We went to Xenacoj to build a road. Really, more to repair the long, winding driveway that snuck up from the main road. Every road here is full of pot holes, so riding from place to place has definitely been an interesting–bumby, rollercoaster-esque–ride with all of us seatless and falling to either side of the vehicle. Honestly, not my favorite way to travel, but it's not about me.
We stayed at the founder of Hope Haven's house. It was borderline palatial buy Guatemalan standards, though in the US, it would still be considered a very nice house. It was a rambling place with large rooms and a wide staircase, multiple skylights and–the piece de resistance–a tall cement fence topped with barbed wire. Wew were–or seemed to be–very much isolated from the world. The corn grew as high as the top of the house, and though we could sometimes hear our "neighbors", we couldn't see them.
This house would be one of breakthrough for us, I thought.
We spent the mornings repairing the driveway with wheelbarrows full of drirt and the a handful of rusty tools. In the afternoons, we visited an orphanage. This taught us two things:
1. REALLY, give up your expectations, and
2. When the World Race asks if you want to spend the week at a manor house in remote Xenacoj, just remember that there's always a catch, namely, copious amounts of manual labor.
We were taken to a field behind the orphanage maybe fiftyxfifty feet and full of brambles, brush and weeds, handed a few rusty machetes and asked to clear the field. We did it jokingly, but kind of incredulousl. Back home, there would have been weedwhackers for this, or, even better, a lawn care service. It's hard, backbreaking work, which quickly made me give up any romantic ideas about living on a small, peaceful farm someday.
The upsides to the labor were that we'd unknowingly stumbled onto another WR ministry site. The Beautiful Feet Team has been serving at this orphanage for a really long month, and they've just fallen in love with he kids. It's a beautiful thing to see people who are so in love with the LORD, and therefore, crazy about His children. Some of these kids are HIV positive, while others come from really difficult backgrounds. It didn't take much time for us to see the love these Racers and kids have for each other.
The other amazing thing was a little girl named Rainer Maria. This sweet little girl looks like Dora the Explorer, NO JOKE, and is named after a brilliant poet (nerd moment!!). She jumped right in with me as I was hoeing the field, slipped beneath my arms and grabbed hold of the tool right below my hands. We hacked away at the weeds for almost half an hour, then played some jumping games and gave each other flowers. She kept asking when we'd come back and I said, "Wednesday. Miercoles." She spoke some English, which made it so much easier to communicate with her, but a lot of it was just smiles and laughter.
It hasn't been all hard work. Here's some of the fun things we've gotten to do while we've been here:
Kite Festival in Xenacoj. These kites were almost 30ft high!
How many people does it take to fly a kite? Apparently three: Juan, Mickey and Hector!
The Team at Iximche, some ancient Mayan ruins!
