This week has been a bit haphazard in terms of teams, as most people did a bit of everything.

Theo, Carrie, Hannah and Ella S started the week on the street team. On Monday morning they split into pairs and followed the Puerta team around La Terminal, giving out snacks and helping the team deliver their parenting programme. In the afternoon they visited some families who were only just beginning to be involved in Puerta, playing games with the kids while the team strengthened the relations with the adults.

Tuesday was a lot quieter, as there’s usually only one family who come to the centre. The team helped de-nit them, although it meant they became paranoid about our own hair. In the afternoon they went to the office and did some more de-nitting there. Then, Ella S and Theo went with the cook to go shopping in the market at La Terminal, which was very fun.

Emily and Charlie P were on the cooking team, but they ended up only needing to do Monday, as there’s no cooking on Tuesday and Thursday, and for some reason they weren’t needed on Friday. But they enjoyed helping the cook on Monday morning and had fun bringing all the food from the cook’s house to the centre in big trolleys. After helping to serve, they played with the kids in the afternoon with Charlie F, helping with homework and playing chess.

The Gerona team this week was Charlotte, Ben, Ella H and Charlie P. On Monday they stayed at La Terminal, helping with the kids. They joined in with some dancing and songs; helped with homework – mainly numbers and letters; and then did some colouring and word searches.

On Tuesday they went to Gerona and helped the older kids in the morning with their homework (a lot of algebra). Then Charlotte went out with some of the team members to collect lunch. In the afternoon they played a lot of football, which was fun but very hot.

We kicked off our rest day this week with a precious time of prayer and worship as a team, having the opportunity to praise God and check-in with each other. We then travelled over to Suzanne’s house (the International Director of Latin Link) who made us a homely lasagne and delicious cheesecake! We all played the Latin Link pairs game and a classic few rounds of Uno. It was lovely to spend time with Suzanne and have a fun lunch out as a team. While the girls stayed and had a restful afternoon on her rooftop garden, us boys plus Charlotte got driven to an indoor football pitch near La Terminal, where we played out an entertaining match with some of the Profés and older kids from the project. There was only one goal in it and it was great for the boys and Charlotte to be back out on the football pitch after a bit of time out.

On Thursday the whole group of us were at La Terminal, as we were asked to prepare a devotion for the kids for the following week. We also made lots of crafts out of paper and card to go on the walls in both the centre and at Gerona.

In the afternoon Carrie and Charlotte sat in on a climate change talk, and in the evening most of us went to the weekly prayer meeting at the church, although we still don’t know if the talk was about John 4 or 1 John 4!

Deborah came and made us breakfast on Friday morning which was very kind of her. It was also a really nice breakfast, with eggs and bacon and some delicious porridge.

Puerta holds sports for the kids every Friday, so most of us went to that, walking to a nearby football pitch and playing football and basketball. It was very fun, but hot! There’s a rule in the Puerta team that the profés (the staff) can’t score goals below the knee, so the boys could only score so many goals. A couple of us stayed with the kids playing in the park, going on the slide and playing tag with them.

In the meantime, Charlotte and Ella S stayed at the centre with the other kids, particularly the younger ones, serving breakfast and lunch, and helping with learning numbers and letters.

The street team visited families and did some admin work and, in the afternoon, Emily got to help with a group of Americans that were being shown around La Terminal. They had come to Guatemala as part of their masters course, and the Puerta team gave a little talk about what life is like for the families living in La Terminal, as well as giving a tour of the market. Emily found it very interesting tagging along, as it was the exact same tour that we were given, but this time we had a lot more context, meaning it was given a whole different perspective.

On Saturday, we woke up and were immediately prepared to be picked up by the minibus to be taken to Mount Pacaya – a nearby volcano. After a two hour journey, we were swarmed at our arrival by locals trying to sell us tours and horse rides up the mountain. They kept it up most of the climb despite us clearly stating we didn’t want any more than the one we had for Charlie F and his recovering foot. Near the top the landscape resembled the moon and smoke was all around us as we tried to cook s’mores with the heat that rose through gaps in the rocks. We then climbed higher for a better view of the volcano and the clouds cleared just in time for us to eat lunch at the top of an onlooking hill. The climb down was much quicker and more fun too as we slid through volcanic shingle to reach the main path again. After we got home, some of us played some games and we ordered in pizza to eat with Jacobo and Petro – the Puerta team members who accompanied us on the hike. Later in the evening, the four of us boys went to play football with Keyan, Charlie Welch, Chepe and some of the others from the project, as well as their friends to round off a tiring but fun day.

Answers to prayer/things we’ve been grateful for:

• That Charlie F’s foot is nearly back to normal.
• The kindness of everyone, for example the church provides translators – members of the congregation who can speak English – to help us understand the services.
• That we are strengthening relationships with the Puerta team.

Prayer requests:

• That Carrie, Hannah and Charlie F will quickly recover from a cold.
• That we will continue to remember all the kids’ names (there’s a lot!).

Thank you for everyone’s prayers and support!

• Emily, Theo, Carrie, Hannah, Ben, Ella H, Ella S, Charlie F, Charlie P, Charlotte

(Written by Ella S, Charlie P and Theo)

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