Thanks and Praise

This week we got some more good news concerning the water situation. There is an organization called Living Waters which helps dig wells in areas of need. Inn Ministries had put in an application to receive assistance from them several months ago but we had not heard anything from them and our directors had assumed that we wouldn't be receiving any help from them. But recently Paul West contacted Living Waters and found that not only did we qualify for assistance, but that a couple from Canada has offered funding to dig a well for us here at the Inn. We could have a good well in as soon as two weeks. This is exciting news because even though we have recently aquired a tank to have water delivered from the town to our campus, we still have a serious lack of water for bathing and washing, since it is the dry season. It has not rained for about a month.

In other news, I had a scary moment in class the other day. I was teaching in the first grade room when I heard a loud popping noise and glass shattering. One of the windows had gotten hit by a ball from gym class and glass sprayed all over the room. After ducking and screaming, I checked to make sure all the kids were okay. Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt. One little boy had a tiny cut near his eye from a shard of glass. It is amazing that none of the children got glass in their eyes. I thank God for this.

Well, last week was my week to cook lunches at the house. I was a little worried about meal planning for nine people, but all went well. A couple weeks ago one of the missionaries here was joking with some of us single ladies that we all want to get married but none of us want to cook. Apparently cooking is a prerequisite to matrimony. Well, I made it successfully through the week, so look out world, cause now I can get married. I am sure any day now the suitors will be lining up at my door. I don't mind cooking but all the planning is a hassle. Thanks to the fact that I have eight housemates, I won't have to do this again for another two months. We had a group from Wisner, Louisiana, here to help us this week. Some of the ladies helped me with my classes a couple days. They were a big help and the kids really enjoyed them.

Profe Carlos, the director of the school (here in the red shirt) arranged for the teachers to go to Coban on Thursday afternoon to eat tamales and tacos and drink atol in the park. Atol is a warm, sweet drink made from corn.
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Profe Willy with elementary teachers Kimmy, Juanita and Gladis. Can you believe this guy is in charge of disciplining the students?
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Profe Carlos' youngest daughter, after enjoying her tamale.
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Sitting around the monument. This monument has a time capusule in it which is supposed to be opened in 2077.
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The top of the monument where we were sitting.
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Deborah, with Profe Carlos' daughter and JJ, in front of a really ugly sculpture.
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Irma (she teaches Bible classes) and Miriam (she teaches 6th).
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Elisa, from Wisner, LA, helping first-grader Esteban in English class.
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Betsy, from Wisner, LA, helping Sindy, a first grader.
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This is Morgan, the daughter of missionaries Paul and DeAn West. She is my teaching assistant in my first grade English class. She does a great job. She has a lot of enthusiasm and the kids love her.
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The ladies from the Wisner, LA group, leading the first graders in "If you're happy and you know it."
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There are ten students in my sixth grade English class. The classroom is really small- not much bigger than what you can see in this picture. I try to take them outside as much as I can.
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Ms. Dorothy from the Wisner group, helping the sixth graders with body part bingo.
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Ms. Mary from the Wisner group, reading Green Eggs and Ham to the fourth graders.
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Odds and ends

Friday night we had a group arrive from a little town called Wisner, Louisiana. The men are helping with some construction here and the women have been doing some painting and will be going to do more painting in a village called Acamal. One of the group members preached last night at church. He talked about how Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. That was an encouraging message. Jesus is all we need for all our todays. He's the same God he has always been.

It was like Christmas yesterday morning for myself and a few of my housemates. Our parents sent packages to the group and they brought our stuff in with their luggage. I was very thankful for that.

Teaching is going very well, I am starting my Basico students (7th-9th) with novel reading. 7th is reading Esio Trot by Roald Dahl, 8th is reading Grandma's Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl, and 9th is reading a biography about St. Patrick. I am excited about developing the English reading program. I'm grateful to Deanne for letting me borrow some of her books to look for good titles. I also found a Frog and Toad book among some give away books that another family dropped off at our house. That was a wonderful surprise. I love Frog and Toad. They are so funny. I read a few of those stories to my 4th and 6th graders the other day. They make good read-aloud stories, and are simple enough for second language learners to understand.

This morning was a busy morning. I went to the market at 7am with Deborah and Irma to go shopping for this week's lunches. It's my turn to cook lunch this week. Irma is my ticket for getting all the good deals at the market. She knows where to get the best stuff and what a good price is. We still had a lot of money left in the budget when we were done shopping. Hopefully my meals will all go well- I've never cooked for this many people before. But I cooked this afternoon and that went well. I made baked breaded chicken and roasted potatoes. I think the hardest part is the planning and the shopping. The actual cooking is easy. It will also be a little tricky getting lunch together when I work all morning and we eat right afterschool. So I'll probably do a lot the night before.

I got a little bit of a sunburn today, because I walked to and from the market twice and then I had to do two loads of laundry outside in the pila, because we don't have enough water to run the machine. We haven't had a good rain in weeks. I have to say, in spite of the hassles of dry season, I would choose this over upstate NY winter any day. I definitely don't miss the snow. I have been enjoying the sunshine. I take my classes outside as much as I can, especially in the mornings because the classrooms can be a little cold in the morning. Sometimes I can see my breath. But by mid-morning it warms up.

