Friday Friday Friday

 Yesterday afternoon we had a little free time before we were going to hear a talk. Most of our group did a walking tour of San Lucas Toliman to find our bearings a little bit. We got to walk down market street and see the beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables along with the men butchering the cows and chickens. Down here we aren't so removed from the process of where our food comes from. We also walked to see the cemetery where Fr Greg is buried. Fr Greg is the Minnesota priest who served as the pastor of the church and mission here for 48 years and just died 7 months ago from cancer. For those of us that knew Father over the years, seeing his final resting place gave some closure.

After our walking tour we met back with about 30 other volunteers to hear Chona give a talk. Chona is the head cook here and I would say the "mother" of the mission. She has worked here for over 40 years along Fr Greg's side and is an amazing woman. To hear her tell her story of the civil war and genocide that took place in Guatemala during the 1970's-1996 is so hard to hear. The worst of the war happened in the early 1980's: when Chona's husband kidnapped and never found, when she helped save countless young children when their own parents were brutally murdered, when she and Fr. Greg had to go into hiding for 5 months when their names were put on a death list. The 1980's were a little rough around here.

We met for group time after to talk through and process our day. The picture above is of that as we sat around the fire pit at our hotel. We have such a great group of people here and it was wonderful to hear the different thoughts and ideas the group had. 

The roosters were up bright and early to wake us again. FYI- roosters do crow when the sun comes up. They crow when they darn well feel like it from 3am on. Sally, Peggy and myself went on a walk early this morning and took this picture of a house boat in the bay of the lake.

Love and miss you Harrison, Nell, Mitchy, Meredith and Jerm!!! Thanks to everyone who is helping fill in for us as we are here.

Andrea Gibbs