Monday, June 21, 2010

Guate pic dump #2

***here's hoping that post title doesn't bring any unwanted traffic to my blog! Yikes for bathroom humor!

We spent Monday and Tuesday at one of my favorite spots in Guatemala, Los Gozosos. There were a few smaller projects but the majority of our time was spent "resloping" their backyard. Given all the rain, they often get flooding into the house due to the lawn actually sloping toward it. So, we cut squares into the sod, took it up, hauled earth, earth and more earth to another location and then laid the sod back down sloping away from the house. Whatever your assumptions about sorority girls may be, this team worked insanely hard. I couldn't believe it.

I also snuck inside before lunch and asked if they would teach me how to make handmade tortillas (ALWAYS WANTED TO LEARN!) A few of the girls jumped in on that, too. Amanda and I made some serious plans after this, more on that later...


Amanda and Dana w/ Daniel! He's such a pistol!

The girls painted the inside and outside walls. Better them than me...

Eliot never misses an opportunity to play in dirt!

Then back inside to play with the kids once they were out of school for the day!


Amanda and Rachel worked the entire day on making new curtains and it paid off, they looked amazing!


Maureen also had us try a seasonal Guatemalan treat: Sanpopos. Loosely translated? Termites.


Maureen w/ a couple of my girls.

The happy faces of accomplishment!

Maureen got us coconuts to drink! John Locke busted them open for us!

check out his new tat, he's so hardcore.

Remember this post?? They loved them!!


As an exclamation point to our hard work, the skies opened up and welcomed us into rainy season. It was too tempting not to celebrate like 4 year olds! About half of our team ran out and played, played, played in it! The Guatemalans thought we were crazy! Apparently that's not a normal behavior there! We were already jumping around like crazy people but then we realized our "resloping" actually worked! No rain was getting into the house!

3 comments:

Dan and Amanda said...

Amazing pics Katie. Love the one of Eliot playing with his car on the little girls tray. Too sweet!

Amanda said...

Katie, This makes me miss Guate and "THESE GIRLS" so much!!! I think I would rather be there right now than in 101 degrees here in Arkansas.

Thanks for taking me through the memories!! And we will make those tortillas someday!!!

Maggie said...

Wow, what an amazing experience!!! LOVED seeing your pics!