Education revisit at Pastor Fredy's church.

We started our day bright and early with nearly 60 energized children, ready to learn at Pastor Freddy's church, El Shaddai. The children taught us traditional Guatemalan songs then we conducted lessons reminding the children of the importance of using clean water  They were originally taught similar lessons when their system was first installed.

We had a number of teachers helping us, including Pastor Freddy's son, Javier.

We were able to accomplish a lot with the great help, and enjoyed a productive morning with the students and their teachers. They loved learning traditional American childrens songs.

The training ended in prayer, followed by a hearty lunch provided by Pastor Freddy and the teachers. We will always remember our special friends from today, who brought us to tears with their affection.

Thursday, Installation Day

Today we broke into two groups and went to each of our sites. David, Bill, Nancy and Steve went to El Asintal. Linda, Sally, Fred, Jean and Eric went to Mazatenango. 


The church in El Asintal had built a new room to house the pump and filters as well as bottle washing. David and Bill were able to accomplish the system install in one day.  Awesome!  Tomorrow is checking for leaks, teaching to clean and operate.




Arriving at the church. 

Pump and Filter Room

Bottle Filling Station

Training the Trainers

Students with Germs

At Mazatenango work begun on the installation, and is progressing well.

Pastor Roberto, his daughter Sarah (on left) and Abby, our translator.

The Education and Hygiene segment was led by Jean and Eric, who had 28 students and 3 teachers. Education went well, and was even on schedule to our surprise and joy. We also went over the lesson plans with the teachers, so when we return on Saturday, they can teach the lessons to their kids. This will allow them to maintain both the water system and education of good hygiene long after we have returned home.

 We arrived safely in Guatemala city and were met by Pastor Fredy, Javier and Claudia, as well as the driver of our very cushy van.  All of the team but Fred made the arduous 4 hour trip to the Reu area to our lovely Cupula de Zion.  The temperature rose steadily from about 90.  We're not missing the
Chicago weather. 





We unpacked and checked our gear - which all arrived.  We had a bit of damage to one of the pumps, but Dave and Bill were able to repair it. Systems were sorted.  Teaching materials arrived in good shape and were sorted and reviewed.  Everyone took a much needed nap - with the exception of Steve.  Steve tried the inviting hammock, but ended up on the ground.  No harm done except to his dignity.




 Meanwhile, Fred went with pastor Fredy, Javier, and Claudia to the US Embasy to see about Pastor Fredy's visa.  They didn't arrive "home" until almost nine pm.  Well after dinner.









 A very long day for Fred with to recovery time after our all night flight.
We're ready for Bed and hope you will continue to send your prayers.  Tomorrow we split into two groups and head out to our two new water sites

FVPC Mission Team Heading Back to Guatemala

Pictured l-r:  Pastor Bart Roush, Sally Cable, Fred Filiaggi, David Beardsley
Bill Cwiklinski, Linda Strong, Nancy Van Cleve, Jean Hills, Steve Feddern

On Sunday, January 20, 2013, the FVPC Mission Team was commissioned for a return trip to Guatemala.  Joining the team will be Eric Enskat, representing PC of Barrington.  This 9 member team is the largest Living Waters for the World Mission Team to travel to Guatemala!  Why?  We will be installing 2 LWW systems at two separate sites:  El Shaddai  Mazatenango and El Asintal.  Both systems will be housed in churches.  El Asintal will be supporting 3 schools with over 600 children and the surrounding village (refer to archieve blog posts from February 2012).  In addition, Health and Hygiene training will be provided to teachers, parents, and students at both sites, and refresher training at the exisiting El Shaddai Retalhuleu LWW site.

The team will depart from Chicago O'Hare airport at 2:05 AM on Wednesday, January 23, and travel to the Department of Retalhuleu, Guatemala and our home for the next five days with our friends Marco and Ninnett at La Cupola de Zion.  Please keep us in your prayers, that we may be successful in doing the work that God has called for each of us to do.  We look forward to sharing this journey with you.

Faithfully... your FVPC Mission Team

¡Hola Todos!
Today we visited La Escuela Oficial Urbana Mixta Lleno y San Bacilio, which is our prospective site for next  year´s installation.  Ralph is pictured above collecting a water sample at the school.  We will drop the sample off at a lab tomorrow and eagerly await the results.  The director and a few of the other teachers came to talk to us today and we explained the system.  They were all very excited and enthusiastic about begining the process.
The bottom picture is a picture of the team and some of the Rojas family.  From left to right, Tracy Wolf, Joanna Rojas, Claudia Caballeros, Leslie Rojas, Miriam Mazariegos, and Kayla Wolf, not pictured is Ralph Alvarez (he took the picture).
Tomorrow we will be leaving early in the morning to head back to Antigua.  We will have a few stops along the way.
Thank you for your continued support and prayers,
Kayla, Ralph, and Tracy

¡Hola Todos!
Today we visited La Escuela Regional Jacaltenango.  This system was installed last year in Novemeber so this was the first follow up visit since the instalation.  In the past year the system has produced 33,000 gallons of clean water.  The two men pictured in front of the system are Juan and Donaldo (from left to right).  They are the system operators and have done an impeccable job keeping the system operating at it´s full potential as well as keeping great records.  This site was also visited by the Health Department of Guatemala.  The health department took water samples twice over the past year and both times the system has passed with flying colors and the water was labled fit for human consumption.  The inspection report is posted above.

While Tracy and Ralph checked up on the system, a refresher class on hygiene and the uses for the clean water was conducted by Claudia and Kayla.  The teachers who attended the class told us that they have noticed a significant decrease in the number of children suffering from diarrhea.  In areas where clean water is not available, diarrhea is almost an everyday occurrence.  The teachers said they have implemented lessons about the uses for clean water and handwashing as part of their school routine.  They also noted that it can be hard to get the lessons across to non-students.

Ralph is really looking forward to tomorrow, because he will be able to use his 101 expertise at our site survey.  As part of the site survey he will be testing the water.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers,
Kayla, Tracy, and Ralph

¡Hola Todos!

We arrived safely in Jacal yesterday and checked up on our site in San Andres today.  This was our last check up visit with the school and as our three year commitment comes to a close we are happy to inform you of a couple of things.  La Escuela Oficial Regional Mixta Huista San Andres has produced another 20,000 gallons of water over the past year for a grand total of 41,000 gallons of pure water over the past two years.  Secondly, the Health Department of Guatemala conducted a suprise inspection of the site last month and afte running their respective tests reported that the school was producing water that is safe for human consumption.

Thank you for your contiued prayers and support,

Kayla, Ralph, and Tracy