Noventa y dos (92)

Three weeks down and three weeks to go. I can not believe it has already been three weeks, it does not seem like it has been. Here is what has happened since I last posted.


Wednesday a group of 92 people (I believe I referred to them in my last blog) came to stay at the Eagle's Nest for the night. They did a medical clinic, sports clinic, dramas, mimes and hung out with the kids all with in 24 hours. They divided into groups and then each of us, meaning the Patlans, Boggs, and other interns, took the groups to do their perspective things. They did an awesome job and the kids love them... except when they were given nutrition shots at the medical clinic. That night they had a worship service and told how their trip had affected them. It was cool to be a part of and see how the trip had affected all of the people in different ways. One interesting thing about this group is that they are from Minnesota. Well one of the leaders on this trip came up to me after I was introduced to the group (they told everyone my name and where I am from). She said "I know this is a long shot but do you know Kyle Fleet?". It is such a small world! I told here that I have know him since I was in high school  and how he had an impact on my life; she, Carrie, goes to seminary with him. We were both flabbergasted that we would go to a foreign country and meet new people but have a mutual friend.

Thursday morning we all got up and shot a video for the Eagle's Nest that they will be putting on their website. The video is going to be really cool because they and other groups decided to help. They left at 12 and the rest of the day I played with the kids. One of the workers hooked up the propane to my stove so I was able to cook in my apartment for the first time on Thursday. I made a very yummy dinner that was very Guatemalan.

Friday was the last day before the school kids week long break. I taught three English lessons in one day; hopefully the kids will remember the songs they were taught after their break. After school I went and hung out with the kids. I love the kids so much!

Today I went to Pana with one of the other interns, named Asia, and some of her friends. We had a lot of fun! We shopped and talked until the rain let us know it was time to go home. I did learn some new things today though. I went in a taxi and what we call a chicken bus all by my self. We call them chicken buses here because you pack people in the buses like chickens. It was a fun experience, but I did almost miss my stop on the chicken bus. I now have been on a bus adventure in a foreign country. When I got back to the Eagle's Nest, I had dinner with the Patlans and the two people who will be doing VBS (vacation Bible school) for us this week. God's timing is perfect; the two people, a lady and her son, did not know the kids would be off of school and we all wondered what activities we would do this week for the kids. I am excited to work with them this next week!

Well off to bed for me! Here are some photos :)

Rudy trying to be cool

Dulce, she has one of the cutest smiles

This is what 92 people look like all going to eat food

Kevin and I waiting for him to see a doctor at the medical clinic. He had a runny nose and a cough.

One of the friends I made from the 92 group

Dulce was just so tired!

Marisol's hand compared to mine. Just so you know she is 2 yrs old.

Marisol and I

My first dinner on the new stove.

This dinosaur is in front of a popular fast food place called Pollo Campero in Pana.

I thought this was funny

Cafe con leche (Coffee with Milk)

Sooooooo I am just going to let you know now this is going to be a long blog... 4 days worth.


Okay so Thursday was the play day for the Texas group (Farmersville group I talked about before) and I went with them to watch them zip line and go to Pana to shop. I will be going on the zip line but I am waiting on the group from my old high school. They had a blast even though it rained on them. We ate at Sunsets and then shopped for cool things. I was able to help them barter and get some good deals. After shopping we went to Crossroads Cafe to order coffee and I got to meet the owner, Mike,  this time. He was not there the first time I went, but I am so glad I got to meet him this time. He is so funny and will tell anyone he meet about Christ. He let us go into his roasting room and smell his wonderful coffee, which by the way has won best coffee in Guatemala for 2011. He did ask for prayer while I was there so here it is prayer warriors! Mike is leaving on a missions trip in August to Japan. He will be there till October and he asked for prayer for certain people, Ayako, Takashe, Aico, and Akira. They do not know the Lord and he is going there to minister to them and their friends. Please keep Mike in your prayers!


Friday I helped at the school with the p.e. testing. I got to monitor! That is the best job to have in this high altitude. I made sure the kids were running and doing their push ups right.  After that I helped the Texas group move the mamas into the apartment I am staying in, plus a refrigerator. They moved all that in before lunch! During the afternoon Keely, one of the workers here from Indiana, went with me to the market in Solola. Tuesdays and Fridays are market days; this means everyone comes to town to sell their fruits, vegetables, and other assorted things. We had fried chicken and fries from a vendor off the streets, and it was delicious. They put the chicken and fries in a small paper bag with Ketchup all over them.  I purchased a jalapeno, mango, and a fried pigs ear to enjoy this week. The pigs ear I have already eaten and had Keely eat some. It was good... it tasted like pork-rines. I have eaten part of the mango too. I am so glad it is mango season because the mangoes here are delicious! When we were done at the market we went back to the Eagle's Nest on a tuk-tuk (hard to explain... picture to come soon).


