Sadness and Happiness Together: Final Day Photos

Team White with the family and workers inside the completed home

Team Green celebrates with the family and workers inside the new home

The plaque that hangs on each home recognizing the contribution of Westminster students in the construction of the homes.

The key handoff ceremony - a touching moment for all

Anne with tears rolling down her cheeks, hugging little Ana after the key ceremony

Bill visiting with the family the McGahan's built a home for last year. "The father said his family prays for us every night."

Smiles and Paint Brushes for Katie, Anne and JB.

Daniel with his buddy Luis inside the new house

Blue Thumbs Ups: A happy Faustino during the painting with little Luis showing off his teeth in the background

Wrap Up & Summer Santa

Hola again from Antigua, Guatemala. This week has been a blast, and we have had such a great experience here. This week has taught us to be grateful for the things we are fortunate enough to have. Today we visited a local school, along with many other stops. In Guatemala, education is not as developed as education in the United States. Only 3 out of 10 children are lucky enough to make it to 7th grade. This school was special in that it went out to the city looking for the least fortunate people who needed an education. Today began with breakfast without Dylan who went with Bill McGahan to Hotel Antigua for a fancy breakfast and omelets to order. Expecting to go directly to the worksite, most of us were surprised when we found out we were going to a new private school called La Excelencia. Many of us brought clothes and toys to give away to the kids as well. Last year, Mrs. Solomon’s 9th grade Bible class translated chapters of the Bible into simple English. These translations were then made into 8 sets of children books which are being distributed to different countries around the world. One of these sets came with us, and we donated to the library at La Excelencia. The ride to the school was filled with singing, jokes and references to The Office (which annoyed Wiley, by the way). We got to the school and seeing how unfortunate most of the kids were, made us realize how privileged we are. We read to the kids who really enjoyed it and after that, we went to the construction site where they are building new grounds for the school. There, we played basketball for the kids and Dylan dunked for them. Stephen and Katie gave out soccer balls to the P.E teacher. After seeing the school, we went back to our construction site. Today was a short work day because we only had to lay the cement for the floor inside the structure we built last week. It did take quite a while to mix and pour cement, so to pass the time we sang songs like American Pie and Jack and Dianne. Since making the floor didn’t take long, we had an opportunity to give out our belongings to the kids. The family was really grateful when we gave them t-shirts, toys and gear. For example, the girl who I gave my puppy doll to carried it around all day long and when we distributed the items to the family, they were just staring at us because they have never received so many things in one day. As Bill, Stephen, Wiley and Anne walked down the street, Bill became a summer Santa Clause giving out everything in his bag to the children passing by. Having more time than usual, we played soccer with the workers on a concrete field in the middle of Santa Maria de Jesus. Even with our excellent defense, we could not beat the workers and were defeated three to one, with Sebastian scoring our only goal.

When we came back from the worksite, we took a shower and went to Spanish school. This time, the cooks on Friday became normal students while Ashley, Stephen, Wiley, Anne, Hannah, Katie and Julia Bowen, became the cooks. Unlike last time, the menu for today was Pepián, a mixture of potatoes, quisguil (sweet pears), dried chile peppers along with chicken, rice with vegetables, rice pudding and tortillas. I found it especially challenging to peel the potatoes with kitchen knives instead of peelers. The majority of the people thought today’s meal was outstanding. After the delicious meal, we came back to the hotel, ready for a night of fun and games. We can’t believe that the trip is near the end because we have had so many fun and fulfilling experiences. Looking back, what we got to do in Guatemala is a life changing experience. We are now looking forward to finishing up our house tomorrow by adding the roof, door, window and painting them. We are excited but at the same time, upset to be leaving Guatemala.
Adios, from Antigua. Abrazos - Ashley and Stephen

