Guatemala part 4, Last day in the Village

Sorry friends I know I am dragging this Guatemala trip way out but I have been so busy lately that I haven't had the chance to update. But for my own journal I need to finish documenting our trip.

We went to this village to serve but in return we were served. Here is a villager wrapping Chad's leg with a medicinal leaf he found deep in the jungle. He boiled salt water and then added the leaves to make a paste. He kept Chad's foot rewrapped with this stuff every 12 hours. It was amazing, wherever the leaves were there was no bruising. This man had eight children and road his bike for 2 hours to come and help with construction in the village. His daily wage was about $7.00 US.

This friend of ours insisted on rubbing Chad's bruise to help with circulation, It hurt pretty bad.

A lady from the village teaching us how to make
corn tortillas in her home.

My turn to make the tortillas, I had the kids in the house cracking up, apparently I am NOT a good tortilla maker.

April 22: This day was the last full work day. This day we worked on building the gardens as well as the latrenes. We were able to start another one and also help complete the fence around each one to keep the pigs and the chickens out. We also had the opportunity to go into some of the villagers homes and see how they live. I learned how to make corn tortillas (hard work and let me just say I am ok not eating a corn tortilla for quite a while, we had them for breakfast, lunch and dinner)

While I was taking a break Carol Miketa, she is a news anchor for KSL news here in Salt Lake, her and her camera man Bob came along to film the Expedition for a documentary that will be airing in between the Sunday conferences in October. Any how she came to me and wanted me to go with her, Bob and two interpreters to see a lady in the village who had a brand new baby the day that we arrived. We had a new born humanitarian kit with us to give to the new mom. You know the kits that we have all made in Relief Society that get shipped off to where ever. This was way cool because I had the opportunity to see it full circle. To be able to present this sweet lady a newborn kit made by some women in Relief Society. So we went into her little home, dirt floors, wood walls, tin roof, no door. There was a small sheet hanging from the ceiling and behind the sheet was a small fire on the floor next to a small wood bed. The mother and the sweet little newborn sat on the bed. I told her what a beautiful baby she had been blessed with and asked how she was doing, this was all with the help from two interpreters one of them translating my english into spanish and then another translator translating his spanish into Catche (the mayon language of the village). She told me that the baby did not have a name yet. I began telling her what was in the newborn kit and that it was for her. She was very appreciative. In fact she asked what my name was, I told her it was Cassie and she wanted to know my full name, which is Casandra. She then turned to her interpretor and told him that her new baby girl would be named Casandra. OH MY HECK!! What an honor. I could barely hold the tears back at this point. What an amazing experience I was blessed to have. I was so touched by her sweetness and appreciation for a baby blanket, bars of soap, cloth diapers and pins and a onsie. Wow what we take for granted.

This village lady and her three day old baby named Casandra. Here she is accepting the Humanitarian kit from me on behalf of the LDS church.

These people have so little but yet they are not poor. You can see her sweet baby girl wrapped in the blankets behind her.

We ended the day with a celebration and another dedication of the light bulb that now worked in the school because of the Solar Panels that were installed. The villagers presented us with cards made by the children of the village and we had a lot of singing and dancing. It was a bitter sweet night for us, oh how we were going to miss these people who have touched our lives forever but how happy we were to have helped and served and learn from these same people.