Monday

It is Monday evening and we are all tired from a hot and busy first
day at our work sites. The construction crew was in the beautiful
village of San Benito Poite, an amost two hour drive from where we
stay, truly at the END of the road! If we walked another three miles
we would have been in Guatemala.The team will be building a library,
this morning when we walked up to the school, the site for the library
was an empty field. By the time we left there was a hole dug for the
foundation. The dimensions of the hole are 20 feet by 24 feet, about
18 inches deep and 20 inches wide. That doesn't sound too impressive
until you realize that this was dug through clay and MANY large rocks
with only shovels and picks. Tough work indeed. Tomorrow the team
plans to get the bricks laid for the foundation and the concrete
poured. There were many highlights of the day, but when a group
(gaggle?) of turkeys came up-three males and a female-I tried out my
turkey calling skills and every time I did the males called back!
Perhaps I have missed my calling as a turkey-whisperer.
One of the teaching groups went to the village of San Lucas. Ann,
Shannon and Father Don felt like they were going home-they taught in
this village two years ago-and report that the best part of the day
was visiting old friends. Many of the children remembered them and
they had a great day. They made edible cookie color wheels using
frosting and Vanilla wafers. They handed out flip flops to all of the
students, made pipe-cleaner monkeys with the children, and "walked"
the planets with the older children. Wow, that was all in one day!
Another group of teachers went to San Lucas. They had fun playing
soccer with the kids and Peter served as the toothbrushing
demonstrator, and after brushing his teeth eight times, we can truly
say that he has the cleanest mouth on the trip! One of the highlights
was when a pig ate an entire bar of soap!
Anne and Rose used their nursing skills to assist in the Health Clinic
in Santa Teresa. There is a doctor in the clinic during the week and
they were able to triage the patients and prepare them for a visit
with the doctor. They were impressed with the set-up and efficiency of
the clinic.

On Sunday we went to Mass in SundayWood. This was a special treat for
the returning team members as many of us worked on the foundation
several years ago. There was a visiting Jesuit priest saying Mass who
actually grew up in St Louis. We spent the rest of the day visiting
old friends in a number of villages and ended it at Muchaca lodge
where we actually could hear howler monkeys in the distance. Perfect
end to a perfect day !

For many of you who made donations, Father Don asked me to pass along
a special thanks from the children. The joy on their faces when they
receive new crayons or flip flops is something we wish you all could
experience first hand.

More tomorrow! By the way, it was about 85 and sunny here today!