United Methodist Volunteers in Mission
Linworth United Methodist Church, Columbus, Ohio
Aldea Valle de Candelaria, San Lorenzo, Suchetipéquez, Guatemala
February 2024

Click on a date below to see the photos from that day. Click on any thumbnail to see a larger view of a photo.

• Saturday, 2/17/2024 - We fly from Columbus, OH and Tampa, FL to Guatemala City and then drive to Mazatenango to check into our rooms at the Hotel Bambu.
• Sunday, 2/18/2024 - When we go to eat breakfast at the Bambu, we see Adolfo with another mission team. He was our bus driver in our earlier years in Guatemala. After breakfast we shop for groceries for lunch for the week. For lunch the Living Heritage Foundation has invited our scholarship families to join us for lunch at the Bambu. All of the students sponsored by Tod and Kim, John and Brenda, and Howard and Sally are there with their families - about 35 of us. It is a very joyous time, reuniting with the scholarship students we have supported in past years and meeting new scholarship students. Our hearts are full!

  We had planned to worship that afternoon, but the lunch program ran longer than expected. Instead we drive out to La Toma where one of our scholarship students lives to see nearby Mayan ruins. We then drive to San Antonio Barrio Uno and visit with a past scholarship student and very dear friend, Alba, and her son, Santi.

• Monday, 2/19/2024 - We arrive at Valle de Candelaria at about 8:45am, and the people of the community are amidst setting up for our welcoming ceremony. Our project this year is to build a principal's office and suppply room for their middle school. A team from Wesley UMC in Marco Island, Florida, began the project three weeks ago. Reina, one of Tod's scholarship students, sings a solo during the ceremony. It is all very touching.

  Our work for the day is to remove the piled up dirt around the perimeter of the building that was a result of digging the foundation footings. The dirt is loaded into a pickup truck and then used for road maintenance and soccer field maintenance. Some is also given to a family member of one of the community volunteers. It is 96 degrees in the afternoon - we aren't in Ohio anymore!

• Tuesday, 2/20/2024 - Our work today is digging out much of the dirt inside the principal's office and supply room in preparation for a concrete floor. The dirt is extremely hard packed such that a full swing of a pick axe only removes an inch of dirt at best. Two of our scholarship students help this morning, before their afternoon classes. It is 94 today, and with working a full day, an afternoon break was required for us. We were also helped by the middle school principal, Reyna, and a couple of women in the village.
• Wednesday, 2/21/2024 - When we arrive on site this morning, we see that the local workers have just begun moving fine white sand into the supply room to create a bed for the concrete floor. We use wheelbarrows and buckets to get a solid level base in both rooms. After considerable tamping, we are ready to start the concrete pour for the supply room.

  A bucket line is formed of us and many community volunteers and teachers. The first "volcano" of sand, cement and gravel covers about one-half of the storage room floor. We don't want it to harden before completing that room, so we wheelbarrow more sand and gravel for a second volcano. Carrying the 80-pound sacks of cement is too much for some of us! It is after 1:00pm by the time we finish the supply room - finally time for lunch!

  After lunch we begin the pour for the floor of the principal's office. We do a bigger volcano this time, and it almost finishes that room. Only a small second volcano is required to finish the office.

  Reyna, the middle school principal, brings the entire student body to the work site after classes today. They are currently limited to using the elementary school in the afternoon for their classes. Photos are taken of us with each class - 7th, 8th and 9th. They hope to move to this middle school complex in March!

• Thursday, 2/22/2024 - We start the morning cutting and bending re-bar for the gable bond beams. We also cut a few form boards to complete the forming of the gable beams. We spend the rest of the day shoveling gravel and sand into buckets for a small concrete mixer that arrived today (where was it yesterday, we wonder?) and form bucket lines to pour the upper bond beams and gable beams.
• Friday, 2/23/2024 - We visit the home of a new scholarship being sponsored by John and Brenda. We help take down the scaffolding, dig out the area for a front porch and mix and pour the front porch. In the late afternoon the community holds a humbling thank-you celebration for us and shower us with gifts. It has only been a week, but what a wonderful week it was!!
• Weekend - The team does some sightseeing in Antigua before flying home.