Church, Shopping and Grilled Cheese

Hello to everyone back in the States. Bill McGahan reporting here from Antigua, Guatemala on Sunday evening July 19th. Last year I visited Bill Clarkson and told him that I had a great idea: let’s put together a group of students from Westminster and take them down to Guatemala to build homes for the rural poor, learn some Spanish, make friends, and get deeply immersed in the culture of a great and proud central American nation. Prior to the meeting I discussed what I thought to be a brilliant idea with my wife Lisa (who is a lot smarter than me). Generally speaking, Lisa thinks that my ideas are a little nuts (and me too!), but she thought this one was a pretty good one. Well, Bill did NOT think I was nuts (one for the husbands of the world!) and immediately thought it was something that the school should pursue. And I am glad to report that the trip has been, so far, a huge success.
As a chaperone on this trip (and as an alum of Westminster and as a current parent) I have a unique perspective of this trip to Guatemala. I am not going to give you a lot about the specifics of the day (just a little at the end), but rather focus on what is happening within our group.
This group of 12 students is genuinely and sincerely nice to one another. They joke around a lot, needle on each other about silly things, but they truly care for one another and the people around them. I love it when I see little things like:
Weston going onto the dance floor to bail out Julia Bowen who has been pulled on to stage to dance with the dinner performers and doesn’t really does not want to be dancing,
Students working as a seamless team in handing bucket after bucket of cement to one another in laying down another row of cement blocks on the house,
Students (Annsley, Dylan, Kohler, Sebastian, Weston) working hard at cooking school to make dinner for the entire group (and taking pride in their accomplishment – who would have guessed?). The rest of the group will cook our meal on Monday evening.
Katie and Ashley teaching Simon-says (actually Pablo says) to a classroom full of 50 kids, and then all of them laughing together,
Julia Bowen, Weston and Sebastian working as an awesome team to score the winning goal against the Guatemalan World Cup Soccer team (ok, maybe not the world cup soccer team, but it was a tough line-up of Guatemalan workers),
Hannah earning the trust of the Guatemalan village and holding the small child of the family whose home we are building,
Julia Bowen handing out donated clothes to a family and watching them immediately change their baby into the new clothes,
Having every Guatemalan worker wear a Westminster t-shirt handed out by Bill Clarkson (or a Westminster-Lovett football game t-shirt) every day since last Tuesday,
Anne balancing on the top of 10 rows of cement blocks filling with a fresh bucket of cement filling in the spaces between the blocks (perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned this one for our risk managers!)
And Annsley, Hannah and Ashley determined to make it to the top of the Volcan de Pacaya despite having never done anything like that before, dealing with some blisters (Hannah), and showing just tremendous determination (and all making it all the way to the top!).

All of this (and much, much more) makes me extremely proud to be associated with this group of young adults. And it makes me proud of Westminster to produce such solid kids who – while at times needing some guidance – are extremely smart, sensitive and kind.
And as for Daniel and Emily, I can only say this: there are not two people in the world I would rather send my own kids to Guatemala with that Daniel and Emily. Daniel is fluent in Spanish and has an incredible focus on details. There is not a day that goes by that is not planned, from the lunches being prepared, the snacks available for Spanish school, to dinner reservations. And Emily runs an extremely tight ship. She knows which kids had a good or bad day, who has a slight headache or blister, and she is all over them making sure they are getting what they need. Bravo! These kids are in great hands.

And lastly, as for the days’ events:
We woke up to a great breakfast here at the hotel (nicknamed the dormitory since all rooms are taken by Westminster).
We walked through town and discovered that Antigua was hosting a half marathon, thus, the square was packed with runners, bands, and fans. Perhaps next year we register a couple participants.
We attended church (with mass entirely given in Spanish), which was extremely interesting.
We spent the better part of the day shopping, using the internet, and relaxing. We had smoothies and milk shakes, fresh cups of Guatemalan coffee, but mostly shopped for t-shirts, hand woven bags, slippers, hats, and coffee, etc.
Wiley, Kohler and Stephen played a huge game of street soccer with the local kids, and according to them, “they were awesome!” (direct quote)
Tonight we are cooking dinner at our hotel. Emily is leading the charge with help from Julia Bowen, Ashley, Annsley, Hannah, Stephen, and Sebastian. We are having grilled cheese with avocado (or some sort of tomato dish – chef’s surprise!)

