More teaching, more birthdays, and importantly, more cake!

Another week that has flown past! More teaching, more birthdays, and importantly, more cake.

Firstly, we took last Saturday to be complete tourists and go visit Antigua, which is a short distance from where are staying (not Antigua in the Caribbean)! We took the classic tourist photo under the yellow arch and all got a bit too excited to go to maccies for lunch, which did not disappoint. Most of us then enjoyed walking through the markets, where we had to keep explaining that we weren’t actually ‘gringos’ (Americans) and that we lived in a place called England. Some stayed to watch the football, you can try and guess who.

On Wednesday we were told that there was some sort of basketball tournament that we should go to. What we were not told was that we would be competing, in front of the whole school, against teams that had been practicing together for some time. So okay, we did lose, but we definitely surprised ourselves at our joint ability. Let’s also say that some are way more competitive than others.

We have also worked out that they like bugs here. Not only do they like bugs, but they like the taste of bugs. On one of our walks to school we were a bit confused why the whole community were out catching flying insects and putting them in bags. We later found out that it’s a delicacy to fry up ‘popos’ (flying insects) and eat them. (FYI they taste like a pork scratchings).

Church services are still going well, and there is continuing growth. What’s really encouraging is a lot of younger people are coming along as well. Lessons were good this week, we definitely have a favourite class and a class that we find slightly more challenging, but I think we all enjoy the new teacher life. We even got invited into the staff room this week to eat cake, that shows true acceptance.

We also got the chance to go to Guatemala City to renew our visas, as we have now been here over 90 days! Which, by the way, most of us think has flown by. We found out that renewing your visa isn’t as exciting as you would think, if you did think it’s exciting, it’s not. However we did have a lovely day and was great to see the capital of Guatemala, very different to were we have been living.

Prayer points:

• The pastor, who we are staying with, is completely reliant for money to come in to keep the project going. He has to live day to day and trust in God that he will provide.
• Prayer for continuing growth in the church.
• We want to make the most of our last month here, prayer that we don’t wish time away.

Answer to prayer:

• We have seen a real answer to prayer in terms of the health of the group!
• As teaching becomes more of a routine we are becoming less tired.

Playing basketball

The children watching the basketball match

What happens when the girl’s take a photo in Antigua