Trip to Atitlan

   Wow, that last week went by super fast!  The new dental couple arrived this week, Rick and Lonna Jergensen from Medford, Oregon.  We borrowed a larger car so we three couples could go to the Lake Atitlan and check out some of the villages there. We left Friday morning and stopped at Iximche (pronounced E-shim-shae) to spend some time checking out the ruins there.  Then on to the city Panajachel, which is lakeside, but of course stopping a couple of times on the way to take pictures and shop.  When you get out into the agricultural areas you will often see people packing things around on their backs. 

   We saw another little man, age 80, packing some firewood.  The girls wanted to take a picture in passing but the guys wanted to stop and get out to take some pictures. Guess who won!  They took lots of pictures and gave the man some money for allowing us to snap pictures.  

    We stopped in a little shop where they demonstrate how they take the cotton from the plant, spin it, dye it and weave it to make the products they sell, table runners, scarves etc. They showed us which plant they used for the various colors, carrots for orange, oak tree bark for brown, paprika for burnt orange, beets for reddish purple, indigo plant for blue and several others. Then she demonstrated weaving a simple table runner.  Naturally we all bought something from them, I bought a scarf.

    We saw this little lady at the market, I think she is about 1/2 the size of Dad.  This is a little shop selling skirts and blouses for the ladies, they call it Tipico clothing.  It is just a little booth among many other booths selling all sorts of things, food, hardware, etc.

    These last pictures are outside of the CCM on the day when all the new missionaries come.  Larry saw them and took their pictures. They had just dropped their missionary at the CCM and were sitting on the grass next to the busy street having their lunch before heading home. Because all the women are in the Tipico clothing you can tell they came from several hours away.  It looks like they all packed into the van and made the trip.  For some of these families it is a real sacrifice to send their young son or daughter on a mission because they are usually helping to support the family, so to lose that income is a hardship.  But they do it and the missionary comes home and is a real strength to their ward or branch and the family. 

     Enjoy the eclipse tomorrow, several of you are right in the path.  I have heard, not sure if it is true, that this only happens in the same place once every 400 years.

    Love you all forever and always!!      MOM, Grammy