Monday

Today we woke in our host family's home, ate a delicious breakfast of cereal, bananas, and cantalope. Our first agenda item after breakfast was Mass at the Dreamer Center's chapel . Then, a tour of the Dreamer Center facilities.

I was impressed by the facilities. There is a school, a library, a clinic , a dentist office , a stage/theater/gym, a zoo , and a pharmacy. Looking at the buildings, I realized this place is almost entirely a project of North Dakota residents. Familiar names adorn plaques on almost every structure. At left, I am pictured atop one of the buildings at the Dreamer Center.

During our visit to the Dreamer Center we walked into the library just as kids were enjoying story time. These kids were like kids everywhere: innocent, adorable, and curious. They listened intently to the librarian as she read the story with enthusiasm.

Later, from a patio on the roof of a building, I saw some of the kids almost maul one of our girls when she started handing out candy. It was quite a sight . I learned to be careful of exposing my stash of "dulces" to plain view. I might get rushed by hundreds of sugar-hungry school kids. The Dreamer Center really is a beautiful place.

Lunch was back at our host family's home. We are eating well and our accomodations are nicer than I expected. But they are not quite like home in the U.S. The water shuts off at 10:00 p.m. every night and stays off until 4:00 a.m. There is no hot water heater. The shower head itself is electric (and dangerous). The septic system here cannot handle toilet paper. Used tissue must be placed into the wastebasket, causing the bathroom to constantly have an odor. Don't consider these to be complaints. This is a nice place in Guatemala, and I am satisfied. It's nicer than I expected.

Once we finished lunch, we hiked through rain to buses for a ride to various museums in the area. First, we visited a working coffee plantation. Next time you drink a cup of coffee, consider that it takes a massive amount of work to produce coffee. And almost nothing of the price of your cup actually gets into the hand of the growers. We saw the plantation , the equipment for extracting the beans and byproducts, and watched them roast some beans . That place smelled very nice.

We then moved on to a museum dedicated to Mayan music. While I was very impressed with the wide array of creative instruments they use, the music seemed to be mostly random noise during all kinds of celebrations.

We returned to the Candelaria neighborhood in Antigua, to our host families, for supper. After that we trekked to an Internet Cafe and bar for snacks and to relax . We had a good time today.

Tomorrow we get busy building houses for the poor.