Exploring the needs of Antigua

This week I have stayed in Antigua to study Spanish and do some investigating. I didn't really have a plan on what I would be investigating but each afternoon I have had some place to visit and some thing to see. I present three needs that I have found this week...

1. There is a private school in Ciudad Viejo which is near Antigua.) This school has about 45 students and they want to grow! They are reaching out to children who would otherwise not recieve an education. The school is not free but they do cover most of the cost. For families that are not able to pay they give oppertunities to come and do work at the school. This is a great idea because it keps the parrents involved and gives them ownership of the school. They need a lot of construction help which is what Mission Discovery does best. They would also love to have beccas (the spansih word for scholarships) for their students. My heart tells me that we will be working with this school in the future.

2. My Spanish teacher, Liz, took me to a plot of land that was given to her when her mother died last year. She would like to move her family there, but as of yet there is not a house on the property. I also visited her second cousin's house which was half-way up a fairly large mountain. This lady is constantly working hard, trying to provide for her family. The house they live in now has no running water, (which is a problem when you have to carry the water up a mountain!) The only thing she asked me for was to build a wall that would create a flat space farther down the mountian where she could build a house. She simply wants to live in a place that has things like electricity and running water and possibly sewer plumbing. As an added point of interest, I asked Liz if she had any aspirations to do anything else besides teaching Spanish to Gringos. She told me that she is willing to do just about anything to help her family but that she just doesn't know what to do. I asked her what a good job would be in this area and she told me there is a large need for English teachers in local schools, but that she would need more schooling. In a future post I will detail my idea to help Liz go to English school. For now I will just say that for $30 a month (for 3 years) Liz could recieve the training she needs to become an English teacher and greatly improve her family's life.

3. Finally, today I visited a school in a nearby town that teaches women how to make desrerts and pastries. These women can use the skills that they learn to earn a living for their families. The school accepts anyone but mostly they try to work with poor women. What a great thing that they are doing! They are giving women the tools to provide for themselves. This is especially important when there is a large portion of the male population that deserts their families or worse they stay arround but constantly drink and abuse the ones they are supposed to love. The women here are truly the backbone of the country. I know this happens eslewhere but it seems like it is just kind of accepted here which is a tragedy.

I am so glad to have stayed around for an extra week, and my spanish speaking ability is thanking me also.

It has been a hard day, but a good day

A little girl died today. She was two years old. I didn't know her, but I have met her sister, Catalina. This girl was hit by a car in Antigua Guatemala near the market that her family works at. Catalina, this little girl's sister, was one of the first to discover the body, and directly after she realized that her sister was dead she ran to the school we are working at. Catalina did not run to her mom who was there at the scene, and she did not run to her grandmother who she technically lives with. Catalina ran to a school. This is the school that has loved and cared for Catalina more than her own family. This is a school that has never hung Catalina up by her feet and beaten her with a hose. God has put this school in Guatemala for children like Catalina. I am sad for the whole family but mostly I am sad for Catalina, whose entire world was her sister, and that world has ended very abruptly and much much too soon. Tonight I am praying that God will protect Catalina, and that he will continue to show her that he has a plan for her life. I don't think that her sister's death was a part of God's plan but I believe that He can make even this tragic event become something positive.

The savior of humanity

Mission Discovery Update
Today at language school I met a man who is studying Spanish so that he can teach in a local seminary. His name?... John Connor!

That's right the savior of the human race is studying Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala. He looks a little different that what I remember though. I was expecting one or all of the attached images, but was surprised to find that the real John Connor is actually a nice gentleman with a "Tilly hat" (Maury informs me that tilly hats are a kind of safari hat)

Anyway things here in Guatemala are going quite well. Yesterday was our first work/study day. We delivered food and supplies to families in an area called Vista Hermosa (translation: Beautiful View) It is always amazing to see where the children who attend the Escuela Integrada actually live. They have a very hard live and have to do so much just to get an education. I am so thankful for organizations like L.A.C.E.S. who are working hard to help these kids out. I will include more about L.A.C.E.S. later, for now I will just say Hasta La Vista!

Here in Guatemala

I am sitting here at the Villa del Marques waiting for the last 6 members of the group to arrive. They were supposed to be here in the afternoon, but they missed their flight. I believe it was probably due to the same fog in Houston that caused my plane to be late last week. (Who ever heard of fog problems in Houston?) Including myself there will be 39 participants here in Antigua this week. We are going to Spanish school in the mornings and working with the Escuela Integrada in the afternoons. So far everything has gone smoothly except of course for the delayed flight. Tomorrow we begin the week of learning and serving. I am very excited to see what the week has in store for us. Sorry if this post is a little on the bland side but I have been quite busy since about 7 this morning and it is rounding on 9 in the evening. Hopefully I will be able to post an update on our first day tomorrow. mk

Here is a picture I took of the Arch Street aptly named for the beautiful Arch that is prominently displayed in this shot.

South Dakota and the Rez

It has been awhile...

I always have high hopes posting regularly... but it does not happen.

I am, however, making plans to post during my up coming trip to Guatemala (March 19th-April 5th). I will be in Antigua for 2 weeks. During the first week, I will be leading a team of 40 on a missions project. During the second week I will be on my own, studying Spanish and enjoying all that Central America has to offer. More on this subject when I am in country.

As the title of this post suggests I was in South Dakota last week. Coming up in June I will be leading 3 weeks of missions projects. Mission Discovery has been working in the Rapid City area for the past three years, and this will be our 4th summer of projects. Due to the border violence in Mexico more and more church groups want to stay in the United States to do missions projects. Although this is sad news for my friends in Mexico it means that I have more work available to do in South Dakota. So it is a good news bad news situation. My hope is that God will use this opportunity to spread grace and peace in South Dakota.
So last week I was scouting out project locations for our teams to work on. One notable location was a small village called Red Shirt. Located on the Pine Ridge reservation, Red Shirt consists of about 30 houses, a school, and a very messy trash dump. At the foot of the Badlands, wind whips through the vast treeless landscape and passes through Red Shirt in surprisingly strong gusts. After doing a little wikipedia research, I found that Red Shirt is located in Shannon County, which is the second poorest county in the United States. As if that simple fact doesn't make life hard enough, uranium mining in the area has left water virtually undrinkable and toxic. There are a string of cancer deaths that are most likely linked to the uranium mining but they are unconfirmed.
I look forward to this summer, and the possible good work to be done in Red Shirt and other locations near Rapid City.