Santiago and San Pedro La Laguna

Last night's dancing and joyfulness.  

Instead of working side by side with the indigenous and speaking spanish all day, we are being gringos.

Lake Atitlan is a gorgeous sight to be seen.  Surrounded by peaks and mystical clouds, you can imagine what it must have been like years ago without many people, telephones or powerboats.  

We had a devotion given by Mike at the church in Santiago.  The church was founded by a missionary from Oklahoma (?) who's heart and blood was buried at the church, and body was sent to Oklahoma when he died in 1981.  I think I got that right, something like that.  

Group on our chartered boat.  

We also pumped a lot of money into the local economies, having fun shopping and bartering.  

It went by fast, and tomorrow we have a farewell dinner in Antigua.  Hopefully video's and more pictures will be posted in the near future for in depth coverage of the trip.  Thank you.

Despedida, Hugs, Farewells, and Panajachel

In memorial.

Filled with laughter, tears, hugs, and joy, today was a big one.  Everyone drove to see all three houses, culminating at a ceremony at house 2.  

House #3 in the mountains.

House #2

And each house family was presented with a photo album of pictures taken during the build.  Can you believe we were able to print these photos.  And the masons received one as well.  

We read a blessing, which our translator Andy recited in spanish as well.  And we also sang a few songs.  Then we had some food- chichitos (imagine a small tamale with chicken) and cake.  There were balloons in the house, everyone was taking photos, saying their goodbye's, crying, hugging.  We worked side by side with our masons, helpers, and families for the past two weeks.  Their houses are almost done, and it's emotional to say goodbye.  

House #1 The family of Olga and crew.

House #2 Seña and Estella, and crew

House #3 Soccoro Family and crew

The twenty four of us!  Thank you Thrivent, Habitat, and everyone else that made this possible for us, and the families!

And today we made it to Panajachel, where we feasted, laughed and danced a little!  More pictures tomorrow.  

Our work is done

But the lasting effects are yet to come.  And there is also some more work to do.  But hey- we made a lot of progress!

House 1 had block up to the top of the windows and doors.  And houses 2 and 3 have made it to the last row of block, and house 2 started on the gables.

Our help has made the construction much faster than it would have been without us.  At least we hope!


The end of the last day of work drew some emotion.  At house 1 the mason was so moved that he gave a little talk, and hugs around.  And the crew at House 1 came to tears when they wrote the names of which the build is in memorial.   They signed their own names as well.

"Ken Petersen,  Hans Petersen,  Lois Greason"

And the groups that didn't do that plan to as well.  Pictures tomorrow...

The last day being special, along with emotions and sentiment, House #3's driver took that group on a hike for some fun.  The hike went 20 minutes up to a mountaintop with a 360 view and natural freshwater springs!  Pictures tomorrow...

Carol at house 2, embracing Estella, the mother of the house.  

It's great to see what we have done in 9 and a half work days.  We've gone from sites like this:

To having rooms:

House 2, along with their mason in the blue, and the brother of Estella alongside.  

Once again, thanks to all those that have supported and made this trip possible.  

Last day of Work!

Almost done working!  Taking a break from work at the moment just to blog, since the internet and phones are down at our hotel. 

Everything is going well, and we have a house blessing tomorrow.  After that its time for vacation as we head to Panajachel. 

It´s really incredible to see a house go from the ground, as it was 9 days ago- to where they are now.  Above our heads, with doors and windows.  And they will be more than a construction site soon- a home. 

Rain Check

House 3, today, was rained off their worksite in the mountains, and came to assist House 2.  With the additional workers, and an extra mason, house 2 is up above the windows now!

(Left to right)  Augusto, Gordon, and Mike.  You can see the "scaffolding" in and around the house consists of beams of wood perched on cinderblock.  

Sebastian, our mason at House 2, and Carl, who has become his assistant.  

Calvin and Andy inspecting the fit of the window.  

While today House 1 had lunch with the family of their house!  The family of Olga all come over, and made lunch in the abode where they are currently living.  

Only 2 construction days left!  And we want to see a roof on at least one of the houses!

El fin de semana

Xela, Salcajá, St. Andres, and Momostenango!  We were all over the past 36 hours.

House #3 progresses the fastest- and that's the site with the hike to get materials to!

Saturday afternoon, after working for a few hours on the work sites, we boarded our little Toyota bus to Xela.  The hotel we checked into was Hotel Villa Real Plaza.  It was built in 1814, and functioned both as a prison and plaza for markets until around 1950, when it became a hotel.  It even came with its own ghost stories, as one of the employees told us.  He said he saw the hotel ghost just a few years ago.

Xela is such a fancy city- it has McInternet!

And that afternoon we had some time to wander around.  Then at dinner we had the fortunate opportunity to be graced by the Director of Habitat para la Humanidad Guatemala, Luis, and his wife.  They joined us at an italian restaurant, and then came back to the hotel to talk with us about their experiences and Habitat.

Gary, Luis, and Mike.

Luis gave us his story, of how he used to work with an artisan group, and then came to working for Habitat nearly thirteen years ago.

And Saturday night we had quite a different city-hotel experience than in Toto.  Xela was quite lively in the evening hours, and our hotel was in the center of the city.

Sunday was our tour day.  First we went to Salcajá, where the oldest church in Central America is located.  The Church of San Jacinto.  Founded in 1524.  Not too long after Columbus "found" the new world, and shortly after the first church in the new world was founded in 1510 in the Dominican Republic.

When we pulled up the church it was closed, but our bus driver, Eduardo, knew somebody who could open it up, and got us inside.

Following Salcajá was St. Andres.  There was a large service going on outside the church when we got there, and it was the Father's birthday.  But inside was a unique church, complete with neon lights, and light up Jesus'.

Us in front of the smaller western church in St Andres.  

Then we went for a drive to Momostenango, a village renowned for its textiles, specifically wool.  We explored the shops, and some of us watched a bit of the World Cup, and talked to some Guatemalans rooting for the netherlands just in spite of Spain.

And this afternoon we came back to what we almost call home here in Toto, Hotel MayaK'iche, where we held our own church service with communion and song.

Three days of work ahead, and a house blessing on Thursday morning before we leave for more fun.  May we be a light here in Totonicapan.

Llueve, llueve, llueve

Today it rained, and it rained hard.  Enough to stop two of the three sites from working this afternoon.  But work still progressed today.

We rise at 6 am, eat at 6:30, leave at 7, work till 4ish, eat at 6:30 pm, and clean and sleep sometime after we are back.  And that was the weeks routine.  Tomorrow we have a half day of work, and then leave to Quetzaltenango, also known as Xela (Pronounced Shay-lah) until Sunday afternoon.

Windows being sized at House 1!

The rain accumulating at House 2.  

And for kicks, a lady making the decorative trim for garmets at House 3 the other day.  

House 2 making "U" Block that can fit over the rebar in the walls.  Slowly tapping away at the rock with a hammer and a piece of pencil rebar.