Food, Glorious Food !!!

Our reason for getting up at 5:45 every morning. Who can resist refried beans and eggs each day? On special occasions it is beans with cream and eggs or what about beans and boiled sweetened bananas? It does not get better then this...


except when you get to celebrate birthdays with a pizza party. No brown beans are in sight. Domino's even delivers up the mountain.


Look what we discovered-a little bit of paradise in Guatemala.

We need our sunglasses and hats before we go on our walk down the mountain. They were very excited about the afternoon excursion. Why do the girls never seem to tire as they climb back up to return home and we are gasping for air?

All dressed up in traditional Guatemalan clothing and ready to go to church.

These 'cutie pies' are Sue's students. Here in Guatemala the children often begin school at a later age. The girls are 8 and 9 and are just beginning to learn their alphabet and count. It is rewarding when "the light goes on" and they remember some of the concepts being taught.

The View from Our Window

We have been busy training for our future hike up a volcano. We walk up and down our own mountain and often end up out of breath. We blame this on the thin air of course. It is just tiring to think about this coming trip. Our hope is that some of the girls from the Oasis will join us.

Nightlife in Guatemala

Nightlife in Guatemala

We have a great assortment of nightly entertainment to keep us happy. Who can resist a free concert right outside our gate? The line up ranges from a guy loudly singing off key for at least two hours (Hopefully, he didn't get paid.) to a choir of dogs at 2:00 am. We also frequently have firecrackers popping and early morning rooster calls. What wonderful evenings of entertainment!

Near our compound we can see Agua, a dormant volcano. We are surrounded by several volcanoes, two of which are active and we can see the steam rise from their tops. It is quite beautiful. We hope to go for a hike up the volcano sometime (Although Sue will not allow any of Anita's shortcuts. We did learn something from Zambia.).

Beautiful Guatemala

We arrived safely at the Oasis Compound for girls in Guatemala. The flight here seemed like a breeze compared to the long journey we took to Zambia last year.

The Kids Alive Compound is located in the mountains so the weather is actually quite cool. (Boy, do we wish we packed jeans!) We can even see an active volcano in the distance from our room.

We will be spending most of our time working at the school on the compound. There are forty-four girls here on the property who have been rescued from abusive homes. We give out lots of smiles and hugs since our Spanish is a little scanty (or non-existent for Anita). It seems like there will be lots for us to do.

Before the Journey

Hi everyone,

The day before our trip and here we get a crash course on how to set up a blog. I have the 'bestest' nephew in the world who is very patient as we attempt this technological world.

Tomorrow is the big day. We leave at 6:10 in the mornng. My lucky niece gets to drive us and we leave at 3:00 am. What a ridiculous time to leave, we'd rather be sleeping. There better be no rosters in Guatemala because we do not want to get used to waking up at this time in the morning!

Bye For Now :)