Now we're in Guatemala City

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Here we are in Guatemala City, staying at a great guest house, Casa San Jose. (The name is woven in the bed covers, original Guatemalan art.)

First, a correction about our puppet show scripts= the scripts were translated by Pam Munoz associated with the Utatlan School in Santa Cruz el Quiche. She had her family and students tape the voices for our puppet skits. CEDEPCA is coordinating our transportation in Guatemala and our stay in Guatemala City. (Thank you, Sandy, our leader, who went on the mission trip 2 years ago and with the others from the Mission Committee, were motivated to to a trip again this year.(

I'm trying to see if I can upload short videos. I have some of the children, our team in our yellow t-shirts that Christina made. (We have a map of Guatemala on the back and have fun poking each other on the map and saying,

We're here and now we're going there!

Jeff said we should have put the map on our shoulders since we all probably need a shoulder rub. We're moving fast and working hard, but loving it!

We arrived in Guat. City, ate at McDonalds, got in our great van with our facilitator, Walter, who drives, translates, prays with us, and facilitates the trip in many many ways. We drove 3.5 hours to Quiche, checked into the local hotel (named for the old kingdom that used to be there, Gunaraah. (A word from the original Indian language for that area. Utlatlan is the translation.)

We gave our puppet shows as practice Sunday morning in Sunday school, after attending the church service and being the special guests who sang a few songs and tried to introduce ourselves in Spanish. (I did a translation on the web site www.freetranslation.com.)

Then we gave the shows the next day at two schools, one was very rural and very poor. The first show is about the prodigal son. The puppets on the side are a teenage girl talking about a problem with her parents to a wise adult. The adult tells the story and the other puppets act it out on the stage. We also have some short shows about losing a necklace, taking a simple gift to a party but it's appreciated because it's all the child can afford to give. While changing scenes we sing catchy songs like Jesus Loves Me the Bible Tells Me So, in Spanish. We are really a mission trip, but gently educating. The puppet shows are unusual. No other group does anything like it. The students love it.

Since we were only in Quiche for 2 full days, we worked hard to finish as much painting as we could. We scraped and painted 2 classrooms, (two coats), a front wall, and the front of the pastor's house. The last day we took a little time for the internet cafe on the corner and send and checked emails.

Yesterday we drove back to Guatemala City. We switched facilitators and now have Jackie, Walter's wife, who is Scottish and has been here for many years. Also luckily, we have a good van and great weather. Although it's the rainy season, we have had only one brief shower. This must be the Canicula, a dry period that usually lasts about 10 days during the rainy season. I hope it does last 10 days!

Today we gave the puppet show at the school by the dump, toured the housing by the school, drove through an incredible cemetary, walked between the mauseleums to see the dump and housing from an overview, ate a wonderful lunch at a restaurant with a mariachi band, went to the CEDEPCA office and had a very informative talk on the history and current affairs of Guatemala and saw the important role of Christians as an organizing force for justice.

The last mayor of Guat. City, who was the President of the country before, Alvara Arzu, was the motivating force behind moving the dump residents off the dump to housing beside it. The people had made actual shacks on the dump. The parents and children collect the materials and sell them. One family is in charge of plastics, one cardboard, one glass, etc. We saw the tin housing and the cinderblock housing that's being built. One of the teachers who lives in the housing, took us on a tour. I took a lot of pictures and will upload some.

We wanted an overview of this project, so we went to the cemetary that overlooks the area. We joked that we certainly weren't having the typical tourist tour! The pictures are of mauseleums and vultures and junk.

Now it's singing time. Everyone else is having the nightly sing-along. I'm going to stop and join them. Adios.

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Comments

[Taina]

thanks!
Thanks for clearing up the puppet shows for me.