Day 4: Heidi's Highlights

This morning we were very pleased to be allowed a few minutes more of sleep, especially since we've all finally figured out how many blankets it takes to keep us "tough" Canadians warm here in Tactic. (In case you're wondering its 3 or 4 thick ones.) It also helped waking up to Bob Marley telling us to not worry and be happy. Unfortunately for us girls, there was no cow outside our window, although Mrs McCutcheon would've been much happier if the rest of us would've assumed so (see Day 3 blog near the end). After yet another amazing breakfast, we were bussed up to the Catholic Church here in Tactic to gain a better understanding of Catholicism in Guatemala. It was a sobering experience to see how the people here have been deceived by the syncritysm of the Myan religions and Catholicism. Thankfully Mrs. McCutcheon (known as the weakest link) brought a little comic relief by "pretending" to crush and/or fall between the slats of the pew beneath her. After the "incident" we, along with the Freisen family spent time praying for the people here that their eyes would be opened to this deception that seems so obvious to us. 

After this we went back to La Vida Neuva, the first school we visited on Sunday (see Day 1) to begin our work project of lengthening the play area for the kids. It was so much fun! I mean, it's not everyday that people who don't know you terribly well give you a pick axe and tell you to start chopping away at the ground while school is still in session... It was very hard work, and we were all put to shame by our group leader, Oscar, who hacked giant pieces of clay out of the ridge like it was nothing. (Though Brett tried very hard to keep up with him.) Our goal for this week is to clear out a section that has been marked off by a painted white line that is about 3 metres  wide and 8 metres long. It was very interesting to see all of the different soil types that were in that small of an area. Though the softer soil looked much easier to work with than the clay and rock that I was helping move, I'm happy to be able to report that those of us who were moving the softer soil made it all the way to the white line! 

After that, we came back to the guest house for lunch which we were all delighted to find out was papas fritas and pollo fritas (French fries and fried chicken). The fun moved with us into the dish shack while we washed dishes let's just say there were a lot of laughs. 

Then we went back to Chamchae for our second day of kids ministry, which went fantastically. It was so much fun going back and seeing the kids that we'd each connected with again. We decided to start off with the song that the kids and teachers had all seemed to know, which really helped get them all excited and participating, especially with the other dances. It was also really touching, having some of the kids remember my name and yell it out when Mr. Stoesz gave them a pop quiz on who we were. Aside from the dances and sports type games from the day before, Kristen shared her faith story, we made wordless bracelets (ie. red bead represents Jesus' blood shed for us), and Megan and Kristen did their chalk art of the Great Blondin for the kids. As always, we had a blast spending time with the kids and came away from our time with them accompanied by many memories. The memory that has been discussed the most through out the day is Sean's experience playing soccer with the kids. Not only are they very good soccer players for their age, but one of them even managed to bring him to the ground, paralyzed in a fetal position, only to have aimed the ball perfectly for a face shot off the wall seconds later. The kids then proceeded to continue on with their game and Sean got himself moved over a nearby wall to rest. 

Our evening appeared to be fairly uneventful, and as I began writing this novel, eventually everyone gathered around and listened to what was being written after Mr. Stoesz finished serenading us with "The Cat Came Back". We had so much fun laughing, some of us to the point of tears, about the different events of the day and retelling the different things that had happened, just to make sure that everyone had all the facts straight. Our supper was once again incredible, and to top it all off, because it's Heidy Friesen's birthday today we were blessed with not one, but TWO birthday cakes to enjoy. Lastly, here in Guatemala it's a tradition to set off fireworks on someone's birthday, so Hugo made sure that we had the full Guatemalan experience. There were a couple malfunctions with the fireworks - I held mine a little too long, parts of Megan and Sean's exploded at our feet, and Taylor and Brett's didn't go off the first time around, but we had a lot of fun and all of us agree that if there was some way, we would bring some home with us and start the tradition there! 

Now we're back inside the guesthouse, preparing something that I will leave as a surprise for you to read about tomorrow, just as it will be for the kids. Thank you for enduring my never-ending babble, hope you're having as much fun reading about our adventures as we are having them!

 Heidi

PS. Brittany, we wanted to let you know - we saw an anorexic cow...