Still in Guatemala

It has been a fun and busy week. The inauguration for the new Early Childhood Center was on Thursday afternoon and it was a bittersweet event without Hanley there. The building, which is right across from the dump, is absolutely beautiful and has a large grass field for the children. The space is also large enough for additional children so 60 more babies and young children will be accepted to the project over the next few months. A floor plan for a new building for high school students was also unveiled at the inauguration. I'm not sure how long it will take to raise the money necessary to start the building, but I'm excited about what this means for the many students who will be entering high school within the next few years.

Yesterday we went to the zoo in Guatemala City. The plan had been to go with all of our sponsor families, but unfortunately my sponsor kid and his two brothers did not show up so we went with just Leah and Rachel's sponsor kids and their families. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to spending time with Hector outside of the project, but we still had a really nice time. Two of the younger boys ran in front the whole time pointing excitedly at each exhibit. I'll never forget one of them yelling out "look look, a squirrel!"

This morning we went out to a delicious brunch with Arnie (Leah's dad) and then spent a long time wandering around the market in Antigua. For about $3 we filled two backpacks full of vegetables and tonight we are going to make a big soup that we'll have for dinner every night this week. We're always way too tired when we get back from the project to even think about cooking.

xoxo