Wrapping Up and Shipping Out

So on our last evening here, we decided to go get some Picadilly Pizza. Along with a couple of Guatemalan beers, it was a nice way to complete our trip and prepare for the journey home.  Even Eve has eyes for a cold one!

 It has gotten to the point now where we have all come to peace with returning home, and even anxiously await it.  Things are very different here from home.  The water is not all safe like we enjoy back home.  The streets aren't as nice, or as clean.  The air has a lot of pollution in it when walking around the cities because the roads are so tight making it difficult at times to breathe.  The poverty here appears more desolate than back home.  Middle class Americans are considered quite wealthy down here.  Where we spend 10,20, or 50 dollars in the States and don't think very much about it, down here that's a very large sum of money to most people.  When we spend $2000 on tuition for our children or whatever amount, people down here struggle just to come up with $60 to send their kid to school for a year.  Back home it takes approximately an hour to drive 60 miles depending on your stretch of roadway.  Here it takes almost 2 hours unless you are on the freeway.  Back home, we have everything automated, and tools to make every task easy.  Here they carry firewood and coffee on their backs for miles and miles.  

So much appreciation can be felt by adults that experience this kind of a culture, and the special experience it is to be here and live it.  As with any plans of any parent, we make choices to include our children on things we wish for them to experience and hope that they take some kind of "adult" lesson out of it.  That's probably wishful thinking.  But if after all of this time on this trip, my daughter Lily uses random Spanish words when talking with her friends, or thinks harder about it when she doesn't want to share her toys, or makes sure to finish her meal because children down here starve every day, then I will consider this a huge success.  The fact that we all stayed predominantly healthy, safe, and without any major pitfalls, and learned a bunch of Spanish along the way, this has been a success already.  If some of the lessons get forgotten in the future, then, as parents, we will always be here to remind them.  :-)  

Lily and Eve are ready to go home, they started building forts in our room just like they do at home!

 There is so much a person could write having the experiences we are blessed to be able to partake in.  There are many things to be thankful for: the blessings of experiencing a different culture and environment, the blessings of family and friends both at home and abroad, the blessings of individuals you know you will never forget, even if it was for a small period of time in the grand scheme of things, taking in the overwhelming beauty of nature around us and appreciating it even though many times we hate it depending on how much it intrudes in our life, and being aware of the signs that God gives us to encourage us on our journey in the way that he calls us.  We only have to take a second to take notice of the things he places around us.  For myself, I have a great family. I have great friends both at home, and here in Guatemala.  I have a great job and work for a company that I plan to help carry forward now and in the future.  I am blessed with a house to live in, and food to eat each day.  I do my best to look for the ways that God calls me, and I will never admit to seeing all the ways he calls me, I do my best.  When I find myself wondering if I make the right choices, and if I chose right in a difficult situation, I always try to center myself, clear my thoughts, and even for a second, just look around and see if there is some sign from Him that I'm on the right path.  When I am able to do that, I sometimes catch, even if for a short time, something that answers my plea.  

This showed up the last evening as the sun was going down.  I take this as a sign that I am on the right path, and that at least in part of my life, I'm making the right choices.  :-)

Thanks for reading and sharing in our experiences from this trip.  It's a pleasure and a blessing that we have been able to share this with you, and if at any point, there is anything that you would like to know more about feel free to contact us.  We are an open book!  :-)

Take care and God bless!

A Spanglish Post

Our amigo asked us to do a blog post in Spanish. However since that would be impossible for most of you to read, I thought I would do a Spanglish post with a few introductory Espanol words to get you all started (:
I can't believe we're going home tomorrow. When I was feeling homesick at the beginning of our viaje, it felt like tres weeks was a year away. Now it's increible to think we are going home tomorrow. We are all feeling muy homesick though, so I know it's time.

There are things I will miss. Cafe while looking at Volcan Agua, Volcan Pacaya, and Volcan Acetenango in the manana is a big one. Guatemala is a land of stark contrasts. Stunning natural beauty walks hand in hand with desolating poverty: the real reason we became acquainted with this pais at all. It's easy to forget until your racked with amoeboes vomitting: "oh yeah, the agua source isn't filtered like back home." (Lily and I are feeling much better, gracias for your thoughts. Pray for the folks back at the mission who are feeling pretty enferma). I will definitely not miss brushing my dientes with bottled water. Or constantly sanitizing my hands. Or worrying about every little thing Eve puts in her boca.

But in reality these are small inconveniences that we have freely chosen to expose ourselves to. The larger social problems of a lack of food, health, educacion, proper sanitation, shelter, and access to even the most basic of needs is not chosen as was this trip for our familia. And so we continue to struggle. How do we help? Was coming here a aprender the language for future trips worth the cost, or would the better moral choice have been to just send our dinero? Indeed, does throwing money at social causes really help at all? Tough questions, but questions we should never stop asking ourselves so long as el mundo is turning.

