Matthews Mission in Guatemala: Road rage, Guatemala style. Also, bichos everywhere

Thoughts of the AMA. Driving in Guatemala is interesting. For starters, no one ever dozes off at the wheel here, but more about that later. There are a number of large 4 and 6 lane boulevards going through the city which lead to the major highways going to the rest of the country. The city is located in a mountain valley with numerous large ravines crisscrossing in random directions. Since bridges are expensive to build, most neighborhoods built between these ravines only have a couple of ways in or out. It's like a tree with the major boulevards being the trunk and the branches being the neighborhoods. It's easy to get back to the trunk, but to go directly from one limb to another is often impossible. This system probably worked pretty well when Guatemala had say a half million people, or slightly over one million people like Salt Lake County, but right now Guatemala city has 2.9 million people in an area about the size of SL County. The result is monumental traffic jams during morning and evening rush hours, and, like in California, often at completely random times during the day. I'm just glad not every Guatemalan has a car. There aren't a lot of stop lights, so to enter traffic, drivers slowly start edging out into the lane of cars. In the US, this would result in honking, people determined to show that they have the right of way, rude one finger gestures, or road rage with one's paternity being questioned or fire arms being displayed. In Guatemala, people understand that they soon be at someone else's mercy in this department, and I usually don't have to wait more than two or three cars before someone lets me in. In Italy and Germany, people flash their lights to tell you to get out of their way. In Guatemala when they flash their lights, it tells you they are letting you in. Of course, most people are going ten or fifteen miles an hour or the traffic is completely stop and go, so if someone lets me in, it doesn't really retard their progress significantly. People change lanes abruptly without signaling. Stop signs and red lights are treated mostly like yield signs, they run them, but not mindlessly. Rather, they slow down, look carefully, then proceed. In 5.5 months here, I have yet to see anyone pulled over for a moving violation. Speeding is pretty much impossible here, if I get up to 40 miles an hour on the boulevard, I get nervous. If a driver does something completely egregious or dangerous, like starting to change lanes when you are already there, a couple of honks is all it takes to warn them off. The Guatemalans are a friendly, warm people, and have no sense of self righteousness when they are driving. They don't want to get in an accident and are very forgiving of sloppy, even semi dangerous driving. In a city where parking lot guards carry guns, [not a lot of smash and grab thefts down here], I have yet to see a driver wave a gun, make a rude gesture, or yell anything. It's kind of nice.

Bichos are bugs. Being warm and moist, lots of them live here. Big ones, little ones, tiny ones that you can't see, scorpions. I got a call at 2 am the other week with a question about how to treat a scorpion sting. If we leave any kind of food uncovered on the counter or in the food cupboard, hoards of little sugar ants congregate around it within 20 seconds. We've sprayed behind the fridge, and kitchen cabinets and the door jamb by the food cupboard, but they continue to come. We live on the 5th floor of a building with concrete walls and no sheet rock, just textured painted concrete walls. See photo below. We have no idea where the nests could be. As I write this, an ant is crawling around on the computer screen. Lately we've noticed small red very itchy bites on various body parts. We've walked in grass, briefly petted dogs, but nothing for a few days. The bites continued appearing for several days, so yesterday we washed the bed sheets in hot water, sprayed the mattress pad with permethrin, and sprayed insecticide on the car seats and floor. We hope that this helps matters.

We visited the dental clinic staffed by 4 missionary dentists. It's easy to find, just park by Grumpy.

Saturday night President Cluff of the Guatemala City Central Mission invited all the senior missionaries to his house for a nice meal and temple recommend interviews for those who needed them. Patsy passed! We get to do things with the senior missionaries from time to time, a monthly break the fast, a weekly movie night and some family home evenings together, but this was a fun unexpected occasion. Today we went to district conference in Cuilapa, about 2/3 of the way to El Salvador. It was a nice meeting.

On the work side, the days are fairly busy but with a lot of sameness. I struggle with keeping people healthy, helping decide when a missionary would be better served medically at home rather than in the mission, and try, with the mental health nurse, to help people with anxiety, depression, insomnia and other emotional issues. Counting our MTC time, nearly a third of our mission has slid by. I keep thinking - carpe diem, seize the opportunities of each day. To paraphrase a saying by Etienne de Grellet: "I will never pass this way again, if there is any good I can do or wrong I can right, let me do it today, for I will never pass this way again" Tomorrow a new crop of missionaries will have contracted parasites, will struggle with emotional issues and knee pain. There is a certain sameness about the days, but I need to remember to do the best for the patients of each day before looking forward to the opportunities of tomorrow.

Until next week. We hope all you readers are well.