Guatemala: Arrival to day 3

¡Hola!

Greetings from Guatemala. We arrived in San Martin, Guatemala, after two plane rides and a three hour long bus ride. When we arrived, we settled in at our hostel and drove to Pacoxpon, one of the villages where we are working this year. The opening ceremonies were held at the primary school in Pacoxpon, where the community gathered to greet us. During the ceremony, the school children performed several dances for us, both traditional and modern, and even gave us roses as welcoming gifts. What a talented group of dancers! We also performed our national anthems for each other, and it was amazing to see the differences in the songs. One of the big hits at the opening ceremonies was performing the hokey pokey with many of the people of the community. The adults got a kick out of it, especially when we shook our backsides! We ended the opening ceremonies with a beautiful dance from our own team’s Genevieve and Brie. What a great beginning to a wonderful cultural experience!

The past few days everyone has been hard at work. Construction has completed eight cement floors for the families in the community already and is working hard on installing more in the coming two weeks. The vocational committee has had great success with teaching the women and men in the community sewing and haircutting skills. In Las Escobitas, our other site, the business committee has done a fantastic job teaching the primary students how to use computers. We have had two successful days of English camp with amazing lessons being taught by our students. So far, we have had a great start in Guatemala, and we are looking forward to working with the Guatemalan people even more for the next two weeks!