Team Shelby

To our Family and Friends-

Thank you for waiting patiently for my teams first post.  These past three days have been crazy busy for us!  We traveled with Brandon's group from Gannon to Guatemala, and his post has more about the travel details.  Once we landed in Guatemala, the Gannon Groups split into out teams and we started the 3 hour journey to San Lucas Toliman.  Below you can see a very tired group of travelers.

Upon arrival of the mission, we went to our "castle" (as the locals call it) hotel to settle in and then we had our first dinner as a group.  Everyone went to bed early as we prepared for our first day in San Lucas.

On Sunday, we were given the opportunity to be tourist for the day and go on a boat ride along Lake Atitlán in San Lucas.  Lake Atitlán is the deepest lake in Central America.  The Lake has an interesting history and I recommend reading about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Atitlán
Or first stop was in San Antonio.  Here we were able to find the best pottery on the lake.  Our second stop was in San Panajachel.  We stopped here and had lunch as a group and then were able to walk around the town for 2 hours and shop.  After a day on the boat, we came back to San Lucas and had dinner then hung around as a group and played some games.

On Monday, today, we started to do the work we came down for.  Today in the morning my team was split into groups of two.  One group went to a block housing construction site.  The site we were working on was a house for a family of 14.  The seven of us helped to move the blocks and tie rhubarb.  The other group went to a wood housing project where they were nailing wood frame on the wood house.

 After lunch, we had a tour of the mission projects.  We visited the Womens Center, San Lucas Clinic, Coffee Plantation and the San Lucas Montessori school.  During these, we were given a brief overview and history of each.

To all of the parents who have been worried about their child, everyone is doing great.  We are coming together not only as a community within our group, but with the community of San Lucas.  Take a deep breath, (especially you Dad).  We will keep you updated as our adventure continues throughout the week.  We appreciate any prayers and good thoughts you are sending us in Guatemala.
I am signing off for today, but stay tuned for posts later in the week!

With love and gratitude,

Shelby