Kyle is 20 and is from Sioux City, Iowa. I was Kyle’s
school counselor when he was at East High. Kyle enjoys
photography and is getting some great shots. It will be
good to have the photos. He just graduated from a school
in Omaha, Nebraska in graphic arts. It is a joy to have
one of my former students with me and I think it will be great
to have input from someone his age.
Kaye is 63 and from Gloucester, Virginia. She has been
Montessori teacher trainer at the infant toddler level.
She presently teaches infant message in a variely of settings
including a jail, a high school for teen moms and a parenting
center. She has traveled quite a bit and spent 2 months in
Kenya last year. She has also been Australia, England,
Spain, Greece, Malaysia, and she met her husband in the Peace
Corps in Nigeria years ago.
John is 64 and is also from Gloucester, Virginia. He has
also traveled globally and has a vast experience with different
cultures. He spent 25 years teaching law at the College
of William and Mary in Williamsburg, running the clinical law
program. He is the head of the legal panel for the ACLU in
Virginia. His time at William and Mary allowed him to be in the
academic world but also to serve his passion which is working
with legal services for the poor.
Marta from Colorado will join us on the late flight tonight.
At the airport we needed a taxi and the SUV. We unpacked
the groceries and packed up the suitcases. Everyone was
good about bringing the extra suitcase of supplies. We
headed for the office and upon arrival we brought in the
suitcases, and found the sleeping arrangements. Ruth was
buying tickets for our bus trip next week. We stayed at
the office and chatted and waited for Ruth. I will let
Carisa write the rest of this. My journaling is fading.
From Carisa: Miguel called to talk a bit and I was able
to talk to him and hear about his family and what he had been
doing here. I was glad to be able to share what he was
experiencing here with his sister and other family members.
When Ruth returned, and changed her shirt as she got caught in
a major downpour, it was decided it would be a good idea to
acquaint us with the area by walking to two markets close to
the office. First we went to an open air market. In
this market there were rows upon rows of small stands connected
to each other. There is an amazing variety of merchandise
available. You can find anything from clothes to music,
grains, meat, fish, toys. The variety of people was equal
to the variety of merchandise. Infants sitting in ¨bounceie
seats¨ while others worked- children working in the stalls as
well as some that looked liked they had their school uniform on
and were there visiting. As we walked through we stuck
out (imagine that) so we would have the vendors quietly looking
at us as we passed by. I found that if you make eye
contact, smile, and greet them they reply in the same manner.
Kind eyes and great smiles-very polite. There was also a woman
carrying three mugs of a type of drink through the market.
I believe Ruth said the woman was most likely delivering the
drinks to some of the vendors. The market had a community
feel to where the would be talking with each other and they
have food delivered to their stands while they work.
While there we met some relatives of Ruth’s. The
children with them were doing a competition of sort to help
someone win a “princess” title for her school. They
had a piece of paper with boxes on it. Each box cost Q1
each and you crossed off however many boxes you paid for.
We decided we had seen enough of the market and continued on to
another market. Main streets are busy and you need to
always look for what car, bus, or motorcycle is coming.
What a difference. After asking the others of the group
how to describe the place we thought a strip mall would be a
good way to help others visualize it. People didn’t
make much eye contact. It didn’t have the feel of
community as did the others. It is in this place that
there is a supermarket. Diane noted that there was not as
much “junk food” as what you would find in a supermarket in
the United States. There was a security guard at
the front of the supermarket and as Diane had a Diet coke and
Kyle had a small backpack they were not allowed to enter.
We looked quickly for a rain coat for Kaye but weren’t
successful. Just outside of the supermarket there was a
small store that Kaye found a poncho to wear if it rains.
The two markets were so close together yet worlds apart.
It was a good introduction to the contrasts which exist in
Guatemala. We returned to the office and relaxed a bit.
Clemente joined us for the evening as he was on his way to
deliver thread. We were all treated to a meal at Ruth’s
home which Leo, her sister, had prepared. It was a
wonderful meal of black bean puree with a thick cream you could
add to it along with corn torillas and fried “pink”
plantains. As Clemente does not speak English I was able
to help translate the conversations being held at the table.
Conversation was easy and, as I said, it was a wonderful meal
which we all enjoyed. After dinner we were all ready for
some rest. Once again it was difficult to settle down to
rest as we all have so much to talk about together. The
men went into their room and the women climbed into bed.
Diane asked us to “talk to her” so she could fall asleep.
As you can tell the group has a good chemistry so the
continuing of conversation was not a problem. We were in
bed when Marta arrived.
Marta is 53 and is from Greeley, Colorado. She has been
working with Diane with Sharing the Dream for a while.
Diane calls her a “super craft person.” Marta is
originally from Honduras and is married to “ a wonderful
husband who has a great sense of humor” with a daughter and
son. She teaches ESL language arts and reading and a 6-8
grade bilingual mathematics class. She also teaches Latin
American cooking classes.
We all greeted her from our beds and she settled in to sleep.
It was a good first day for us here and we are all looking
forward to what was to come next.
Quote for the day. “Treat others as you would like to be
treated.”
Diane, Carisa, and group |