So, that’s it from Antigua. As you can see, all is well here. Two more days of building and we will be heading home very early Wednesday morning.

Bill McGahan


PS – If seriously questioned, most students will admit that I am both the best Apples to Apples player as well as the best at Texas Hold ‘em. Go ahead, just ask ‘em.

Explosive Volcanos and Disco Dancing

¡Buenos Dias! Today we were lucky enough to sleep in until 9am. Breakfast was served on the terrace as usual, and the meal consisted of eggs, cheese, tomato, and strangely enough hot dogs! The Bills met us at our hotel at 10am to load up the bus and head to the Pacaya volcano. After about a 45 minute drive, we arrived at the starting point of the hike. When the people there saw us pulling up onto the parking lot, they converged on us and one even jumped onto the back of the bus! They offered up tours, guides and even walking sticks.
Our hike was gradually getting steeper, which was aided by the fact that we were taking shortcuts that cut the corners of the main trail. After about an hour we reached the height where you could see slow flowing lava a year ago. However, over the past 12 months, the volcano has grown due to its numerous small eruptions. Our guide said the volcano has grown 500 meters since April 2008. So we continued our treacherous hike while Volcan de Fuego, one of the other three active volcanos in Guatemala, was letting off smoke of its own.
We began to climb up the sharp volcanic rock. We could feel the heat rising from the solidified lava, so we all wanted to keep moving. Since we were climbing on newly formed volcanic rock, we were prone to stumble and fall as the rock was not completely stable just yet. Our mission was to see, from a distance, the elusive actual flowing lava. Since the lava doesn’t follow one specific path, it was tough to find. We saw some hot spots and felt the rush of heat coming from below, but we didn’t get a peek of actually flowing lava. Bill McGahan, however, was fortunate enough to get closer look. We had a brief stop for lunch near the crater and then began our descent down. While taking a break from climbing down, Emily decided to entertain us with some dancing on the mountain which we were glad to see since she didn’t make it out to the discoteca later that evening. Don’t worry- Emily’s explosive dance was caught on tape!
After reaching the bottom of the volcanic rock, we split into two groups: one led by Bill McGahan which moved down the hill making quick time, and the other by Emily, Mr. Searl, and Dr. Clarkson. Even though it was a challenging day at some points of the day, we enjoyed the experience of hiking up an active volcano came away with a very positive feeling.
The hike, having taken longer than we thought, gave us only a short time to shower before our 7:45pm dinner. We walked through the Parque Central in Antigua to reach Posada de Don Rodrigo where we had an incredible dinner. Halfway through the meal, Guatemalan dancers came out in traditional bright colored outfits and a mix of carnival-type masks to put on a dance show. Toward the end, they grabbed members of the audience, gave out maracas and tried to teach the people how to dance. They tried to get Katie on the dance floor, but she held on to her chair so Julia Bowen was escorted onto the floor. Weston wanted to show his moves too, so he jumped up to help out Julia Bowen on the dance floor. After a delicious dinner (truly an incredible meal!), we went to a local coffee shop to grab desert. Once we returned to the hotel, Dr. Clarkson said a goodbye speech, since he had to leave early the next morning to head back to Atlanta.
After the goodbyes, we headed back into town to find a discoteca with Mr. Searl (no sneaking out for us!). Luckily we found one right around the corner, where we enjoyed a live band that banged out a variety of mainstream songs in Spanish from ska to merengue to reggaeton. At first we were on the outskirts of the dancing circle, but with the jumping up and down, within minutes, we were quickly in the front row where we almost fell on stage! After a few songs we returned, tired from the hike and eventful evening. We fell into bed, and went to sleep.