Saturday was a lazy day for me. I got to sleep in till 8:30 and listened to Newspring's sermon while eating breakfast. Afterwards I helped the Texas group by interpreting how to make origami hearts and swans. The group left after lunch and I will truly miss having them here. My Pastor, Mark Hoover, once did a series on Likeable people and how to be one. He said that likeable people are ones who you feel recharged spiritually, enouraged, and very blessed after talking with them. Unlikeable people drain you spiritually and emotionally. The people in this group were all likeable people. Keely and I watched the Patlan's dog, Churro, for the night as they were off campus taking their kids to camp. We had fun, even though we ended up doing a fitness test with some of the youth from the church here. Let me tell you the altitude is not my friend... also Keely and I are still sore from it.


Sunday Larry and Claire Boggs took Keely and I to San Marcos with them to visit their first church they were missionaries to in Guatemala. It was a beautiful drive there... even though it was early. San Marcos is a beautiful city 3 and 1/2 hours away from the Eagle's Nest. We took the Pan American highway there and we drove to the highest point on the highway. They call it Alaska here because it is so high and cold. The church in San Marcos is a larger church and is very beautiful. The people love to sing and sing as loud as they can; I loved it! Since we were there Larry spoke to the congregation and it was also father's day so they had a special program from the kids. The ladies did a special number before the kids did their program and told us that they serenaded the fathers at 2:00 a.m. that came to the church. I am not a morning person so more power to them! After church was done we had lunch there that consisted of pancha and bread. Pancha is rice, with a little chicken, and gravy cooked in tea leaves. It was really good. Although we had that lunch at the church, we went and ate at the Pastor's house too. The pastors wife made us very good food and we talked with them for a while. We started on our way home after talking with them for a while and drove through Quetzaltenango like we did on the way there. Larry and Claire showed me their old orphanage, the home before the Eagle's Nest,  that my dad helped build when I was one. It is now a hospital. They also showed me the Volcan Santa Maria that my dad climbed. We got home late and because of our adventure I slept very good.


Today I got to help with the Father Day celebration for the little kids. All the fathers came, even the orphans at the orphanage had dads! The construction workers here had been asked to be their dads for the day and they did so happily participating in everything. It was fun to watch everyone play games and enjoy hanging out with the children. After the celebration I went to the store with Mrs. Boggs and got some food I needed. Mrs. Boggs helped me find a tortillador (aluminum tortilla press) also! I am so excited to have one now; it will be much easier to make my fruit empanadas now.  When we got back I went and played with the kids for a while. Around dinner time the Boggs, Patlans and I went through how everything will happen for the next two days. We have a group of 92 people coming to do many things in a 24 hour time span. It will be so much fun! Now I am here telling you my last four days.


Here are my pictures!


Some really pretty flowers that I have no clue what they are

One of the bags of coffee Mike has referencing the 2012 Mayan calender ending

Solola city hall building

One of the many cool roses on the Eagle's Nest campus

Another cool flower

The girls went swimming on Saturday because it was so nice outside... the pool was still cold though

 What the fried chicken and fries looked like

Keely eating and what the market looked like

More of the market

Me in front of the market

My spoils!

MMMMMMMMHHHHHH Pigs ear :)

San Marcos

The inside of the Church in San Marcos

The original orphanage in Quetzaltenango that my dad helped build

 Volcan Santa Maria that my dad Climbed

Ingrid, one of the teacher at Colegio Nuevo Dia

The fathers getting ready for the fun morning... Pedro was Raul's dad for the day

 The dad's trying to pop balloons that are attached to each other's legs

El moviemeinto (The Move)

I have moved into the intern apartment! I loved living with the mamas and they were so gracious for letting me be a nomad in their apartment, but it was time to place my tent in a permanent location. This is my first time living alone. I have decided its not too bad as long as I shut my bedroom door all the way so it doesn't creak in the night freaking me out. Now let me fill you in on what has happened since Sunday.

Sunday I went to Newspring Baptist Church, which is the church that is held at the school. Pastor Nehemias (I don't know exactly how to spell it... hopefully that is right) is the pastor there and it is a decent sized church.  Sunday he talked about how we need to be prepared for what Satan throws our way by reading the Bible and Praying. I really enjoy his preaching. After Church Larry and Claire Boggs invited me to eat lunch with them, the Patlans, some friends from around the area, and their friends they had picked up from the airport that morning. She made fried chicken which was AMAZING!  Once lunch was over I went and took a nap and just rested the rest of the day.

