Rosthern Junior College 2009

Rosthern Junior College is a small, Mennonite residential school located in Saskatchewan, Canada. RJC has been sending groups to Guatemala for the past 7 years and was excited for the opportunity to connect with a new community outside of Guatemala City for the first time in February this year. The group spent four days working with the community in Carranza, a marginalized neighborhood about 45 minutes outside of the city, where they helped work on the construction of a room for the daycare program the small Mennonite church there has started. The group then had the opportunity to travel and connect with communities in Santiago Atitlan and at Bezaleel school in Altaverapaz, with whom RJC has a unique relationship. During their time here, the group kept a blog, sharing about their experiences as they happened. Below is a description of Day 5 of their two-week trip from the perspective of two of the students. To read more about their trip please visit: http://rjcservice.blogspot.com/

Day 5
Greetings

Today was our third and final work day at Carranza. It started off like many of the other days. We once again split into groups and set to working on our assigned tasks. The cement crew finished pouring the floor in the new building. The daycare group once again helped with arts and crafts before heading out to the park for an exhausting recess. Before lunch we were taken on a tour of some local families´ houses.

The first house we entered was next door to the church. The lady who lived there had just recently moved back from the coast. She had been forced to leave with her family due to gang activity that threatened them. To emphasize the importance of working with youth she told us a story of a boy she walked to church with. He was shot in the head right next to her by a gang member. This member also threatened that if she told anyone she would be next. The lady´s house was very basic and small. They had a terribly small kitchen with only the bare minimum and was very hot due to the metal siding and roof. She had a baby in a hammock and to quote Krista it was the ´cutest baby in the whole entire world´. The second house we visited was a small shack that doubled as a store. We stood in the garage as they told us about the lady´s health problems and the miracle that allowed her to regain her ability to walk.

After this tour we prepared ourselves for the Canada verses Guatemala soccer game. This epic game begain with team Canada (RJC) walking down the dirt lane waving small Canadain flags and singing O Canada. As we warmed up we observed the captain of team Guatemala (church minister Manuell) coming to the soccer pitch (dirty rough field) in a Jersey, cleats, and shinpads. We knew the game was a lost cause but this confirmed it. He proceeded to show off his mad soccer skills by juggling the ball while the rest of his team walked out in matching jerseys. With the fans screaming, team Canada´s starters walked onto the pitch. (actually the fans were Geraldine, Laurel, Abby and a smattering of younger children and the starters were whoever had the ambition to be trounced first). The game started off pretty well. The game seemed fairly close after Canada closed a two goal deficit. We soon dicovered that as soon as we scored a goal Guatemala quickly and easily scored again. Coming to the conclusion we were being toyed with, we picked up the pace. Even though they were very good at passing and handling the ball we had the advantage in height and managed to pick up a few headers. Eventually we resorted to playing an extra person and using a flying V to confuse our oppenents while shielding the stiker (Krisha) who had the ball. It didn´t work. Highlights of the game include Coby´s disbelief that our oppenents never subbed off or stopped for water. This prompted the comment ¨They´re like freakin cactuses¨!!!!!! O it was a blast. This intense and monumentus game concluded with a kind of tie. Actually we lost as last goal won but the number of goals was even at 5-5.


Exhausted, tired and sweaty we headed back to the church for lunch. Here we had the most tasty chicken ever and tried a funny looking rice drink that was O so good. In the afternoon we had a commisioning service on the recently poured cement pad. It was very touching as members of both cultures prayed for and with each other. Our gifts were given to Anthony (MCC head honcho) to be given to the Carranza church once the day care facility is done. Then we took a couple pictures on the cement and infront of the church, before saying our goodbye´s.

We again loaded into Bertha and drove to the market. This is the same market we visited our first day in Guatemala city. The drive back to Semilla was extremely long. We had the priviledge of being caught in rush hour traffic. This makes drivers even more daring than normal with more close calls than usual.

Due to a change in venue for the next couple of days blogging will not happen until

sunday evening at the earliest. Until then Adios Amigo´s !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Krista, Ian and the herd of RJC students