Video from the Valley

Katy took a video on our last trip of the house where we hope to live and some views of the Valley.

Hope you enjoy.

Emotions

Sorry it's taken me so long to get this blog posted.... we have hit the ground running this week after returning from Guatemala with a garage sale and two showings on our house.... plus just simply living life. So many have asked how our trip went. I will try my best to give you a picture. Emotions....that's the best way I know how to describe my trip to Guatemala in one word.... lots of emotions. For those of you who know me well, this will come as no surprise. In the past week & a half of my life, I have experienced excitement, wonder, fear, sadness, peace, awe, stress and utter exhaustion. Not sure if all of those are technically emotions, but you get the drift. I'm on a bit of a roller coaster these days. At this point, we are definitely moving to the Ulpan Valley sometime around July 27th.

Our trip was really good. Many of the questions that I had were answered and many of my reservations and misgivings were put to rest. The journey there was very long and grueling. We did what no one (that our friends know of) has ever done: left the states and made it all the way to the valley in one day..... I don't recommend it.

Our flight was uneventful. Upon arriving in Guatemala City, we made it through immigration & customs with no problem and went outside to wait for our ride. All we knew was that someone would be holding a sign waiting for us. We waited & waited.... all the while I was growing more nervous, wondering how we were going to make it to the bus station (our next destination) if this ride didn't show up. Our flight had landed early, so Mark assured me they would be there. Finally, our ride arrived, two lovely ladies who did not speak a lick of English! And at this point, my Spanish was really rusty and especially not working well as I was tired and flustered (having been awake since 4:30 am). We managed to communicate enough to get a non-chicken lunch and make it to the bus station in the city where we boarded a bus to ride up to Coban. The bus ride was not so fun..... have you ever been to Fontana in western North Carolina?? Well, imagine the road to Fontana for 5 hours & that's what you get. Oh my!! I am going to become very good friends with Dramamine in the next year!!

Once I got my green self off the bus in Coban, we were met by Kris & DeeDee Hatchell. They are two of the folks from Nashville who are living in the valley right now & are planning to remain in the valley until at least summer of 2013. So, it was great to meet them & get to spend time with them since we'll be living in very close community with them in the next year. However, I was already green & did not realize that the next 2 hours would be four-wheeling our way into the valley. Boy, oh boy..... I was so carsick by the time we arrived. I ate something (barely), met the rest of the team living in the valley, and went to bed. LONG DAY!!!! Disclosure: If you come to visit us, we will not make you come all the way from the states to the valley in one day!!! We'll take it easy on you!

Thursday morning I woke up to the most breathtaking sight I have ever seen. The Ulpan Valley is really one of the prettiest (perhaps THE prettiest) places I have ever been. We stayed in the house we will be living in, so it was fun & hard to begin to picture our family there & figure out how we would make life work. We will basically be living as if we're camping for a year. Life will be simple: some parts much more challenging (like laundry & bathroom); other parts really sweet (like lots of time together without so many things pulling us in a thousand directions). I spent the next two days asking a million questions and taking lots of notes. Friday we went on a hike to another village. It took us 5 hours of really strenuous hiking..... I think we'll get in good shape!! We also got to spend time with Cata and her sister Nina. Cata has helped the Colvett family during the last year and her sister, Nina, is going to help us next year. She is very sweet and will be a great helper to us!! She will also help us with our Spanish and we will have the awesome privilege to teach her English.

Saturday they took us back to Coban.... beginning the trek home, but also to see where we can go grocery shopping and show us around the town (hospital, laundromat, bank, etc). We had a great dinner in a very nice restaurant.... it will be a great date place for Mark & I to get off by ourselves every once & a while. Sunday we caught a bus again, this time with Nina & Cata, and went to Antigua. We said hasta luego to Nina, & Cata helped us find the place we were staying. She also spent the afternoon with us, showing us where we would do language school and a possible apartment for us to rent while we spend the month of August in language school. After we said goodbye to her, we rested, went to dinner & crashed..... I think I fell asleep at 8:30 that night.

We got home late Monday & I was soooooo happy to see my little ones, even if they were tucked in their beds. So.... that's the trip. I have no doubt that the next year of our lives will be very transformative!! Life will be hard, but there will be good things about it also. We will certainly welcome visitors.... especially if you're up for hiking in a GORGEOUS place!!

Interesting Statistics for Guatemala

I have heard a lot of statistics thrown around since we have been considering going to Guatemala, so I started to research a little to have some more solid sources. I plan to make a list of links to interesting sources for information pertaining to our project.

http://www.cesr.org/downloads/Guatemala%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Guatemala

God has a sense of humor.  Have you experienced that in your life?  Well, I have…. Just in the last few months to an extreme.  At the beginning of 2012, I said to Mark, “Wow... it feels like life is finally s

God has a sense of humor.  Have you experienced that in your life?  Well, I have…. Just in the last few months to an extreme.  At the beginning of 2012, I said to Mark, “Wow... it feels like life is finally starting to slow down and get to a point where I can breathe again.”  Well, apparently, God likes to keep us on a roller coaster—probably to ensure I keep clinging to Him—because on February 20^th, life got really crazy again.  How so?  Because we are seriously pursuing moving to Guatemala!!!!!  "What???", you are probably saying... "Mark & Katy are out of their mind"!! 

Let me start the story at the beginning.  Last summer, Mark’s engineering firm, Cannon & Cannon, Inc. became connected with a couple of guys (Kris and Kevin) working in the Ulpan Valley of Guatemala.  They are working through a partnership between David Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee, and a Guatemalan relief agency called CAFNIMA.  They are living in the valley with their families in an effort to bring clean water to this remote valley and train several Guatemalan men to build and maintain these water systems.  Kris & Kevin connected with Cannon & Cannon and asked if their firm might be interested in adopting one of these villages.  When they heard the idea, there was a suggestion to pitch the idea to the water engineering community in Knoxville to see if any other firms might have an interest in participating in a project like this.  The response was more than they expected and a group was formed called Knox Pro Corp, through which the various firms would have the opportunity to send teams to participate in Project Ulpan and connect with these Guatemalan villages. 

On February 15^th, the board of Knox Pro Corp, embarked on an exploratory trip to see the project first hand and begin design on a preliminary water system.  Mark was a part of this team.  Their last night there, Kris asked several guys on the team to please pray for someone to come replace Kevin, whose family had committed to be in Guatemala until June 2012.  Mark felt as if the Lord was tapping him on the shoulder & saying, “That’s you!”  He mentioned it to the guys during that conversation & said he would discuss it with me, but was pretty sure I would shoot the idea down. 

So, when he walked in the door on February 20^th, and asked if I wanted to move to Guatemala, my first reaction was something like, “Are you on drugs???”  But when he further explained the details, I began to agree with him….. this was a perfect fit for him & for our family. 

And so, we are off!!!  Mark & I are leaving tomorrow (April 11th- 16th) to spend time with the people involved in the project, see the valley, answer some of their questions and have many of our questions answered.  We are tentatively planning to move to Guatemala in late July, spend the month of August in language school and remain in the country for one year.  We are very excited and the Lord has already begun to surprise us…. Doors aren’t just opening, they are being blown off the hinges. 

Please pray for us as we go to Guatemala this week….  Specifically, pray for our children as we are away & for those who are caring for them.  For Mark & I, you can pray for clarity, wisdom, clear direction, questions to be answered, and for safety.

Thanks friends!!  We would love for you to stay connected with us.  If you would like to click "follow" on this blog, that will help you stay posted.  We'll be using this blog as a means of connecting during this journey!!