While our team was loading up nine bags full of supplies at a home in Seattle on Saturday, another team some 3,500 miles away was getting ready for our arrival. And that’s no small task.
In the months and weeks leading up to the mission, our team must form, fund, gather and pack. Over the same time the Hands for Peacemaking staff in Guatemala is manufacturing the stoves we will install, making several three-hour trips to the village, building sanitary facilities for us and placing each unassembled stove by each of the 110 homes. They also haul in a generator, kitchen equipment, a refrigerator, and cots with mosquito netting for us all. In fact, by comparison they make our job look easy!
The villagers of Rancho Palmeras also prepare. As a condition of our team coming to help them, they must tidy up the village so it’s litter free. The head of each household must sign a contract for the stove and pay a little money (about $26) so they have a “stake” in this investment. The villagers also prepare a big welcoming ceremony for us – although we expect that may be scaled back a bit this time due to COVID.
Meanwhile, in Seattle on Saturday under the supervision of Lisa, we first laid out all the items for the 150 children’s gift bags, then in assembly-line fashion made up tote-bags full of each. These include notebooks, story books, pencils, bracelets, erasers, tennis balls, jump ropes, stickers, toothpaste and a toothbrush, floss, and combs.
After packing the gift bags we adjourned for a delightful lunch of fresh salmon, Caesar salad and lemon bars, all prepared by Tom. After lunch we finished our job of loading the luggage, with the stipulation that each bag could not exceed 50 pounds per airline requirement. Craig managed the scale – if we were overweight, we took items out, if under we added until we were as close to the weight limit as possible. In addition to the children’s gifts, we are bringing the solar-powered audio Bible players, pencil sharpeners, infant blankets, potholders, about 20 soccer balls, 100 infant blankets and hundreds of reading glasses. Somehow, we were able to stuff everything in the bags with about no room to spare!
It was a good day for our team, which was the first time we had all met in person! We did some initial bonding, and all felt happy and blessed to finally be this far along.
Our next meet-up will be Thursday at the airport. You will likely not hear from us again via this blog until we are “in country.” In the meantime, you may see posts on the Hands for Peacemaking pages of Facebook or Instagram (or our personal pages).
If you’d like to receive more immediate updates, I can also loop you in via our WhatsApp sharing, just get in touch.
Until then,
Brian
The prep for the trip is time consuming & well thought out. The photo of the cot/tent gives me a visual picture of your sleeping conditions. Thx Brian
Way to go team!