We know that many of you have been watching the news the past few days and we�ve been getting lots of concerned emails as to our safety. Thanks for the concern, and we want you all to know that as of right now, Antigua and Guatemala City are safe and fairly dry. The last week has been ruled by the rain and landslides, which are all anyone talks or thinks about. Tuesday was a normal work day. Everyone was asking if we were feeling better, which we were. Wednesday when we woke up it was pouring down rain outside, but we did the 1.5 mile walk, sharing our small umbrella and getting soaked, only to find out that there were no buses going to Guate that day because it was too dangerous. It had been raining for a few days straight, and now there were landslides on the highway between Antigua & Guate, plus there was flooding in many towns along the coast. We got some coffee with some of the other volunteers, then walked around in the rain for a while trying to find another umbrella, which we finally did, and then headed back home to bed. That night we had a volunteer social at a caf� where they �quiz night.� We stayed up way too late trying to answer some difficult questions while hanging out with our volunteer buddies.
Thursday we volunteered to help put together the food bags for the families. We spent the morning scooping beans, rice, sugar, and powdered milk from 100 pound burlap/plastic sacks and putting them in 280 individual plastic bags. (There are 280 families that Camino Seguro works with.) The beans, rice, and sugar weren�t so bad, but the powdered milk was disgusting. It is a very fine, sticky powder that left a haze in the room and residue everywhere. Our pants had a layer of the sticky mess on them. After lunch we put all individual plastic bags into 280 big black garbage bags. Each bag had beans, rice, sugar, powdered milk, soap, pasta, and salt. We didn�t get done until it was almost time to go home and we were dead tired from all the heavy lifting. We went straight to bed after dinner because we were so exhausted.
Friday was �family day� like our first day we volunteered. It means that we�ve been here for a month because they have them monthly. Pat tried to persuade kids to have their hair shampooed for lice, handed out food for lunch, and helped out at the health clinic. Alyssa had the tasks of actually shampooing for lice and helping kids write letters to their sponsors. It was a fun day full of hanging out with other volunteers and the teachers when we weren�t working, and we were entertained by 4 year old Tino�s �belly dancing� that had us in tears of laughter over lunch. (you�ve never seen a little kid dance till you�ve seen Tino. We�ll try to get some pictures for you all!). Friday night we hung out with our family, playing guitar, cribbage, and playstation soccer.
Saturday we went into Guate with our host family (not in a bus, but in our family�s van!!!) and spent the day with our cousin Vicki. Her family fed us an awesome lunch, and then we drove around the city getting the tour of the city from the perspective of a 21 year old Guatemalan. We drove up on a hill that overlooks the city and took this picture:
The View
But as you can see, it was cloudy so it wasn�t the best view. We got a tour of the national palace, the underground market, the main cathedral downtown, the area where all the nightclubs are, a whole bunch of statues and monuments, and a second cathedral called Santo Domingo that had a celebration going on and was nicely decorated and also very crowded outside:
The Cathedral
Sunday we decided to volunteer shoveling mud in Jocotenango, which is a city that borders Antigua. We bought some rubber boots (from the advice of those that volunteered the previous day) and then went to central park and hopped in the back of a pickup truck that was headed that way with a bunch of other volunteers that we didn�t know at the time, but we knew them a bit better by the end of the day. We only drove about 3 miles to where the flooding happened. There was mud EVERYWHERE. We really wish we had pictures, but thought it would be a poor idea to bring our camera. There were many streets where the flood had been a foot deep, and in the worst parts it was 2 or 3 feet deep. You�ve never seen mud like this�.in middle of the road, it was a runny, foul smelling soup that splashed everywhere. The closer you got to the curb it grew thicker and pastier, and by the time you tried to pass the piles on the curb, you would sink in up to your knees and had to get help to get out with your boots hopefully still attached. The mud rushed into people�s homes, too, when the river breached its bank and made a second river running parallel through the city streets and bringing all the silt with it. The river had receded a little when we got there, but it left all the mud behind, and if it were to rain any more it would flood again (luckily it hasn�t rained the past 2 days, but the forecast says it�s supposed to rain more this week). We had to wade through the mud to get anywhere. We spent the first bit scooping mud off one street with buckets into wheelbarrows, which then the locals would take and dump into another street where a tractor was pushing the mud into piles. After a while we were recruited to help dam up the river where it was about to spill onto the streets again. We filled sandbags and then helped to build the dam to redirect the river away from the city. Once we were done with that we helped shovel the mud out of a home. By the time we left we were exhausted, and we had only been there 5 hours. There were people that had been doing this for days! Plus it was only 1 or 2 feet deep where we were and there are other cities that had been buried in 5 to 40 feet!! We can�t imagine what those people must be going through. The newspapers say that there are 600 confirmed dead throughout Guatemala, and another 300-500 still missing. Roads and bridges are out all over the country so many places are inaccessible by car. Basically it is a mess here in Guatemala, but luckily we are safe here in Antigua. Here�s us back at the house after working in Jocotenango all day:
Us Covered in Mud
We have been back at work in Guate Monday & Tuesday, and plan to be there the rest of the week. Friday we get to go on a field trip with the kindergarten class, which should be lots of fun, and Saturday there is a Christmas party (Yes, we said Christmas already!) for all the kids in Guate, so we�re working Saturday too. In the meantime, we�ve taken some crazy pictures with our brother Diego, who hadn�t had a picture on the webpage . . . til now:
Us With Diego Being Crazy
That�s all for now. We just ask that you keep the people of Guatemala in your prayers, and we�ll be writing more next week!
