Happy New Year!

It is a couple of days into the new year already but we didn't have a chance to post until today so "Happy New Year!".

We went to the Children's Home on Wed, Dec. 31st and returned yesterday the 2nd. Unfortunately we forgot all three of our cameras! A missionary from Costa Rica, Barb, was also there so we may be able to get some photos from her at some point. If we do, we will add them!

On Wednesday when we arrived, Oralia, Lita and Zoila were preparing chucharitos (translated little dogs) for lunch. This is a traditional Guatemalan food. It is similar to tamales in that it has the same filling but it is stuffed into an uncooked tortilla which is folded in half and sealed around the edge. It is then wrapped in corn husks and cooked in a pot over a fire for about an hour. They are huge and very filling but they taste good.

Later they killed two of their turkeys for lunch on Thursday. I won't describe this too much but Barb took pictures so maybe you will get to take a look later! Let's just say that it was quite the process to see for a non-farm girl like me!

Don and I went to the New Year's Eve service on Wednesday night. It started at 8'ish and those who stayed the whole time didn't get home until 2:30 am. We actually left early at around 10:30 or so. Our kids stayed at the Home, watched a movie and then went to bed. Traditionally, they light off alot of fireworks at midnight. The fireworks were so loud that we thought for sure it would wake the kids up but they all slept through them!

Thursday, I was the lucky one who got to cook the turkeys. Oralia wanted to cook them in the oven but didn't know how. They usually cook them over a fire. It took a really long time to cook them but they were very good when we finally ate lunch at 2:30!

Barb had lots of activities for the kids at the Home while we were there. Our kids had fun joining in. They built boxes/houses with popsicle sticks, strung beads and went swimming in the swimming pools.

We ended up staying until after lunch on Friday. The older girls had an activity during the day and had asked Don if he would drive them. We wanted him to be able to go get them in the afternoon, so we waited to leave until after they returned. We made it back to Canilla just in time to leave for market.

We had a great time but we were all very tired on Friday night. Don jumped back into clinic on the weekend. We are looking forward to Monday when we will have some time to rest and relax!