Feb 5^th, 2017

Today’s theme was “Get your walk on!”  After breakfast of epic breakfast enchiladas (gonna need that recipe) , we had our only scheduled free time in San Pedro.  We spent the time exploring the town, visiting the market, and handing out flyers for the upcoming soup kitchen on Wednesday.  So, up the hill we went.

The market place was full of everything from clothes to shoes to meat.  The smells ranged widely as well from sweet perfumes to something that reminded me of hunting season back home.  Jorge showed us around and helped with translation while we handed out flyers.  After the flyers were gone, we stopped for an ice cream to try and cool down a bit.  Sun burns seem to be affecting most of the team.  But, what would you expect from a bunch of Alaskan’s in February.  Ice cream always seems to help, especially for the kids.  We stopped for trinkets and souvenirs on the way down the hill back to the school.  But wait, there’s more!! We still had an hour to kill, so back up the hill we went.  By this time, the market was starting to wrap up and once again headed back to the school.

Lunch awaited and we shared it with a family that had traveled from Guatemala City just to visit us.  Bruce and Franny had sponsored one of their kids while Tom and Karen had sponsored another in past years.  The family had since moved into the city for work and the kids no longer attended the school.  The youngest boy, Jefferson, was about the same age as Alex and Gabe and despite the language barrier, the boys hit it off quickly and started a game of “Futbol” that had many of the team members joining in.

After lunch, we had home visits.  We broke into 3 teams and each team visited 3 homes.  We were guided (once  again up the hill) and introduced by students from the school.  This was the most enriching part of our day.  It’s a wonderful feeling to have a family open their home to you and to share their lives in just a few minutes.  Certainly not enough time.  I wish we could have spent the entire afternoon visiting.  At one home our group was presented with coffee; the father of the home was a 3^rd generation coffee grower and he gave us some of his private stock.

Back down the hill we went to get ready for church.  A quick shower for many of us and we met Pam at the school.  This time we got a ride up the hill.  Seventeen people piled in/on Pam’s little truck and away we went.  Dick and I almost slid out the back when we started up the hill, but we managed to cling on and made the steep ride all the way to church.

At church, our group sang a song; both in English and Spanish.  I think we sounded a bit forlorn, as the music before us was very energetic.  Never the less, we were honored to be recognized and allowed to offer our song to accompany the worship service.  At the conclusion of the service, we met with some more families from the school who attended this church.  Bruce and Franny were able to meet the twins they sponsor through Proyecto Fe along with their family.  Many hugs were exchanged and pictures taken.

After the service we walked back down the hill to the school as Pam had left early to prepare a lasagna  dinner.  As usual, the food was excellent and we all reminisced on the days adventures.

to see more pictures from this team,  CLICK HERE!

Jim Donner