Yesterday morning I went to hear Pastor Mike tell a testimony to the visiting group about how he and Tonya came to develop the ministry here. (They are the founders of Inn Ministries) It's always neat to hear what the Lord has done and how he teaches people things along the way. They had been doing a lot of evangelization and church planting in the surrounding villages when the Lord gave him a new vision to start a school here in San Cristobal as an outreach to the community. I'm hoping I'll have time to go tonight to hear him talk about the vision they have for the future with Inn Ministries. I do have a lot of planning to do for my classes, though. I should have done that yesterday but I wasn't feeling very well. Lately I've been a little sick. I think it's allergies, though, so I'm going to start taking allergy medicine again. I have felt a lot better today.

This is the 8th graders in their room. Here in Guatemala, the students stay in the same room and the teachers travel from room to room, except for specials like music.
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My 8th grade class did a scavenger hunt activity the other day. This is the first pair, beginning their search from the 8th grade room.
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On the way to the PR office.
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Reading the clues...
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On the playing field (notice the PreK-Kinder bldg and playground in the background).
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Walking past the cancha (ballcourt).
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Looking for treasure outside the PreK-Kinder room...
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Enjoying the spoils of the hunt (cookies).

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This is my fourth grade class. They love to do the hokey pokey.
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You put your right hand in...
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You do the hokey-pokey...
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And you turn yourself around...
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And that's what it's all about!
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At the lake in San Cristobal.
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With Wendy and Maria Jose, two students from my 9th grade English class.
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Maria and I, at the Quinceanera on Saturday.
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This is Deborah and Erin. They work in the Public Relations office, and are also my housemates.
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This is Yanira, another housemate. She works at the Colegio, teaching Kindergarten. She's from El Salvador.
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This is Maria, one of my housemates. She works in the public relations office. She's not only a fashion plate, she's also an amazing hairstylist. She cut my hair and she's been beautifying us one by one since she got here.
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This is Ruth, one of my housemates, with Teshy, a student she has sponsored at the school for years. I'll write more about them later.
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Dianne's quinceanera
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This is me with Susy and Irma, two of my housemates. Is it just me, or do I look like a giant next to them?
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Letters=Love

Here's my mailing address:
8a. Ave. 6-00 zona 1
San Cristobal, Alta Verapaz
Guatemala, Central America

With honey from the rock

Last Tuesday I was reading my bible and praying and the Lord reminded me of the verse that says “But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81:16) I was feeling tired and discouraged that day, and I felt like the Lord was reminding me that it is during the difficult times that he will refresh us. He will bring sweet things out of hard, dry barren times. This is something that came back to me again Friday night. I was praying for a friend of mine who is suffering greatly, in a situation that seems so unfair and even hopeless. And I wonder why she has to suffer like that, and I guess there’s no answer to that question, really. But God does promise to be with us in the middle of suffering, and to even bring something sweet in the midst of a dry and barren place. That doesn’t mean that we never have to dwell in the desert, but that he will refresh us in the middle of it. The Lord doesn’t just remove suffering when we cry out, but he does comfort us, he never leaves us. He can sustain us. And this is a good thing to remember.

My schedule…

For those of you who are curious about what my schedule is like, here it is:

Every weekday I go to school at 7am. I teach 5 or 6 classes, depending on the day. The school day ends at 1:30 and I go back to the house to eat with my housemates. Most people here eat the main meal at lunch time.

After lunch, sometimes I go back to school and work on my plans for the next day. On Thursdays we have worship practice in the afternoon after lunch.

Monday evenings we have young adult bible study. Tuesday and Thursday evenings there are volleyball games. This Thursday was the end of the women’s tournament. We won our last game but still placed last overall. Tee-hee. I don’t know if they’ll start another tournament right away or not.

Wednesday and Saturday nights we have church services. Sunday mornings are market days in town, so whoever is doing the cooking for that week has to go to the market. All of us “new girls” from the house went today with Erin, who is now a veteran at market shopping. Usually they go at 7am but we slept in a little and left at 8am, and it was very crowded. People set up their vegetables and fruits in booths or blankets lining the streets so there are narrow lanes and a lot of pushing and shoving. There are also places to buy fresh meat and even live turkeys.

Every last Saturday of the night they shorten the church service and we go outside to play games. Last night it was some kind of dodgeball, which I didn’t think I would like, but it was really fun. They had a lot of different rounds, games with just the little kids, then the teens, then adults, etc.

Thanks be to God…

Our prayers about the water situation have been answered. Someone gave the ministry this past week money, and they were able to get a very good price on a large water tank which they will install on the grounds. They will be able to get water delivered from the town, and we will have a more reliable water supply. This is good news because lately more often than not we don’t have any running water. Every time the water comes on we have to fill buckets and the pila (outdoor sink) so we’ll have water to use throughout the day. This evening our buckets had run out almost completely and finally the water came back on.

Other good news: Within the next month they say they’ll be able to install the drop ceiling over our bathrooms in our house. Eventually, they hope to put ceilings on all the rooms. Things are very open in this house, so it’ll be nice to have a little more privacy and shut out the light and noise from other rooms. It’s hard to find solitude when you need it, with eight people living here, plus our visitors. Not that I’m complaining, because I do appreciate the fact that it is not lonely. I have only been here a couple weeks, but I already feel at home with my housemates.

Quinceañera

We were invited to Dianne’s Quinceañera on Saturday. This is a birthday party that they have for a girl on her 15th birthday. It’s almost like a wedding reception or graduation party. The birthday girl wears a formal dress and everyone brings a gift. There is a big fancy cake. There was a DJ and he played a lot of contemporary worship music (in English). That was a nice little taste of home. Dianne goes to the Colegio and is one of my students. I saw a lot of my students at the party. I don’t know very many of their names yet. But I have 95 students so I guess I have a good excuse, since I only see them 3 or 4 times a week and this was the first week of school.