Spaughs in Guatemala

First Day of School - 2012

Today school started here in Patzun at Alfa y Omega. Here are a few pictures of the students.

Opening exercise

Some of the younger students

In computer class

P.E. class

Friday we had a visiting church come to Patzun to be with us in our Friday night service. Earlier that day, the women of the church made a supper to be served afterwards. I helped with the preparations. They are quite different than what we would fix in the States. Here I am making tamalitos. (Masa [corn dough that is used to make tortillas] wrapped in tusa [corn husk].) I personally would like it better if they had some salt mixed in. Chuchitos are similar, but they have some tomato sauce and a piece of meat/fat/bone included in the center.

A couple of the ladies making tamalitos

First you start with a ball of masa shaped a little elongated.
(Notice the girl talking on the cell phone!)

Next, position it in a corn husk.

Wrap the husk around the sides,

then fold the top and bottom of the husk over the masa.
(I'm sitting on a bucket.)

And there you have your tamalito -
ready to be steamed for about an hour to an hour and a half.
(Cell phone conversation still going!)

I wish I had taken a picture of the big pot of tamalitos over the open fire. Since their BIG pots don't have lids, and to steam something effectively requires a lid, the women tear open plastic bags, (to make them flat). They wet the plastic and then place it over the food, tucking it around the sides of the pot.

I also helped cut up tomatoes - without the use of a utensil. The ladies just started using their fingers to tear the tomatoes apart. So....I joined in. It was a first for me.

Radio Mushroom Project

The board of Radio Cultural y Educativo in Patzun has been thinking of ways to help the radio be more financially stable. Last fall they built two rooms to house a new mushroom project. Then in October, they started their first crop of Oyster mushrooms. They are now growing the second crop. So far, all of the mushrooms have been sold here in Patzun.

One of the two rooms for growing the mushrooms

Bags of growing medium with mushroom seed in the dark room

Mushrooms growing out of the bag - in the light room.
They are almost ready to cut.

Dec. 13, 2011

On Nov. 19, we were robbed for the second time in a little less than a year and a half. We keep finding things that are gone - besides the obvious ones. We are sad, discouraged and need prayer for wisdom in knowing what to do.

Andrea Dell - Grandbaby #7!

On July 27, 2011, Andrea Dell was born to Drew and Rachel. She weighed 7 lb., 4 oz.

On July 29, I was able to go visit her (and her family).
Her arrival gives us 4 grandsons and 3 granddaughters!

My mother with her 29th great grandchild!

I made Andrea a quilt using a pre-printed Daisy Kingdom fabric. I added the 8 larger appliqued flowers by hand. A friend in Alabama quilted it on her quilting machine. Thank you, Susan.

Big brother, Evan

Big sister, Bekah
(modeling the smocked sundress I made for her).

P.S. Sorry I'm so late in announcing Andrea's birth. I have tried to post this three times, but for some reason, it hasn't posted correctly before. (Hopefully it will now.)

G2Camp

July 2011

While Ken was attending special meetings at our mission home in the U.S., I was helping my sister and brother-in-law with their Grandparent's camp. They had 12 of their 13 grandchildren attending from Sunday evening to Friday evening (ages 3-13 - had to be potty trained to come). We and the kids had a great time having devotions each morning, going to the library (to get books to 'read' during rest time in the afternoons, and before lights out at night) making G2 Camp T-shirts, swimming at a local pool, journaling, making origami items, reading a chapter book (one our mother read to us when we were young - and we read to our kids) playing games, going to a museum (I didn't go to the museum, because I stayed home with one who wasn't feeling well that day.) and eating 'special' treats.

The whole group (minus me - I'm taking the picture.)

Morning devotions

At the library with Grandpa

WHILE

Grandma (and Aunt Cindy) checked out a mountain of books
they had chosen

Helping the younger ones with their journals;

The older ones could journal on their own.

We wore some of them out!

Friday evening we took the kids to meet their parents at Cici's Pizza. What a reunion! The kids were excited to see their parents, and also excited to tell what they had done during G2Camp.

Hopefully this experience will help me in planning a grandparent's camp for our grandkids in the coming years.