Guatemala 2012!

The second village we visited in Guatemala was a unique one. Of the four we visited, this one was the most exuberant! As soon as our feet touched the ground after leaving our bus, we were showered, and I do mean SHOWERED, in confetti. I have never seen so much confetti in my life!

In addition to the confetti, we were also treated to a parade on our way to the local CFCA center. We ended up joining the parade as music was played and children cheered, danced, and clapped for us. They were excited to have visitors!

Once we came to the center, we were treated to more confetti inside and even MORE inside. We had it everywhere—even days later it was found in our hair, in our clothes, all over our bus!

This center was where we felt the most heat. I’m pretty sure I sweated more the day of this village visit than the rest of our time in Guatemala! They set us up at a long table in front of the stage- as in most of the villages, the residents sat behind us…we felt like undeserving celebrities!

We were treated to dances and songs from the local kids and definitely experienced more of the Mayan culture in this village. I don’t really know how to explain it, other than it had a different cultural feel! There were dances with masks and animals, something we didn’t see anywhere else.

We heard from the mother of this little boy, who (if you can believe it!) is ten years old. He’s suffered with leukemia, if I remember correctly. Through CFCA he was able to get treatment and is doing well.

We were also able to witness as a young boy and two elderly people received a wheelchair and walkers, respectively. The elderly lady, oh bless her heart! She kept thanking us for her gift, over and over—even though from what we could tell, she has arthritis badly in her hands and may struggle to use it. Sad smile

We danced a lot, and then the mothers came out in mobs as they wanted us to take pictures with their children. When we asked one of the leaders why this was, since we wouldn’t be able to send each family copies of the pictures, they told us the moms want to make sure we remember and pray for their children. Smile

There are our faithful police followers- told you they were with us all the time! Open-mouthed smile

Until next time…

The first morning we were in Guatemala, before we headed to the first village, we spent maybe an hour and a half in Guatemala City. Our main reason for visiting was Mass in the Cathedral, but it was neat to get our first glimpse of the city downtown and see the local culture.

There were police everywhere downtown, crawling the plaza and wandering the streets. Our group also had our own security men who followed us all week, even into the villages. We joked that once we came back to the states we’d feel comforted if we saw a police officer behind us while driving instead of being worried we did something wrong! Smile We had a few photo ops with our guys- but I think these pictures were before we realized these guys would be with us all week!

Downtown Architecture

The Cathedral—such cool doors!

In the square we found a lot of fruit, meat and ice cream being sold. We were advised not to buy or eat any of it but it was neat to look at!

There were goats wandering around the square, waiting to have their very fresh milk sold.

A shoe-shiner

We did participate in a fun, silly thing in the square. There was a guy offering to have a parakeet pick our fortune. It cost 10Q, just a little over $1, so why not? Mine was very funny- while written in Spanish, it was translated for me and said something about not loving on my boyfriend too much. Haha… Lydia did it too but I am not sure what her fortune said!