Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Today was incredible. We got to sleep in an extra half hour, which Fred REALLY needed after his adventure as chief stone smasher, had devotions and then breakfast. Then both teams - Fox Valley Pres and Bay Pres - loaded into the bus and went to Des Rivera (of course I am only guessing at the spelling... will follow up if this is wrong) and San Andres to sign covenants for new installations. The first stop was in San Marcos to view the installed system there because those of us who have been working at the Habitat home had not had a chance to view the installed system. Again, we felt the "love" from the crowds of school children who treated us like we were celebrities (or maybe animals at the zoo???) Anyway, it is an amazing feeling to see how many lives are being touched by clean water. After this stop we drove about 10 minutes to the next school in Des Rivera. The economic conditions here are about the worse we have seen. This is the village that Bay Pres. is doing their next install. Once on the school grounds we were led into a class room to meet with their committee, parents and teachers. Their covenant was finally signed after Claudia had to read and have translated from English to Spanish to Popti the 8 or so pages of legal jargon on the covenant. (YAWN!!!) Anyway, it was eventually understood by all and signed. The seed money was exchanged and even though we couldn't understand the language you could understand the gratefulness and excitement of this village to have clean water in their future. Wait until you see the pictures from this stop, again the children surrounded us, poked us, laughed with (at??) us, and just thoroughly enjoyed seeing Gringos! (We will upload photos later, the internet connections are just too poor here to post photos)

Next stop, lunch along the roadside in the bus. Yummy sandwhiches, bananas and oranges.

After lunch we continued our ride up the mountainside to the small village of San Andres. When we arrived we were greeted by Gilberto, the head of the school there and welcomed. Again, we were lead into a classroom where we had greetings, thank-you's, and explanations of what the system is supposed to mean. Both Claudia and Leslie Rojas (our host at the pencione) gave wonderful explanations of the partnership by us with the eventual ownership of the system by them. The contract was then read aloud so all could understand and then signed. We were SO impressed with Gilberto's preparation and planning for this system. Although the location of the system is not built yet it is planned and located. The building should be complete in May and is located on the school grounds. The atmosphere in this small town was completely different from what we encountered in the previous two towns. It is kind of hard to explain, but it seemed much more peaceful. Again, you could feel the greatfulness from those surrounding us that they were going to have a system like the other near by villages that would supply them with clean water. I think we are all feeling very optimistic about our relationship with San Andres and are looking forward to a successful project here.

We then returned to Jacaltanego with a quick stop at the BEAUTIFUL Rio de Azul (it truly is Azule). When we returned we re-tested the water from the samples we had taken at San Andres and found them to be consitent with what had been previously done.

The day was finished with a fried chicken, french fries, rice, soup, veggies, and cheesecake dinner. If anyone thought they would lose weight in Guatemala I think they will find it a challenge with Joanna Roja's preparing our meals!

Thanks to our wonderful Saviour for this opportunity to serve in his name. Thanks for protection and blessings on our journey. In his glorious name we look forward to our adventures tomorrow.