October 8th Science Fair.

I started this blog entry two weeks ago and didn't get a chance to finish it. Sorry!

On October 8th there was a science fair for the high school. Chici, Marilyn (a new volunteer), Edgar, Chepe, Angel and I all went to see the experiments. Miguel and Lesly both had experiments on display.

There were four different areas with experiments. We were able to walk around and see each experiment presented. We saw Lesly's experiment in the first area.

Lesly explaining the experiment.

Making a rainbow of food coloring in milk.

Miguel and his group explaining their experiment about gravity.

Setting up the eggs to see where they fall.

And they all fell into their respective glasses when the cardboard was knocked out from under them.

After we had seen all of the experiments it was time to find out who had won.

Miguel and his group won first place for his grade.

We are all very proud of both Miguel and Lesly. It was fun for us to see our kids participating in school things but I tell you, I wouldn't go back to high school for anything! I assure you, teens in North America are very similar to teens in Guatemala.

Almost done!

School, that is. Next week half of our kids will write their final exams and the week after, the other half will write their final exams. The kids are looking forward to being done! This week we are doing a lot of review for them to prepare.

Their vacation will last from the end of October until the second week of January. Yesterday we had a meeting and talked about some of the things we will do with the kids while they are on vacation.

We have an overnight camping trip planned. We will go swimming and go to the zoo. On Tuesdays and Thursdays we will head over to the men's Rehab Center to play soccer with them. Graciella wants to teach cooking classes (that is something I want to get in on!) and Adrian wants to teach them to make pancakes. Chici told him he had to make them for us first to test them out! :) We have a new volunteer who would like to go biking with the kids. I think I will stay back and hold down the fort! I will continue with my Friday baking classes. I would also like to make a fire and cook hot dogs and marshmallows. There were a few other things but I can't remember them now. Good thing someone else took notes!

So we look forward to having our kiddos around and being able to relax and play more. Because who doesn't like to play??!!?? Especially when you have kids as good looking as ours.

And now, I will leave you with a picture of Antoni looking especially good looking:

Our Needs.

We have a couple of needs that we would like to put out there.

First, we need more sponsors for our kids. The cost is $50. a month. This money includes their housing, food, clothes, school (at a private school as the public school system is not very good) and school supplies. We need multiple sponsors for each child to cover all the monthly costs. If you feel led to give on a monthly basis then thank you! Please e-mail Chici Barbella at chicibarbella@conexion.com and she will give you more information. We send out updates, new pictures, and letters on a regular basis throughout the year. You will be able to write to your child and send small gifts.

Our second need has to do with Christmas. It is now less than three months away! We provide about 90 gifts for people in our ministry. This includes the kids here at the home, the house parents, the residents of both the Rehab Center here in Guatemala as well as the Center in Nicaragua, and the staff of both Rehab Centers. We also provide extra food for each place to have a special Christmas dinner.

If you would like to make a one time donation to help us cover these costs please send a cheque to:

Christ Chapel

3051 Cloverdale Rd.

Florence, Al.

35633

Please make the cheques payable to Christ Chapel and include our name in the memo line-NLPM. You can also make a note that it is especially for Christmas.

Thank you so much for your support!

Feliz Dia de Independencia!

Wednesday, September 15th, was Independence Day here in Guatemala. Here marching bands are very common and several bands within earshot of my apartment have been practicing day and night for a few weeks to be ready for the big day. I will admit, I am glad they are done practicing now!

Our kids attend three different schools. One school had nothing going on that day (San Bernabe), one school was marching in the Parramos town parade and Maria's school is in another town and she was marching in the parade there.

Adrian and I took the kids from San Bernabe to watch the parade and Rodolfo and Graciela took the girls and the littlest boys and went to Itzapa to watch Maria march in the parade there.

This sign says "No to violence against women". There were many signs like this including no violence against children, protect me, don't use guns, honesty, integrity, etc. I was praying during the parade that these kids would grow up learning this and believing it and that the cycles of violence in the family would be stopped.

Arms of Jesus Christian school (Brazos de Jesus)

Luis is the gray donkey.

Angel. His sign also said "No to violence against women"

This video gives you an idea of the noise and how they march down here. They are always moving their bodies and not just marching with their feet.

