Jim's first thoughts

Monday morning at 0300 came way too early. We dashed off to San Francisco airport only to get stuck in traffic at the tolls. As traffic crawled along we spoke of our upcoming adventure to Guatemala. We spoke about what our toughest day would be, mixing the foundation for the houses we would soon build or reconstructing the wheelchairs and distributing them to the families. The excitement built as we met the rest of the team at the airport. Marcy organized the passports as Noah, Nick, Karen and I consolidated the clothes to be distributed. Mary, Laura, and Katie printed boarding passes as Christian and Alta guarded the bags. Craig and Kathy located food and coffee to make sure we were well fortified.
The plane flight to Dallas was smooth and we touched down with moments to spare. Everyone ran to the next plane to make the flight. We landed in Guatemala City at 2100 and were quickly greeted by Ben and Emily. Ben loaded the luggage atop the van, tarping, tying and securing. Ben, I would soon learn, had driving skills like Mario Andretti. He wove through traffic with ease and style then played the theme song to Indiana Jones as we brambled up the bumpy dirt road in Chimaltenango to the mission. We settled in and slept.
Tuesday 0430 up too early again but the coffee was made, and we grabbed our bags hopped in the vans to split for the town Alsintal, a short 5-hour drive. We formed two groups. One group went to do home visits and food distribution and the other did home construction. We met our families at their existing homes, which were made of bamboo, plastic, and tin for the roof. At one of the homes, the mother with her 6 children explained her struggle to feed her family. She made a meager amount of money washing clothes for others in her community. She was thankful for her faith as she knew God provided for her work to feed her family.
More to be continued as it is getting late.

Jim

Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 27, 2018 at 6:15 PM

    Thank God for your boundless enthusiasm and energy!

    ReplyDelete

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