Habitat Guatemala

We made it to Quetzaltenango after missing the flight out of Houston. We were booked on a very tight layover, and then the plane was late out of Houston to Portland, which meant there was no way to make it back to Houston for the Guatemala flight. We arrived here on Friday then, and drove directly up to Quetzaltenango, or Xela, as it is known here. We made it in time for an orientation and to meet the two young families for whom we are building in Colonia Esperanza.

Saturday we have had a very full day. We were up early for breakfast, and went out and worked half a day at our sites. We dropped one group off, their foundation is poured and building is beginning. Our other site was dug out and set up, but we poured the foundation this morning which meant a lot of cement mixing, cement hauling, and then we moved about 400 concrete blocks down the hill.

We returned for lunch, and then went to the hotsprings near Zunil to soak our wimpy American muscles and bones. Tonight we have found out that there is a soccer match, so we are going to that. Tomorrow we head to the Chichicastenango market, before a long week of work.

One note-you may have heard of the kidnapping of 11 students in Guatemala City. Habitat folks are quite upset, as they felt that the group should not have gone to that region, and then on top of that were traveling well after dark. We have been fine, no problems traveling, and no security issues that we feel at the moment. There are also some conflicting stories on how the events took place. One issue that is a frustration of how anything outside of the U.S. and Europe seems to be "barbarous" and somehow too wild for members of civil countries to travel. While there are never any guarantees, it is important to remember that taking all of the possible precautions one can is key. We hope those kids are fine, of course but also feel that the story and the parental reaction seems to be a bit over the top.