Behind the scenes

 As you know, we have been plugging away on our new, well new to us, house. With the help of the local crew under Ryan and Duane's management. Last Wednesday we embarked on a quick 6 hour trip to the Capital city of Guatemala (Guatemala City) for supplies and renewal of our tourist visits.

We were able to spend a few nights at a safe hotel in the city where the kids were able to swim, and we were once again able to grab a few doughnuts!

The trip home we were once again loaded with supplies. Our last trip to the city was two months ago. We were able to make our groceries stretch with a few supplemental items from flights to the city. We are hopeful that we will be able to make our next trip a little less stressful, and drive home during the day. We arrived home at 10 pm Friday night. Needless to say we were all tired. We unloaded the sleepy heads and cold groceries, and crashed.






The trip home was slow, and we didn't start until about 3. The sun was nice, and the scenery was beautiful. As soon as we climbed into the mountains, the weather was cool. At the coolest point, the temp was at 50 (f). Not cool to everyone at home, but for a region that lives in dirt or uninsulated block homes with no central or temperature controlled anything, this is cold.


With the building supplies we brought home, we should be able to move into the 'new' house. We have about two months before the new arrivals come, and we will need to be vacated, but we are hoping to get into the house as soon as possible, and be settled for a little while.


The construction on the Hospital is moving along, slowly, as we continue to prep equipment and hone the raw materials process. We are looking into sand washing and trying to find the most effective, yet realistic approach to modern concrete construction practices, while keeping the 'Guatemalan limitations' in mind.


We are about a week till Christmas, and still no tree. I think I may abandon the idea, and keep my disappointment to a minimum. Maybe hang a few more lights, and pretend. I feel like we need to make new Christmas traditions, as the ones we are so familiar with, are just unattainable here. Maybe that is for the better. Almost all gifts are home made or practical necessities and are up in the air until the day before. We will likely work up to and after the holiday, and try to embrace the Guatemalan tradition of the midnight fireworks. We are still foreigners here. I guess we are blended as much as any family.



I am sure Christmas is in full swing at home, and all the craziness of the 25th deadline is suffocating sometime. I hope you have time to appreciate the Christmas season for what it is, and embrace the prospect of keeping the message of Jesus birth and the events that followed as a reminder of the transcending power of Jesus birth, life, and sacrifice.

Blessing!

-Me

At the current rate...

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 I thought I would share a little about the seasons here in Guatemala.

Since about mid October, the daily rains have stopped. The air is very dry now, and the nights are cool. The valley of Canilla has an old water supply or canal, that carries water down from the mountaintop. Then, through to several areas of the valley where it is branched off, redirected, and manipulated, almost entirely through gravity.
The Canal has been a large part of the agriculture here for many decades.

Each year as the rain ends, and the dry season begins, the canal allows farmers to irrigate their crops, allowing for a continuous growing season.
The canal is shared by all the farmers in the valley that pay the yearly fees, and engineer a route for the water to reach their property. On the assigned day, boards or a type of block are used to redirect a portion of the water flow. It is not uncommon for the water to pass under roads or through neighboring property.

The water is not  clean enough for drinking, but there are numerous families that  utilize the water supply for laundry, baths and cleaning. My children enjoy dipping their toes into the cold water, as the dry season can bring the hottest weather we see. Some of our neighbors will dip out of the canal, and wet the road to eliminate some of the dust for motorcycle and automobile traffic.The dust during the dry season seems to settle onto everything.

The rains will begin again in June. Between now and then, the entire countryside will turn brown. The grass will go doormat, and the fields that are not irrigated will sit idle until the rains begin again.





The canal happens to run directly past the front of the AIM compound as well as the Hospital construction site.  We will be using the canal water supply for most of the early hospital construction. We hope to dig a well with sufficient water supply on the Hospital property. This is no small task. We have investigated and inquired about a well, and when it is all said and done, we are told the cost will be upwards of $75,000 US.  Needless to say, we have not started drilling, but through God's faithfulness, we will start the well soon, and be one step closer to opening the doors of the Hospital.

Ruby Slippers

Our future house adjacent to the Hospital is coming along. We just started laying tile in the house and the electricity is almost ready to be turned on. The house has changed slightly, but the result of these small changes makes me think it can become a nice home for our family for the immediate future.  It will be nice to practically have Ryan working in the back yard on the hospital construction, as we host teams and juggle all the demands of family life and ministry. 

I wanted to share some pictures of the progress so far, and show how much of the work has to come slowly, as basic supplies are locally available, but anything quality or reliable needs to be brought in from the city, a five hour drive away.

 

The tile will hopefully be grouted by the end of next week, and then we can look to closing in the ceiling and hanging doors. The kitchen will be a long time coming, as all the carpenters are heavy equipment operators currently, and I think that will continue for some time.

