Markets, Staining, and Babies, Oh My!

We had another great day at Fundaniños orphanage today! About half of our group was able to join Denny, the orphanage director, on a trip to the local market. What a cool experience! We drove through "main street" in this part of Guatemala City to get to the market. There were vendors and shops all over, with piles upon piles of fresh fruits, vegetables, meat, bread, shoes, clothing, and pretty much anything else you could think of. We bought some corn and chicken to cook for dinner tomorrow, and Denny picked up some bread, baked treats, and other vegetables to restock the kitchen. We also stopped by a supermarket on the way home to get a few liters of Guatemalan soda and snacks for our team to try - including "Grapette" grape-flavored soda, which we saw advertised on several billboards and which apparently tastes like grape-flavored medicine.

At the market!

The rest of the morning was spent finishing our staining projects around the property. We finished staining the wooden fence around the chicken coop, and also stained the little fenced gate by one of the missionaries' houses and started staining the posts of a gazebo by the boys' house - and also continuing with some weed-eating around the playground!

There is a school building on the orphanage property, at the bottom of the hill from the kids' houses and main living area. A few kids go to different schools outside the orphanage, in the city, but most go to the school here. Some of our team members were able to help with the Pre-K class today - and Jen even ended up teaching for most of the morning!! We helped the kids with puzzles, reading books in the library room, and learning some English words for parts of the body, among other activities.

We had a restful afternoon, complete with our first Guatemalan thunderstorm! It is apparently "rainy season" here but we had not had much rain yet this week. Many of the older girls were at karate practice this evening, so it was pretty quiet around the orphanage. We had a "team night" tonight and ordered some pizza. We have also enjoyed getting to spend time today with a new little friend - a 2-day-old baby girl who is staying here with the Fundaniños directors for the time being! They are having a few court hearings this week to decide if she will stay here longer or not. Please pray for God's protection and provision for her life.

Ready to go watch the baby for the night, so the directors can get some sleep!

Hola from Guatemala!

Guat a great start to the week! After 9 hours of travel we arrived in Guatemala City on Saturday at about 7:30 pm local time (9:30pm Raleigh time). We met the orphanage missions coordinator, Vera, at the airport and she took us to get dinner at a local "taco stand" restaurant. It was delicious!! We were amazed at how modern Guatemala City is, as we were driving through from the airport to the restaurant and orphanage. There are so many stores and restaurants, many of them American chains, that are so nice! We drove to the orphanage after dinner and got settled into the volunteer house, where we will be staying for the week. We have a "boys room" and a "girls room" full of bunk beds and we can tell already that it will be a fun week! :)

Our team (minus Catherine) in the RDU airport, ready to go!

On Sunday, we had the great privilege of worshiping at Casa de Libertad, the local church that partners with Fundaniños orphanage and several other ministries in the city. It is part of the Acts 29 church network, just like TCC, and we were amazed at how similar the service and preaching were to TCC's! (minus the different language!) We enjoyed worshiping with them and getting to talk with the pastor and several other people after the service.

Dana and her new best friend :)

The Fundaniños property, looking down the hill from the volunteer house. The kids and staff houses, volunteer house, kitchen, and playground are at the top of the hill, with the soccer field and other open area towards the bottom.

After church, we headed back to the orphanage for our first afternoon with the kids! We helped serve and clean the dishes, then had a brief orientation and tour of the center from the staff here. There are about 50-60 kids living here, mostly ages 4-20 (majority are teenagers and older elementary age). We have been playing soccer with them, four-square, making headbands, sidewalk chalk, and just hanging out and trying to build relationships with them. We love it here!

Hanging out with the kids

On Monday, the kids were at school in the morning, so we helped with a project here: staining part of the fence for the chicken coop! We planned and cooked dinner for all the kids tonight, so we finished our shopping for the ingredients this morning and then a few team members spent most of the afternoon cooking (we made baked ziti casserole, salad, and garlic bread!)  Another highlight of the day was an impromptu dance party in the kitchen this afternoon before dinner. Several of the teenagers living here love to dance, and a few of our team members decided to join the party! We had such a fun time together and are thankful to see the kids opening up to us more and more.