There were lots of people out in front of their homes cleaning the streets from the festivities of the night before.  This reminded me that we had better do that on the street in front of Chonita's. We stopped at a very small little tienda in a house to get some juice.  The place was the cleanest I have ever seen in Guatemala.  You could see into their little courtyard and that was immaculate also.  The mother and daughter were there working.  They were all smiles.  What a fun way for us to start Christmas Day.

When we got back to Chonita's I got a broom and started sweeping.  It was really quite a mess outside. I knew the boys would finish it when they got up but I wanted the neighbors to know at least we were working on it.  I love to be outside any how and this gave me an excuse to people watch.  Of course I had a cup of coffee right there for my morning caffeine. I put most of the big paper from the fireworks in a pile and I was going to leave it for the boys to pick up.  When I came back outside after going in for a few minutes I saw the neighbors and their children sweeping.  They were getting every bit of it.    I went over and said we would take care of it but that didn't seem to stop them.  Finally I went and got the boys up and said they had better get going.  Seth, BJ and Jeff came down and swept up the rest.  The neighbors got quite a kick out of watching the boys and finally just stood by the fence and watched.

In Guatemala the typical holiday meal is tamales so that is what we had. We had made so many on the 23rd that they were going to last for awhile. After we ate we decided to go and see Chonita's garden.  She has a beautiful plot of land where she grows flowers, fruits, vegetables and has alot of coffee plants.  This land was her fathers and when he died it became hers.  She has taken very good care of it.   

The land that Sharing the Dream bought for the school in an outside aldea was close so we decided since we were in the back of a pick up any how we would go to it. I thought Chonita knew where it was and she thought I knew.  I knew the area but the land looks so much alike that I was afraid I would never be able to tell.  Thank goodness our pick up driver knew where it was.

Men and children on school land

I thought I would just show the family a plot of land but when we got there we found some of the parents and the children there.  They were clearing it.  They were very glad to see us as we were excited to see them.  We had bought the land last year for the school after my friend Lana (a board member) and I had been down there the year before and had seen the children studying on the ground with only plastic draped from poles to protect them from the sun and rain.  The parents had been trying for 8 years to get a school.

The government finally provided them with a couple of teachers but nothing else.  Last year was their second year in operation.  A North American lady in the community paid the rent for some rooms for them to use.  This is there third year and they think that by July they will have a new school. Before any of this could happen they needed to have some land and also the parents committee needed to become a legal association.  Our friends and volunteers Vikki Fix and Dean Spader gave the money for the parents association and Sharing the Dream bought the land.  The government now said they will provide building supplies but the parents have to build it.  We had a nice visit with the parents. This next year there will be 250 children in the school K-5th grade. They will be building 8 rooms. They said the reason they were out there on Christmas clearing the land was that whenever they take off from their jobs they don't make money for their families.  Each man earns between $1.50 and $3.00 a day.  They are very poor.. They are still committed to building the school.  They said that when they work on the school they only have money for their families to eat tortillas.  Sharing the Dream does not have groups do alot of work projects but the family and I talked about maybe having a couple of work groups come from the US in the spring.  Seth would be able to bring them and knows the language and the area that he could do it..  I was thinking of maybe asking the Lutheran church in Spearfish (What do you think Laura) and maybe the one in Barrington Ill. ( How about it Dave?) Any one in the States have some suggestions?? The men said it makes such a difference to the families when they know that someone as far away as the states also thinks it is important that they educate their children.  They said the relationship that we have built with them helps them to keep going. I asked them if they had any other concerns right now besides the building and they said that they still haven't had the land registered.  This isn't always done in Guatemala, but it is always safer to do it.  They said they were afraid they would do all this work and someone would come and take it from them. It is quite a bit of money to register the land and there is no way the parents can do it. We had not done it when we bought the land because we had run out of money.When the men were talking, my daughter Steph whispered in my ear, "Mom, I will pay for it".  What a neat Christmas gift she gave to that community and also to our family. Steph is a school psychologist. She said the people had enough worries and she didn't want them to worry about the land being taken away. Ed and I were very proud of her. We told the parents that we would find the money and that Ruth would contact the lawyer to have it taken care of.

After saying farewell to the parents we went back to Chonita's to pack our bags and head back to Pana.  It was sad leaving our good friends but they were all pretty tired and everyone needed a rest.  We took a boat back to Pana and decided the driver must have been in a real hurry because we were really traveling.

Our Santiago family

Leaving Santiago

When we got back to Pana we couldn't find a pick up for awhile so started on the long walk back to the place we were staying.  We had some heavy bags so it was a bit tiring.  Finally a truck did come and we caught a ride.  When we got back to the bungalows, most of the family wanted to go swimming.  Jeff said he had to go swimming in the lake on Christmas Day so off they went.  I really didn't have the urge so I stayed back and took a nap.  After about an hour I did go down to the lake to find them.  By then they were already on their way back.  It wasn't quite as exotic as they had thought.  Steph had climbed the long hill to Jane's and done her laundry.  It is a beautiful view from Jane's but oh what a walk.

When everyone got back and cleaned up we had something to drink and fresh pineapple.  We also had been give a wonderful box of chocolates from Jeff and Heather that we all enjoyed.  We had decided to have our own Christmas sevice on the patio.  We all decided this would be much better since we all understood english, except Luis and Miguel sat by him and translated. We had a wonderful service.  Ed had written a poem called gentle people about Chonita and our friend Diego. He read this when we started. He took the poem back with him to the states, but I wil try and include it sometime. Each of us then talked about a miracle we had experienced in our lives.  BJ told the Christmas story and Ed had a small sermon.  It was all very nice.  We had talked about the program before hand and decided we couldn't have any music because none of us could sing and it would be more of a comedy than anything.  I did ask Seth if he would climb up on the hill and sing Oh Holy Night, but he said he would pass.

After the service we all walked downtown.  Lots of shops were open and again people were every where.  All the kids went one direction to eat and Ed and I went another.  We found a nice restaurant down by the lake that had live marimba music.

It was a wonderful ending to a very special couple of days.