Sorry I haven’t updated our blog these past few weeks since returning.  We’ve had Edwin, Benjamin, and Alex stay us these past three weekends. I’ve just been bad at remembering to take pictures of them!

Carlos, Marvin, Edwin, Martin & I were playing with my camera today, and here’s the result.

While visiting my family in Florida we were able to make two extra stops in order to visit some good friends of ours.

We were able to visit the directors of Casa Shalom who had a surprise early delivery of their baby Sophia at the end of April. They had returned to the USA for a short visit when they found out that Jessica needed an emergency delivery due to an unknown illness. You can read more about the God’s miracle for them on their blog here. It was great to visit with them and know that their baby is now doing well.

We were also able to visit our friends Cristina and Matt. Cristina worked for a long time at Casa Shalom teaching in the school, and she and Yuli became good friends during that time. Matt and Cristina also have the distinction as being the other couple, just like us, who met each other while working at Casa Shalom. It was great to meet their daughter, and they now have a second girl who was born after we visited them.

We made it back to Guatemala this afternoon after visiting to my family in Florida.  We had a fabulous time visiting everyone, especially my niece and nephew! But we’re really happy to be back home now.

Flying in to Guatemala City

We’re taking a two week vacation today to visit my family in Florida. My brother’s graduating with his Master’s degree, and we’re very excited to go hang out with his two kids for a few days.

One of my primary jobs lately has been to tutor math. Topics from this past week include: fractions, solving square roots, algebra, plotting equations, logarithms, and trigonometry. I think that there was only one day this past week that I didn’t help someone out with math. I’ve actually decided that I enjoy it much more than tutoring English. English seems like it should be easy for me to teach, but because I learned it as a kid, I have trouble explaining the rules. Yuli, on the other hand, is very good at explaining English, and stays very busy tutoring it. But math is much easier for me, and I’m enjoying tutoring the kids a lot.

These past two weekends Elias from Casa Shalom has come over to our house because he’s currently in high school and specializing in computer programming. We’ve had a great time together, and I really enjoy helping him out with it. It’s fun to have one of the guys that I use to take care of now interested in the same subject as me!  He’s in a very good and challenging school, and it’s exciting to see him grow.  His brother Benjamin also has been coming over to stay with us on the weekends after he finishes his own classes.  Yuliza and I have really enjoyed having our house more and more filled with people every weekend.  It’s definitely the highlight of the week for us!

Today we celebrated Santos’ 18th birthday with him and his brother José. They’re the brothers that have returned from Casa Shalom to live with their grandmother, and we’re helping them out with their school. Santos’ birthday is actually in a week, but we’re going to be away for it.

We had a great time hanging out with them, and we’re so happy to see them succeeding outside of the home.  I forgot to take a picture, (oops!) so here’s a picture from 5 years ago when we hiked up a volcano together. Santos is on the far right in a green jacket. He’s grown up a lot since then!

With school out this week for Easter, our schedule has changed a bit, and here are some of the highlights:

Clara is a girl who grew up at Casa Shalom along with her brother and sister, and Yuli use to be her teacher.  She’s now living on her own, and we’ve had her stay with us in the past.  Unfortunately Clara got pregnant last fall, and the dad doesn’t want to help out.  But we’re happy that she gave birth to a healthy girl last week, and on Friday we were able to bring her siblings over to see her and meet their new niece.

Carlos, Clara and Flora with Clara’s new baby

After the death of their mom, Clara took over the role with Flora and Carlos.  Young, unwed pregnancies are a huge problem in Guatemala, and it’s sad to see Clara in the same situation.  Earlier this year were hoping to get her enrolled in school this year because she only needs one more year to finish high school. We would appreciate your prayers for Clara and her new baby.  We’ve given her some baby supplies, and we’re praying about how else we can best help her out.

Then last weekend we had our friend and fellow missionary Elizabeth stay with us.  She works with Yuli’s sister at another orphanage called La Senda. We had a big sleep over with a bunch of Yuli’s family and enjoyed each other’s company. We also met up with Santos and José (the boys we’re sending to school) and helped them with some school projects.

Guatemala has a bunch of traditions for Holy Week, and my favorite is the foods!  On Wednesday I drove with Yuli’s dad over to his hometown of San Cristobal, Totonicapan.  It’s about 3 hours away, and every year her dad likes to visit there in order to buy a special bread from there.  This year the date fell right on his birthday, and his brother and sister and two grandkids joined us for the journey. I got to meet a bunch more family, and they gave us a wonderful lunch of ribs and Guatemalan sausages. The highlight was definitely that I got to see where they grew up, and it also let me spend a really fun day together with my father-in-law.

Yuli’s father, aunt and uncle in front of their old house

So on Thursday morning we ate the bread with hot chocolate, and lunch was a chicken and vegetable dish.  Today we had a fish dinner. It was all fabulous! But the weirdest thing I ate was a sweet syrup made with garbanzo beans. (not one of my favorites)

This weekend we’re having our buddy Edwin over again to stay with us for Easter, and then on Monday it’s back to Casa Shalom!

Can you feel the excitement???

The seasons in Guatemala are very different than in the USA. There are basically just two here: the rainy season and the dry season. The rainy season starts in May and goes until October. Because the rain and the clouds keep the temperature cooler, they call it winter. The rest of the year is called summer. So even though we’re still in the northern hemisphere, the season names are swapped!

This week is Holy Week, and the kids all get off from school for it. Also, because it’s one of the final weeks before the rainy season starts and cools the temperature down, this week is especially referred to as summer. Throughout the year, the temperature doesn’t change that much, though. (the highs during their winter average around 70 degrees, while the highs currently are around 85 degrees)

The kids at Casa Shalom were ultra excited yesterday to be starting their “summer” vacation. Some get the chance to spend the week with their family, while the rest of the children are visiting a few supporting churches in Guatemala and are also going to the beach for a few days.