We're Here!

First off we want to let out friends and family know that we arrived safely! No one has had a chance to make phone calls so don't think we have forgotten!

The plane connections were all good and on time. Surprisingly, all of the luggage arrived in a timely fashion. Then we had the fun of getting through customs. We think it's pretty funny that only a few people looked like their luggage needed to be searched and Father Don was one of them! After paying a small fee, they decided that it was safe to let him in the country!
Our beautiful blue bus and wonderful drivers were waiting for us and loaded up the bus for the LOOONG ride to Punta Gorda. We stopped at a little store and bought some waters and then headed to a favorite restaurant called Amigos. It had been raining and chilly for the past couple of weeks here, and as we sat in the restaurant in was interesting to see some many of the locals wearing warm coats.
One of the big highlights of the trip down was when the bus driver noticed a dead gibnut on the side of the road. For those of you new to the blog, a gibnut is a large rodent (think of a guinea pig on steroids) that is considered a delicacy here. They backed up the bus to see of there was enough of it left to take home and cook-EWWWWWWW! There was NOT!
We finally arrived at the Retreat Center around 11:00 and the sisters were kind enough to wait up so they could put away the guard dogs!

We headed out first thing on Sunday morning to visit many of the villages were we have worked in the past. Our first stop was to drive through the village of Santa Theresa. Then we were able to see one of the pigpens that our friend, Dorla and her Socio-Economic Outreach program have built. We did discover that pigs make a lot of, well, shall we say, waste!! and it is hard to get off of your boots.
From there we headed to mass in the village of San Lucas. Ann, Shannon and Father Don worked in this village last year and were so excited to see their old friends. Every time we looked at Shannon she had a whole group of kids jut hanging on her.
The people all get to mass early and spent almost an hour just singing the beautiful songs for mass. Father Dick arrived and we felt so blessed to be able to participate in a lovely celebration. We tried to follow along with the songs, but the books were in
Qeqchi and that wasn't very easy.
We spent another hour or so visiting in the village. Peggy and JOan wanted to pet or take home every animal that they saw. We drew the line at letting them pet a wild turkey.
Some of the girls who have earned the All Saints Scholarships invited Ann to see their report cards! They are so proud to be in high school.
Next we drove to the village of Corazon Creek to stop in a Cool Spot (snack stop/picnic area) for lunch. Anita had taught in this village two years ago and got to see some of her old friends. There is a brand new high school in Corazon and it is great to see that more students are able to attend school without a two hour bus ride.
The next stop up the road was Sunday Wood. The frist Mission Trip from All Saints built a church there. This church is a long walk through MUCH mud from the road. It was great to see the finished church which even has two beautiful stained glass sindows (made by a man in St Charles).
We still had one more place to visit, the village of Midway. Last year's group started the church there and it was recently completed. They celebrated their first mass on New Years. Conde was happy to see Pedro, the catechist from Midway. Jay got to visit with Pedro's grandson and show him a picture he had brought from when they met last year.
Shannon, Tim and Jen played a wicked game of soccer with some of the children in the village. The kids seemed to be winning.
We finally headed down the road back to the retareat center and got there just in time for the delicious chicken dinner.
You would think we would have been exhausted by then, but we still had supplies to unpack and kid-bags to pack for 500 students!!
We formed a pretty efficient assembly line and got the work done and then called it a day.
Wow, day one was pretty exciting!
On to Monday!
Will post those highlights tomorrow!
The sun came out today, it was beautiful, the children are beautiful, the construction went well and everybody is fine and healthy!
Keep praying that it stays that way!

-Posted by Anita Dutrow