Mayan Temple at Zaculeu

We started off the new year by traveling on New Year's day to an ancient Maya temple area called Zaculeu close to Huehuetenango (that is pronounced like 'way way ten ango').  Jeff and Lezlie Brady were here from Utah and had rented a 12 passenger van which carried the 9 of us just fine.  We drove first to Huehue where we met Hermano Vasquez and his wife who had been temple workers here at our temple earlier.  They were our guides around this amazing place.   These ruins date from 250-600 BC which puts them during Book of Mormon times.  They are many mounds which have not been touched yet.

The one in the center here is a tomb where they did find some mummies.  The museum was closed that day so we didn't get to see the mummies though.

This is on top of one of the temples and we were told it was the sacrificial altar where they slit the throats of the sacrificial victims.  Chrys and I were glad we weren't in line for that.

This is one corner on top of one of the tall temples that shows what the construction looked like.  One of the reports I read on line said that the reconstruction in the 1940's was poorly done as they just plastered and white washed over the exterior of the temples without regard to what it originally looked like.

Underneath all this area is a labyrinth of tunnels. This hatch is one of the entrances but they have been sealed off so no one can go in them now.  Hna. Vasquez told us that she and a girl friend decided to explore the tunnels when they were teenagers and were lost for several hours going through these narrow tunnels in the dark with just a small flashlight.  They finally came out in the center of Huehuetenango several miles away!  Not something I would want to try!

It seems all these Mayan ruins have a ball court where they used to play a competitive sport.  We were told that the ball they played with was flaming!  Who would want to play with that?

This one was a palace residence of one of the leaders which must have been elaborate in its day.  When the Spaniards came to this country, they threatened to kill anyone who would not convert to Christianity.  A faithful group of Mayans held out here for several months but they were finally starved into submission.  

From Zaculeu we went to prolific spring near Aguaton that poured out at the base of a mountain at such a rate it looked like it had a huge pump bringing it up.  It was a family holiday place and there were lots of families enjoying the day there.

And of course there were people taking advantage of the chance to sell their wares.  Don't you think their dresses are as beautiful as their vegetables they are selling?  I just love their tipica clothes!

We are certainly not dressed as colorfully as the natives but here  are four great friends who have enjoyed their friendship for decades.  Ken and Chrys Meadows and Brannick and LaVonne Riggs.  

And now we are off tomorrow to explore some even more amazing ruins but we'll be gone for a week so check in later for some more temple adventures.

Christmas Giving

After all the preparation, tying quilts, boxing food, buying crates of bananas and mandarin oranges and a few apples, we're ready to load and go.

 

Hermano Diaz brought the mission truck and we loaded everything we had gathered plus a lot of clothing and supplies the Meadow's kids, the Bradys, had brought down from their ward and headed for the mountains.

We had the pickup, the Brady's 12 passenger van, President Galvez' 7 passenger van, President Maldanado's 5 passenger vehicle and President Villeda's 5 passenger car to take all of us and all the goods to the little branch high in the mountains.  Almost 3 hours later over some pretty rough mountain roads, we arrived at the chapel and found the members in a meeting in the chapel with the branch president planning next year's calendar.  After the meetings the members all came out into the parking lot and the branch president had them all line up by families.

Each family came through the line very orderly and received their box of food, new blankets for everyone, especially the babies, bananas, tangerines, apples and some bags of candy from the Bradys.

(Notice the baby on this little girl's back.)

After everyone had come through the line and we had given away as much as possible the branch served stew from a huge wash tub made with two kinds of squash, carrots, onions, big chunks of fat and small chunks of meat.

Almost every family brought their own dishes, and spoons.  The sisters serving the stew made sure every bowl had squash and vegetables and at least one hunk of meat.  They also served tamalitas, which are corn masa wrapped in banana leaves and steamed in a big pot.  They would break off a chunk of tamalitas, dip it in their soup and eat it.  None of the food went to waste.

The only car at this branch was the branch president's pickup which mean that everyone loaded the food, blankets and goodies on their back and walked home, some as far as 1 1/2 hours.  These two boys are loaded with the boxes of food on their backs and ready to go.

This sister is getting ready to wrap all her things in her tipica cloth wrap and carry it home with her baby on her back and two little girls in tow.

And the people!!! They were sweet unassuming people, earning their living from tiny farms on the hillsides and faithful members of the church.

Young and old, they gathered at the church and we were blessed to share a small part of our plenty.

This little girl will probably carry her baby brother all the way home tied on to her back!

This abuelo (grandpa) will have a warm neck this winter.

This little project made our Christmas.  How could we remember the Christ Child better than serving His children in far off Guatemala?  Thanks you Heavenly Father for this great blessing in our lives.

Our Christmas Project Preparations

Our friends, Ken and Chrys Meadows have always been service minded like we have and love to do special service to those in need at Christmas time.  So we made a plan to find fleece to make double sided baby blankets since few homes have heating in them.  We thought perhaps we could locate an orphanage to give them to.  We were unsuccessful at finding cute fleece in Xela so expanded our search to San Francisco Alto which is a mountain town whose specialty is fabric or anything to do with sewing.  Every shop was filled with fabric or notions for sewing.  Look at the city plaza below with fabric just laid out everywhere in piles. 

We finally found the perfect fabric and at a good bargain too which was even better when we bought a large quantity.  We purchased enough to make

48 baby blankets!

Then came cutting the edges off evenly and making the back exactly the same size as the front.

Because our backing fabric was not the same width as the blanket fronts we had to sew some of the backs down the middle.  It was fun to work together with all the temple missionaries.

On Monday, Dec. 15, we all met in our common area and worked on tying the blankets on the edges to secure the backs to the fronts.  Here is Brannick and Ernie Maes working on one together.

We inherited 200 larger blankets from a boy scout project, ready to give to needy families.  President Galvez learned of a high mountain branch that is very poor and would not have any Christmas.  So we decided to change our project to aim towards doing what we could for them and incorporating all our blankets.

This is Hermana Galvez showing off some of the larger blankets we found.  All we had to do was wash and refresh them.  We also bought basic food staples and put them into individual family boxes to give them out.

Here is President Galvez and two of our temple missionary men showing off proudly the blanket they worked on together.

We still had a few to cut the fringe on so they could be tied together.  So great to have us all working together on a service project.  Great thing for ancianos (ancient ones) to do!

And here we all are, proudly showing off all our united work.  We finished 45 blankets that night and the last three a few days later.

I thought this was a nice shot with the blankets piled in the Meadows apartment with the lighted temple showing in the background.  In the next post we will share the actual delivery experience, which was just marvelous!