More fun at Nuevo Reto

jennifer

August 3, 2018

Blog Post

Today I tried to sleep in.  I knew there was less work to do, and the timeline for today’s events were more flexible.  I just couldn’t though.  Some might guess it was those darn barking dogs.  But, I really think that it was because I was anxious to be blessed again.

Sometimes I wish my everyday routine, the things I do at home when I am not in Guatemala, felt like they were as purposeful as those days spent in Guatemala.  Maybe I shoud make it one of my goals to live ALL of my days like I am fulfilling a purpose and impacting others!

For now, though, I am going to give my full attention to the mission at hand!  Before I get too far into describing today’s events, I wanted to share just a few of the photos that were taken at the library dedication, community meal, and church service last night.  They are compliments of Pastor Jacob Castillo at Nuevo Reto.

Moving on… one of the first things accompished this morning was to hang the stained glass piece that my friends Steve and Karen Hershenson donated to my library project.  Like me, the Hershenson’s adopted from Guatemala, have traveled back since, and have a big heart for helping the country of Guatemala in whatever ways they can. The Hershenson family has been very supportive of Guatemala Service Projects, so when Karen heard about my quest to donate a stained glass piece, she volunteered the talents of her husband!

This dove, a symbol of peace, is given as a memorial for two young children that were killed by gang violence in Villa Nueva, not too far from Nuevo Reto.  They are two younger brothers to a young man I know in North Carolina.  I hope this gift gives him a little peace, and provides peace and protection to all that enter the walls of Nuevo Reto in Barcenas Villa Nueva Guatemala.

One of the other objectives for today was for John and our kids to get the full tour of the Nuevo Reto facilities, including the completed classrooms, carpentry workshop areas and the craft and sewing room.  We got to see the larger tools we funded from the carpentry workshop, and received demonstrations from Francisco and Junior on their use.  The wood planer is very loud!

When we visited the crafts room, Daniela and Damaris were busy working on maps.  They took the finished product from the wood shop and applied glue, adhered the traditional fabrics, ironed it on for a tight seal, and then trimmed the excess fabric to match the shape of the map.  The last step in the manufacture of the famous wood maps, is to use a woodburner to burn the word GUATEMALA onto the front surface.  For us, though, they created one with ‘GSP’.  Pablo had said that they had wanted to burn the entire ‘Guatemala Service Projects’ but that just wasn’t going to fit.

Continuing on our tour of the Nuevo Reto facilities, we got to see the new classrooms that were in a nearly completed state of construction, and the unfinished areas that, in the future, are destined to become ‘great things’.  I mention them generically like this so that the initial announcement comes from Nuevo Reto directly.  I do not want to spoil the surprise, but I can tell you that I am excited to play a part any way that I can!

After the tour, it was time to teach Ada how to use the library database application that I created for this project.  We went over all the features of the database, including how to “check in” and “check out” items using the bar code reader.  Once books and library patron information is in the database, you can use the labels attached to the books and the library cards printed for the visitors to scan items out!  Before coming to Guatemala, I entered the 583 database inventory items I brought (books, CD’s, software, games, puzzles, etc) and all of the names I knew.  As a good training exercise, Ada entered 20 of the books that were already contributed to the library before our arrival.  She caught on quickly, and is quite thorough, like I would be in maintaining a database application.  I like that about her!

While Ada and I were working in the library with the database, other kids were in there reading, and being read to, and Ali was busy sorting the books.  Every time I heard her remark with delight “Ooh.  I love this one!” I felt really good.  She even created a category of books on a shelf called “Ali’s favorites”.  (By the way, this reminds me… both Ada and Ali were commenting that they’d like to have a copy of “The Giving Tree” for the library, in either Spanish or English, so if you have a copy to donate or would like to send the funds so they can purchase it, please let me know.)

It was so wonderful for me to see so many kids actively using the library and being so excited to have access to all of those books!  I heard some of the kids reading out loud, some kids were reading quietly to themselves, some kids were being read to by someone else, and some kids were having a great time just looking at the pictures.  The “I Spy” books were a huge hit, perhaps because they didn’t have to know how to read to enjoy those, or perhaps because they were Spiderman and Disney Princess themed!  🙂

John and Scott played with David and the new matchbox cars he received from his sponsor.  They played for almost two hours, using cardboard boxes to make ramps, obstacles, and paths for the cars to travel.  Every time a car slid off the table, Scott would crawl underneath to get it.  David seemed to really enjoy his time with John and Scott, but then again, due to his neverending smiles, one would never think that there was a time when he wasn’t enjoying himself.  John enjoyed his time with David as well.  He remarked to me that it was his favorite part of the visit with Nuevo Reto.  The two of them also played a game where John would hold up his hands like a sparring partner in boxing and David would punch his open palm.  The goal of the game would be for John to try and close his hand around David’s fist to “capture” him.  David just giggled and giggled.  Earlier in the day, John pretended to be a big bear.  With his size, he may have been a little intimidating, but Stevens was not afraid.  😉

Stevens really made the rounds, being sweet and talkative to all of us.  He also happens to be a pretty good artist!  He made this picture for Sarah.  It featured angel wings and a halo, the GSP logo, Sarah’s name and “God Bless You”.

When it was time to leave, we were all a little sad and disappointed.  I think we could have used a longer visit.  Maybe we’ll be like Ali next time!  We said our goodbyes, and I gave a big hug to Daniela and assured her I would see her again before too long.  They loaded up our remaining luggage and took us to Antigua for the next leg of our journey.

When we arrived in Antigua, the receptionist at Casa Mia Hotel was very pleasant, and a few from the staff helped us take bags to our room.  We explored the pretty grounds and then decided to venture out in search of a restaurant.  We found El Sabor Chapin, which specializes in authentic Guatemalan traditional foods.  On the menu they had Subanik, the dish that John and Sarah and I all had for the first time in 2015.  We decided to get that again.  Scott ordered a plate of longanisa and chorizo, two types of sausage.  Ironically, we were first introduced to longanisa at Nuevo Reto earlier today. Scott must have loved it so much that he wanted more of it!  Everything was delicious.  Because we were a little hungry going in, John decided to order an appetizer.  This was called nachos mixtos and, while I don’t ordinarily take pictures of my food, I couldn’t pass this up.  I had never seen such a large mound of nachos.  And it looked so appetizing.  It was awesome!

After dinner we walked back to our hotel and got ready to settle in for the night.  The only downside to this hotel is that it doesn’t have windows that you can open to let in the fresh air.  It is stuffy in here, but, like John always says, that is a 1st world problem.  Oh… a second downside is that the wifi here isn’t strong, and it has also cut out twice, so getting this blog post published has been quite the chore!