go team go!

our week with the team was fantastic. we stayed at the hostel in Pamuc, a village a 5 minute drive along the gravel road from Panzal, the village where we worked during the week.
how to tell you all about it...well the hostel is amazing! the family that runs it is great! they are so congenial and hospitable. staying there is like going to camp. the views from the dining pavilion is unreal...actually there is a pic on the guatemala site...and since we can´t access our pics onto the blog yet...click here to see pics of the hostel..thanks to Audrey´s family team.
we worked each day in Panzal and built 4 water tanks for different families and put in 20 stoves to homes. it was great to work with the team and to interact with them all for the week.
one thing i found the most helpful over the week was how my understanding of the villages and the people grew. after going into the villages for just an hour or two over the time we have have been here - the big picture of how things fit together was a bit scattered. but with being with the people for several days really helped -it also was good to see how ASOSAP team projects work. one morning, the women from the team and staff, went to the village school and spent a couple hours making kites with the kids, singing and playing with them. the next day when i was on the road by myself walking from the worksite at one house to another about a 10 minute walk several of the kids emerged along the way and they grabbed my hand and took me down to the church where they were going to practice singing some songs for a presentation the next day - such a joy to be able to talk and play and sing with them. -"yo tengo gozo, gozo, gozo en mi corázon!" - they are all so beautiful!
and it a blessing to be apart of building a tank so that a family doesn´t have to haul water or collect the rain water solely in wayward barrels. ahhhhhh!!! i gotta go dinner is 3 minutes ago...so much to tell....