Thursday Word of the Day: FINISHED!!!!! We are finished with our brick patio!! No minute today was wasted as we raced to finish the patio before the end of our final work day. The morning was a little chilly, but we got to work as soon as we arrived. There were bricks to be laid, bricks to be found and cleaned, and a flower bed to be built. At the far edge of our patio, we used landscaping timber to create a flower bed, so eventually flower and shrubs could be planted to block the view of the parking lot beyond. [View Full Entry]

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Wednesday March 19th Word of the Day: Precipitation!!! Yes… Precipitation, not snow like we hear home got this week but good old rain. Because of the rain we decided to wait to head out to our job site until after it stopped raining. So after breakfast at 6:00 a.m. we had about an hour and a half of free time. What better to do with free time but sleep! Morgan and Matt helped out in the kitchen cleaning up from breakfast while the rest of us took a nap. We arrive at our work site about 9:00 a.m. ready for work, [View Full Entry]

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Day 1: Monday : Word of the Day: Dirt Our first workday started when the lights in our sleeping rooms came on at 6:00 am. After the initial shock of the early hour, we went to breakfast (Biscuits and Gravy plus scrambled eggs) and got prepared for our day. We then drove to our worksite in Biloxi. The quickest way to get from Ocean Springs to Biloxi is across a bridge that was rebuilt after the hurricane. The bridge has a great view that we have yet to become tired of. The house we are working at is just a few [View Full Entry]

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Greetings from Camp Victor in Ocean Springs, Mississippi! Our trip began at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday as the voice of god through the Electronic Oracle Tomtom led us south. Driving straight through to make it to Ocean Springs before lights out at 10:00 pm, we opted for a rolling picnic for lunch, where Zan and Susan served sandwiches made to order from the backseat. The ultimate contrast in sandwiches orders came from the front, where Matt wanted turkey on white, nothing else, and Scott wanted the works: Ham, Peanut butter, Jelly, Cheddar Cheese, and Mayo on Wheat. After searching for more [View Full Entry]

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Yes...in case you were wondering... We're still alive! And surprisingly healthy to boot! Again... sorry for the delay in the updates. We have just all been working hard, and there has been so much to do that we hated to take time out of the workday to go to the internet cafe while others were slaving in the hot sun. Although we've been busy, I can probably give you a quick summary of what we've been doing since the completion of the school desks: Bending steel Cutting rebar Twisting wires Digging holes to China As usual, Mami's backyard has been transformed [View Full Entry]

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Monday and Tuesday the group has primarily been working at Mami’s house. The main project at the moment is to construct and paint school desks for a remote “jungle school” that we have been helping out over the years. They were recently able to build another classroom, and so we’re providing them with some of the supplies they’ll need for the additional children. We’ve gotten a lot accomplished already, but we also have some “fallen soldiers.” Of course, we dearly miss our friend Jen. (Know that you have been in our thoughts and prayers every day my dear!) Some of the [View Full Entry]

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Greetings friends! First of all, we want to apologize for the time delay in our updates. Finding internet here in Retalhuleu has been slightly more difficult than we expected…not to mention finding time with all the hard work everyone has been doing! On Sunday, we left Guatemala City early in the morning and headed south towards Reu. On the way, we stopped to spend the afternoon with our farm family. We first met the farm family about three years ago, when our old school bus broke down along the side of the highway. Many members of the team were extremely sick, [View Full Entry]

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It's about 10:30pm here in Guate, and most everyone is fast asleep from the day's adventures. As I lie awake in an attempt to update you all, the music from nearby parties combines with the traffic of chicken buses below and American fighter jets overhead. It's not quite your typical lullaby. (As some of you may or may not know, President Bush is currently in the middle of a somewhat unwelcome tour of Latin America... and it seems as if the US is using these extremely loud fighter jets to remind people that they'd better not try anything. And this is [View Full Entry]

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¡Hola amigos! Can you believe that we leave for Guatemala in less than 24 hours?! It hardly seems possible! As a matter of fact, it wouldn't be possible at all if it wasn't for the support you all have given us. Thank you. You have contributed your time, donations, dollars, thoughts and prayers. Without these gifts, our mission this year would not be possible. As most of you know, this year's trip is especially exciting because we will be breaking ground on a new school called La Escuela de los Santos, or the School of the Saints. This school will act [View Full Entry]

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