Old friends: Ana

It's true that Pastor Jane's previous tenure in Guatemala or her 2006 sabbatical there helped lead to the development of the Estore  o-CHPC partnership.  But so did a parallel visit from Pastor Carlos Lara, a Guatemalan church leader, and his family.  Carlos pastored Crescent Hill in summer 2006, worked at the Presbyterian Center, and then started study at the Presbyterian seminary.  So his wife, son, and daughter stayed in Kentuckiana - and eventually North Carolina - where they attended Presbyterian college.  Ana served as a youth elder at Crescent Hill and the whole family contributed mightily to the development of the partnership (Carlos had helped steer CHPC to Estore no Presbytery, and it was often Carlos who led the phone calls, initially to his old friend, Pastor Gerardo).  Crescent Hill sent the family off with a blessing as the Lara parents headed off to Richmond, Virginia, where Carlos helped a global mission enterprise, and both kids returned to Guatemala.

On the second and final Saturday of the visit, team members et al. reconnected with Ana, one of the two kids, on the grounds of the Guatemala City Mennonite seminary where they stayed Saturday night.  Team members ate, chatted with Ana and each other, and Ana crashed in the female team members' room (where Lowell and other 2010 male visit team members had stayed).  She also joined the team for breakfast and then got a ride to the airport, from which she was to take a shuttle back to her hometown of Antigua.  There she lives with relatives, and works connecting volunteers from around the world with assignments of varying lengths in a magnet school in a town outside Antigua (near where her uncle lives).  Carlitos is managing the family hotel in which members of several other teams have stayed.  The team had originally planned to visit Antigua - and the brother and sister - but - when shifted to returning to Guatemala City only - hatched this plan to see Ana in the city.  Ana participated in the team et. al's late night and morning discussions and planning conversations.  It was great to see her.

-Perry