Hope all is well in Atlanta. Adios!
Julia Bowen and Katie

Cooking, Windows, Doors and Disco Denial

Hola a todos! Today waking up was just hard as all the other days. The girls’ alarm clock refused to work/ Anne forgot to set it but she magically woke up at 7:26. Katie’s cell phone went off at 6:30 (way too early.) Breakfast was super exciting because we got mango and pancakes. The trucks came earlier than usual because Oscar, who works right along side Joe Collins, told us that we needed to start loading up the trucks at 8:30 versus our usual 9:00 because today was our last hard work day. Driving up to the site, the girl’s truck discussed how we are living in a “phenomenal” time where our world is changing. Not only are we seeing changes within Westminster (new teachers and new traveling opportunities) but also we will be the first new generation to live in such dynamic times. At the worksite both build teams got to it right away. Our goal for the end of the day was to finish 4 more rows of cinder blocks all the way around and an extra row and a half on one wall so that the roof would ultimately slant. We finally saw the door and window take shape and watched the walls rise above our heads. This was honestly the best part of working today. Because the height of the walls was escaping our reach, we resulted to create higher scaffolding only accessible via a ladder. On Monday, we will put up the roof and possibly create the concrete floor. The second half of the two groups visited the school and played with the kids as the first half did yesterday. Julia-Bowen and I walked around while Daniel (soon to be called Mr. Searl again when we return to campus), Weston, Wiley, Dylan, and Stephen played basketball with the boys. It was fascinating to see that they are learning pretty much the same thing that U.S. elementary school students are learning back home. Dry erase boards, cursive, and name cards are just a few of the similarities. The kids and I got really excited when we took pictures of them and showed them their faces. We noticed that it didn’t take much at all to make them smile. One of the boys took me to his classroom so we could take pictures of him and his friends. We returned to the basketball court to see all kids watching Dylan dunk. To our surprise they were not very excited by the dunking – they just wanted to play. Basketball is less important to Guatemalans than fútbol aquí. After shooting some hoops we came outside to see some of kiddies practicing for El Quince de Septiembre, Guatemala’s Independence Day. Then we walked backed with Faustino, one of the children from the other house we are working on. After a quick lunch, we continued our tradition of sharing our extra food with the children of the families and the Guatemalan workers who help us and direct us. Ashley gave her chips and orange juice to a small girl who proceeded to run to her crying sister to share the bounty. The two groups got back to work and quickly finished what had to be done. The final stretch was, in my opinion, the hardest we had to work all week, but I was happy to see our work pay off. After returning to Antigua and taking a quick shower, we continued on to Spanish school. Half of us carried on with our usual lessons, but the other half went into the kitchen and cooked diner for the rest of the group. The master cooks were Dylan, Weston, Kohler, and the two of us. We prepared Pollo en Jacón, a traditional Guatemalan dish consisting of chicken in a green vegetable sauce (containing parsley, onions, tomatoes, miltomates, and peppers to name a few). This was served on rice, mixed with red peppers and onions, with guacamole and beans. The most interesting moment of the afternoon was when we were making corn tortillas and Dylan dropped two on the floor…he was the only one who encountered this problem. The table was set, and dinner was served (very nice.) For dessert, we visited a McGahan family favorite pastry shop just off the main square. The coffee was slightly disappointing (seeing as the menu said “el mejor café de Antigua”) but not too shabby. An interesting side note, the restaurant served pays, also know as pie (the word pay, as those who study Spanish know, is actually the Spanish phonetic interpretation of the English word pie). There was apple pay, pecan pay and even pumpkin pay. Now everyone loves a good piece of apple pie, but I must say that, compared to previous pie eating experience, this was a salty let down. After dessert, we returned to the hotel to freshen up before our big night on the town. Our plan was to visit a local discoteca and party the night away…but we were immediately rejected from two clubs and gave up (side note: they let the girls in.) overall the day was a great success just as all the others have been and will be. I hope that life in the ATL is as exciting as life in the ANT…I…GUA. Hasta mañana.

With love,
Annsley and Seb
p.s. Happy birthday papa Lucas!!!!

