Its good to be home!

Its good to be back on Guatemalan soil! Here is a summary of our trip thus far!

Friday, 1:00pm:

Breaking through the polluted fog of Guatemala City, I gazed out the window at the odd shaped buildings and small rooftops scattered throughout the rough terrain of the mountainside.  The landing experience always brings butterflies form our stomachs; it was good to be home.

In the Beene family, wherever we go, we seem to claim the area with our strewn belongings. As the airplane doors open and the people prepare to disembark, we quickly gather our littered neck pillows, reading books, and random bags of trailmix, and scramble towards the exit.

As we head towards the immigration checkpoint, we happen to run into our team from North Carolina that we are going to be working with for the next 10 days! In the country for 10 minutes, and the hectic missionary life has already picked up again!

Saturday, 8:00am:

We wake up to the pitiful sound of our suburban motor wheezing to life as we try to revive it. We then roll out of bed and begin packing for the 8hr road trip to the Rio Dulce.

As we are running on Guatemala time, something that we have adopted into our Beene family as a permanent lifestyle, the day begins at what seems to be a crawling start.  Loading up the car with our luggage, and a few disgruntled passengers, we make it on the road by noon!

Rio Dulce 8:45pm:

With the waves rolling onto the bank, and distant canoes paddling out to check their fishing lines one last time before supper, we arrive at our hotel, Mansion del Rio. After unloading the luggage, and sorting out the room situations, we all hurry to our rooms to try and escape the suffocating humidity of our first night back on the river.

Sunday,  7:00am:

Though we would normally be starting work on the job site at this point, we are at a standstill until Monday because the workers have to clock in their church and family time on this day of rest.  Because of this holdup, we decided to cram everyone in a banana boat and give the team a sightseeing tour of a small fishing town called Livingston.  This cluster of bamboo huts and small lumber homes stands as the border between Guatemala and Honduras, speaking an intriguing clash of random languages that vary from broken French, to Spanish, and a couple English words thrown in from time to time.

After sightseeing this small sea-side town, we drift back down river through the rainforest canyon, heading home to our hotel.

With our work list varying from plumbing and electric, to prepping the building so we can pour the second floor, bedtime comes early here on the mission field! It is so exciting to be able to be on the job site again, as we construct the beginning of the river ministry! Please keep us in your prayers.