Last day . . .

We are back.  The last day was painfully hard.  These are pictures are of us leaving the school. Leaving the orphanage and homebase goes undocumented, but the feeling of that will stay with us always.  Thank you for reading this, and for thinking and praying for us!  So much love, Alison (and Madeleine and Henry)

Day 21

Alison: These first two pictures are from yesterday, but I forgot to post.  The last two are from work today.  In school we played the BINGO game that we had prepared the boards for in class the day before. It was a huge success!  The kids were SO into playing, and I think they realize that they learned some things!!  Yahoo! 

We can get the girl in the wheelchair to smile now.  And tomorrow is our last day . . . Urghhh . . .

While we are all looking forward to being home, I am not looking forward to saying goodbye.

Day 20

Today, after work we went to a macadamian nut farm. We learned how they broke the shells with a hand made machine. 

We saw a huge spider like this big:
[                                        ] 

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[                                        ]      As you can see it was very big.     

After that we went to a Mayan shop where we learned about weddings and everyday life of the Maya.

 Then we made tortillas and ground coffee beans.   

By Henry

Day 19

Day 18

Days 15, 16, and 17

By Mads: 
July 13, 14, 15 Tikal Weekend

July 13
On Friday we took a private jet to Tikal. We felt like Kimmy K. When we got there we went to Island Flores and walked around, and then stayed at Hotel Del Patio which was really nice, but you had to go outside the room for the Wifi. 

July 14
On Saturday morning we took an hour bus ride to the actual site of Tikal. We stayed in Tikal Inn in ligit the middle of the jungle. Then our tour guide picked us up and took us through the jungle on a 3 and a half hour hike through the jungle to the Mayan Ruins. The hike was horrible because there was so many bugs and it was on this tiny little path and it was burning hot. But the hike was worth it because the Mayan ruins were amazing. We only spent 20 minutes there though, because the tour guide had to take us back for lunch. That afternoon we went swimming, had dinner, and then had to be back in our room by 10:00 because all the electricity in the hotel shut off at 10:00. That night was horrible because it was pitch black dark, and there was an ant infestation in the bathroom, and you could hear all the monkeys and animals in the jungle. Henry didn't sleep at all because he was scared.

July 15
Today we went back to the ruins just us,  but took a shortcut so it only took 20 minutes. And it wasn't through the jungle. I don't know why the guide didn't take us that way in the first place. We spent about 3 hours at the ruins and we got to explore it much more than Saturday. It's actually HUGE. We visited all the different temples and pyramids and went through all the different secret passageways and stuff. When we were done in Tikal, we went back to the airport, ate dinner at Pizza Hut, and then flew home. Our private jet almost crashed though because we flew right through a lightning storm.

Day 14

Alison (I) have recovered. We were all SO happy to return to our placement.  Henry and I taught the kids English words for animals and we reinforced the colors.  Mads was helpful to her teacher, and she had a good conversation with her.  In the afternoon, we went to a crazy mall with carousels and bungee jumping.

Henry got a new haircut and a new shirt.  Sorry for the short posts.  Tomorrow we head to Tikal, where our hotel is in the jungle and a generator will work only until 10pm - likely no Internet, so we might not be able to post until Monday.