Hola! Today was our favorite day so far, and packed full with many different activities! At 8:00 AM, before church, we were pleasantly surprised to get to see an early Holy Week procession. Many Guatemalan men dressed in purple robes carried a float decorated with statues for four hours around the town. Around eight thirty we went to mass. Although it was in a different language, it was a cool experience to see that religion is a universal language.

Next, we split into two groups: one went with Jeremy to San Andres to visit his mom's sponsor and family, and the other went with Kris to meet with the Schmidt family's sponsored girl and take her family shopping and out to ice cream. We went with to San Andres, so we'll share our experience with that.

It took about half an hour to walk to San Andres, (keep in mind that it was entirely up-mountain!) and it was really neat to be able to talk with our CFCA tourguides in Spanglish! (: When we finally got to the top, we realized how different rural villages are from San Lucas. Instead of vendors lining the streets, there were children, whose parents were off working or shopping in San Lucas. The tiny shacks clustered together showed the extreme level of poverty.

While Jeremy, Lauren S, and Emily S went to talk to the family, the rest of us walked through the streets, handing out bubbles and chalk to the kids. They were really shy at first, but started flocking when they realized we had toys and wanted to play. Although we couldn't understand everything they were saying, we connected through our laughter and games. Once the cameras came out, the little girls immediately took control over all photography. They probably took 100 pictures on each of our cameras! The guys got their pride handed to them in a game of soccer with the little boys, and us girls fell in love with the little girls' charm. When it was time to leave, they wouldn't let go of our hands and followed us across the village. It was so sad to leave, but we are incredibly grateful for the experience. We miss them already!

After lunch, we went back to the coffee farm to work once again with our new amigos Ronando and Leonardo! We hauled dirt and picked weeds, then came home and ate another delicious supper!

Thanks for reading about our experiences; we just heard the number of views are over 1400 and are amazed! We'll continue to keep you updated! Love, Anna, Lexi, Nicole, and Ashley