to implement (most of which I lacked either the skill or the physical strength-or both-to do myself); so my great ideas were a lot of work for these guys but they were awesome sports.
They were taking this vitamin supplement, so we developed a joke that every time I needed to pester them for yet another task or project, they had to be the "Mega Men" of the schemes. Haha!
So we played hard and worked just a bit harder.

WORKING....

Working hard to get (and keep) everything clean and organized. I cooked dinner one night and used it to bribe the guys into attending a team meeting after work. We had real food and mock prizes in recognition of the hard work they'd been doing.... like a pack of sponges for the one who had been cleaning and organizing the fridge from top to bottom EVERY day and a bottle of bleach for one who had been and super tolerant and accommodating about my germ obsessions!

...and Playing!

A few special customers!

Our friend, Carlos, came to work with us one night, adding his own craziness as well as some special latte art for a sweet little guest.

It was a fantastic trip and, by the end of it, I didn't want to leave either the work or these great guys......

Who could ever be ready to say goodbye to this face?

A word about friendship... Cyndi Cope. Okay, two words! When it was time to leave, Cyndi, who had already shared her car as I didn't yet have one and... since I did have a house with running water but not HOT running water, had invited me to use her house for hot showers, now took her day off to play chauffer. We laughed, talked, and told stories (Mainly she kept me in stitches with HER storytelling!) all the way to Guatemala City where we met our friends Lesly and Julio before saying goodbye (for awhile).

The final 2 days of the trip were spent with friends Leslie and Julio and their very fun family who came to cook, visit and play.

They drove me to the airport at 1:30 a.m., Lesly insisting on sending a blanket because she was afraid I'd be cold on the plane and Julio insisting on walking me not only to the door of the airport but all the way to the check in counter....that's a whole lot of being taken care of!! I couldn't have asked for a fuller heart to head home on, and it was hard to leave.