1/24/15 - Matthew Danaher

Today was a long day of traveling as we departed Semuc Champey, to return back to the hostel in Antigua. We woke up at around 6, but then fell back to sleep shortly after. We were woken at 7:55, which is when we were told we would be leaving at 8, in five minutes. It had been raining the whole night, and we knew we were in for a wild ride up the twelve kilometer dirt rode back to the local village Lanquin where we would have breakfast and get picked up from by the van. To get there, we piled into the back of a truck which took us up the muddy dirt road, which we traveled on at about five miles per hour because of its state. With all the super steep uphill and downhills, it felt as though we were on a crazy roller coaster.  We all had to wait about twenty minutes after breakfast was over for the van to come, but eventually we were embarking on our ten hour ride back to Antigua. For the first few hours it was obvious we were all sleep deprived, and everyone was asleep. Those in the front, Joe, Ryan, and I stayed awake the whole ride because we couldn't fall asleep. After stopping at several stops for food, primarily chips, cookies, fried chicken, and milkshakes, we slowly made our way back to our hostel in Antigua, where there was much rejoicing. We got our belongings settled back in, and were then treated to a delicious pizza dinner by Father Kirk at a local Italian restaurant. We went through about six out of our ten pizzas, and saved the last three for the next day. Then we returned to the hostel after a nice night walk though Antigua, and after a long day of traveling, we called it a day. Tomorrow is our last full day here, and we're looking very forward to it. 

1/22-1/23/15 - Francesco Russo

  After a night of perfect sleep in our loft that overlooked the river, we woke up to another beautiful day in Guatemala. We ate a calm breakfast together and began our tour of Semuc Champey. Emilio, our tour guide showed us a cocoa tree and other indigenous plants (in spanish). Then we walked over to a map of the park to see the trails we’d be taking. Emilio explained to us (in english) how long each leg would be and when we’d go back for lunch. First, we hiked up a steep mountain to overlook the pools we’d later be swimming in. About 200 steps and three dehydrated kids later, we reached the top. Our view (below) speaks for itself. Next we flew down the mountain to take a dip in the crystal clear pools. The group climbed, slided, swimed, jumped, and belly flopped from pool to pool. At 1 we were back for lunch and an hour later we were off for round two: the caves and tubing. At the caves, we were all given a lit candle and followed our guide into the water. At first we just started walking through. then there were parts where we swam and climbed. The cave was a Disney ride on steroids. then we came to a 7 or 8 foot tall waterfall. Most of us walked around it and climbed up a ladder. Shout out to Joe, Jake, and Ryan who didn’t know any better so they climbed up a rope in the middle of the waterfall. After more swimming and climbing we reached the end, where we could jump of a ledge into a pool. After exiting the caves we took a relaxing tube ride downstream and walked back. However, the fun wasn’t over yet. Emilio jumped off this 35 foot bridge into the lake. As any good Americans, we couldn’t let indigenous people show us up. Off we went, and some of us twice. The bridge should also be in the pictures below. Semuc Champey is a place everyone should have on their bucket list. Thank you Fr. Kirk and Ms. Mekrut for being brave enough to take us such an amazing trip. A big thanks to Sir, who funded some of the adventure. P.S. Colonel Sanders secret blend of herbs and spices is nothing compared to the fried chicken in Guatemala.

