Sunday, November 24, 2013        

Today was our first full day at the mission in San Lucas. The scenery here is muy bonita. We are surrounded by rounded mountains and there might have been a few volcanoes (were not really sure because to us all the mountains look like volcanoes). The clouds are so low and cover the tips of the mountains. Everything is green and lots of flowers. Our leader at the mission, Katie, says that it is “perpetual spring” here and everything is always blooming. That’s pretty impressive to us Minnesotans. We are also right next to Lake Atitlan which is 2,000 ft. deep.

We all are feeling a little bit better after getting a full night of sleep. Yesterday we had quite a long van ride which consisted of 15 people sandwiched in a van for a three hour long roller coaster ride. Oh and we got a flat tire too. This was miraculously fixed in 5 minutes with a plug! We did eventually get to the mission around 5 in the evening.

We live in hotel Iquita which is three blocks from the mission church. There is a great balcony that overlooks Lake Atitlan. The staircase has a very low overhang but it’s okay because only a few of us have goose eggs on our heads.:) There is a sign that says watch you head (in English) but who reads those anyway.

               Today is our free/tourism day. Mass was held at 7:30 this morning and ALMOST everyone attended. Father Kurt led mass entirely in Spanish, which was a totally new experience for most of us. I’m pretty sure everyone at least got the Amens. Breakfast was held at 8:30 and we went on a boat trip at 9:30. We travelled in a suped-up fishing boat across a lake in the middle of mountains. STUNNING! Our first stop was to a town called San Antonio. We visited a clothing shop were most things were hand-made. We may or may not have spent a lotttt of quetzals there. The next store we “climbed” to was a pottery store. Everything was hand painted and pretty amazing!!!  Next we ate lunch at a neighboring town and ate some local Guatemalan cuisine. We watched a soccer game and then headed back to San Lucas. In San Lucas we went to the market and found lots of little treats. The ice cream was very good! We also had to get our chocolate fixes.  We then had supper and spent some time playing games and getting to know the other group (from St. Paul!) at the mission. Then devotions and to bed to get rested for our first day of work!!!

Meeting the Guatemalans and starting to understand how they live has been both a beautiful and humbling experience. They are rich in their own way and not by the standards we set. There is something for each of us to learn from these people.