Well we have been super busy the past couple of weeks here so I have plenty of pictures to show you all. I will have to write a couple posts this week to let you see all that has been taking place. I will start with a couple parties that we got to be a part of.
The first one was very special. We got to take part in celebrating the first completed house of the year for Porch de Salomon. Some of you probably remember the Santos Saput family from one of my earlier posts https://deedsville.org/2013/01/28/holy-ground/. 
With God’s help and several teams from The United States and Canada we have finished their house! And our family was fortunate enough to be able to celebrate with the family!
Here is the family in front of their newly finished home.
As you can see by American standards its still nothing fancy but for this family it is a life changer. The family gave thanks to all involved and said that we built them a house far greater than they could have imagined. They said we think like Americans because we built them a BIG HOUSE!
After living in a one room adobe room with 2 beds for their whole family I’m sure this is quite a change for them. Abra is always fast at making friends and if you remember this is the family with her friend Gloria, the one in the blue in the top photo. She got to help give them fresh sheets and pillows with Melanie (Porch director) and Rachel a little girl visiting with her family from Colorado.
The family went all out for the occasion and decorated the house with flowers and the traditional pine needles for carpeting. They also prepared a large meal to share with us. A very humbling experience because it is an extravagant form of saying thank you from this very poor family.
The soup is called Pulique (pronounced: Poo-leak) I’m pretty sure that is a turkey leg because there was at least one less turkey than I remember seeing before.
This was like the Guatemalan version of corn bread. They boil corn in corn stalk leaves. We used it to dip in our soup.
We all enjoyed the meal. The kids liked the soup and the corn substance.
I made sure to eat it all. After seeing how much this family sacrificed to make this meal for us there was no way I could do otherwise.
Here is a picture of the crowd they fed that day. 
They bought everyone coke too and made a salad.
Abra after lunch found some more friends in the neighborhood to play with.
They are all very interested in playing with a matchbox car.
That same week we also got invited to go to a Mayan families birthday party in Santa Catarina.
This is Dennis the birthday boy.
Ezra liked the Balloons too.
Once again we were treated to a large meal. We had a different version of Pulique mixed in this gigantic Stew Pot. Thats a piece of bamboo used for stirring and a Gourd used for serving out the soup.
A big plate of veggies and potatoes and here is one of the ladies in the family serving the Pulique
The Birthday party crowd
Here you can see the pine needles I was talking about earlier spread out like carpeting for special occasions.
But the HIT of the day (pun intended) was the Piñata!!!
Abra takes her turn. And little Melanie, Denis’ sister gives her best shot at the car.
Anna was all business during the party. She was working on her homework. She was using a soccer ball as a seat and a chair as her work station.
Thanks for checking out what’s been going on!
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