Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Beautiful San Jose Peten

What is a Sunday afternoon without a fresh coconut to drink ......
And the most beautiful view of Lake Itza in San Jose.
Our wonderful driver Alfonso and his son who owned the vehicle, Eric, brought us up to this view point and provided us with the wonderful fresh coconuts.

After the tamale dinner I didn't know where I could find the room for more.
The coconut held an amazingly large amount of liquid.
You could tell how proud they were of their city and we just sat for awhile admiring the view.
Yes that is a dragon fly in the picture and not an airplane.
We left the scenic lookout to go and visit the Ax Family or the Family Ax as they say it in Guatemala.
Jack had the privilege of teaching and baptizing them in the first few months of his mission.
One of my most favorite pictures he sent home is of him baptizing a member of their family.
I knew that they lived in very humble circumstances.
Jack always told us that even though they didn't have much, how happy they were....
and he was right.
Even though their home was nothing more than stick walls and a tin roof overhead they were full of smiles and laughter. The children played on dirt floors and there were only two places in their two room house to sit.
One was a hammock and the other a plastic lawn chair.
I was escorted to the hammock to sit.
A decision that I would soon regret when it came time to try and stand up.
The children were so sweet and had smiles that stretched from ear to ear.
All except the youngest who looked at me with a healthy dose of suspicion.

We brought some little toys and candy and they seemed excited to receive them.
The biggest attraction was my digital camera and my favorite model was the little boy Danielo.
He kept asking me to take his picture again and again and then he would ask to look at it on the little screen. It would make him giggle and smile even more.



He was so joyful.

 
 It was truly a pleasure to be in their home.
Now getting out of the hammock gracefully in a dress was another matter all together.
We visited another couple of Jack's converts and then called it a day.
We had another early morning wake up call to fly back to the capital in the morning.
Peten
The place Jack loved the most on his mission truly lived up to his description.
We ended the day watching the sunset from the lake by our hotel.




What a beautiful country.

1 comment:

Leslie said...

That little boy has the most beautiful little smile I have ever seen! I'm so humbled just reading this post. I can't even begin to imagine how Jack will be affected the rest of his life from his experiences in Guatemala. I'm sure he misses them all so much!