Sunday Snapshot

This is real life, folks. MPI Guatemala is in its THIRD YEAR as of today. That's right 2 years have come and gone and I frankly cannot believe it. Even more fitting, today is Lori Scharffenberg's birthday, MPI's Executive Director, and the person that's made those three years possible. Happy birthday, Lori, we all send you big hugs from Guatemala! Thank you for all you've done for us! And now without further ado, I transition our blog into year THREE. (I can't not write that in bold). Stay tuned for the new PD introductions coming next week!

Cinnamon roll in front of La Merced right before picking up the newbies. We love each other.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LORI!!

A Day in the Life

          The time is flying by before our eyes.  We are entering our third week of teaching English at the local primary school in Chaquijyá, and have officially been Sololá residents for one month.  I feel very much at home here and have gotten into a nice routine.  However, my window view will never cease to amaze me and the days are never monotonous.

          This past week we rolled with the punches as classes were interrupted in preparation for Guatemala's independence day (Sept 15) and spent a good portion of our days in developmental and programmatic discussions.  There is so much opportunity and need here that it's hard to narrow our list of potential "next steps," but alas, six people cannot run 15 programs.

          Lori, MPI's Executive Director, has also been here with us for the past week.  Though not her first time to Guatemala, we have all enjoyed playing host/tour guide.  Not only fun, I'm pretty sure she could win the Nathan's hot dog eating competition.  But most importantly, she has the uncanny ability to turn my rambles into concise ideas.  Don't leave us!

As she leaves us, I will leave you some of my favorite shots (kindly donated by our very own Hudson Baird)

Jared (or Javier) taking some pictures as some students eagerly await the results

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Sixth grade acrobatics.

Studying away.

Your donation dollars at work. (Thank you!)

--Momma Bear Dana

What a week!

The past few days have been very exciting ones...
Monday brought the arrival of Lori and Chris, and we´ve kicked our lives up into fifth gear ever since..

On Tuesday we jumped at the opportunity to visit the small town of Toj Mech, about 30 minutes outside Xela center.  Chris will report more about that soon in his very own guest blog...

Some happy kids in Toj Mech´s library, pretending to read like I told them to

Wednesday the four of us traveled to Totonicapan (a great name for a Nicaraguan bakery, as Chris pointed out) which is a department, and the largest city within that department.  There we met with another one of our new Peace Corps friends, Casey.  She showed us the ropes and introduced us to their beautiful Casa de Cultura.  The Casa de Cultura has been running for 37 years, and gives creative art and music classes among other things.

We returned to Xela to go to a Buena Vista Social Club performance, only to find a huge celebration going on in parque central.  Apparently it was the 100th anniversary of Xela´s soccer team, the Super Chivos!  Go Xela!

Not a very good picture, but will definitely give you an idea of the madness.

With Thursday came another early morning and a trip to Momostenango.  In the morning we had a meeting with am extremely helpful man named Cesar-- so organized he offered to show us his power point presentation!  We opted for the white board instead to share our respective organizational pillars.  Cesar was able to give us some cold hard facts that, though a bit dated, helped push us in the right direction.  For instance, did you know that 56% of people in Momos make less than US$1 per day, and are thus in the extreme poverty category, and 95% are below the poverty line?

On a more uplifting note, our next informative meeting was with our old Peace Corps friend, Rebecca, and a visit to a nearby women´s organization.  On our way home we stopped through a smaller Municipio called San Fransisco del Alto to meet, yes, another Peace Corps volunteer named Ana.  Here we were actually able to visit a smaller community (Aldea) to get a feel for the quality of life here.

 

Just so you have an idea, Toto is in pink, Momos is in yellow, and San Fransisco del Alto is blue.

Finally Friday.. phew.  Oh, but wait, another early morning to go build stoves again in Llano de Pinal!  This time we got to complete a stage 2 stove!  Yes, I have completed each stage once, and am now open for business in case you would like one in your very own backyard and/or kitchen.

 

Our completed stage 1 stove from last week, and thus our starting point this week.

Our completed stage 2!

And that was some vital information for your everyday life..

Dana