Drum dance

Our dance team, Arise!, presented a couple of dances during our church's celebration of "Children's Day."  The dance in the photos below was a lot of fun, and the top photo is encouraging to me because it shows how much they improved at keeping the same rhythm!  Hahaha.  The dance intermixed a rhythm on the drums with other hip-hop dancing, and the song ("Hay Libertad") was about the freedom we have in God's house.

Bus driver protest

The roads here in Guatemala aren't very well cared for, and this week the bus drivers decided to protest by stopping traffic all over Guatemala on the main highways.  They do this sort of protest often, but this time it was followed by an interesting "caravan" of micro-buses headed towards Guatemala City.

On the day of the "caravan," Veronica and I (Heather) were invited to play Scrabble in town with a lady from church, a friend of mine named Adriana, whose daughter is on my dance team.  She had bought the game in English and didn't understand the instructions! 

Here is a picture of Adriana in her store
(earlier, with Elena).

As we were playing Scrabble at a table in Adriana's clothing store, a police car slowly made its way up the main street past us, followed by a large group of men, one of whom was speaking into a microphone, declaring in various ways how unhappy the drivers were with the way the government was ignoring the bad condition of the roads.

The front of the group with men on foot
and a truck with loudspeakers.

The caravan of micro-buses headed
into town was very long.

We were told there were 200 buses
in the caravan.

When we were finished with our Scrabble game, I planned to go into town to do my weekly grocery shopping, but the caravan was still slowly passing by.  Here in Guatemala, I always take time to judge a situation to decide if we are safe to be there or if we should leave.  In this case, it was a peaceful procession at that point, and there seemed to be other "normal" cars mixed in, so I got in my car and joined the parade!  It took a long time to make it up to the grocery store, but we finally did!

Construction

Here are some photos to catch you up on the construction we have been doing!

In the ministry building, we installed
a temporary interior wall to separate
Michael's office from the other bedrooms
and living room area.  The other rooms are
divided by fabric hanging down as curtains.

The buried barrels to the left are mini-settling tanks for
the shower water and kitchen sink water.  The water is
then filtered by passing through sand in these concrete bins
(not shown) before entering a deep hole in the ground.

These guys are pouring a thin sidewalk for us
to go between buildings without getting muddy.

This is the 290-gal. water tank we used while
our cistern was being cleaned and refinished.
The water runs into this tank from the community;
then our water pump takes the water to our
wash house.

Our washing machine puts out water too fast
to dump directly onto our driveway, so first the
water drains into this trash barrel, then exits
by gravity out the small tube at the bottom,
and then flows down a ditch to the driveway.

We installed this little roof over the walkway
between the wash house and the kitchen.
It keeps us pretty dry unless the wind is
blowing... then we run!

Inside the wash house:  our kitchen sink,
washer and dryer, bathroom (behind Elena),
and shower (end of hallway).

Children's Day

On days like "Secretary's Day" or "Grandparents' Day" or "Mother's Day," I always used to ask when was "Kids' Day"?  And my parents only laughed.

Well, here in Guatemala, they actually do have a "Kids' Day," and it is celebrated in grand style!  Our church had a special service complete with clowns, piñatas, and games.

Worship time

Piñata

An evangelistic drama and dance

A happy dance

And clowns (the girl clown is Dasha,
one of my dancers).

Sweet lady in town

This sweet little grandma, named Anastasia, sits in her wheelchair in town most days, watching people walk by.  Some people give her food and some give her small coins.  I have made a habit of stopping by to give her a quetzal (equal to about $0.13) and talk to her a bit in K'iche'.  People stop and gawk as I have my conversation with her in K'iche', but what they don't know is that I always say the same thing every time:

"¿Xeq'ij, la otz awäch?  Ën otz, maltyox.  Jwert q'ij chanim.  Dios katutewchij.  ¡Ena!  ¡Cha'ana kwenta!"  which means,
"Good afternoon, how are you?  I'm fine, thank you.  The sun is hot today.  God bless you.  Good-bye!  Take care!"

Veronica and Anastasia

She especially loves Veronica, who always gives her a hug!  Some day soon hopefully my K'iche' will improve to actually be able to carry on a conversation, but this lady's smile is great big, even at our small interaction!

Funny signs

We have some funny signs in town... no wonder people passing through town sometimes get lost!

This sign instructs you to turn right to go the next town, but the other sign says the road is one-way to the left!  Actually it means from this intersection to the left, it is one-way, but you can turn right.  Usually drivers don't pay attention to signs anyway.  Hahaha!

Let's dance

Through the last year my dance team, ¡Levántate! (which means Arise!) has presented several dances...

"Shout to the Lord" in church.

"Your Love Has No End" to celebrate
new classrooms at church.

Prayer for the team by the church.

On Father's Day we invited the dads to
join the children for a dance to
"You Make Me Move."

"Lord, You Are Good,"

"Your Love Has No End,"

and "No Higher Place" in a service in
our new ministry building.

"Joshua 1:9" at a special church service
to thank God for his blessings.

"No Higher Place" in church.