Hello all,

Today my thighs hurt from yesterday's adventure up a mountain to an aldea whose people had never met American's except for the American monks. April, Keeler, Matt, and I went with Padre Pedro and another priest. After rock/mountain/farm climbing in the rain for an hour we were welcomed by smiling faces and "chicken soup"... at 9 in the morning. We then sat through mass where numerous babies were being baptized outside as we, different looking Americans, distracted the misbehaving children inside.

Since it was the day of the Blessed Mary, Padre Pedro asked us to speak in front of all the Qe'che members and say what our futures looked like as women in the USA. As we spoke in English, Matt translated in Spanish and Padre then spoke of it to the Qe'che people. April said she teaches... and they laughed since "teach" means "spoon" in their language and I said I wanted as many kids as I can afford, and they laughed at that too since to them that means about 50 kids. :). Before we left we were given "whole chicken" soup again (at 11 in the morning)... Nothing like two chickens before noon via their amazing hospitality.

After we made it down the gorgeous, God-filled-beauty mountain range, we met up with the Katie's again and went to a Rosary reading with brother Juan Jose and his youth group. It was awesome! We did every other scene in Spanish and English and shared many songs and laughs. YAY to people of different ages, genders, and nationalities all being children of God.

                                                                  ~Monica