Local ALSO Groups Prepare for the Week Ahead

The students traveling within Canada for ALSO week continue to prepare for the week ahead.  Student's are gathering sleeping bags, work boots, and other personal items as they get ready to work and serve in Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Calgary.  "I'm really looking forward to experiencing the overnight on the streets in downtown Calgary," said grade 12 student Luke Pomedli.  "This makes it real...you're really there.  It's something to talk about it, but actually being their is the real story."  During ALSO week students will have the opportunity to learn about poverty in Canadian cities first hand.   

Hola from Guatemala

RJC has safely arrived in Guatemala and spent their first day touring the City
Market and also meeting Antony and Irma at the MCC offices. Tommorrow we are
off to El Salvador and Honduras. Adventure awaits!!

--
Open WebMail Project (http://openwebmail.org)

ALSO Sending Chapel

The students wore their red (orange?) ALSO tshirts today. Here they are in chapel focussing on the "why" we do this. Jesus loves us and asks us to love others. We ended the chapel with laying hands on the Guatemala group who are leaving tomorrow morning and praying for them. Alabama leaves on Thursday and the rest of the students go to their assignments on Monday.

A full school pic at the end of today's chapel.

This is the second mobile posting test

This is a test of the mobile blog posting via email. Each ALSO location
will be posting to the blog (rjcservice.blogspot.ca) if possible.

This is the second test as the first test needed some tweeking.

You should see a picture attached to this post. This is the bus that
will be heading to Alabama later this week.

ALSO just around the corner

We are slightly more than a week from the first of our ALSO groups hitting the road for one of the most intensive and formative RJC experiences. Watch this blog space for updates from Guatemala, Alabama, Edmonton, Calgary, and Saskatoon.

Guat Goats Update 6

So, this is our last blog from Guatemala because we will be shipping out tomorrow at 4 am. 

Here's how our last full day went. We awoke and debriefed on the roof of Semilla with Adriana. This took up most of the morning. There was a consensus that it was a positive experience. After this debriefing we took a van out to Antigua, the historical capital.

Once in Antigua, Geraldine gave us a mini tour and we split up into different groups. The guys split up into a group and so did the girls (dedicated Mennonites all). Who knows what the staff did. The guys spent a long time following Matt, who was quite determined to find a specific restaurant from his book. We didn't find it. We found the Gigantic Hamburger. The girls ate at the first restaurant they found. 

After lunch we finished souvenir shopping. We used our remaining Quetzales to buy the said souvenirs. We regrouped in the Central Park, where approximately 300 people tried to sell us flutes and bracelets. There was also a man who chased around his sons for quite awhile. He was a hoot to watch. We were also interviewed by some students taking an English course.

We then headed back to Semilla. We met Adriana and presented her with thank you gifts for her leadership. Adam had quite the speech. Well said. I wonder how much time was spent rehearsing. Adam says twice through with Cassy, and four times in front of the mirror.

Hillary is off to bed, but the sensible folk are staying up and packing. We'll try and blog from the airport tomorrow.

Jordan, Ryan and Hillary

PS If you ever need to find a bathroom in Guatemala, consider purchasing the book entitled "Donde esta el Baño: A Guide to Guatemalan Bathrooms" by Adam Rempel (This book may not be written yet).

Edmonton day 4

Well our last day of ALSO has ended. While technically ALSO week ends on Friday. We are just going to be traveling back to Rosthern or as the habitat for humanity people write it Rawsthorne. We worked our last day in the glorious spring sun. Sound nice? Well it would have been if the sun didn't cause the snow to melt turning the construction site into a giant mud pit. Tyler LeBlanc didn't seem to mind though. He loves the mud. People were sliding around making a fool of themselves and it was great fun. 7 degree weather made it feel like spring. Finally. All went well with us except for Zac. Let's just say he hammered the wrong nail. He messed up his finger pretty good. He got all bandaged up and chilled out for the rest of the day. He's all good now.   

 

For supper, Bakers' grandma and grandpa invited us all to their condo where we ate great food and played pool. Ryan (wood) and Tyler (Desroches) played a game of pool which took a lot longer than expected. Tyler immerged victorious after a long battle over who got to sink the 8 ball. We then went our separate ways, girls to Bakers' grandmas apartment, and guys to the hotel. Somehow in the midst of it all we found time to work out and write this. What a day.

Your (insert word here)

Patty, tylers, and Mike