Antigua with Park Cities

Hello amigos.
So we came to Antigua on Sunday and I have not had the opportunity to blog because the computer yesterday at McDonald's (yes, there was a computer at McD and it was the most beautiful McDonald's I've EVER seen, complete with a fountained courtyard and Mayan ruins) and I left my laptop in Guatemala City as to not have to worry about it here in Antigua. This hotel we're staying at is probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in (Porta Antigua), which is a plus and a minus since we are working with some of the poorest kids in Guatemala, but we are safe and secure in our rooms each night.

Anyway, so we came to Antigua and immediately went to the girls' home we've been working with to get to know them a little bit. This home is incredible. By incredible I mean it is impacting me greatly. In this home there are around 125 girls, a portion of which are special needs and another larger portion of which have children. These girls have not had children by choice, but mostly from sexual harassment. It has been so interesting working with these girls everyday because they have been through SO much at a young age and continue to smile and be happy in their circumstances. Yesterday our eyes were opened to the difficulty that we would experience getting these girls involved. With some of them it can take 6 or 7 times of inviting them before they will come do whatever activity we may be doing that day. Others jump right in as they are excited to see us and work with us.

In the mornings we have been working in a community church called Jocotenango. This church is a church/clinic where people can come from the area and receive free treatment. The doctor has not been there with us because recently he became very ill and has been in a drug induced coma until last night, when they took him out of the coma and everything looks great! (Thank you Lord) At the church/clinic we painted the entire outside and the sanctuary inside and also cleaned all of the rooms there while the students from Park Cities Church in Dallas played with the kids. I didn't mention that we were with them this week. The Park Cities group is about 45 people (which when considering that one of our rules is don't draw attention to yourself, doesn't turn out too well as 60 something white people are walking around together) but the group split in half, 20 9th and 10th graders came to Antigua with us while the other 25 11th and 12th graders stayed in Guatemala and are working at a site there, so now it's only 30 something white people walking around together, which (obviously) doesn't attract ANY attention from the natives. HA!

We've been getting plenty of rest so far, considering our curfew is about 7:30 to be in the hotel, when the sun goes down, and we have to be in our rooms by 10 with nothing to do until 8:30 the next morning. The rest is greatly needed though since we are immediately on our feet doing very active things at 9 every morning. No griping here, we love it. As you can probably assume, I am in love here. The children are all incredibly beautiful and I wish that I could encourage you to adopt some of them (or all of them like I want to), but Guatemala has closed adoption because some children were being adopted then sold on the black market or into prostitution. Not exactly the life that the orphanages are trying to provide for them. Many girls have come and gone from the home since we got here, which makes a very large proportion of the girls want to run away and find them even though they are no where near their current home. I guess I can just ask you all to continue to pray for these people. It's only been 2 days with them and we already have been so impacted by their stories. It's so hard to see hope in these situations, but we continue to remember that God is in control here and we only need to rely on him to control these situations.

I'll hopefully write more sooner than the last time.
Les extraño mucho.
Escribiré más pronto.

Con cariño.