Saturday

Home, Home on the plane...  :)

This morning we woke up to.... wait for it....  SUNNY skies!  It rained through the night but was cleared out by morning.

 The Windy Hill guys, Geoffery and Elmer.  We've known them for 3 years, now!  GREAT staff they have!

 Me and the guys

I got to sit by our bus driver's 7 year old son on the ride to the airport.  What a cutie!  This was one of my first real connections with a kid this week.  It felt good to break through his shyness and talk with him.  He played on my phone for quite a while, that was fun to watch because he is so much better at all the games than I am.  Wish he could meet my nephew, Adam, and niece, Maria, I think they would have had a great time together!  I ended up giving him my travel pillow with my OSU pillow case.  He was really excited.  

Sounds like the large groups airport check-in didn't go real smoothly, but they all made it on their flight to Chicago.  I don't know what their plans are once they get there, as some have cars parked there in Chicago...

As for our group of Ken, his 2 daughters, Barb, Pat, David and I, we are on our way to Dallas.  I am writing to you from the plane listening to Awesome God by Rich Mullins!  How true and appropriate it is for the end of the trip.

 This frog was in the corner next to where I was sitting in the airport.  He was so cute, but not sure if he will have much of a life stuck there.  I didn't think I would find any grassy areas out on the tarmack, so I left him.  Good luck, dude!

Thanks for following along.  I promise to add more pics, go through the reminders and add to them and proofread all the entries on Sunday!  

(most pic credits are from Barb, Jennifer, Ellie, or Pat as I didn'tt take too many)

Many blessngs!

Friday

Woke up to a tropical storm overhead. Rained all night long and 'weathered' the storm! :) 

We drove about 2 hours to the cave tubing place. What an awesome experience...... Lots of deep thoughts about being in a cave... Highly recommend that if you've never done it, you should!

Got back and ate lunch and jumped back in the bus to head to xunantunitch (spelling I will fix later) which is a Mayan ruin about 8 miles towards the boarder of Guatemala. We rode a hand-cranked ferry over the river and started climbing a VERY steep hill. About 3/4 of the way up we caught a ride to the visitor center. I sat with Patty while the rest continued the climb up to the ruins. I hear they were beautiful and the group even saw holler monkeys. 

We had a traditional meal of Pabil. It is kinda like a fajita. Yummy!!!!

Our final gathering was awesome and many a tear was shed. Windy Hill had a group come and dance and sing for us.

We were blessed with Fr. Leo, Fr. Selvin, and the 3 seminarians for dinner and the group session.

Gonna miss this place!

Thursday

Awesome morning on all fronts!

Seminary group we set and ready for us! They accomplished so much! There are now 10 new mattresses, cleaned and painted rooms and lots of repairs!

This morning we were with the little kiddos at Santa Elena primary school. We started by singing with them! Lots of singing!!! Michael (the bus drivers son) and Paul recorded it. Loved it! 

Then the kids went back in the rooms we us and read about Noah's ark, made cloud mobiles and puppets! Lots of fun!

We had sandwiches for lunch and then got to work at the seminary. Lots and lots of painting and cleaning! Seems like we got a lot done! 

Sorry about lack of communication but wifi was down.

Wednesday

Started out to Santa Familia! Pure awesomeness! This school is about 40 mins away from Windy Hill (where we stay) on very rough roads. Today was a day of real triggers of memories from living on the Navajo nation for 3 years.  The roads, the people and the school were so much like my 'home' it was a little hard to process. I will probably write more about all of that later.

We came back from there after celebrating mass and having a field day (literally). Courtney and Alyssa planned a lot of fun games and the kids were introduced to a frisbee and parachutes. They loved the tennis balls and hoola hoops, too!

Lunch was great and then a smaller group of us headed into San Ignacio to shop a bit. Many of the shops we've visited before are no longer there. We had a fun outing and got back in time to rest, recooperate and shower before heading to the seminary.

David celebrated a wedding of some Belizean friends of ours at the seminary. Fr. Leo said the mass. Windy Hill catered dinner there. I'm not much of a fish fan, but dinner was awesome! We had a cake for them and then a small bonfire with s'mores. It was cool to see some of the different traditions.

Part of the ceremony involved having a lasso placed over both the bride and the groom.  It was really need to see them "bound" together.  The tinkling of glasses in the US means the bride and groom are supposed to find each other and kiss.  The thought of that truly embarrassed our friends, so each time they gave each other a hug and smiled very big.  It was so sweet.

Afterwards the seminarians gave their testimonies and we had s'mores!

Many blessings!

Tuesday...

We arrived at Santa Elena Primary School this morning ready to celebrate mass. I will post some pics from that 1000+ attended service. Most kids aren't Catholic but still participate by singing and listening respectfully. Should have started at 9 and in reality it was 9:45 when we started the first song. The kids sat respectful for that long waiting.

