Our week - there are a couple of nasty mosquito borne viral diseases here: chikungunya and dengue or bone break fever. Both give terrible headaches and joint and extremity pain. We were excited that we didn't have any new cases this week, but it is the dry season. The diseases are bad enough that the sisters are allowed to wear dress pants while working in mosquito infested areas, which means anything under 6,000 feet. Guatemala isn't Bolivia or Peru, but there are a number of towns between 7 and 8 thousand feet high.
We continue getting things for our new apartment. After two or three couples have been in an apartment, they are nicely furnished. We are the first ones in this one, so we've had a lot of things to pick up. Patsy is doing a great job of making it a home.
In Guatemala most apartment buildings have a door man and /or a security guard. Store parking lots also have armed guards. It's nice because we don't have worries about smash and grab thieves stealing our tortillas and frijoles if we run an errand after leaving the grocery store. My favorite: many guards carry a pistol grip shotgun with a short barrel. Not very good for duck hunting, but pure mayhem at close range. Some of the guns do look about a hundred years old. We took a sister home to Guadalajara for medical reasons this week. At the airport, the Mexican marines were guarding the drop off zone. They had a 30 caliber belt fed machine gun mounted on a truck. OK, a 50, but I thought a 30 was pretty serious security. I wanted to take a picture, but the soldier behind the gun had his finger lightly on the trigger housing and I thought better of it.
The trip to Guadalajara was up one day, stay the night in a hotel, then fly back the next day. We got up at 3:15 a.m and headed out to pick up the Hermana south of Guatemala City. I love directions like "we're in the yellow brick house with the brown door". At 4:00 in the morning, all the houses and doors are gray. Fortunately all the missionaries have phones, so we called when we got to the street. We flew two hours to Mexico City, then had a four hour layover in the airport, then flew an hour and a half to Guadalajara. The temperature in the Mexico City airport was about 55 degrees. We flew back the next day, same four hour layover, but much more relaxed once we'd gotten our missionary home safely. Patsy was great at comforting and talking to the sister who spoke both English and Spanish during the long trip.
Patsy was invited to a birthday lunch by Hermana Ochoa, the area president's wife. They honored all ladies who'd had recent birthdays and about 20 senior sister missionaries attended. They gave her a little present and she brought home a big piece of birthday cake.
We recently met a couple who were on a humanitarian mission here a few years ago and later returned and started a school for Guatemalan kids. They come down two or three times a year to support it despite considerable health problems. Once people have served here, they always have a place for Guatemala in their hearts, no matter how old those hearts are.
We went to the Central Market with Curtises and some humanitarians who came down from Utah Valley. They bring down tools and plans and build modest weatherproof earthquake proof corrugated iron houses. They make advance arrangements with the local authorities in small towns who get them in touch with eligible people. They get local workers to build the foundations, then have an efficient process to build them. They put up 23 houses this time. The Central Market has a couple of hundred little booths that sell mostly clothing and handicrafts made in Guatemala. Each village in the highlands has a colorful distinctive pattern of embroidered blouses and hand woven skirts, so there are a lot of patterns with varying qualities of embroidery. We got a table runner and a wallet big enough to hold the copy of my passport that is my official ID down here. Then we spotted the Casa de Hilo ( house of thread). I asked how much a skein of yarn was and heard her say 95, which is over $13. Then I saw the sign and it said 11 quetzales and 95 centavos, about $1.75. I told Patsy to go ahead and buy whatever colors she wanted She got some nice ones.
Every three weeks a new group of missionaries comes in. Half or more of the missionaries are from Central America and serve here, but usually not in their own country, so Nicaraguans and Salvadorans are often called to Guatemala or Honduras and vice versa. It seems like a good system, as they may have some immunities to the local bugs. They are used to the living conditions, and all speak about the same variety of Spanish. The rest of the missionaries come from Mexico, the US, and a few from Europe and South America. Spanish speaking missionaries spend three weeks here, non Spanish speakers spend six weeks, and missionaries going to Quiche areas spend nine weeks. The Indian language is unwritten and not related to Spanish.
We give each group a lecture on health. In the past Mark Curtis has done it in English to the whole group with simultaneous translation. Three weeks ago I watched Mark do the presentation, then we approached the new MTC president about dividing the groups into English and Spanish speaking. I gave one in Spanish and Mark gave the other in English, so it didn't take nearly as long. At the end Mark gives a talk to the new hermanas about female troubles during the mission. I will let him do that one as long as I can.
Morris did a little street contacting in Mexico City
Luncheon for January birthdays
Guatemala City CCM
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