Visit a village in Guatemala and get dressed in tradtional clothing!
That is what happened to us today! A little background first…. We are at Lake Atitlan and working in the village of Panahajel with Solomon’s Porch. It is a Christian coffee shop that is relocating their business down the street. We have been spending the days here painting, tiling and constructing in their new building. Our contacts are so amazing and they thought that we had been working really hard and wanted to give us some different ministry.
So this morning we went up to Santa Catarina (maybe?) to visit some families. The first family was extremely poor and they had 4 children and the mother is due to give birth any day now to the 5th child. They live almost at the top of this mountain so it was a hike up and I don’t know how they do it pregnant with so many children and normally something balanced on their heads. The women here are strong and they amaze me! So we took her some food and newborn clothes and prayed over the family.
Then we stopped by another house with a girl named Elaina who has been sort of “adopted” by our contacts. Not literally but she spends a lot of time with them. She wanted us to see her house too. We went in and we were sharing greeting with the family and discussing that there were 12 children in this house! Yes they have 12 children and they survive on farming and selling crafts in the city. The local people wear these very ornate clothes and they were showing us how they were made by hand. One shirt takes 8 months to make! So you can imagine that they do not own a lot of them. Well before I realize they have brought out an outfit and are slipping it over my head! And there began the adventure.
They dressed me up in their traditional clothing. And before long they brought out all of their clothes and dressed all of us up!
Me and Elizabeth enjoying the headdress’ Christy getting her headpiece put on
I have been telling people all month that I could be Guatemalan and I think it is pretty authentic?
Everyone was in on the fun – Casey stayed out and just watched and laughed at us but it was a great time!
We spent the rest of the morning visiting one more family on our way down the mountain and out of the village. The afternoon we went back to our dirty clothes and construction but nothing will top the fun we had pretending to be Guatemalan!
