Pictures!!!!

Sorry that these last few blogs had to be photo-less. Now I plan to remedy that. Thanks to Allen, by the way, for making CDs with everyone's pictures on them. I've selected a few pictures, and divided them into specific categories.

Where We Went

A pretty good representation of the streets of Solola in general. The little red car-like things are called "tuk tuks". They are like taxis. The kids were begging to ride in one all week. They got their chance Tuesday,

after we went to the market.

This is the view from Eagle's Nest. Volcanoes, Lago Atitlan, towns down the mountain, and razor wire.

This is a view of another town in the mountains that we passed a few times. The really colorful part at the bottom? That's a cemetery. Not kidding. The brightest, least gloomy graveyard I've ever seen. These Guatemalans sure love color.

This is a view of Lago Atitlan. It has been called the most beautiful lake in the world. I'm not arguing.

This is a photo of one of the volcanoes. Between our team, I think we must have at least a thousand pictures of this particular slab of earth, in varying conditions of light and clouds.

What We Did

We met a single mother named Maria. She came on Sunday to show us all the beautiful jewelry and weaving she makes. We bought a lot of stuff; it was like a Guatemalan tupperware party. Throughout the week we got to know and love Maria.

Jeff's company donated a bunch of nice shoes and hats and socks, and we brought some t-shirts too, for these construction workers at Eagle's Nest. They were so happy! It was quite touching.

We spent a lot of time with the kids at the orphanage, who are adorable! Here their attention is captivated by something down in the yard. I never saw them all stand so still and quiet. Also, you may notice that the kids are dressed alike. This day was apparently "denim day".

Here's some of the orphanage kids again. Zach and Chad liked pulling them around on this wagon. That day was "green day".

Our major construction project at Eagle's Nest was digging a couple of holes for a septic tank to go in for the new church building. Here's Anna in the hole.

Here's school number one, Monday morning. We estimate about 250-300 kids here. You can see Anna, Aaron, and Pastor Neddy.

School number two, Tuesday morning. A small, private Christian school. This is the one we thought was a high school. It turned out to be mostly elementary-age kids. This was definitely the best organized school event we did.

School number three, also on Tuesday. The kids were age 3 to 6. It was crazy trying to give the kids structure.

The news came when we were at the "park"! Anna and Pastor Neddy talked. We shared the gospel with an even larger audience!

We spent a couple of nights like this, preparing the strings for the salvation bracelets we would explain and make with people the next day. We estimate that we made about 700 bracelets.

Just For Fun

On Saturday we took a boat tour of the lake.

Imagine all the fines for this in the US... then think about how in Guatemala people do this every day.

The universal sign for greasy food. We went to McDonald's three times in Guatemala.

The Stokes and Donna all got to try on traditional Mayan outfits in Santiago. This one's for the mantle!

Aaron's birthday was Sunday the 26th. We each made him a card, on paper ripped out of a notebook.

We went on an amazing zip-line on Wednesday afternoon.

Here's the hostel where we stayed on Thursday night. Home of one shower and the 4 AM shampoo lady.

There was a marimba band in the Guatemala airport. No joke. They didn't even have a tip jar or anything.

We had a bit too much fun practicing with the balloons one night...

I have never seen so many bananas. Ever.

So that wraps up our photo blog. This is only a very small sample of the hundreds of pictures everyone took in Guatemala for your visual enjoyment.

Back in the USA

After the longest travel day of my life, we're home.

Most of us didn't get quite enough sleep at the hostel, thanks to the lady who came in at 4:00 AM asking for shampoo. Somehow I slept through that, though no one else did.

We had planned to leave for the airport at about 8:30, but we were all up and ready by 7:45, so we left early. Consequently, we got to the airport about five hours early. They told us we couldn't even check in until 9:30, so we looked for breakfast (and found a Pollo Campero). When we finally did check in, we learned that our flight to Atlanta, scheduled to leave at 12:30, was delayed until about 1:40. This was the first domino in a long chain of delays. We were worried about making our connection, so we tried to switch to a later flight from Atlanta to Raleigh. We didn't all make it onto the same flight – the Kendalls and Margaret were switched to an even later flight.

Finally, after about three hours of standing at the check-in counter, we trudged down to a little shopping area in the airport where we ate breakfast and bought more souvenirs, before going through security. My mom's bag was searched because she had fingernail clippers with a one-inch nail file (how dare she!). Anna's bag was searched because she had dried fruit, that she bought at Costco. In America. I have mixed feelings about airport security procedures.

We ate lunch in the airport (are you counting? that's two meals so far), then we got on the plane to Atlanta. We arrived at about 7:15 EST. After we got through the chaotic customs and immigration process, we got the bad news. The second domino had fallen. The flight that most of us were on, scheduled to leave at 9:45 was delayed until 11:05. As far as we knew, the other three's flight was on time, at 10:50.

Allen Kendall (who commutes to Boston, remember? He spends a lot of time in airports) directed us to the best food court for dinner (three meals in airports). We found our gate early, because most of us hadn't been assigned seats yet. Then we got more bad news. Our flight was now delayed until 11:50. (That's delay number three). We played cards, we ate Cinnabon, we got coffee, we waited in line. Finally, we got on the plane which left at about 12:20 (thanks to delay number four). By the grace of God, for some unknown reason, Mom and I and Gabrielle and Zachary got to ride in first class.

We finally arrived in Raleigh at a little after 2:00 AM. Then we caught the news of delay number five: the flight that the Kendalls and Margaret were on didn't leave Atlanta until 1:00 AM. Chris's wife Teressa and son Timothy met us at the airport.

Next we spent a good hour or so at the baggage claim, trying to find all our thirteen checked bags, which were scattered among three different flights. We found all of them but one (a Pinon bag, which is coming from Atlanta today).

Finally, weak and weary, we climbed onto the minibuses at about 3:00. We got to Westover at about 4:30. I finally made it back to my own bed at 5:00 AM. My parents woke me up at 1:00 this afternoon.

So that, my friends, is the epic saga of the delayed flights of doom. Thanks for reading.

More to come: trip photos!