El Rincon

This may not be the best time to write the blog; I'm writing on a paper plate in the van on the way back from Amatitlan.  We are sweaty and wet after an extremely hot day in the tropics that came to a close with a tropical drenching.  I am looking out at volcanic mountains, some active, their bases dressed in billowing white fog.  The temperature has dropped 20 degrees in the past hour and the van reeks of sweat, dust, random hand sanitizers, and diesel exhaust which remains in the air even after the downpour.  Guatemala's natural beauty is substantial.  However, its human  struggles are too.

This morning we were up early, and it was off to an area outside Amatitlan called El Rincon (the corner).  El Rincon is a rural area just outside of Amatilan.  It is breath-taking except for the level of extreme poverty suffered by its residents.  Again, today, we broke into groups to visit shanties.  We all started, however, in the home of Carlos and his friend Margarete.  Many of us have visited this home in previous years, but it is always a pleasure to be welcomed to their shanty, cut into the hand-planted corn fields that surround it.  It sits at the base of a volcanic mountain which heats the water they pull from their well for washing but cannot be drunk.  It's "bano" (bathroom) is four bamboo polls with cloth wrapped around them.  (I guess you can picture the center.)  The kitchen is an open fire in an open section of their one room shanty made of plywood and corrogated metal in various conditions.  I have been there seven out of the past eight years and have seen Carlos improve due in part to the care provided by the family with which he lives and the medical and spiritual support of Groundwork.

Other visits included one to the shanty of a sweet, 20-year-old girl who was eight months pregnant with her fourth child.  She was illiterate and lived with her 35-year-old mother who cared for even more children including a deaf nephew. It was tragic but moving to spend time with her. After a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, tortilla chips, and Cheekys, we taught adult and children's lessons at the El Rincon "salon".  Okay, it did not go perfectly, but there will be an executive meeting of the team when we get back to do a bit of tweeking.  Our craft, a great one, turned into "the craft from hell" when it got seriously lost in translation...we will fix that before tomorrow.

I wish you could be in my head right now.  I am in the van listening to six different conversations of Americanos nortes desperately trying to improve their Spanish by repeating to any Guatemalan who will listen the full extent of their Spanish vocabularies in an attempt to improve their pronunciation.  (Let me tell you that I'm not sure it's working.)

Days like today are exhilerating.  We did the best we could.  We met and established relationships with folks we otherwise would never have been bleassed to know....meaningful experiences for all of us.  God is blessing our time here.

In the interest of needed tweeking for tomorrow, I will end by attaching photos that hopefully capture some of our experiences today.

Blessings and thank you,
The 2012 Gutemala Mission Team