First Day

Today we began our journey to Guatemala as we met at 3:30 in the morning for the bus ride to the airport. The airport process went very smoothly and none of our baggage was lost! Then we took the short plane ride to Atlanta and then the longer one to Guatemala City. A bunch of our team members had the opportunity to get their shoes shined as we waited for our bus to arrive! Then we took the 2 ½ hour bus ride to the clinic.
The rooms here are, as last year, extremely nice. The girls are split up into 2 rooms of 3 girls each where the rooms consist of a small kitchen and a bathroom. The main complex is where the boys are staying and they are very lucky to have filtered water now. It will be a big advantage to not have to brush their teeth with bottled water! Dinner here was wonderful as usual. We had meat, pasta, tortillas, chips, salsa, guacamole, and fresh lemonade. Overall, the accommodations here are great!
After unpacking the bus, we all left to go see where we will be working these next few days. We first visited the new bridge site where the Guatemalans had already built the concrete platforms. We crossed the river on a bridge they had built temporarily. Then we traveled through a small village where we arrived at the next project. This project is to build a water filter for one household of 8. We made some measurements, talked to some of the people there, and headed towards our old bridge site.
Once we arrived at the old bridge, we walked across the bridge and noticed a new concrete wall they had built from the church to the bridge. It looked much different then we had seen it last, but it looked very nice. Some of the kids from last year came running over to greet us. Surprisingly they could still tell Rachael and Rebecca apart! This was very special. It was then getting dark so we headed back to the clinic. We ended the night in a small devotional and meeting. It was a good beginning to a wonderful trip!

Rebecca and Rachael Swift