Kitchen after demolition of the separating wall

Kitchen, ready for tile.

Living room, after some demo.

Living room, ready for tile.

Kids bedroom, before

Kids bedroom, after windows, ready for tile.

The beginning of the bathroom.

The bathroom ready for rapeo.

The tile will hopefully be grouted by the end of next week, and then we can look to closing in the ceiling and hanging doors. The kitchen will be a long time coming, as all the carpenters are heavy equipment operators currently, and I think that will continue for some time. Once we get the bathroom working, and some doors hung to keep the cow patties in the living room down to a minimum, I hope we can move in. We have a few months before we are down to the wire, but I am looking forward to being able to clicking my heels, and going home, having a yard where the kids can play safely, a family dog can run,  and be able to create a sense of home again.

 

Even if there is a rock crusher and a concrete mixing plant right off the front patio.

Pink icing and sprinkles

Oh  my, we are nearly into November.

Guatemala time is definitely faster then I remember. The days start at around 6, and as the night falls, we are pushed indoors at 5:30. I don’t know why, but we can hardly stay awake past 9 for anything less than an emergency! Oh my, our lives are changing. It was only 8 years ago that I married into this amazing and crazy family.  

We traveled to the city last week for groceries and supplies. It was a long ride, 5-6 hours each way. The kids did great, and it was good to get out for a little, and see the countryside once again.

 

 

 

My baby, Audrey, just turned two a week ago, and she is showing her age through temper tantrums and independence.  We are enjoying watching her personality show through as she learns to talk to us more and more. She now calls out, “Buenos Dias!” to anyone she thinks may speak Spanish, regardless of the time of day or if they are  even close enough to hear her.  She had Dunkin Donuts for her birthday breakfast, pink icing with sprinkles, and her momma was grateful for the doughnuts, too.

 

The boys are doing great at school. We have moved their school time from the mornings, following breakfast, to midafternoon, after we finish lunch.  The new time gives us more patience, and the boys feel like they have had enough time outside, and can afford a delay in their explorations. Jacob has continued to hone is motorcycle driving skills. He is now standing up, and looking for bumps and mud to challenge himself. He had a little topple a few days ago, and blames (we are working on this) his audience for encouraging him to go faster. He drew a picture of the incident, and I think it will be one that I save for years to come. 

 

Joshua is keeping tabs on us all, and seems to be learning new habits and trying new ways to drive his siblings crazy. He definitely keeps us on our toes, but we can almost always find him in the cab of a tractor, backhoe, or truck pretending to drive, haul or load. He enjoys riding along with Ryan in the dump truck, as does Jacob. 

 

 

               

 

The rains have kept up longer than normal, and we are glad to have the moisture. But, oh man does it make laundry more complicated for those of us who are not morning people. I am working on it also, but Ryan is hands down the laundry king of our house. Ryan has been keeping tabs on our new house, but we have shifted focus to preparing a small apartment for a family coming in January. They guys continue to haul sand and rock up from the river, and this keeps them all buys with repairs on our dump truck that is showing its age and experience. The concrete truck arrived here to Canillá after a long journey from Iowa. The planning and preparation for the beginning of making concrete will take weeks, but as we begin to make progress with living quarters, I am hopeful we can change focus soon, and start to make headway with concrete and the beginning of footings.

                The past few weeks have been challenging as the momentum from the move is starting to fade, and the reality of our new lives become more real each day. The days move quickly, and it seems as though we are always working on a dozen projects at once. I think this makes it easy to get caught in a cycle of feeling ineffective, but we are pressing forward. We are working with what we have, and are faithful that we will have what we need when we need it.  Oh how I would love to hug, talk, eat, and just catch up with so many people from back home.  Letters are great, but how do I send a hug? A nudge?

For now, these letters on a page will have to do.

 

Hope you are enjoying autumn in the US (aka Pumpkin Spice Latte season).

Hope the leaves and cooler temps are delightful.

 

 

 

Early riser

It amazes me sometimes, how difficult it can be for us to adapt to this new life. Some things come easily, while others are elusive. Some things are all the same when you get down to it. The commonality is there, it's just hidden under our own comfort or an inability to adapt.

 

We are definitely learning all about adapting. Some days we are more graceful than others.

 

The progress on our new home has putted along, and has been an entirely new challenge in patience and grace.

 

The kids have gotten used to playing in the horse through outside the house, while they wait for us to make plans, and check on the progress.

 

 

Kids playing in the water trough.

 ... Ryan has been filling in where he can, and today it was to haul sand again. I am sure it is like last year at this time, hauling grain to the river all day, only now the scenery is better and the equipment is a little higher maintenance.

Hauling Sand from the river

 

The kids are all doing well, and most all of the colds have past.

Ryan is continuing to work around the injury on his hand and to get out of doing the dishes, but the laundry is still one of his many talents!

