Day 4 Guatemala
Today began with a traditional Mayan prayer, in the Christian spirit. They played a couple songs that the founder made and used to sing here. It was a beautiful reminder of the owners passion for the people of Guatemala. From here we went for breakfast, and I enjoyed some of the fruits my family here brought me yesterday. In addition I drank the coconut with our translator, Erik, later in the afternoon once we finally found a manchette. It’s always humbling to enjoy the gifts that others bring you. We left fairly quickly to catch a boat across Lake Atitlan where our bus driver was waiting to take us to the next community. As usual the welcome was great, the people were kind and the food was an experience. This place was special for me, since it’s named St. Anthony, my patron, and they served coffee they help produce. They did a dance and then had sponsors dance with them.
After lunch we went to a ribbon cutting for the clinic that had some updates through one of UNBOUND’s program’s which they spoke about prior to lunch. They lit off fireworks and we all had a great laugh when one of the loud one’s went up in the air, and we patiently waited for it to explode, but it never did, instead it just fell to the ground, leaving us all in an awkward moment of laughter since we were sure if it might explode after landing. Thankfully there were no surprises. We continued onto a family who is sponsored through UNBOUND. It was probably the highlight of the day for many. Someone noticed a bag hanging on the wall and asked if it was an instrument. The man said it was his saxophone that he bought on loan and has been teaching himself how to place. He played 2 songs which you can see in the album link below. They had a very humble home, but had a Catholic altar, honoring their Lord Jesus Christ in the Word and Eucharist.
After this we returned to San Lucas and once again stopped for ice cream. I wrote this blog before dinner tonight as we will be preparing to go to Antigua tomorrow and packing our bags tonight as this is our last night here. We will return to Guatemala City tomorrow to be close to the airport for departure.
Waking up to the sunrise and volcano