Retreatin'

We had our second team retreat. I love retreats! I like having an excuse to make special treats (muddy buddies, brownies, cookies), and I just love creating space for bonding and forming connections.

We rented a house in Antigua for a time of relaxing, planning, hearing about each others' work, and a Thanksgiving Dinner.

We had childcare for some of our meetings, and for other parts, Hazel helped with our meetings.

Chillin' and retreatin'. 

While out to eat one morning, we passed a race. The country's big beer company was sponsoring it. I don't know what the details were, but the racers walked by with a tray with food and drink items, like waiters/waitresses. Oh, Antigua.

We hiked as a group up to this cross. It's a quick 20-minute hike. 

I definitely recommend it if you ever visit Antigua.

Team MCC Guatemala/El Salvador

The view from the cross overlooking Antigua.

I can't help it, they're too cute. 

Ellie is getting good at taking pictures of me with Hazel.

On the roof of our rental.

Our team meets about every 3 months, so we like to celebrate the birthdays we've missed since our last time together. 

We enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving meal, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, salads, ponche (a hot fruit drink prepared in Guatemala for special occasions and on Christmas), and even pumpkin pie! This is definitely going to be a tradition we continue every year. It was fun to have everyone contribute to the meal.

One of our North American staff explained the wishbone tradition. 

It was Honduras vs. Columbia, but in the end, Honduras prevailed.

We are thankful for the opportunity to hang out with our staff to do some work, have some fun, and meld as a team. Each retreat is slightly different as staff members come and go (we lost a family of six since our last retreat). I'm already looking forward to the next one in March.