Our Time with Kiki!

My mom was with us for a month beginning mid-June. We had a wonderful time! It got off to a rough start though. My mom's first plane left late which made her miss her final flight from Guatemala City to Petén. The hotel we work with in Guatemala City was all booked up of course. We didn't want to leave my mom outside the airport, not speaking any Spanish, looking for a taxi we know but she doesn't, so Jimmy drove to Guatemala City and back in one day to pick her up, 15 hours round trip! I'm really thankful that they made it safely!

We also finally poured the concrete for the kiddos bathtub. They haven't had a bathtub before. They said it is "just like a hotel!" Haha! Anyway right before my mom got here we filled it with water and unknowingly used the last bit of water in our cistern. The mayor didn't pay the pump's electric bill again, so the first week my mom was here we were on water rations because Jimmy had to haul everything we used.

Oh, and we also didn't realize that right when my mom got here a power line repair worker put in the wrong size fuse, so we went several days without power. Petén always has a way of welcoming our guests. Anytime people are staying with us I worry about them being comfortable in a foreign place and then with all the added mess that Petén was making at the time this caused me to get shingles for the 3rd time. In spite of it ALL we had a wonderful time with Kiki! Nothing can stop that!

Here are some photos from our time with her:

She helped me get my new curriculum ready for next year and finish up some projects in the school room to make it special when we begin kindergarten. We are starting our new school year this Monday!

Jimmy and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary and she watched the kiddos while we went on a date!

There was lots of story reading 

  and cookie making!

 

 

I finally learned how to make my mom's Christmas cookies. Whenever she visits she always brings me those cookies and she did this time too. (I don't like sharing those cookies, ask my kiddos!) I hope my children miss something I make one day. 

 

We celebrated Father's Day and

built lots of forts!

We played tons of games!

 

 

 

  

My mom got to meet all the students and attend our church!

{Youth Group}

Eden got lots of "ping" time. 

We had several suppers on the back porch!

Kiki was also here for the 4th of July!

We had lots of special guests that day!

We also might have made several ice cream runs to Sarita... yum!

Kiki and I went and had lunch together one day just us too! 

Of course we had chocolate mousse!

My mom just fuels my project problem. We had 5 projects going at any given time! Here are some of them:

 

We made curtains for the kids' new rooms. 

My mom refinished our deep freezer. It was all rusty. Now it is a color Eden would approve! I'll have to post my finished pantry soon. It's very different now.

My mom sent me a picture of an outfit she had gotten me before she came. I told her to go back and get her one too so that we could be twins. She did! I love it!

We had a wonderful time with our Kiki! The only thing that could have made it better is if Papa could have come too. We are all very blessed with the family God has given us!

 

Thank you Kiki for spending your vacation time with us and thank you Papa for trying to survive without her for 4 weeks!

{Saying Goodbye}

{The note we found after dropping Kiki off at the airport!}

Girl Time

My mom was here for a month! It went by so fast. Me and my mom always have a bajillion things we want to work on together. We hop from one project to the next at rapid speed, which makes the time seem like it is going by even faster. The first week she was here we planned a little ladies day for the wives at the farm. 

The students are at the farm for 3 years. You grow pretty close during that time. We see an extra strong bond between the first year students. Some of them didn't start off as easy friendships, just because of the differences in personalities, but they have each others' backs now. We have become a farm family. We are constantly trying to foster strong relationships so that we can all be a part of a community that encourages each other for the years of ministry ahead. Once the first group graduates we plan on having bi-annual get-togethers just to exchange ideas, resources, and wisdom. 

I love having ladies at the farm this year! Our first 7 years here were more around Kekchi people who lived in Spanish environments, now we are around village Kekchi (pure Kekchi) so I am constantly learning things about village Kekchi culture. Out of all the different cultures that are blended together in this little country, village Kekchi is our favorite. 

Woman from rural villages usually don't speak much if any Spanish if they didn't get to go to school. We are really thankful that all the wives at the farm have had some education. I think this will allow them to really help their husbands more in ministry. They can read and study the Bible for themselves. Two of the wives are really shy about their Spanish, but they attend class in Spanish and study hard. (There are no study tools or materials available in Kekchi so you have to be able to read Spanish). The third wife is very fluent in Spanish. She isn't shy with me at all. She helps me connect with the other two. The two fiancés (one has since broken off the engagement, but it was the best decision for both) are very fluent. 

 

 So, I invited all of them over to our house for some food and activities. The guys played it up big like they were really upset that they weren't allowed to come! We rubbed it in a lot too. 

 

Anyway, I had saved a bunch of egg crates because I saw some beautiful wreaths on pinterest made out of egg cartons. Only thing is, they only use wreaths for graves here... not really a light hearted  craft for ladies day. 