Scaffolding, Schools and Spanish

Hola Atlanta desde Antigua - the city of eternal spring. The sky above Volcan de Agua this morning was very clear and the temperature was just right. Everything around us looked extra gorgeous, which was perfect because the group as a whole was lacking a little fire when we woke up. A couple group members even slept in a little extra this morning. Dylan took a five hour energy drink that helped him get at least half way through the day. None the less, we had a very productive day building the homes. The four walls are almost to the final height. A new obstacle today was the extra height which forced us to build scaffolding in order to reach the top of the cinder block walls to fill in each gap with cement.
About halfway though the day, around 11:00am, three members from Team Green and three from Team White (Sebastian, Kohler, Anne, Katie, Hannah, and Ashley) as well as Daniel and the two Bills walked nearly a quarter mile up the road to the local all-boys school in Santa Maria de Jesus. We brought them school supplies including notebooks, pencils, pens, and markers as well as a soccer ball and a basketball. Daniel, Kohler, and Sebastian played a soccer game with the kids on the cement court between the classroom buildings. Many of the remaining 600 boys tried to hide from Anne and Hannah until the cameras came out and they welcome the prospect of getting their pictures taken. While the one group was at the school, the rest of us became very familiar with concrete. Weston mixed a lot of concrete with Maestro (aka Damien) who is the “master”, or man of the house. He was a pro. The group at the school then returned to the worksite and ate lunch with the rest of the group. After adding 4 more levels of cinder blocks to the house, leaving us with a total of 10 levels (about 5’6” tall), we were done for the day and started packing up.
After showering, changing, and napping, all of which felt amazing, we attended our Spanish school around the corner from around 4 to 5:30; our language teacher is the man! We learned mucho. At 6:30pm, we went to dinner at La Esquina (“the corner”), a local joint, and had an awesome dinner - even though it took and hour and 50 minutes. All in all, we are making progress with our homes and we’re having a blast as we learn more Spanish from the locals and enjoy awesome Guatemalan food.

Mucho Amor,
Kohler and Weston

Smiles, Cinder Blocks and Hannah Montana

Buenas noches from Antigua. We just got back from a high quality, inexpensive dessert (or “postre”) outing for ice cream, a perfect way to top off our long but awesome day. Our building today mostly consisted of filling in the concrete cinder blocks with cement, and the houses are now five rows high and starting to look like homes! Hannah spent most of her day being called Hannah Montana by the Guatemalan workers (because apparently Hannah Montana IS America), and about halfway through the day Anne got to go work with the third From Houses to Homes team, a group from Britain. (They’re not America.) While Anne made new friends with the Brits, we gave out the typical Westminster Nike shorts to the children of the two families for which we are building homes. At first, the children did not fully understand what was happening. They were not aware that these were gifts for them to keep. Once this point was made clear through rough translation, the smiles were abundant. It is incredible to think about the way our gifts were received because Anne and I are sitting here, each wearing just one of our many pairs of the same Nike shorts, something so pedestrian for us, and for the children, this was a treasure, shown by their excited faces. Another time when we saw the children’s excitement was when they were able to see the pictures of themselves Anne had taken. Little Luis’s face lit up with surprise- this was something he had never seen before.
On the way back to town, some of us got to ride in the yellow pickup truck, equipped with handles (sorry- no seatbelts), we (Kohler, Anne, Weston, Dylan, and Julia Bowen) daringly stood up in the back of the truck while coming down off the mountain, enjoying the brisk wind beating against our faces. (Twas a beautiful sight – we do have pictures. And everyone made it - even Kohler! Just kidding, no worries, Fontaine – I love you (AH)
After cleaning up, we all headed over to the Spanish School around the corner from our hotel. We were split up into groups of two, each group paired with a tutor, except for Hannah who had a one on one experience with her lovely tutor. (By the way Sharon Falconer, Wiley was paired with Dr. Clarkson and had a great beginner’s session. All good.)(PS I love you too.) By the way, some of us even have homework, but Dr. Clarkson’s sentences were definitely more work than the song Anne and Seb had to write. The topic of choice with most of our tutors was Michael Jackson, which coincidentally, IS also America, like Hannah Montana – para los guatemaltecos. Aside from this, we have all improved after just one day and learned basic conversational pieces.
We know you can’t function without us, but if it makes you feel any better - we’re loving this experience! Oh and we love you too… I guess.

VAMOS GATOS! (that’s for you, Mr. Dimon).

Anne and Hannah