Team BOLD has been in Panajachel, Guatemala for about three weeks now. It is a very beautiful place, once you look past the garbage in the streets and rushing into the lake. The town of Panajachel sits next to Lake Atitlan, which is said to be the deepest lake in Central America. It is pretty neat, there are three volcanoes surrounding the lake along with steep, green mountains connecting the them. There are about seven or so small towns spread around the lake as well. It is a very interesting mixture of villages. You have Pana, and San Pedro which are the main places tourists seem to go. Next you have San Marcos where all of the hippies reside. San Pablo seems to be a pretty standard town where mainly just locals live and visit. There are a few other steeped in Mayan culture and one that still has government housing from a tragic mud slide many years ago.
We have been working in three towns during our stay here. In Panajachel we work with a coffee shop, Solomon’s Porch. Each Sunday we hold a service there and build relationships with the people that come. We also spend some time through the week meeting with the two employees at Salomon’s Porch doing things like playing basketball, pool, or just conversing. Some other things that go on while in Panajachel are things such as building schools, building relationships with locals, and helping out where ever we can. Other days in the week, we travel on a boat ferry (a very complicated system) to the towns of San Pedro and San Pablo. On Sunday mornings we team up with Pastor Trinidad and help them with their church service. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, we meet up with Pastor Antonio. While we are with him, we spend time going door to door in the village praying for the sick, suffering, and injured. We also take some time to help out the people in the community by doing chores, tilling land for a new garden, making hacky-sacks, and cleaning houses. These activities usually take up the whole morning. Afterwards, we grab a quick sandwich for lunch and then the kids come. We play a lot of games with the kids, teach them bible stories, and do some dramas. Then finally during the evening, we will help Pastor Antonio with his church service.
It has been a good month so far. We have gotten a chance to spend a lot of time together as a team and focus on getting to know one another more, as well as just have fun together. We have also had some great bible studies each morning and every once in a while we get to have story time and read some of “The Shack.” Two Weeks left to go here in Guatemala, then we are off to Thailand. To get there we will spend about 22 hours in a car or bus, then about another 20 or so in a plane…ye-haw!!! I have a few blogs in the works and I will try to get them up soon!
