Due to a little thing we’ve come to know and love called El Niño, we had to cut last week’s trip to Tikal short due to back to back tropical storms. So we had to scramble to make arrangements with our partner organizations, but we still found plenty to do. We’ve continued making contacts in almost every project area. We met with the mayor of San Martin (thanks to Adalila, who happens to know everyone in Guatemala) and have started making arrangements for several projects in the surrounding villages. This is an incredibly poor area and he was very excited about the classes we had to offer and discussed with us what the greatest needs are and how we can maximize our service in that area.

We left Friday morning for Panajachel, on the shores of Lake Atitlan. The car ride was a roller coaster, but we made it there safe and sound and a little nauseous. We spent most of Friday browsing the huge expanse of handicrafts and small shops. Saturday we went on a boat ride in the morning and crossed our fingers the dark clouds would magically lift. And around noon, we got our first couple hours of sunshine in weeks, which offered a stunning view of the lake and surrounding countryside. We enjoyed a swim in the lake and a bonfire later that night. It was a great weekend trip—highly recommend it.
Otherwise, projects are going very well and we’re preparing for a 4 day trip to Quiche, where we’ll be working with the people of the villages to build over 100 stoves. Yes, all is well in the pink and green house.