Life house

Our local church in Chichicastenango has a weekly evangelism outreach called "Casa de Vida" or "Life house."  The church members are all divided into three Life houses, one of which meets on Friday night, and two on Saturday night.  We go to the Friday night meeting in the house of a family that lives in town.  The purpose of the meeting is to share the gospel with our friends and family who don't know Jesus yet, but might not want to go to a regular church meeting.  One week they asked me (Heather) to share a message, so I talked about 1 Peter and how God calls us to be holy.  I am impressed with our church's desire to reach out to people with the love of Jesus.

Crossing the street

While walking around town to do my weekly shopping, I (Heather) have to cross several streets.  This involves a complicated checking process before stepping out:  first check for 18-wheelers or other large trucks, next check for "chicken buses" (old U.S. school buses), then microbuses, pickup trucks, other cars, and tuk-tuks.  When you find a break in the constant stream of larger vehicles, don't step out yet... remember to check for motorcycles, bicycles, people pushing carts, people walking, and dogs.  Then re-check for vehicles, and finally RUN!  It's much more exciting than a Walmart aisle.

Finishing fence

The final steps to the fence are almost complete.

They installed a door

and a gate, so now we can lock up the property.

They lined the outside of the fence with
steel roofing sheets to close off the view.

Up at the top of the property, behind the house
site, we planted some baby trees:
lemon, peach, plum, apple, and avocado.

The only things remaining to be installed are the roof over the gate and a mountain of rivets to attach the roofing sheets well.

Outhouse floor

They poured concrete pads over the huge holes they had dug earlier.  (See earlier post called "Pit latrine and septic well" in January 2015.)

The (two-seater) outhouse floor is on the right,
with the posts in place for the walls.

Here they are preparing the concrete pad
that will cover the seepage pit.

Sand and concrete

Here are some photos of standard practice here:

This pickup truck bed is entirely full of sand.
It is sold by the "cubic meter," which is one truckful.
The driver of the truck brings the sand (or gravel
or dirt) and unloads it at your property with a shovel.

This is the standard way of mixing concrete,
wearing rubber boots.  Here José is
finishing up a batch.

Retaining wall

We now have a retaining wall behind the ministry building site. 

First they brought in huge rocks.

They laid the rocks layer by layer with concrete,

and built up the wooden boards as they went.

Then they chipped away the extra concrete
with a chisel and hammer.
Now the site is ready for building!

Youth "handshake" dance

Carrie, Elena, and two of the boys at church presented another dance.  They did such a good job doing the choreographed handshake in unison that the congregation burst into applause in the middle of the dance!  Good for them!  And many thanks to Heather's Aunt Mary Gugler for the shirts.

Carrie, Alan, Elena, and Alex