The mountains to myself...

Amazing how one gets distracted so easily and is able to put off blog writing for so long. Sorry folks!

As usual, there is no real set pattern to my life down here. I came back, was in the mountains with Sarah and Mel for a week, and then they left for a visit to the states, leaving me as the only gringo on the mountain.
But not to worry, there have been plenty of diversions to keep me occupied and engaged. We've seen a hint of village leadership and politics (something I had thought was nonexistent...), a new school is coming out of the ground, we had a team come for a tough couple of days of construction work on the Zacapa dormitory job site, and just recently the Ortiz's came back from their stay in the US.
One day, in my first week back, I noticed a whole lot of the village folks heading towards the factory classrooms and naturally, wondered what they were up to. They were having a 'reunion' the Spanish term for an important meeting. With the new school being built, Juan Carlos, the now 'ex-president' felt that now was the time to throw the reigns over to someone else, as he was not up to the task of being the village leader anymore. He had gotten the ball rolling on the school project, but now someone else had to keep that ball rolling. The village (or at least those present at the meeting) thought that was fine, and so after a couple of minutes of murmuring, our next door neighbor, David Salguerro, was nominated. a quick vote of hands, and that was that, he's now our new community president. He'll be in charge of keeping the school building going (part of which includes keeping the road open, and other community projects.
I've got to say though...I kind of like the way politics works up here. There's no month long barage of political slander adds, and the decision was made quickly and easily...who do you want? Him? Good, it's done. Piece of cake.

I had a great couple of days with the construction team that came from Florida and get this...Mexico, working on the dormitory in Zacapa. The work was tough and hot, but that kind of work makes good relationships. We worked hard for 2 days, laying the block up to the first floor on the perimeter of the building. There's still a lot to be done, but we put a good step forward.

The Ortiz's returned a couple of day's ago, glad to be back in Guatemala and satisfied with their trip. It's good to have them back, Matasano wont seem quite as deserted now when I pass through there.

Sarah and Melanie will be back next week, which is good, it can get boring/lonely at times here. Sure there are plenty of locals to pass the time along with, but it's not quite the same. Conversations are never very 'deep', and in the evenings everyone has gone home to their families and beds.

Hmm...I'm having trouble finding a theme to this post. It's at least a brief update though.

Ps 118:1 "Give Thanks to the LORD for he is good; His love endures forever."