Bienvenidos a Buena Vista! (Welcome to Buena Vista!)

We are on our way to Buena Vista.  The blog will be in two parts today...pre and post Buena Vista.  It is 7:00 A.M. and the trip is about 2+ hours toward the Pacific.  About an hour into the trip we will follow smoking, volcanic mountain ranges to the coastal plains where the temperatures will rise from 65 to 85 or 90 degrees in minutes, and the humidity will sky rocket.  Throw in the tropical sun, sugar cane fields, rubber tree fincas, and a giant leap back into time, and you have the picture.  We will turn right at the big tree and we will be there.  As I have said many times, there are many National Geographic moments in Guatemala, but today is an entire day of them.  Bienvenidos a Buena Vista.

                             
              One of the problems with having been here before is I don't see things quite the same way I did the first time... which makes this hard to write.   I want you to see it the way we did, but you can't, because photos cannot capture the human tragedy there.  They do, however, capture its beauty.  People are people, even if they are poor in the middle of a rainforest.  Our kids, their kids....there is very little difference, but the standard of living in Buena Vista is shocking.  There is no electricity, no running water, no plumbing...nothing except people just barely surviving in shanties, and by in large subsisting on the rainforest...and still they have and are open to faith, lots of it.

Again, I need to rely on photos to share our day; it is late.  However, I think you will see how extraordinary our day was, from faith lessons in a shelter and on a machete cut soccer field, to visits, prayers, and medication for the sick, to a walk through rubber trees to a ravine into a river where people bath and wash clothes (as we discovered to our embarrassment).  We walked where they walked, we played soccer with their children, we talked about the plans God had for each of them, and we hugged and received their blessings as often they received ours.

This is a random collection of photos from today, but at least its a hint of our time in Buena Vista.

                                                       

Good night!