Alisha, Emily, and Flor riding on the ORI school bus.
Tony loved the little grocery store.
Charlie helped two-year-old Angelita "buy groceries".
We ate lunch on the front lawn.
Charlie did a super job driving the bus, even though he wasn't sure where we were going and the person giving him directions spoke little English.
A finished entry - with mahogany door
All tile floors - slate driveway - grooved concrete columns inside
Save that tree! 
Notice the grooved concrete columns.
Guatemalan extension cord
All utilities are under the sidewalk with access panels made of concrete. Notice the water main is 6'' deep.
Removing a stump by hand 
Props for concrete roof over the carport 
Concrete piers are every 5' vertically and horizontally. 
Footers are dug by hand. Notice the batter boards.
On Tuesday, Nov. 11, the Freeds (some fellow ORI workers) invited us to hike Pacaya volcano with them and their guests. We enjoyed some awesome scenery and caught some glimpses of other nearby volcanoes along the way. There are four volcanoes near Guatemala city: Agua, Fuego, Acatenango, and Pacaya.
The hike was extremely challenging, over lots of volcanic rock and ash. We hired a guide to lead us. Unfortunately, he spoke very little English.
After hiking for two hours, we were rewarded with a close up view of a lava flow! No guard rails - we could get as close as the heat allowed, which was about 15 feet.
The hike down the mountain was easier, but we needed to take care as the volcanic rock was very sharp.
When we finished our hike we ate a late lunch. A hungry pack of stray dogs joined us and begged for scraps. They were especially interested in Ben's food.
This is the view from the hill at the top of the village. 
One of the village homes. These people live in poverty, but they do have running water and electricity.
This native girl showed us her kitchen.
The children followed us around and liked to look at their pictures on our digital cameras. We gave some of them a ride in the back of the pick-up, much to their delight.
It was a very interesting drive! The "road" was a rutted dirt lane, and we forded several creeks along the way. We have a load of bamboo in the bed, which was the purpose of the trip. Our friend, Carlos, bought bamboo from the villagers and needed a truck to transport the load.
There were many vendors selling homemade food and handmade crafts. There were lots of tortillas and roasted ears of corn for sale. But there were also folks selling Domino's pizza in cardboard boxes.
Groups of men were attempting to fly huge, elaborately decorated, tissue paper kites, many of them 10 or 12 feet tall.
Often the strings of different kites would become entangled, and they would fall - sometimes crashing onto the crowd below.
The festivities were held in the town cemetery, where all of the graves and mausoleums were decorated with fresh flowers.
There were several huge kites - 40 or 50 feet tall - assembled on site with huge bamboo poles. These were then hoisted upright and tied to trees. They were beautiful.
Nick is cuddling Alfredo.
Alisha is playing with Javier, who has cerebral palsy.
Suppertime for the babies.
Maria is feeding Christian.