1/21/15 - Kevin Lopez

Before talking about what we did today, I would first like to say how wonderful and truly eye opening this trip as been for me.  It’s not only wonderful to see the world outside The United States but it’s also wonderful to meet people you would never meet otherwise.  I have gotten much closer as a friend to all my fellow saints brothers and that in itself is great but I have also became friends with people from Minnesota, Texas, and other states as well as people from Mexico and Guatemala. This trip is also very eye opening because you see what the kids and adults in these very rough living conditions very happy. As I was walking in San Lucas everyone I saw from a kindergartener to a great-grandmother looked very happy and was very easy to say “Hola” and get a positive response. Now on to what we went though today.  Today we woke up, finished last minute packing and headed to breakfast. As normal we had bread, oatmeal, and black beans. (Side note: the black beans today were the best ever.) What made the breakfast special was the saying goodbye to all the people I became friends with.  It really made me think about all the great people I am now friend with.  After the goodbyes we had a chance to buy coffee and get everything all together to leave.  We took last minute pictures with our group and others and headed on our way to Antigua. We stopped a few ways there to get some food and have a bathroom break but after an hour or so in the car we arrived around 1:00pm. We got to our rooms settled down, went to the third floor for a group talk and headed out to see the city.  We all went to the square and Father Kirk set us free until 6:00pm but there was a challenge set by him.  To make it more interesting and educational he said that there was ruins of a Augustinian Church and whoever found it first and showed him a picture would choice first where to be in the bus tomorrow. I decided to go with Ryan to look for it and after a while with no luck we gave up and went to lunch at Burger King. WHAT YOUR IN ANOTHER COUNRTY AND YOU GO THERE??? Yes we did because we needed something American and a meal without black beans. After that we went back to the hostel and heard that Joe was the first to find Father Kirk and show him a picture of the church. Time passed and we all gathered and went to dinner at an Italian Indian place. Everyone picked the Italian food but I decided to be bold and go for an Indian dish. I got a curry dish with Goan fish. I have never have had Goan fish so I thought to give it a try.  It was your typical fresh water white mild fish but the dish was delicious. We were at dinner for a while talking and telling stories and then we came back to our hostel.  We all went to our rooms and hung out.  I went up to the roof with Francesco and Father kirk and we talked about life for a while.  It was a nice end to a fun day.  That sums it all up for today and I hope everyone reading this is enjoying reading about our trip.  Thank you all for reading and thank you for your prayers.

1/19-1/20/15 - Cristian Olmos

Our last, full day in San Lucas was as work-filled as other days. We began the day with our 8 AM breakfast, which I barely had arrived to on time because my fellow roomates didn't wake me up on the one of the few days I didn't wake myself up. Breakfast consisted of a "never-before seen" combination of scrambled eggs and black beans, both which were very "suculent" and "full of flavor". I seriously had to put insane amounts of salt.on my food so my taste buds could notice I had food in my mouth. Regardless, the cooks suprised on some days and I appreciated the variety on some days. 

After breakfast, our group rode on a pickup truck along with some other volnteers to participate in the long awaited coffee picking process. We rode  into a plot of land full of coffee.and were then given instructions on where and what coffee beans to pick. Our service group then separated into smaller groups to pick coffee and each group got a small basket to deposit our beans. I worked in conjunction with Ryan and Joe and I can firmly state that I picked the most amount of beans in our small group, regardless of what they both may say. The picking of beans went on for about two hours and all of us met up to collect our picked beans in one  large bag which we didn't fill even with all our combined efforts. A lady from another group then proceeded to put Joe and Francisco to shame by carrying the extremely heavy bag of coffee up a hill and a small road after they both struggled with the bag even when they worked together. After the bag was loaded on to the a truck, we returned to the mission for some lunch. Right after lunch, our group headed to a coffee production building where we split into two groups; one stayed in the building to separate coffee beans and the other went to a back lot to harvest beans and weed the area. I was part of the latter, and I can say weeding and picking up beans is dull and mindless work. I enjoyed this working period primarily because we managed to bring down a large part of a tree with our bare hands. And so, after we all had done our pieces of work, we reunited and had dinner in San Lucas for the last time. 

Following diner was a much-discussed soccer game between some of our service group members and some of the locals. I personally didn't participate for the sole reason that I was wearing sandals and since I am part Mexican, it would have been an unfair advantage to be in either team. Ryan, Kevin, Joe, Fr. Kirk, Ms. Mekrut, and I watched from the sidelines and cheered both teams playing on. The game was quite enjoyable to watch and from what some of the players said, it was amazing to play with the locals. To conclude the day, we entire group visited the house of one of the Long Term Volunteers working at the mission called Jackson who was of great help throughout our time there and thus we gave him a Saints jacket and made him an "honorary Saintman". Following this award ceremny, we slept in prepartion for our long trip ahead of us the next day.

