The Plan

Photo: Kevin Schill (our fearless leader), Carla (our Guatemala Coordinator) and Kathy Schill.

One more day of packing and preparing, then we leave for Guatemala!

"We" are 20 people, mostly women, from Rochester, MN, and the Twin Cities. Some of us are health care professionals and teachers, and we even have a few artists in the group. This is a service trip, with some educational opportunities and a lot of fun thrown in.

Most of our work will be centered in the Mayan village of Lemoa, near Chichicastenango in the central highlands region, where we are providing energy efficient stoves to families, teaching health classes for women and leading a community health fair, building a latrine, and more. It won't be all work and no play, however. We hope to take a weaving class from the masterful weavers of the village and learn how to make authentic tortillas. On our days off we will be able to spend a day at the famous market at Chichicastenango, take a boat ride on Lake Atitlan, and we'll spend a day and a half inAntiqua before we fly home.

Several of the people in our group have been making this mission trip annually for many years, but this will be my first time to Central America. I was delighted to be invited along. I will be taking lots of photos to document our project and hope to update this blog frequently while we are there.