So I'm left sitting at the end of our trip wondering: was it worth it? Exposing Lily, even on a pequeno scale, to how much bigger our mundo is than her school, city, estado, country, was certainly rewarding. Whether she has any real understanding of 3rd world poverty, I doubt. She's a relationship-oriented child (much like Latin-American culture, ironically), so probably the most memorable parte de this trip for her was meeting new amigos and people from the mission she has heard us talk about, but never met. The gato at Fernando's cafe next door will probably be the thing she tells you all was her "favorite part of the trip."

And it was certainly bien to be away somewhere as a familia and just spend quality time together. But this trip in particular was certainly not very relaxing. Not a vacation by any stretch of the palabra. Most of our dias were filled with language immersion, and estudiando. Brett and I were more academically challenged than we have been in many years. Learning an idioma is intellectually exhausting, especially while caring for young ninos at the same time. I think if I was going to sum this last 3 semanas up in one word, it would be "hard." But we went into it saying we didn't want a vacation, we wanted an adventure. And nothing worth doing in life is easy. I like doing hard things, the hard things are usually worth it, they're more memorable. Plus our family motto is: Go Big or Go Home! So it fits.

We miss you all. We hope our blog made your mundo a little big bigger as well. We are all one grande human family, and taking care of one another is one of the most importante cosas we can teach our ninos. One of my favorite theologians, Thomas Merton, wrote about martyrdom and I have never forgotten his words: . “Why should I be afraid of martyrdom, [he asks us]? I am already suffering it. My body is being killed in Hungary and Yugoslavia and China and it was killed before in Mexico and Spain and Germany. And in France a hundred and fifty years ago and in England and Ireland and Scandinavia before that. I am always being killed." He had an unequivocal understanding of what it means to be "one big human family." That we are all connected. I hope that one day, I feel that level of connection to humanity. 

For now, I do what I can. Which is all that I can do. We hope that our trip has inspired you to do "small things with great love as well."

And if you find yourself thinking: "what do I do?" Don't guilt-trip yourself. Social-change doesn't come from wracking yourself with guilt. But maybe think about the things and people you really care about, and ponder how you care. And then watch this song. We are musicans after all...you didn't really think you were doing to get away from our blog without at least one song, did you? (;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ccjjt5OihM

Lori

Today is the day you've all been waiting for!

Many of you have been asking us when we will be posting about the mission projects and all the great work that happens here. Well today is the day you've all been waiting for. Since the work-week finally began again, we were able to get lots of pictures and tour the project areas and see all the great work that has been done in the last year. Below you will see Lily and Brett, yes, riding around in the back of a pickup truck (come and get me mom!), and getting all the goods on the good being done! 

CLINIC

Medical care, along with education, was one of the first needs expressed by the people when the Parish began its socio-economic programming more than 45 years ago. No health care facilities existed in San Lucas when the Parish began its work and, in 1964, with the support of the Sisters of Notre Dame a small clinic was built adjacent to the Parish to meet the people's health needs. Reflecting the overall situation of poverty within indigenous communities in Guatemala, the health problems in San Lucas and surrounding communities are largely the result of inadequate access to housing, food, and potable water.  More than one in every 25 infants dies before their first birthday. Malnutrition affects about a quarter of all children and infections, including diarrhea and pneumonia cause widespread suffering and preventable death.

 St Thomas kids doing inventory for the clinic. HUGELY important for the surgical teams coming in to know what we have on hand.

 Learning about the clinic

 The backup generator that our group last January fundraised for. We found out that if there was a power failure during surgeries that there was no backup system, and in Guatemala, where natural disasters are frequent, we had to do something. Fully installed and used TWICE since it's installation. Yay for friends!

 Dr Will talking to today's new group from San Diego about his work out of the clinic in San Lucas.

WOMEN'S CENTER

 The Women's Center was one of Fr Greg's dreams. It makes us so happy to see it finished and in use because he was never able to. After the Civil War when many of the women were left widowed and without an income, they really needed a place to gather together and share their stories and their grief at having lived through such violence. At the women's center they are able to bring their children who have a safe place to play and teach one another traditional cooking, weaving, sewing, and wash clothes.

 We can't get Lily to leave Mario alone...I wonder if he's gotten any work done since we arrived...

Sewing Machines

Women's washing pila

REFORESTATION

 Reforestation is an incredibly important project within the mission. Because the people still use wood for their home stoves, the loss of trees results in frequent landslides when rains are heavy during the summer months. Toribio is super passionate about his work with these lovely baby Colorado trees that Lily is posing with. 

