A typical day

My cousin Mary asked me a while back, what is a typical day like?  What do I DO here?

It's a great question!  Partly it's about retirement - what do I do now that I don't run to work each day - but mostly about Guatemala - what is it like living in Guatemala? I sometimes wonder  myself, because we have a slower pace and it seems like I should be accomplishing more - learning the piano keyboard I brought down, metatagging my thousands of photos, and so on. I have projects on my list that are undone, and still it seems like my days are pretty full.  So, what do I do?

I'll make this rather detail-rich, which means long, so forgive the length please!

Around 5:30 or 6AM I tend to wake up on my own.  Sometimes that's because I've gone to sleep around 10 or 10:30, though if I go to bed later I still seem to wake up early.  The birds are starting to chirp loudly, and the dogs barking.  And maybe it's also because the gas station across the street gets busy with trucks and cars and tuk-tuks.  Around 6:00 AM they start blasting their  music. Most of it I don't mind so much - a Spanish-language pop music, and sometimes it's something like Hotel California or Killing Me Softly in English but with a fast marimba beat. And too often it's Gangnam Style. But always interesting.  So I awake.

Bill's usually up by then, so he gets coffee for us.  We eat cereal or oatmeal or a smoothie made of fresh mango or pineapple or strawberries or papaya, with some raw oatmeal and yogurt (which we have to buy from the American store).

Most days I like to go out in the ministry, so I get dressed and we're out the door by a little after 8AM to meet with other friends who are going out too.  Usually we take a tuk to the meeting place, since we're running late - it's 10Q which is about $1.20.  On the tuk, we pass other people walking, streetside vendors selling fruit or tortillas etc.  We pass the buses (former school buses from the US) that are going to Quetzaltenango, Chichicastenango, to Guatemala City or just to Solola.  The men yell out their destination ... "Chichi ... Chichi" or "Xela Xela Xela", and people pile on, 3 to a seat, with their huge packages thrown on top of the bus.  Our tuk continues on, dodging pedestrians in the street, and weaving amid the traffic and motorcycles.

Tuk - we're in back seat taking photo

Street scene from tuk

Selling fruits on street

Our service groups are about 10 - 15 people usually.  From there we walk to the place where we're going to visit.  Maybe it's a mile, maybe less, but all on rough uneven surfaces - cobblestones or rocky paths.

On our way, walking, we pass by the many locals walking.  About half the women here wear traje tipico  - typical native outfits.  The other half wear jeans or slacks, perhaps skirts.  And there are some amalgams - a typical skirt with a top they bought perhaps at the paca stores. Some men are in traje tipico but not as many here in Pana.  There are more up in Solola or in the mountains.  These folks are not dressing up for tourists - this is what they wear.

On our way we also see a lot of rushing - these are hard-working people.  And children rushing to school.  Maybe an 8 year old is bringing her 3 year old sibling somewhere.  It's a small town, so children often walk independently here or there.  Men walking with their machetes, women with their baskets on their heads, perhaps offering us dragon fruit or something they are selling.

a stream we passed

a field on the way to our visits

On our way to our calls, we passed by a school, and Jill went inside to talk to the administrators.  They had arranged to receive 200 books for their students, entitled Questions Young People Ask - Answers That Work.  The books arrived, so Jill made arrangements to deliver them.  The administrators were very excited to have such a practical tool - free - available to the students.

Today we crossed the bridge over the river that divides Panajachel.  The river has been the source of serious problems during rainy seasons or with hurricanes, with many deaths due to flooding, so the workers are devising a rock wall on the tall banks, covered by chicken wire, to avoid erosion, with muros or walls to hold back the waters.  So far it hasn't flooded but things happen quickly here.

As we crossed the river, I lost my hat!  It blew down into the riverbed, maybe 30 feet below!  Andy Burns parked her bike to crawl down the riverbank (much to my protestations), but Jake McComas went down the other side and saved the day!

Jake at riverbed, retrieving my hat

Jake and Andy at side of riverbed

This morning we returned to a place we had been before, but we were checking back on homes we hand't been able to find at home.  One woman came to the door, and she used to study the Bible with one of us in Spanish - but had stopped coming.  We arranged for someone to visit her from the Spanish congregation.  We then went down a narrow path off the callejon, looking for some English-speaking teachers we had heard lived down there.  We ran across another family who studies, and Andy was able to greet them.

Andy with her new bike, with mountains in background.

Finally we found the home where some English-speaking teachers lived. There we found Julio, a young Guatemalan man with a shy smile.  He invited us into the yard area inside his gate. His English was fairly good. I asked him how he feels about the suffering that happens on earth today - what does he think that will God do?   He said that well, some people die and go to heaven and others go... someplace else!  I opened the Bible to Psalms 37:10, 11 and showed him the promise that God will remove bad people from the earth, and good meek people will find their 'exquisite delight in the abundance of peace' - on the earth! This was a new thought for him. I followed up with promises in Revelation 21:3, 4, where "God will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither mourning nor pain"... on the earth.  And I showed him a book that also talked about the condition of the dead - do people get tortured in an eternal hellfire?  If he had a child that did something bad, would he ever put his hand in a fire for even a moment?  Of course not!  God could never be so cruel.  So I left him the book "What Does The Bible Really Teach" as well as the Listen to God brochure (for the images).  I also invited him to meetings, and he said he'd really like that - both for the Bible, and for the English.  He wanted to also give me his phone number to be sure we kept in contact.  I'm eager to see what happens with Julio!

Path to Julio's house

We also stopped at the house of Manuel, who lives in a large house on the river with his family, who used to live in the States.  Manuel had wanted to know what happens when we die, but we've had trouble finding him home - he's a busy teenager!  We'll keep trying.

So, I made it home again before noontime.  That's a typical morning.

Yesterday, we were going to join a group going across the lake to San Pedro, but we got sick.  It happens every week or two, where we just need to stay home because of an upset stomach.  But when that happens, we just rest and enjoy the day, take a nap, read or watch TV for a time.

Other  mornings I may stay home and do laundry. In our new apartment we share a communal washer and dryer (!).  Or, I may do some reading, or do errands.

That's my morning.

This afternoon we hung out, I wrote in the blog, cleaned the fridge a bit, visited the Whites that live upstairs, and hung out. For dinner we had chili that Bill made a few days ago. We have English TV stations from New York, so watched some TV.

I'm happy to share with you, and hope you keep in touch!