Today started a little earlier than yesterday, but thanks to a one-hour time difference from home, it’s not too hard to get up early here. Breakfast was scheduled to start at 7 a.m., so I got to the kitchen by 6 a.m. to start pulling things together. Since the lighter breakfasts of fruit, yogurt, cocoa, and granola seem to be a hit, I’m sticking with that idea. I served coffeecake yesterday and biscuits today…so I might do pancakes or something interesting like that tomorrow. I don’t know yet. ☺

Everyone ate their breakfast and was ready to work by 8 a.m. By the time I finished cleaning up from breakfast and got a coffeecake in the oven for the 10 a.m. snack, I ventured out with my camera to find the work crew. Turns out they were divided into about four different groups. Some girls were painting, some guys were helping build a retaining wall (by shoveling dirt into the area behind the wall), and another group was helping the local crew who was getting ready to put a roof on a large building. I took what photos I could before hurrying back to rescue my coffeecake from the oven.

Promptly at 10 a.m. breaktime was declared and the whole team reassembled in our apartment looking for a place to sit and something to eat and drink. I served them hot blueberry streusel, and they liked that just fine. Before long they were heading back to the worksites and I was thinking about lunch. I really didn’t have the things I needed to make sandwiches, so I had to think creatively. I decided a chicken-rice soup would fit the bill, and maybe cornbread would be a good idea to fill in the empty spaces in people’s tummies.

By noon the soup and cornbread was ready, but much to my shock, my large pot of soup almost disappeared before the last few team members arrived for lunch. I scraped the pot and served the last few bowls, but I vowed that I would not run out of food in the future! Fortunately there was lots of cornbread, so folks were able to fill up the rest of the way on that.

After lunch I decided to take a little break, so I wandered around taking a few more photos, and then I came back to the apartment to rest for a bit before starting on supper. While I was resting, Deb Everly washed ALL of the lunch dishes. What a treat to wake up to clean dishes ready to be used again.

Spaghetti was on the agenda for supper, so I started working on that. While I worked I realized that I didn’t have any sort of a side dish to serve with the spaghetti. I had thought I’d do salad or corn, but neither of those things were at the local market. I finally decided to make some salsa and serve chips with the spaghetti. Not exactly an American tradition, but kind of a way to mix American and Guatemalan foods.

Everything went fairly smoothly, with the only minor glitch being that I almost ruined the special corn noodles Eric Cowell had brought for his spaghetti (since he can’t eat wheat flour). Fortunately we were able to salvage enough noodles for Eric’s supper, and the next batch of regular noodles turned out better. (I’m still learning how the altitude affects my cooking.)

The work crews were dismissed promptly at 5 pm, so several girls (Rachel, Anna and Molly) came to the kitchen and offered to help. I quickly put them to work doing such things as washing and setting the tables, pouring drinks, etc. We invited our hosts, Greg and Karen, to join us for supper. All together we had 23 people around a long group of tables. It’s rather an unnerving feeling to have that many people standing around waiting to eat food I’ve prepared. Sure makes me hope everything tastes good.

The food was good, but even though I thought I had enough for everyone, we did eat up the last of the spaghetti, and we ate almost every chip in the two huge bowls. The one thing that had a bit leftover was the salsa and guacamole. I am amazed at how much this group eats! Before this week is over, my goal is to serve enough food to fill everyone to overflowing and still have leftovers.

After supper we had our evening worship time. Greg and Karen joined us, which was special. How interesting to worship with fellow American believers here in Guatemala. Thanks to Mrs. Bauder’s suggestion on the blog, I grabbed the computer and told everyone they needed to tell me the highlight of their day. I informed them that if they didn’t feel like talking, I would take the opportunity to type in bits of gossip in the blank spot next to their name. Fortunately, everyone cooperated.

After the worship time was done, folks dispersed more quickly than I thought they would. I guess they were tired! Deb and I washed up all the dishes, thoroughly enjoying visiting while we worked. Then I made a big pan of rice crispy treats for the snack time tomorrow morning, and I popped some popcorn to munch on tonight.

Rachel Hodel and I are hoping to get to the market and store in Solola tomorrow morning to restock the fruits and veggies we need. We’re going through our supply much more quickly than I thought we would. Fortunately, produce is very inexpensive, so we can splurge on that.

Tomorrow morning we’re having 100 tortillas delivered, so I’m hoping to have a lot of fun using them for a few meals. I’m told the tortillas are small, so we’ll see how far we get with 100 of them. Can you believe that we’re paying all of 20 Q (divide that by 7.5 to get the amount in dollars…$2.67) for that many tortillas??? What a great deal!

Thank you for your prayers!