Monday morning I went and got groceries and taught English to the younger kids at the school. They are using a pilot program by Kinder  Care which is suppose to help not only students learn English, but also their teacher. They are suppose to teach the program (all pre-recorded) to their students with out the help of an English speaker. What I did is I taught it Monday and Tuesday doing lesson one and two, then today I had the teacher teach lesson 1 to help the kinds retain what they learned. After school a group from Farmersville, Texas came to help around the Eagle's Nest for the week. Let me tell you, they are an amazing group. They are so driven to help as much as they can to further the ministries going on here. Even the first day they got some projects done. They had orientation and then got to have a tour of the grounds in the rain. It was a nice rain at least! Dinner was yummy! I ate with the kids and we had tamales filled with re-fried black beans. I am going to have to try and make them once I get back in the states.

Tuesday I taught English again, but before I did the Texas group moved me into the new apartment! Not only had they moved me in but they had gotten all the boys stuff moved into their new rooms... all before 11 a.m! I got to eat with the group for lunch then went and helped with the kids because the group started to paint the main floor of the orphanage. We all went out side, played, and studied with the kids until the paint was dry. Once they were all inside I went down and spent my first night in the apartment. It was quite nice

Today, Wednesday, I had the teacher teach her class the English lesson. She did a very good job! She was nervous, but for not know English she was great. Not only did the kids learn, but she learned some new words. Afterward I finished laundry. I have done my first load of laundry and I did not ruin or kill anything! My mom would be so proud! I ate lunch with the kids and then went and helped the Texas group paint the girl's nails, from the manna program and the Eagle's Nest, after they cut their hair. That was a lot of fun; everyone had a good time and the kids really enjoyed it. I ate dinner with the kids and enjoyed their company for the rest of the day.

I cannot believe it has almost been two weeks!
Here are some pictures from the last few days:

The view from beside my new apartment

A picture for my Aunt Jane. There are so many beautiful flowers here

Raul likes my camera on my phone...

Especially the front facing one...

A lot...

I though I would join him.

Luki and I

The mama's apartment I was staying in

The living room

The Kitchen

My new living quarters

The kitchen

My room... soon  there will be more interns to share it with!

El grupo de Kansas City (the Kansas City group)

These past two days have been so much fun because of a group from Antioch Church in Kansas City, Kansas. They bring kids on missions trips to do dramas and music in schools and children's homes. They work so hard before they come and you can tell. These kids are ages 9 - 17 and they love what they are doing. Yesterday I got the opportunity to go with them to schools in Solola and watch them do their program; all the kids at the two schools we went to enjoyed it. It reminded me a lot of the Kidsworld Gang at Newspring  that goes to schools in Wichita. After going to the schools I went and helped at the Eagle's Nest then that night the kids got to watch a movie with the group. We watched Mr. Poppers Penguin's in Spanish with English subtitles. The kids had such a great time but you could tell the movie ended past their bed time. My little friend Raul sat on my lap during the movie; by the end of it he had taken off his shoes and had fallen asleep. He is so cute!

Today I got to go across Lake Atalan with the group from Kansas City to a town called Santiago. There is an orphanage there that has 21 kids. There is only one couple that is there with these kids permanently with them and they also live in the same house as these kids. The boat ride over to Santiago was beautiful but it took a little longer than expected because we had so many people in the boat. When we got there the couple picked us up and drove us to their home. They have such a beautiful orphanage! There are big rocks to climb on, they are lucky enough to have an orchard nearby where they can pick fruit and they have some goats and cows. Their kids loved the program the group put on and loved having people to play with. After we left we ate at a place called Pescador and it was very yummy. Once we got done we started on our long excursion back to our vans and shopped in Pana for a while. I must tell you I like shopping in foreign countries because you get to barter. I got some good deals and marked some people off my list!

Unfortunately the group leaves tomorrow to go back home. Please keep them in your prayers and pray for safe travels.

Ok now time for some more pictures:

Me on the way to Santiago

A panoramic view from our boat

One of the volcanoes around Lake Atalan... I really liked how the clouds looked on top of it.

Some pretty Vacation Houses

HMMMMM..... Maybe ;)   (if you cannot tell it says For Rent)

This the Orphanage in Santiago

This is their front yard.

This was on our way back as the storms were rolling in.

 A little piece of Paradise in Lake Atalan

The clouds look so cool going across the mountains and volcanoes!