Sunday, October 26, 2008

Our New Home!

This is our new home. We are separated from our neighbors by a narrow alley on both sides.


This is the view from our front door. On the left side is the playground of a school.


This is our tiny backyard. With the razor wire and electrified barbed wire on top of our wall we almost feel like we're in a jail yard. Because Guatemala has a terrible problem with crime nearly all of the houses are surrounded by walls and barbed wire. We also have several armed guards that patrol our "development" day and night.


This is Nick and Ben's room. Ben is relaxing on his bed - with his newly shaved head. (His father helped with that, because Mom would have nothing to do with it!)


Here is our living room. We will probably be using our fireplace a lot this winter because it is our only source of heat. Because of our high elevation it gets quite cool at night.


This is Maria and Tony's room. The entire room is painted with a cute mural of birds and butterflies.


October and November are windy months in Guatemala. At this time of year you see lots of people selling homemade kites. These folks set up shop on the median of a busy street.


We visited the market in San Lucas this afternoon. There are always lots of fruits and vegetables for sale.

These women are selling homemade food. Notice the sleeping baby on the woman's back. This is the way most of the Guatemalan women carry their babies.


Tony was fascinated with the baby chickens and ducks these two elderly women had for sale. We also saw baby bunnies and tiny turtles for sale at this market.




Monday, October 20, 2008

Casa de mi Padre

This is Casa de mi Padre (House of my Father) located in the town of San Lucas. We stayed here for two weeks while we did our language training.



This is the road leading to Casa de mi Padre. We took a walk, but there wasn't much to see but mud, litter, and cement walls topped with barbed wire.

This is one of the "furniture stores" .


Here are Ben and Nick with their tutor, Sarai.


Charlie with his tutor, Saira


The girls doing their schoolwork at Casa de me Padre.



Tony with Alejandra, a foster child staying with the owners of the Casa. Tony called her "Tony's baby".