adios guatemala

Our last day in La Reforma the village women put a little market together in the schoolroom to show us the things they made and sold to earn extra money for their families. How cute are the little dolls and the hand stitched cloths? I bought a bright purple table mat that now sits on my night stand.

A lot of the little girls had braided hair but they had never seen a french braid or a fishtail braid so I had a fun time teaching them how to do those braids.

Later that night we hiked up the hill to their church so that they could send us off with some prayers of safety. Since we there long after sundown the church was really dark, except for the few candles they lit and all the flashes from our cameras - hence the grainy pictures...

^ the xylophone church band  

The elders of the village were the ones praying for us - the different colored candles representing the different things in their prayers.

After the church service we walked back down to the main field and had a huge celebratory sendoff that I can only relate to our fourth of July celebrations - complete with fireworks and everything! But this was not your typical firework show, oh no, this was the symbolic burning of the bull and burning of the devil. Two poor village men put on these wooden contraptions, complete with fireworks tied all over them, which were then lit and as the fireworks went off the men danced around in a circle for our entertainment. Dangerous..

The men in the village insisted Conner get a picture with the devil because they were the only bearded men in the village :)

The next morning we got up bright and early to leave and the whole village was there to send us off.

After a few hours on the bus we go to the beautiful Semuc Champey {the seven pools} and it was seriously the best after a very long and bumpy ride and a week without a good shower. This place is breathtaking. The seven pools are connected together, cascading down the mountain and there is a hike you can take to look over the whole thing. The best part is when you can swim in the water though, which is just as warm and inviting as it looks in the pictures.

^ the stairs you climb as you hike a majority of the mountain to get to the pools and the overlook point

Isn't that amazing?

Not pictured: some of the crazy men {such as my husband} climbing to the top of a large tree and jumping about 30 feet into one of the pools below.

Also not pictured: Our trip into Antigua the last day we were in Guatemala. My phone was dead so we got a few pics on Conner's phone but he's at work all day so I don't have any of those. Antigua has a great market where we all bought our souvenirs, some awesome shops and restaurants, and great old architecture. It's kind of the ritzy vacation town of Guatemala.

A great place for a destination wedding I say, if anyone is looking for something like that :)

general conference

Husband and I are excited to watch General Conference this weekend. It's a combination of all the best things - family, good food, and good words! Will you be watching conference?

Why you shouldn't be scared to watch.

guatemala, la segunda part

One of the days on our trip was spent in a women's clinic teaching the ladies of La Reforma this importance of clean homes, clean water, and proper nutrition. Then we took the weight and height of all the babes 0-6 yrs. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, but I was too busy weighing babies on a hanging scale to worry about picture taking...

The little kids were too freaked out to stand still and get their height measured (and some were just too little to stand) so we eventually laid the height measurer thing on a bench so the kids could lay on it to be measured.

I also got a couple videos of the little kids singing for us. They are so stinkin' cute!

I was able to get a few pictures of the boys working hard on a stove - but first, a picture of the lovely manicure three little village boys gave me - blue sparkles, pink sparkles, and lime green. This is what I call stayin' classy, even in the jungle ;) The little kids loved getting their nails painted and painting other people's nails. Even the little boys. Everyone got a fresh new coat, and often a new color every day.

Mixing cement, and laying the cinder block foundation..

This is what a traditional stove looks like - that thing makes SO much smoke. Also it's on a wooden table right next to the wooden walls. Prob not the safest..

We also had the opportunity to visit another village to celebrate the inauguration of their new school house { it was a village that CHOICE had worked before so we were able to see some finished stoves while we were there }. We also got to catch part of a soccer tournament between this village and La Reforma. Oh and we all got to ride there in the back of a truck.

This huge house was built by Nazis who escaped down to Guatemala after WWII.

Isn't Guatemala just gorgeous!?

The soccer field {above} and the kids looking at pictures of themselves on a cell phone {below}

Dinner for the whole village. And in the picture below you can see what a finished stove looks like. Pretty sweet!

These are ancient Mayan ruins that the village has fenced off. There were more up farther on the mountain but the hike there was too dangerous so we didn't get to see the rest.

Also I captured a bit of our ride into the neighboring village