Three Days Without Rain

Well, actually it has only been 2 1/2 days so far, but I am hoping that it won't rain in the afternoon. You'd think that I'd be used to all this rain, being from Seattle and all...but the rain here is intense, we are talking flash floods!

This has been a week of many celebrations! We had a small gathering for 3 of the Y staff that have birthdays in July and yesterday we had a baby shower for Lucky, who is the Program Director and is due to have her baby at the beginning of August.
In this photo: Paul is the Interim Executive Director (in the blue shirt), Lucky is the Program Director (in the middle) and Juan Carlos who is the driver, handyman and computer tech (in the white shirt).

We went to Tierra Nueva on Tuesday to offer the workshop to the
youth at the school. Tierra Nueva is a "Zona Roja"
(a red zone, or dangerous area) located on the outskirts of the capital. There were 150 children that we broke up into two groups, 75 teenagers in each workshop (a challenge, to say the least). The youth of this village are at very high risk of joining gangs and other risky behaviors. The photo on the right shows the dichotomy of the youth reading the YMCA of Guatemala book entitled 'La Paz' or Peace, in one of the most dangerous places of the city.