Hola!!!!! Today was our second day at our respective work sites. Everyone has come back with amazing stories about their hard days work. The group with the two hour climb was pleasantly surprised to find their house to have a foundation when they arrived in the morning. They spent their day leveling the foundation of the house and patio as well as laying cinder blocks for the base of the house. One of the other groups had a great day in the mountains mixing cement and pouring the foundation into the trenches they dug yesterday. They were disappointed to end the day a bit early however, due to rain. After we returned to Tamahu, a couple of kids went to visit babies at the malnutrition center. The babies were very cute but their condition was a bit shocking. One of the babies, Orlando, loved to be held and seemed to be doing well. Right now the group is all hanging out, we are all getting along very well and will probably head over to the stadium soon to play some soccer with the local kids. We are sad that we only have one full day left in Tamahu, and disappointed that we may not get to see our houses to completion, but we are extremely grateful for the opportunity to help in the house building process.

All our love,
Nicole, Sheila, and Cori

p.s. Haley refuses to blog but says hi. 

Hey everyone, it's been a really good, but really long day. The whole group split up into three smaller ones, and our group got to repeat the two hour hike up one of the mountains. Today, we began to dig the foundation for a new home for a family. The family had a bunch of really adorable, entertaining kids that were wicked fun to play with on our breaks. Luckily we made it down before the downpours started. We have the rest of the day to blog, visit the malnutriton center, play soccer with the kids, and just experience Tamahu. We are so lucky to be here and have this experience.  Miss everyone back home, but this is so worth it, such an unforgettable experience. :)

- Sheila and Nicole
P.S. Cori and Jane say hello and their day was awesome too!

¡Hola! After a long night of rain, and losing shoes in the flash floods we woke up this morning to beautiful sunshine. Today our plan was to check out all the sites that we are going to be working on. After a delicous breakfast, we started our first trek up to our first site. The first hike was two hours away, but with beautiful views. When we finally reached the top of the mountain, we met one of the family that we are going to build a home for. One of the children is blind and can not walk or talk. When we came down we finally got to have lunch, as we started to leave for our next expedition it started to thunder. As of right now, we are just hanging out at the school yard playing soccer and basketball. While some of the students went to the malnutrition center visiting the kids. Hope you are enjoying life in Scituate and Sharon! -jillian, jane, kelly, and cori.

p.s. Good luck to my sister Katie who is running the Boston Marathon tomorrow! I am sure you will keep up with the world ranked runners! - love, jillian.

We've arrived!

After a long day of endless flights, we finally arrived late last night in Guatemala City, at the Biltmore Hotel. We all got a long, well-deserved sleep in the comfort of the hotel last night as well, and today we will begin the long 5-6 hour bus ride to our final destination---Tamahú! But first.... we all enjoy a hearty Guatemalan version of a Continental breakfast! Blogs will continue to follow our trip's highlights in the coming days. ¡Adios!


- Olivia and Nicole DiPietrantonio

Tamahu 2012!

After months of preparations, lots of fundraising, and gathering vitamins and CHOCOLATE :D, our 22 high school student volunteers and six group leaders are very excited to make our way to Tamahu on Friday! We are looking forward to seeing our beloved friends and to serve them with open hearts, warm smiles, and great big hugs!  


To follow our week of service and fellowship, check this blog daily beginning on Saturday (April 14).  If we are able, we will also upload photos along with our posts.


Please keep us and the people of Tamahu in your prayers!

Our team has just arrived at the Biltmore Hotel in Guatemala City. We are tired from the long trip from Tamahú, but we´re having a lot of fun shopping in the hotel for souvenirs for ourselves, families and friends, as well as hanging out by the pool with everyone. A part of the trip has not been discussed on this blog. It was a very big important part that definitely should be shared. One part of the trip that everyone participated was going to see the newly opened malnutrition center in Tamahú. It was opened the week before we arrived and it offers a great help and hope for the families and children it attends for. The malnutrition center is a hugely important aspect to Tamahú because it is a center for young children who are very poor in health due to the bad nutrition and insufficient balanced diet. We met five children there. One was named Marvin and is an adorable little toddler but sadly has a horrible case of worms. He was by far the friendliest and always has a smile on his face. Another was a small baby who was both blind and deaf and had scabies all over his face. Claudia and Mira were two small babies who were severely premature due to the malnurishment. Norman was a little boy we met with his mother during our visit was is severely disabled neurologically. It was a sad sight to see, but we were all able to take out of it many happy memories.

Nicole

Heading back to Guatemala City

Hi everyone - this is Ms. Hallihan. Our busy schedule yesterday did not allow us to blog (as we were busy saying our goodbyes and sharing time together). It has been an amazing week full of discoveries, challenges, language lessons, and plenty of laughter. We do not have much time now to share stories but wanted to let you know that all is well. We are headed back to Guatemala City now and will be headed back to the US in the morning...with plenty of stories to share with you! Hope all is well in the Northeast.