1/17-1/18/15 - Ryan Segura

Phrases of the day:

"Hey, my friend.  For you 75 Quetzales."

"WE ARE GUNNA DIE" 

As our day started we did not know the adventure in store throughout the day. It started off well. Father Kirk celebrated mass at the Mission San Lucas at 7:30 am for both the Guatemalan community and missionaries. After we left the church and traveled just next door to the library/ dinning hall to enjoy a breakfast of fried eggs and pancakes. Once we finished the dishes we gathered in front of the parish office to wait for our boat "outing". The Jessica  set out from San Lucas to our first stop Santiago.

 Santiago Tolìman was home to Fr. Stan "Francisco" Rother during the Guatemala Civil War. Father Francisco worked with the native Maya people building public service buildings and translating the New Testament into  Tzu Tu Jil ( the native language of Santiago). During the hight of the fighting in the mid 1980s Fr. Francisco was martyred  in his library at the church by the Guatemalan Army.

Once we took the 25 minute boat ride across   Lake Atìtlàn to Santiago we were shocked by the amount of vendors and stalls that were selling small trinkets and woven products. This is when the first of the two phases came up. Every vendor you walked up to you were their best friend or mi amigo, and they always started at a high prices (eg 300 Quetzales) most of the time you could get a person down at least 150 Quetzales. After we walked through the vendors and the open air markets we came to the church where Fr. Francisco was murdered. We spent a few minutes in the room and looked at a small museum of his life and work. Most of us walked around the town and shopped till around noon when we got back on our boat and started our journey to Panechelle. 

This is where the story gets good.

Our "boat" which held up perfectly fine on our first leg of the journey was going head on into waves that had just began after the wind picked up. This is where the second phrase comes into play. "WE ARE GUNNA DIE". As the waves grew larger and larger and the boat felt like it was getting tossed around like a child's toy. At first it was like a bad Seaworld ride... You feel some mist and some water comes in the boat nothing major.  But it kept getting worse and worse. The mist turned into full waves and many of us  began to get totally soaked. Our boat began to fill up at a point, having around a foot of water in it. Kevin came to our rescue and began taking buckets of water at a time and tossing them over the side of the boat slowly dropping the level of water. This continued for over an hour. We finally docked in Panechelle. 

Since we arrived a little late we only had time to have lunch at a restaurant that had a beautiful view of Lake Atìtlàn. After enjoying either chicken, beef, or fish we walked down to our boat and took the short 20 minute boat trip back to San Lucas.

Once we arrived back home we had the rest of the day to our selves. Some of us went shopping whiles others played fútbol (soccer) with some other groups at the local school. 

1/15-1/16/15 - Jake Gammon

Today is Friday, our 5th day in Guatemala. Today started out like any normal day. I woke up at 7 to take a shower, then I woke up Liam and Jaime at 7:45 so they wouldn't be late to breakfast. We ate oatmeal for breakfast and then set out for our job site at 9. We moved rocks to set a foundation for a local school until 12. 

We had lunch at 12:30 and then set back out for our next job at 2. We cleaned up the local school and moved some stored items to make room. After barely escaping many spiders, we stopped working at 3:30 and had free time until 5:50. Our group prepped the dinner for the night and after dinner we cleaned up everything. After dinner, we watched a video on Father Greg who made San Lucas the city it is today. Now I am writing this blog at a local hotel with wifi. Only God knows what fun adventures await us in the days to come. 

1/14/15 - Dominic Oshana

Well... today we woke up had oatmeal, beans, and orange juice for breakfast.  After breakfast we got ready to leave to do the work we were assigned for the day. We were assigned to filling a site with rocks to prepare it for the construction of a new school. We built up the middle wall to a decent high so we could pile the rest of the rocks in front of it. About 2 hours later, we went to have lunch which consisted of potatoes and meat. We recruited a few more helpers and went back to the construction site. We even got Fr. Kirk to come with us. Everything was going built until I accidentally hit Christian with a small rock. We left at about 3:50 and made it back by 4 before lunch at 5. We ate dinner and went back to the hotels after a long day of work.