The students each bring out their chairs or benches.  They carry them from the 2nd floor (which is only reached from very steep stairs).  It is so amazing!  The kids sat there with no electronics and not once did I hear, "I'm bored" or "When will it start"....  Not sure I did that well, myself!  :)

Can't begin to explain how much more smooth today went then yesterday!  Again the VBS team did an outstanding job!  We had some fun middle school aged kids and accomplished all we set out to do! I truly can't say enough about everyone pulling together to get it done. Our afternoons have not gone as planned and we haven't been able to get Barb's awesome prayer service to fit which is disappointing. It is such a great one and hopefully we'll get to use it some day!

The seminary maintenance crew sure has spruced up the place. Each day we go for lunch new things have been done! The roof is coming along really well, thanks to a local man we hire to do the work. It is such a blessing to employ the local people to complete projects so that we aren't just swooping in and "saving the day". Plus they've created such a great report and made some great connections for future possibilities.

Tonight's session was about our own spiritual journey and we mapped it out on a time line. Very insightful activity and if you truly put your heart into the activity it sure can be eye-opening! Fr. Leo brought the seminarians and 2 visiting U.S. Seminarians to meet us tonight after our session. I love our relationship with the seminary!

Monday

Oh my goodness.... Today was full of flexibility!!! Couldn't have VBS outside due to muddy grounds. Went to spur-of-the-moment PLAN B and flew by the seat of our pants the rest of the day! The groups working did such an amazing job!!!!! They jumped in with two feet and had a great time. The classroom is such my comfort zone that I forget this is not everyones. Just because you have kids doesn't mean you want a large group of them! :) Truly can't thank them enough for all they did to make the morning go so much better than I thought it was going to...  seemed like it was just heading down the wrong road quickly!

Seminary peeps were hard at work! Amazing things they accomplish! Some things they want to accomplish this week are: more pieces to the roofing repair, painting many rooms and the ledges around the walk way, new curtains, new sheets, new mattresses, cleaned rooms and any repairs around the place.  It currently has 1 sophomore seminarian (Mateo), 1 incoming freshman seminarian (Sahjir), one graduated seminarian (just this past semester who leaves for St. Louis soon, Marcos) and the head of the place, Fr. Leo.

Rain.... Finally figured out why there is so much rain.... We've got a hurricane off the coast which is bringing lots of rain and humidity and we are feeling it!!!

Sorry for lack of pics, I promise to add those in later! :)  Here are some pics...

Ellie and 2 students at Santa Elena

 

THE Deacon (David), Ellie and several Santa Elena students)

 Jennifer and a little one at Santa Elena

Love to all!

We are all here!!!! :) (Saturday night and Sunday)

Sketchy Internet everywhere for the last 36 hours.... So the blog updates are pretty slow... I'm sorry about that!

So wrote and update for last night and then the power went out and my phone was dead! :(

Saturday night we had a mega storm roll through, Barb and I went to the hospital because she fell and suspected a break in her foot.... Crazy healthcare here. I will write on it more another time. Reminders: private verses public hospital , one was closed, her total bill was $90 U.S. having 2 X-rays and doc consult....)

Had no power from 7-11.... HOT AND STICKY makes it hard to sleep. The lights and AC kicked back on, the cpap went on and off we were to sleep.

Great breakfast with eggs, sausage, beans and toast (rather English, don't you think?).

We went to Sacred Heart Parish church in San Ignacio for church on Sunday morning.  Mr. Chun, the sacristan, is still there.  He is doing very well and is even getting married again, soon.  His first wife of many years, passed away a few years ago.

After church, many in our group met with the children in the parish.  They made rosaries and spent time playing games.  The women who chose to stay after, met in small groups for a brief Bible study. It was so good and we are so blessed by their willingness to discuss and open up about their lives.  There were a few men who also met with a couple of our men and had great conversations.

Came back for shrimp or chicken casadillas for lunch...delicious as always! Sat down in the 'conference' room and got the VBS stuff together. Nervous and excited about these upcoming days. 

Had our first real spiritual activities and quiet time. 

We had pasta carbonera with bacon and salad for dinner. This is one of my favorite dishes! Then the VBS group met.

David stopped by our cabin with an enormous palm branch.  It was really funny and we enjoyed the chat.  I hope to post that picture when I have access to everyone's photos.

I have had the blessing of being in Cabin 17 all 3 years.  This year I had the repeated blessing from the 1st trip of having Barb Uselman and her niece, Ellie Courchane as roommates.  This year, Jennifer Keller (a former student of mine) joined our cabin.  It is a great refuge for me and I enjoyed every last second of being in that cabin this year.

Love to all!!!!