Sunday, July 26, 2009

More Blue Ball Photos

Here are a few more photos from our week with the Blue Ball youth group.



Tony with his buddy, David Dueck. They had a lot of fun playing "dinosuars".


Tony and Baby Ethan.


Emily and Megan posing at the overlook above Antigua.


Charlie and Tony taking a rest during our sightseeing trip to Antigua.



Becca and Emily at the zoo in Guatemala City. On Saturday we took an orphanage, Kid's Alive, to the zoo for the morning.




Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Blue Ball Youth Work Team

We were delighted to host the Blue Ball youth group on an ORI work team July 13 - 20. It was wonderful to see lots of familiar faces and catch up on the news from our home church.


Here is the group posing at the overlook in Antigua on our day of sightseeing. The youth leaders were Jeff and Darlene Stauffer (traveling with Baby Ethan) and Gerhard and Bonnie Dueck.


The group spent their work days at Miguel Magone, a boy's orphanage. One of the projects was pouring a concrete pad and assembling a playset (donated by McDonalds). They also built a large wooden swingset that the kids loved.


Some of the girls worked very hard painting the metal fence surrounding the play area. Another group painted the inside walls of two buildings. And several girls cleaned and organized a mouse infested pantry.


Emily went along with the group on Friday and helped paint the fence.



These guys are the leaders?! Charlie and Ken Auker at the McDonalds in Antigua showing off some of the kid's purchases. An ORI board member travels with each work team, and Ken was the leader for the Blue Ball group.




Monday, July 20, 2009

San Juan Market

On Friday, July 10, we visited the San Juan Market. This market was fascinating. Nearly all of the women were dressed in traditional costumes. And there were no "gringos" in sight - except for us of course.

There were all kinds of fruits and vegetables for sale, many of which we didn't recognize.


This vendor had many interesting dishes for sale.


We even saw dried lizard meat for sale. We did NOT buy any!


Two ladies chatting on a park bench.


I bought a traditional skirt and blouse from this vendor.




More Guest Photos

The girls had a tea party one afternoon. Alisha and Amanda prepared the food, and they all wore clothes from the dress-up box. They had a great time!


We went to the coffee plantation for a cook-out with the Freeds and their guests. The kids had a great time in the pool.


Tony and Abby made a zoo with the blocks and plastic animals.


We don't have a dishwasher, so there were lots of dishes to wash with 14 people in the house. Megan and Emily are taking their turn.


Alisha and Amanda. Best Friends!




Rissler's Visit

We enjoyed having Quentin and Darlene Rissler (Karen's sister) and their four girls visit. They stayed with us from June 30 - July 20.


One morning we took a cable car ride up the mountain and enjoyed a great view of Lake Amatitlan. (From L to R: Amanda, Becca, Quentin, Megan, Darlene, and Abby.)


Abby and Tony were "best buddies".....sometimes.


The girls helped paint four cribs that we then donated to the Amor del Nino orphanage.


Emily is hard at work.



We delivered the cribs on a Saturday afternoon and then stayed to cuddle some babies. Amor del Nino has lots of babies and toddlers.




Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Shoes for Rosa de Amor

On Sunday, June 28, Charlie drove bus for the Salem Hellers Church work team. Our family tagged along for the day.


After church, we took the children from the Rosa de Amor orphanage to McDonalds for lunch. It was a special treat for them, as they don't get out very often.


All of the McDonalds down here seem to have a Ronald statue sitting on a bench....and Tony loves them!

Nick holding Miguel.


I had gathered a variety of shoes from the ORI warehouse, and we also fitted the children for new shoes.



Each of the older girls got a pair of sneakers and a pair of sandals.