Adjusting And Discovering

“Yes, Our Town Is Located On The Side Of A Volcano.”

My good friend Justin was going to write this blog entry, but he has been kept quite busy of late, and I have the privilege of filling in for him.  Justin along with a number of others has been occupied in fancy rooms with white porcelain chairs.  They have been undertaking many scientific experiments, testing substances in a laboratory to determine if it is infected with unhealthy bacteria and parasites.  This dedicated team of “scientists” travelled to the lab yesterday and got various results on the substances.  A few of the substances have been deemed unhealthy while others might have passed with flying colours.  In case you were wondering what it is that I write about, I will only tell you this: some of us have been struggling with some sicknesses but everybody is on the road to recovery.  In fact they all have been incredibly chirper and have not let their sicknesses slow them down.  I give you permission to interpret my above description of their ordeals however you wish. 



Enjoy Coca-Cola; living advertisements.



Besides our debatable health, we have most certainly been having an incredible time in Guatemala thus far. Just two Sundays ago we began our homestays, where each of us stayed and are staying in the home of a family here in Guatemala.  Despite the obvious language barrier, I think I speak for all when I say that this is an experience unlike any other.  It truly is an honour that these families have opened up their homes to us and our struggling Spanish.  While the language may certainly be difficult, we are certainly learning every day. Each morning from 8-12, we have Spanish class with two or three other students. While this is intensive and for some of us a struggle, it also is evident in helping us understand Spanish.  As each day passes we can feel ourselves slowly improving in the language.  We are discovering though that it is much easier to understand people talking to us, than it is to say anything back.  During these homestays many of us are enjoying doing laundry by hand in the pillas in town.  It is quite an experience, truly there is nothing quite like rubbing soap over your sweaty shirts to make you feel incredibly down to earth.  Not only that but we have the privilege to enjoy Coca-Cola properly; that is, in a glass bottle!  I’m telling you, Coca-Cola tastes better coming from a real glass bottle.



A mass wall of graves

 Over the weekend we travelled into Guatemala City, for what you could describe as an urban plunge of sorts.  On Friday we toured the city with a tour of the governmental palace and a museum exhibit titled “Why We Are The Way We Are.”  The palace was a glorious building, and the museum exhibit was intriguing as is it sought to delve into the stories behind people’s faces, the reasons for prejudice and demonstrating the differences in people in Guatemala.  The following day was an intensive, busy and heavy experience.  Saturday we saw a side of Guatemala not many people know of, a side apparently few Guatemalans are even aware of.  We started the day by visiting the city cemetery.  Even in death there can be an evident difference between the rich and the poor.  The rich could afford lavish mausoleums, some of which were reminiscent of a pharaoh, these mausoleums were large and some easily bigger than your average backyard shed.  The more common site though was a wall of graves that continued on for hundreds of metres.  Unlike back at home, these gravesites are really just rentals from the city.  In order for the body of your loved one to stay in the grave, it is necessary to pay an annual fee to keep the grave maintained. 
 

At the edge of the cemetery was where the real shocker began.  The ground disappeared into a giant ravine, and masses of vultures circled overhead.  It wasn’t until you looked down that you could really see what was going on.  This ravine was the city dump.  Garbage was being continually dumped into the ravine, and eventually the garbage would likely fill in this giant crevice in the land.  However the amount of garbage isn’t what really draws your attention to the realities of Guatemala; nor is it the vultures.  Instead it is the people, the dozens of men and women running around the garbage trucks, dodging the bulldozers and scrambling over the piles of trash.  Called “scavengers” by many, they work the garbage dump, scouring it for anything they can find that has the potential to be sold.  Selling items from the garbage dump is how they make a living; it’s how they put food in their stomachs.  The dump is not an easy place, it’s toxic and unstable, the bulldozers and trucks are dangerous, the tires sometimes running over more than just garbage.  As we looked down into the ravine it came to a point where it was hard to distinguish between person and vulture. 

Just outside of the dump were communities, communities where people lived.  Brick houses, tin houses, small spaces, lots of people, and lots of need.  We had a chance to walk through the communities, and see different projects that were taking place to improve the communities.  Thanks in part to an organization called Potter’s House; houses are built for families in need with the priority being families with children.  Potter`s House works and helps in the community, striving towards creating a safer more humane place to live, working for paved streets, water and electricity.  Potter’s House is about being the hands and feet of Christ, and in all they do they glorify the name of our God.  It is Him who is working in the communities.  They gave all the praise and thanks to God.  In the afternoon we had a chance to talk and pray with families in the communities offering encouragement and support by just being there for people.  It was an honour to be allowed into their homes, to hear their stories and their inspiring faith.  Families that had dreams for their children and faith that better days were ahead, they trusted in God to provide for their needs.  We couldn’t have had a greater opportunity in this day to learn from the people God places in our lives.  Surely He works in miraculous ways.  We ask you too to pray, pray for the families.  Pray for strength and endurance, pray for work and safety, for health and support.  Pray that they may have a future.  If we have learned anything thus far this year, it’s that prayer changes things.  Prayer changes lives.

- Raymond