K'iche' class

We are continuing to study K'iche' with a sweet girl named Ruby, who was born and raised in Chichicastenango.  We also have two other students in our class, Ana and Haydee, who are also from Chichicastenango.  Their mom speaks K'iche', but their dad grew up in another city in Guatemala, so the girls were raised speaking only Spanish.

Girls from left to right:
Ana, Ruby, Haydee

The three girls (age mid-twenties) already speak English fairly well, and I (Heather) am tutoring them.  Actually, Haydee has been studying with our family for about six years now, first with Carolyn, then with Elena, and now continuing with me.  The three girls are often hired as translators for teams of American doctors that come to Chichicastenango to spend a few days seeing patients at a local ministry.  However, many of the patients only speak K'iche', so Ana and Haydee realized they also need to be able to speak K'iche', and we invited them to study with us.

Visiting

We just finished six weeks of wonderful visiting with my (Heather's) mom and our two oldest daughters.  First, Elena and Grandma came for three weeks, and then Carolyn came for three weeks.

Our church

We are so grateful for the local church where we are members, named Cielos Abiertos, which means Open Heavens.

Pastor Gregorio preaching during a
service (the pink hair is Veronica's)

Sunday School skit thanking God for
the harvest

Collecting kids for dance practice in
the "Dance Bus" (our car)

Worshiping Jesus before dance
practice starts

Celebrating Veronica's 9th birthday

Beautiful flowers decorating the
church for every service!

Christmas dances

This year ¡Levántate! presented three dances at our church's end-of-year party.

The three in turquoise are new additions,
all age 7, two of which are younger siblings
of team members.  They have waited
patiently to be allowed to join the team!

Fireworks

At midnight on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, our neighbors all around us shoot off fireworks.  It is beautiful!

The "display" lasts about 15 minutes, but they tell us it used to last up to an hour!  The government has outlawed some of the more dangerous types of homemade fireworks due to houses burning down each year, but we still hear of people, especially children, losing fingers.  So, while we pray for their safety, we go up to the top of our hill and enjoy the show!

Litter

Michael cleans around our driveway entrance once a week, and he always collects junk food wrappers from chips, cookies, and candy.

Littering here is a common practice.  Only in the past 10 years or so has junk food really become popular, so the amount of baggies, plastic bottles, and other wrappers is a new occurrence.  There are guys hired in town that sweep the road edges with brooms, collecting all the litter, but out in the communities there is no clean-up service.  We are shocked to see people drop trash as they are walking down the road, because of our "anti-litter" American culture!

Every so often someone breaks a glass bottle on the road and we go sweep it up!  Passers-by look at us funny, so I explain that the glass could cause flat tires.  Then they have an "ohhhh, you're right, I never thought about that" moment!

Roller skating

Veronica has invited friends from her dance team over to play, and their favorite activity so far has been roller skating!  We have three pairs of roller skates that we have brought back from visits to the United States.

Veronica, Andrea, and Zury

Izel, Veronica, and Abi

Any, Veronica, and Dasha

Each pair of girls are sisters, and all are very sweet!