 

We are glad to be working together on whatever we can, and trading off with chores and children at home. We are back into schooling every day, and working our way up in attention spans and patience.

Jacob has had a few lessons in riding a motorcycle, and is encouraging Josh to catch up to him with his excitment. Audrey is enjoying all the new faces and places, but from a safe distance.

I am glad you had time to read up and hope to keep you posted again soon.

Thanks for keeping tabs on us, and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers!

Katie Ann

Since my last update, we have loaded our car and trailer into a shipping container. It is traveling across the ocean as I write this. We were glad to see the end of our road trip and escape the cramped seating arrangement we had with all of our suitcases and luggage squeezed into the car and trailer.

 Joshua was a trooper back in the back, and I think he had enough of the trip once we got to Miami.

 Our flight into Guatemala from Miami was smooth, and easy enough. Audrey was not feeling well, and had her fill of the plane shortly after boarding. 
We spent Saturday night in Guatemala city and flew home to Canilla mid morning.
Jacob was able to assist Grandpa in the airplane on the way to the house.

 The last week has been filled with unpacking, laundry, and trips into town, and lots of trips back and forth to our new house. 

We are glad to be here, and excited to start filling in where we can and watching the progress on the hospital property. Ryan has spent a few days hauling dirt and sand with his brother David's help, in preparation for pouring and mixing the concrete foundation.

Next week, we may be able to retrieve our car from the border, but we do not look forward to Ryan's travel to get there and back. We expect a two day trip, if everything goes smoothly.

We are so grateful to everyone who has shared in our journey so far, and we are looking forward to sharing pictures of the ministry, that you have helped make possible, and our new home-in-progress!

                                        Thanks for reading!!!!!  You Rock!!!!!

Fun in the sun!

Wow, what a whirl-wind of a week so far.

I have to ask Ryan several time each day, what day it is now. We left out of Marine on Sunday morning and headed to church in Highland.

We pulled out of the parking lot a little after noon Sunday, feeling very humbled and honored to be a part of the body at Family Bible Church. It was an emotional and powerful service.

We were prayed over by the entire church, then some amazing people stayed after to pray over our rig. We are so grateful to all of our very thoughtful and selfless friends in Highland, as they were able to send us off feeling charged and excited.

 

We continued to travel south, felling a little overwhelmed by the GPS, but we made great progress Monday, and were able to arrive in Florida on Tuesday.

Tuesday we were able to visit with Barry & Joan. Barry and Joan were instrumental in exposing me (KatieAnn) to a rural lifestyle and horseback riding, as wellas introducing me to Ryan.

We were so excited to see these wonderful friends of ours and play on the beach together.

The beach has been very nice, and all is very quiet.

The kids are learning the ropes, or the waves.

We are glad to be together, and I have to make a conscious effort not to tell them we are

 'going home'.

It is hard to believe we are going to be in Guatemala again in a few days, and even harder to believe we are going to be calling Canilla 'home'.

Thank you for sharing in this journey with us, and making this move possible with your support.

The next time I will write, we will be in Guatemala. Amen!

Let the Games begin!

Ryan started eating away at his last two weeks on the farm today.
In so many ways, this job has been his life dream. In many more ways, it falls short.
How can we ever be content? I mean completely? In all ways?

I don't think we can. Maybe were designed, magnificently designed, to always want more.

The catch.... where we reach for that contentment!

This past weekend we spent time unloading and purging the contents of closets and  cabinets.
The garage is looking like a mountain of Goodwill gold, and our home is looking more like a house. Hopefully that will make it easier to walk away.

We have been shopping for airplane tickets more consistently now.

The reality sets in more and more each day.

These last three weeks here will no doubt be exciting and dreadful all at the same time.

I can't help but think....
   
               "Why is this so hard?"

.......Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding; 
            in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight. (or :and he will direct your paths)


The bible does not say, 'and he will make your paths easy' or 'if it makes sense to you, and is practical or logical, then that is the way you should go'.....
  more so, 'if you are trusting me, and have submitted to him, then you will have a path that is easy to follow.'
When i write that, I see a clearly marked wide, smooth, trail, up a steep mountain side, over cliffs and disappearing into a dense forest. 

Well, that does not look easy, but it definitely looks straight, 

and undeniable!!!!!

Trust.....Lean.......Submit.............Forge Ahead!!!!

That time again...

So here we are again. Making the preparations to leave our cozy home here in Marine, and head south.

It was Three years ago that we returned here to Marine.

It has been an interesting time, and there are many things we will miss.

If you are new to our blog, please subscribe, and you will receive an email when a new blog is posted!

Our previous blog can be found at : FickerfamUSA.Blogspot.com
You will find interesting stories and pictures as well as get a feel for where we have been, and what we will be going back into.

Thanks for showing interest in us, our family, and our mission!

Katie Ann