 One of the things I love seeing while here is the way that nothing goes to waste. Many of the things that we call "garbage" and throw away serve a purpose in Guatemala. (For instance, any food waste like banana peels doesn't get thrown in the garbage at meal time, but goes into the compost bin for fertilizer at the Coffee project). Here you see Lily bouncing around at reforestation, where spoons are carved from leftover wood. If you're lucky, we just might have some to sell when we get back (;

 COFFEE!!! One of the crowning jewels of Fr Greg's time in San Lucas. Buying coffee at a fair, consistent price, that doesn't change with the wildly fluctuating market of coffee provides a sustainable wage to families that they can count on year after year and not have to worry if they will be able to provide for their families. It's easy to grab that can of Folgers at the grocery store, but keep in mind that if your food is "easy and cheap" it's probably at the cost of a worker in another country being paid next to nothing for their hard work. Buy Local or Fair! It's really important.

COFFEE

 The drying patios. That little red coffee berry goes through a lot of different phases before it's that nice smelling roasted beverage you love so much.

 Lily and the husker

 Lily and one of the wash basins for coffee.

 Brett and Lily got lucky and were able to see the workers bringing in their bags of coffee to be purchased and processed by the mission coffee project.

EDUCATION

It may be a tiny picture (I hate technology), but education is NOT a tiny issue here in Guatemala.

When Fr. Greg arrived in San Lucas Toliman, school was not available to the children. The only option for education was found on one of the surrounding coffee plantations, where the owner had established a small school for non-Maya children.

With education inaccessible, discrimination was commoplace against the Maya (90%), who were consequently unable to find employment off of the coffee plantations. The Colegio serves children from pre-kindergarten through sixth grade, with a student population of approximately 625 students. The average class size is about 28 students, while the pre-primary grades and sixth grade have up to 48 students in a classroom! 

The school is constantly growing and the parish is looking to add classrooms this year to the existing 19 classrooms to better suit the needs of the school.  The school is served by 31 dedicated members of the faculty and administration, many of which attended the Parish school during their elementary education.

The Results of forty years of affordable, quality education
When the school first began, educational indicators in San Lucas were well below national standards. A study done in 1964 showed 2.5 percent literacy in the area, with one school operating in the area. A current census shows literacy rates well over 85 percent, with the majority of illiteracy in older adults.

Comparably, national literacy rates are at 70.6 percent. Much lower, however, national literacy rates for indigenous are at 57.5 percent, female literacy rates even lower at 49 percent. These changes are witness to the positive impact of the Parish school.

HOW MANY STUDENTS CAN SAINT ANTHONY'S HELP???

Which brings us to a special challenge we would like to issue to Lily's school, Saint Anthony's Elementary. For $200 per year, you can sponsor a child who would not otherwise be able to afford an education. Going to school might seem like a DRAG when it's cold outside and you would rather stay home...but for many children in the world, it's a DREAM! And it is one that you can help fulfill with your "Dimes for Guatemala" project. So tonight, go home, dig through the couches, look around in the laundry room, find as many coins as you can!!! It might seem like a silly thing, and it might be easy to forget, but try really, really hard tonight, to remember to collect those dimes for all the friends that Lily is making here in San Lucas. We want to see them be able to go to school WELL BEYOND the 6th grade and find good jobs when they are older...just like you will be able to do because of your education at Saint Anthony's.

Thank you so much for reading our blog. We are so excited at all of the messages we've gotten thanking us for sharing our trip with you. Even if you don't go to Saint Anthony's you can help! Visit www.sanlucasmission.org and read more, donate money, invite us to come and talk to your church, school etc. We love Fr Greg and we love this mission, so we'll drive just about ANYWHERE to talk about it (:

Love, Brett, Lori, Lily and Eve

Knowing Your Past Helps the Future

Hola!  Yesterday was full of new experiences for Lily and it allowed us to share our history with the mission so that Lily could better understand why we are here.  We started the morning with breakfast and 9:30 mass, and moved into viewing a freshly finished video documenting the life of Fr Greg put together by Katie Wallyn.  It was a great summary of his journey here in Guatemala, and what led him to be the person  that he was.  When it is finished and published, I would highly recommend viewing it.  It's a great look inside the mission, and what they do to help the community of San Lucas.  Once Lori and I wiped up our tears from our missing Fr. Greg, we went from there to visit his tomb in the cemetery.  

We were able to spend a lot of time with the new Volunteer Coordinator here at the mission (the aforementioned Katie Wallyn) and it was a real pleasure to get to know her.  With God's help I'm sure she will be a great addition to the mission family here, and will do a great job!  Walking up the cemetery road to where Fr Greg was buried brought back beautiful memories of our journey here for his burial, and the amazing part we were called to play in helping to return his body to the people he loved so much.  The beauty they expressed in their sorrow and farewell was truly a breathtaking sight, and it will be something that we never forget.  If you look at the other blogs posted by me, you can find an entire blog dedicated to that trip.  There are insights from his family and closest friends, as well as myself and a few lucky people that were able to attend with us.  

