Guatemala Team Reports

Today was packing day for the Marine View 2024 Guatemala team. Eleven of us assembled on this drizzly morning under the protection of team member Tom’s carport in West Seattle, and in assembly line fashion loaded up the 12 supply bags we will take with us when we depart this Thursday. We had so much stuff to bring it almost didn’t fit, but it did. In fact every year we go it sort of works out that we have nearly precisely the luggage space to fit the items we are bringing and within our weight requirements. Must be a God thing.

Airline rules for international travel dictate no bag can weigh more than 50 pounds, so each bag must be carefully checked after it’s packed, then again at the airport before we check in. Most of the bags were in the 47+ pound range, with at least one over 49. One bag was already filled with the beautiful (you’ll have to take my word for it because I forgot to get a photo) hot pads lovingly sewed for us by the ladies of the Hearts and Hands sewing group at Marine View (thanks Beth and team!). We added a few more items to reach the weight. So what else was in all of those bags?

We are bringing 11 reconditioned laptops that will be used in a school, powered by the RACHEL system (Remote Area Community Hotspot for Education and Learning) in affiliation with Rotary International clubs. We are not involved in that directly ourselves, although one of our team members coordinated the donation of these employee laptops from Costco and our host organization, the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation, is responsible for school selection and installation. But otherwise we are just the pack mules for these laptops.

We are taking 140 backpacks for village school children, filled with educational supplies like notebooks, pencils, erasers, pencil sharpeners, rulers and such, and jump ropes, tennis balls, stickers, coloring books and more. In fact team member Larry and I stopped in Federal Way on the way up to get the donation of coloring books from team member Lisa Ruppel, a veteran of two past missions who so badly wanted to go again this year but was unable, yet has been helping us throughout by keeping track of our finances.

Each backpack also has a tube of toothpaste and a tooth brush. We have games, crafts, pencil sharpeners and other supplies to give to the teachers. We have a load of soccer balls and footballs, both to give to the youth in the village and to toss out the window to unsuspecting kids as we travel.

We are taking 120 solar-powered and USB rechargable SeedPlayer audio devices, each with Bible stories and scripture recorded in both Spanish and the native Mayan dialect. Our baggage includes t-shirts for the kids, knives and flashlights as gifts for our helpers, DeWalt batteries for the power tools we will use, and a few other things I have probably forgotten as I type. Anyway it all adds up to fill those bags.

And after packing we filled ourselves with delicious barbecue chicken and ribs smoked and served by host Tom, a true delight.

Today was not only a day for packing, but for bonding. It was the first time we have really assembled in- person as a team as our meetings have been online. (One of our team members, Nancy, was not able to join us as she lives across the state but we will meet her at the airport with her own supply bag). Some of us again will be at Marine View on Sunday for our team commissioning by the congregation, then all of us will gather at the airport on Thursday.

Hasta la vista,

Brian