Finca Helvetia

Today we went to the Finca Helvetia. Those who went last year were amazed by the changes. A new owner took over about 3 years ago and in the last year has decided to be a better owner. He built a beautiful new school for the kids (but only hired 1 teacher who now has to go from room to room rather than just teach in 1 classroom), agreed to allow the workers to grow mushrooms in order to have more food, and welcomed us to visit the community. We haven't debriefed on this yet and anxious to do so because we have many questions.

We then visited some Mayan ruins before lunch. It was very neat to see but sad to learn that people still come out and have ceremonies and burn incense and pray to the Mayan gods. We had a beautiful lunch before heading to La Palmer, the county seat in a way, of the villages to speak with the Mayor.

Terri did an excellent job representing the group and we ask for you to join us in praying that our meeting with him will cause some changes to take place for the people in these communities.

We then headed onto Xela for a meeting with the directors of Vid y Pompanos. It was wonderful to meet with them and say goodbye after working together for a week.