You can see in the picture below, Lily giving her greetings to Fr. Greg.  We also took a moment to say a prayer for his intercession before we went along with our day.  It was a special moment to share with Lily and Eve.

 A look back down cemetery road.

 Here is a panoramic view from Fr. Greg's tomb looking out towards the city.

Once we finished with our cemetery visit, we continued with Katie back to the long term volunteer house.  There we hung out with the long term volunteers:  Katie, Brady, and Anna.  They were great to be around and we had fun playing LeftCenterRight, Farkle, Bananagrams, and Scrabble.  Eve even got to play with a large blanket provided by Katie and had fun wrapping herself up in it. 

 We then took some time back at Chona's house to relax a bit before going to visit our friends David and Anna at their place.  There were some low hanging clouds that Lily thought were pretty cool.

 The picture below shows Casa Spencer, which is where David and Anna stay when they are down to visit Anna's family.  It's a nice little place, and they offer great hospitality.  They are great friends to have!

 In the process of preparing the meal, Eve again has been a hit, and made some new friends.  One of the ladies helping prepare the meal asked if she could care for her while we relaxed and talked with David.  It was a treat seeing Eve interact with her!

 This is a look inside Casa Spencer where we spent our evening.  Dave had some great beer on hand, and we were able to unwind and talk about how things at the mission are going, and also receive an update on the life of Dave and Anna as well.  Anna is a native Guatemalan, and met Dave when he was stationed here as part of the Peace Corps.  They are a beautiful couple, and walk back and forth between Spanish and English, which makes it really fun to talk to them.

 Remember in yesterday's post when Lily frightened the kids?  Well Anna smoothed things over and talked to the mother about having the oldest girl come hang out with Lily!  It was great seeing them interact.  They played follow the leader, hide and seek, and drew some great pictures as well.  Say hi to Alejandra!  It was great to see Lily so interested in befriending a local girl.  She was really sweet and very polite!  We even talked a bit in Spanish to help her feel more comfortable.

We are about to head out on a tour of the Mission and the projects.  Lily is excited to see everything, so we will post either later today or tomorrow to share with you what we all learned!  

Just so you know, it's illegal to do this at home...

Ahhh, to be in San Lucas. After a good night of much needed rest, and a fabulous breakfast courtesy of Chona, Olga, and the other women who work in the kitchen, we promptly hopped in the back of a pickup truck. Didn't really this would be such a big deal to Lily, but you would've thought we asked her if she'd like to go to DisneyWorld! She promptly told Ronnie, "just so you know, even though it's illegal to pet the dogs here...it's illegal to do THIS in Minnesota! My Dad NEVER lets me ride in the back of his pickup truck!"

 I didn't exaaactly tell her that it was illegal, but I made it out that it was a pretty important rule, so "illegal" works I guess (;

We spent the day running around with old friends and a few new ones. I'll caption a few of the pictures below.

 A stunning view of the entire city from some land that Chona's son is currently cultivating. Coffee, avocados, lemons, medicinal plants and NATURAL fertilizers. Nature is so cool (:

 See, she had close supervision to prevent flying out. I know it's not exactly a seatbelt but...

 BEEHIVE!!! Don't worry, non-stinging kind (:

 We visited a really cool place called IMAP where Chona's son and wife work with people in the community on developing ecologically friendly ways of growing and cultivating different crops, but also developing things like sanitation and stoves in a healthy and NON-counter cultural way.

Lily would like to say that this is a glass couch, and she got to sit on it (:

 The pooper (: They use the refuse as fertilizer a couple years from now, don't worry, and NO, not on anything we eat (:

 A Maya agricultural calendar, tool dealy that you line up with the appropraite season, moon cycle, etc to learn what you should plant!!! We don't need this in MN at all!

 Eve is making friends too, Chona's grand daughter Mia (:

 I suck at wearing Eve on my back, but I'm trying none the less.

 While we were out picking coffee beans with Dave and Ana, Lily came upon some children playing and helping pick coffee. She was so over the moon to see other children that she ran up to them like a crazy Tarzan child and scared the crap out of them and they fell over. Their mom called them up the hill, probably frantic that this little gringo kid came out of nowhere. We were pretty embarrassed, but Luckily we had Dave and Ana with to explain that she was just really excited to see other kids, and they arranged a play date for tomorrow (: So now we are laughing about it...kind of. We had a long talk about how kids here don't play quite as crazy as we do. They are much more mild-mannered...we'll see if she picks up on it by Monday...