So me and my mom thought we could make mirrors with the same idea. My mom and I spent all day one day cutting out flowers. We found some cheap Princess Sofia mirrors and popped the backs off and glued them on cardboard. I thought it looked happy and colorful!

 

I found these crepe paper flowers in the basement in the market in zone 1 in the capital (one of my very favorite places). They are for Eden's new room. I used them for this party though too as decorations.

  I have made food for them a couple times, so I know what they do and don't like, haha! I only had food I knew they would enjoy.

 Fruit is pretty expensive for them and hard to find here close. So I got some apples, grapes and strawberries from Santa Elena. They are not that expensive there compared to other fruits. They also like chocolate cake and buttered popcorn! It was all super easy stuff.

 Buffets don't really exist here. If you eat at a Kekchi event or home you are handed a plate of food, I mean you wouldn't make your own plate. I wanted them to be able to choose what and how much they wanted to eat, so buffet style it was! 

They came in real shy. They looked at the food and smiled and giggled. I tried to encourage them to start eating. There were 5 stools in front of the counter, so they all pulled up a stool and sat down at the buffet. That's exactly what it looked like you should do! They still wouldn't grab anything. I kept encouraging them to take a plate and load it up. They said, "How much?" I said, "Over the next 3 hours we are going to eat all of this food, it is only for you, so eat up!" I knew if I could get Eu to eat, I could get everyone else to. Sure enough, that's what happened. Once I got a plate in her hand, everyone got involved! And we did eat ALL of the food!

 I should get them to start a blog and post all of my cultural confusions, haha! I know they have loads of funny stories they could tell. They asked each other in Kekchi if you were supposed to eat the "flowers" on the strawberries. I told them no. Someone else decided you weren't supposed to eat the skin on the grapes, so after that they peeled the rest. Different people like different things, so I didn't mess with that.

 So we painted and talked and laughed and ate. It was a nice relaxing day! Ni was very relaxed!

  

I'm really thankful that my mom was here to meet them. With her help it wasn't as much work to get everything ready, we had a blast setting stuff up. 

 The cupcakes had pink icing because the day before P and N went to the doctor and found out they are having a girl! (We encourage them to get checkups, but I was surprised they went ahead and found out. I was glad though!)

 I love these ladies and I am so thankful for their desire to serve the Lord. Please pray for them! Pray for all of us, as we grow in the Lord together and endeavor to reach Petén with the Good News!

Caroling on Christmas Eve

A few years ago we went caroling on Christmas Eve with the people from our Bible study in SR. It was so much fun and a big hit with the members. It just so happened to be the Christmas my parents were here, so it was really neat when we found out they were coming this year too;.! 

{The first ones to arrive!}

Since we are in San Pancho now I wasn't sure how the turnout would be because Christmas Eve is a bigger deal here than Christmas Day. Our church isn't within walking distance for most of our people anymore, so I was little concerned. Jimmy was confident the whole time (like always) and told me not to worry. Well he was right! We had a super turnout. And like before, everyone loved it!

Everyone helped carry the cookies we had wrapped to give away. 

 Each one had an invitation attached and then each person got a turn giving it to a family who came to the door.  

We had about 40 of them and we used them all just in the couple blocks around our church building.

 We all had candles, even the kids... yikes! There were some close calls (like my guitar strap almost catching on fire, haha) but it looked beautiful!

We had been practicing several Christmas songs for the last couple of weeks. We all had cheat sheets though, even me!

 It was extra special to me that my dad got to play his clarinet with us. 

It started sprinkling right after we started, but then it stopped. That is a big blessing! It was already pretty swampy and slippery. 

 Each family came out with a smile! They all were really friendly. 

 Jimmy would greet them and say that we were from San Pancho Baptist Church, someone would hand them a gift and we would all start singing!

 Some of our people were kind of timid singing, but they all liked being identified together. I think it created even more unity!

 One of the houses was next door to the bar they owned. The music from the bar was blaring. When they answered the door to their house, they ran next door to turn off the music so that everyone could here our church singing. I though that was really sweet!

 The people really couldn't have been any nicer!

 Afterwards Jimmy had saved some of the unwrapped cookies for us to have a little party together in our fellowship hall. He had made ponche too! 

 My mom had pushed Eden around in the stroller the whole time. I was very grateful! Some of the roads were a mess. I was thankful that E was a sweetheart all night too!

I think it was a wonderful evening and I pray that the families around our church building will come visit us one day soon! I think this was a perfect way to introduce ourselves! (¡¡¡Gracias a Norma por tomar todas las fotos para mí!!!)