New family member!

Last week we went to visit our friends in Antigua for Thanksgiving. Before going we had talked about buying a dog as a Christmas present for our family. We had picked out a name, a breed, even colors that we wanted! We had to make a grocery run to Guatemala City, (45 minutes away from Antigua). One of the stores we had to go to was next door to a pet store. My parents were going to go get groceries the day before we left, and the next day we all would go get the dog. Well, I go out to help bring in the groceries, and the passenger door is open. Inside it was our new puppy, Alegria, Ali for short. She is a brown, white, and black Shih Tzu, and a bundle of energy. She has to stay in the bathroom at night, so when I come down stairs in the mornings she licks, nibbles, and jumps all over my feet. All in all, she is a loving, sociable, and very cute little bundle of fur.

This is Alegria.

Princess Ali slept the whole way home.

My harness is huge!

The well of life.

Last week we went back to Katerina's house for project number two. We got to dig their well deeper and build a cover for it. My dad and one of our friends, Stephen, got to work on making the well deeper in the morning. Then after lunch, we all went over to work on the well cover. We had to make it sturdy so the if the kids play on it, they would be safe. We made a door in the cover so that they can draw water, but also so Katerina can wash clothes in it. I liked this project because when I left, I felt like their house was safer.

Digging the well deeper.

Everybody wanted to help!

The finished product.

Clean up on aisle two.

This week we went to Katarina's house to help clean up some trash and dead corn stalks in the yard. (This is the family that has the open well.) There was a lot of broken glass, plastic, and other assorted sharp things. There are three kids running around playing.  The youngest one usually doesn't wear shoes. At the end of the day we had two truck-fulls of plastic, glass, and trash. We have more projects to do at their house so they may be featured in a few more blogs. I liked doing this project because now their house is a little bit cleaner and safer.

 This is some of the trash before.

This is the first of two loads.

This week we played with some of our friends from the river. We got to climb trees, play soccer, and jump on a homemade trampoline.We almost lost the ball in the river playing soccer. The trampoline consists of two small springy mattresses; and all you do is run jump and try not to land on your face. It was really fun 'cause you didn't have to talk, just laugh and try to make others laugh.

Cuidado!

Here is a link to a video of playing in the river.