Day 7

Today was the first day of the second half of our trip in which we are staying in the city of San Lucas Toliman. The students woke up and went to breakfast at the Mission dining hall and split into two groups. One group of 11 went to work at a construction site and the remaining students went to build a stove for a family in a different part of the city.

The construction group spent the morning moving concrete blocks around the job site and measuring, cutting, and assembling rebar structure supports. The stove group built  half of a concrete block stove for a family to use to cook in the future.

Both groups reconvened at the mission for lunch at 12:30 pm. WNE was on lunch duty. This meant that we were responsible for getting all dishes and food ready for the meal and cleaning the hall and dishes after the meal concluded.

After lunch we were given a tour of all of the projects that the mission is involved in and helps fund/operate. We were able to visit the school where children grades 3-8 attend, the women’s center, the local medical clinic, and the fair trade coffee processing center.

The day ended with the students eating dinner with all of the volunteers in the mission and returning to their rooms exhausted and anxious to get back to work.

-Steve and Samantha

Day 6

Today we started our last day in Xela with our usual breakfast at El Centro. We checked out and boarded the bus at 8:30 am to head towards San Lucas Tolimán. On our way, we stopped at a lookout which had an incredible view of the two volcanoes.

Once everyone was done taking pictures, we got back on the bus for about another hour until we reached the Mayan Ruins of Iximche. Our tour guide was Alex, and he led us through the five plazas within the ruins. Five plazas once existed with four families presiding over them. We were able to see the remains of the royal palace, the aqueducts, and the ball courts that the Mayans played in. In plaza five, we were able to witness a real Mayan ritual where two chickens were sacrificed over a fire.

Following the end of the tour, we loaded up on the bus again to drive down the road to a restaurant where we ate chicken, steak, guacamole and more. We boarded onto the bus once more for the three hour bus ride to San Lucas. When we arrived in San Lucas, we were shown to our hotel where we dropped off our stuff, said our final farewell to our Xela hosts, and went to dinner. Our dinner was in a buffet style with the other groups that are also working with the Mission. After everyone finished eating, we had a brief orientation to learn about everything we would be involved with and the rules associated with the Mission. After orientation, we walked to a local ice cream shop for a treat before we headed back to the hotel for the night to relax, play some cards and prepare for work in the morning.

-Brianne & Jordyn

Day 5

Today was our fifth day in Guatemala, but our last in Xela. We started off the day by playing a fun game of soccer with some of the locals including our host's sons, Andre and Matteo. We split up into two teams and our team ended up winning the friendly (and slightly competitive) game 4-3.

After the game we stopped into a local bakery to get a snack for the road. The drive to the hot springs was about an hour and once we got to close to it, we had to take a very windy road up hill to get to the hot spring. On our way up we were able to see some of the crops grown on the hill and a few Guatemalans working on these very steep hills. Once we made it, we all quickly changed and went into the hot spring were we swam and hung out for a while. We noticed that some of the locals had black mud on their faces, and we found out they were using the water and scraping the rocks to get the special mineral mix. A few of us decided to try it. After a while of relaxing, we got out of the springs, had lunch, and went back to our hotel. Some of us hung out and played cards while others took a nap or went shopping.
 

For dinner we had a nice banquet at an Uruguayan restaurant to celebrate our week in Xela, while also thanking our hosts and translators for all that they have done for us. In general the food was great, but the steak was absolutely amazing. Overall it was a fun cultural day to end our stay in  Xela.

-Katie and Bri

Day 4

The plan for the day was to go to the University to listen to a talk given by Dr. Rust. Unfortunately there were protests going on at the University by the students and all the doors were locked.  So the location was moved to Victor’s institute, a couple blocks from the hotel. The purpose of the talk was for training the local hospital technicians in optimizing the use and care of instruments in the hospital to make them last longer. 

After the presentation we went to lunch with some of the technicians at a nearby restaurant. Then we went to the cemetery and explored for an hour or so. The cemetery was different than the ones we have in the United States. In Guatemala they were ornately designed and colored; they treat death as more of a celebration. After the cemetery we went back to the hotel for a while then some of us walked over to the local mall for some souvenir shopping. After that we all walked to a local restaurant for dinner. We ate on the roof of the restaurant and tried to enjoy the great view before it started raining and then took the fiesta inside. After dinner we went back to the hotel for some fun card games then got some sleep!

Adios!

 
-Sean and Cori