You can barely see Maria smiling in the back. She is just to the right of the girl with the blue and white sash. She has a learning disability and therefore attends a special needs school. She has progressed so much since starting there and has made some good friends.

Maria is ready to march!

Marching.

Girls in their traditional dress. The skirt is called a corte, the shirt is a huipil and the belt is called a faja. The huipil and faja is all hand stitched.

Everybody who went to watch Maria.

After spending the morning in town we came back to the house to play and get started making the picnic lunch. The kids knew what the menu was and were very excited. I will admit, I was pretty excited too!

I will write a separate post for the picnic as I still have a lot of pictures to upload and things to write about.

The picnic!

After being in the sun all morning while watching the parades I was starting to fade. The kids were just getting geared up! They didn't have to do homework of chores (well, not too many chores) and they took full advantage of that!

There was fooseball to be played,

soccer,

cars and Tonka's,

basketball,

and the ever popular trampoline.

Visiting:

Maria and Fernanda.

Wesler and Antoni.

Ernesto and Chici.

Victor and Bill.

Chici and Pat and Wesler.

Wesler and Conchita.

Chici and Karla.

Making Lunch:

Getting the fire ready to make carne asada (grilled meat).

Trying to keep the fire going.

Hermana Guadelupe to the rescue!

Yay! Meat cooking. These are thin slices of meat that are served with toasted tortillas and a type of salsa. One of my favorites! And with Hermana Guadelupe on the lookout I felt much more confident of my food! :)

Time to eat!!!

Karla

Geovany

Notice we used disposable plates and cups. Then we didn't have to do dishes. I always try to convince my mom to use disposable for Christmas dinner so we don't have to dishes after. She always shoots me down. We have to use the good china that can't even go in the dishwasher! And you know how tiring it is opening presents and eating all day!

Spatz also was celebrating the holiday. He was found near many a child's mouth.

Our group of good looking kids!

I think the clouds moved in to try and cool off my sunburn. I have declined to show you my foolishness. :) The day was a lot of fun for everyone. I hope you enjoy all the pictures.

Last week.

A week and a half ago the church had a baby shower for one of our new mothers. They are a young couple and this is their first baby. All the girls from the house were able to go (except me. So this is second hand info.)

Enma with her cake.

Playing a game where one person is blindfolded and one person is feeding that person baby food. Graciela, our house mother, is in the green shirt on the left being fed the baby food.

Too bad I wasn't there. That cake looks good. :)

And of course, lots of presents for the new family.

Last Friday we received three new children. They are two sisters and a brother. Sorry I haven't had a chance to get a better picture of them.

Victor is 7. Fernanda is 9 (almost 10-yay for more birthday cake!) and Kati is 11.

They are starting to settle in. It is difficult to be in a new place and learn everyone's names as well as all the new rules. I can see already it is getting a little easier for them.

Yesterday one of our teens Edgar had a friend over for lunch. He was very excited and even bought Coke for the lunch. Well, he asked me to pick it up for him and he would pay me later. Later. Haven't seen "later" yet. He even went to the next town to ride back with her so she wouldn't be lost. :)

She told me her 20th birthday was on Friday. When I later asked Edgar if she knew his age (he is only 17) he said yes, and that is why she didn't want to date him. Poor guy. I told him it wouldn't matter so much in 4 or 5 years. He said that by then some other lucky guy would have her. :(

It was fun to have our kids friends over. We had a special lunch of hamburger patties, rice and radishes. I hate radishes. With a captial H. They burn my tongue and taste terrible. But yesterday they were grated and for some reason I thought it was cabbage. So I ate it. Not that I really like cabbage either. But it was better than radishes. And I have to tell you, they weren't too bad. They had lime on them. But the radishes here must be sweeter or something. Because I didn't even have to choke them down! Just a side note for you.

I almost forgot to tell you about the garage sale. I made cookies with Lesly on Thursday to sell the next day.

But Friday morning we woke up to a storm and it was raining pretty hard so we postponed it. It happened Saturday morning but they forgot to let me know so I don't have any pictures. I am sorry. But they did well and raised a lot of money towards their camp. And we will have another one in a couple of weeks.

This week there is not much on the schedule. But something always seems to come up. Take care and have a blessed week!