Days are flipping by like pages in a book, well, most of the time. My hours at the school are 7am-5pm. I am very tired at the end of the day and only desire to clean-up, take a nap, eat supper and go to bed. I am enjoying working with the students, though it is a challenge to keep them occupied and encourage them do a good job. Even though it has been raining for practically all of the first three weeks of school, we have accomplished much. Students have cleared more land by machete for future planting, made raised beds for more vegetables, transplanted flowers around the school grounds, spread gravel on pathways (to keep down the mud), built compost piles, transplanted vegetable seedlings out into the field and seeded more vegetables in the greenhouse.
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| Clearing the paths |
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| Loading gravel |
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| Spreading the gravel and making stone boarders |
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| Everyone must wash his tools before leaving and Natanael is doing just that. |
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| Roberto working on the compost pile. |
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| Elfedo cleaning-up after the rabbits. |
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| Sharpening machetes is a favorite rainy day job for Manuel, Roberto and Raymundo. |
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| Newly transplanted flowers. |
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| The main gardens. |
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| New raised beds. |
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| New bananas and cleared land in the background. |
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| Newly cleared land for green beans. |
I am visiting the surrounding aldeas (villages) little by little. Last weekend, I visited Julio Tzul and his family in Sejol. Julio pastors the Mennonite Church there and the congregation was having a special service to welcome three new elders joining the current team of three and a baptism for four new believers. I enjoyed my visit and was encouraged to witness the joy among the congregation.
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| I was asked to speak (of course!) |
I had been hoping to try my hand at making tortillas even before I left for Guatemala, but I did not know if that was an appropriate activity for a male in the culture. One evening, amidst a dozen other questions, Ingri asked me, "Quieres aprender a tortillar?" (Do you want to learn to make tortillas?) "Si, supongo que si." ( Yes, I suppose so.) I replied, trying not to sound too eager. "Hay hombres que tortillan?" (Are there men that make tortillas?) "O si!" (Oh, yes.) she exclaimed and preceded to name-off several male relatives who know how to tortillar (make tortillas). So, I received my first tortilla making lesson that night, to the delight of the entire family. They enjoyed taking pictures of the whole process and the results looked and tasted very good, if I do say so myself!
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| Shaping it. |
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| Patting it out. |
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| Placing it on the comal. |
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| Repeating this process 6 times produces 6 tasty tortillas! |
On January 16, I was able to welcome to Murch family to Alta Verapaz. The Murch's will be serving at Bezaleel in the carpentry and English program this year. I am looking forward to learning to know them during our time here together.
It has been very rainy these past three weeks and practically everyone is bored of the rain, except for Tomi, the little duckling that showed-up at Siquics last week. He seems to love the mud puddles around the house, so I think he will stay.
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| The duckling given the name "Tomi" by Axel |
