On Friday morning, while heading south on I 65 toward Montgomery, I drove through a stargate. It was some combination of clear, blue sky crispness, sleep deprivation, back on the road familiarity, and Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon filling my cab, that sent me down the worm hole. When I came out the other side it was Monday morning.

So, shall we review and catch up?

I left St. Paul at about 5:30 on Thursday morning. It snowed most of the hours across Wisconsin, sometimes hard enough to impair visibility, but it didn’t stick. Down in Illinois and south it was dry and easy going. I didn’t stop until just north of Birmingham at close to midnight. I slept in the truck at a roadside rest from about 2:30  ‘til almost 6. (see sleep deprivation above)

My first thought waking up was, shoot, I’m too late to get through Birmingham before rush hour. Sure enough, at 6:45 I was at a dead stop on the interstate. After creeping through town I stopped again. It was after this stop, with a fresh coffee, clean socks, and a freshly flossed and hosed down mouth, while thinking Neil Young wasn’t completely right about Alabama, that I slipped unexpectedly through the aforementioned stargate.

So what the hell have you been doing all this time one might ask.

I’m starting to wonder if I should be sleeping on an air mattress every night. My first night here I slept from about 8 PM ‘til 6 in the morning. I know I can attribute that to more than just the air mattress, but still. So here’s the list of the time bandits over the weekend. Setting up camp, cleaning, shopping, bike riding, napping, camper repairs, looking for the stuff I needed to do the camper repairs, going to church, did I mention napping?, reading, sitting in the sun, smoking cigars, bike riding, yep, got that. Oh, I think I drank a beer somewhere in there too. I think you get it. I fell right back into road life.

I am well and hope you all are too. 🙂

My dining room is my staging area.  Last year about this time it looked the same way, except there’s no Tooney (the cat) sitting on the table checking out my stuff.

About four or five days before departure, as I use things, they all get the question, “going or staying?”  If the answer is going then it goes into the dining room until departure.  If I use it again, I get it out of the dining room, use it, and back it goes into the dining room.  It all ends up in various containers and the next time they move is into the truck or camper.  It seems to work well and keeps me relaxed pre-flight. 🙂

I’m so relaxed and ready that I’m sitting at Stogie’s having a cigar and catching up on net time.  Tomorrow morning I’m out.

This is my current group of kids that I sponsor here in Guatemala.  I’ve had them quite a few years now because I remember they were all “just a little slip of a thing” when I visited and met them for the first time.  I wish I could show you then and now pics, but all of my older pictures are either hard copy or on my other computer at home.

The ultimate joy in my life has been watching my own kids grow from two little nubs, and develop into grown adults that give me a sense of pride that I can’t begin to adequately express.  Sponsoring kids down here in Guatemala has given me another, and different, taste of watching that happen.  I see them only intermittently, so the changes often leap out at me.  But the joy of being witness to their lives in some small way is in fact no small thing.

This is Juan Carlos.  I am looking forward to watching him graduate next year.  He is Mr. Industrious.  At the tender age of 17 he has already opened and closed a bakery because he just didn’t have the time to keep it going and couldn’t find good help. 🙂  He raises pigs and sells them when the price is right, and his family rents land up in the hills outside of San Rafael where they raise black beans and corn.  He helps his father in the field.  And of course, he also goes to school.  His mother tells me when he is at home he is very helpful with his two younger brothers and one younger sister.  He is studying accounting with a focus in computers.  He studies all day on Saturday, and on Sunday afternoons he takes time off to go play soccer.  He is good enough that his team pays for his bus expense to travel to where they play.  Juan will be a great asset to some company in the future, or just as likely, an entrepreneur.

This is Paulina.  As you can see, she is a jewel.  Paulina is 16 years old and studying in the 8th grade.  Before my sponsorship she wasn’t able to attend school every year.  She lives with her single parent mother and older sister, Viviana.  In their spare time they make and sell the traditional Mayan blouses and sashes like you see, but they take a long time to make.  The first time I visited Paulina she didn’t say anything the entire visit.  Just smiled and looked down every time the social worker or translator tried to draw her out.  She is still a quiet girl, but now she laughs and asks questions, and the way she carries herself and expresses things with confidence, is just incredibly gratifying to watch.  She is having a hard time deciding what she wants to focus on in school, which is a bit of a worry for her because she needs to decide after next year.

And finally, this is Edgar.  He is a high energy spark plug.  Edgar is now 13 years old and studying in the 7th grade.  He was probably 40 pounds dripping wet when I first met him and in the last year and half has shot up a foot.  He has passed his mother in height and says his father is next.  He told me if I don’t  come back soon he will be taller than me by the next time.  Edgar has never been shy.  He talks very fast and is laughing and smiling the whole time.  He prides himself in being the top student in his grade and intends to stay there.  His favorite subject is Kaqchikel, the study of the history and language of the Mayan people.  He tells me he’s good at math but doesn’t really like it that much.  Edgar and his family are very active in their Evangelical Church.  He, his dad, his younger brother Erikson, and an uncle play the music in church.  Edgar is the drummer, (of course).  🙂 Before my second visit, he hauled the entire drum set, one piece at a time, from church to his house so he could play for me.  Now you gotta understand, Edgar lives in a town on the side of a mountain.  The walk from Edgar’s house to his school, or his church, is no easy stroll.  It’s very steep and he was little then.  I still get a lump thinking about this little kid schlepping that drum set home for me.  It took him the better part of a day.

These kids make me feel like the future of Guatemala is always getting brighter.  They are a generation of kids who are fortunate to have parents who understand the value of education.  Previous generations placed more value on kids working to contribute to family income.  Family incomes in most third world countries are unable to pay for education.  So they are also a generation of kids who are fortunate to have Common Hope, and thousands of organizations like it throughout the world, who connect willing sponsors with families that want their kids to get an education.

I want to end this post with this bit of news.  The very first young boy I sponsored in Guatemala now works for Common Hope as the Director of Youth Programs.  He is now married and lives in Nueva Esperanza, (New Hope) where I spent most of my time and energy in my early years of coming here.  Just two days ago he became the father of a baby boy.  His name is Henry Benitez.

I am well.  They are well.  And I hope you are too.

I don’t like to just leave “as is” information that I have learned wasn’t exactly correct.  I was under the impression that the entire facility at the headquarters of Hermano Pedro moved.

The original site was home to three distinct parts of the organization.  The move was predicated by the desire to create more room for the hospital and medical clinic, which remains at the pictured site.  The headquarters for social outreach and the care facility were the parts that relocated to a new site.

Hermano Pedro lived in the 1600s and is a beloved person in the history of Guatemala and beyond.  He was born in the Canary Islands and as a boy worked as a shepherd.  In his twenties he traveled first to Cuba, and then to Guatemala, in search of a relative.  He never left Guatemala and is buried on the grounds of the Church of San Francisco in Antigua.  He entered the seminary but was unable to master the studies and didn’t graduate.  After that he joined the Franciscan Brotherhood.  He is credited with starting and developing much of the social work that still continues today.

This morning there was an important event in Antigua.  The hospital  of Hermano Pedro moved.  In this small square, the entrance to the church is on the left, and the main entrance to the hospital and headquarters (Sede) is the door on the right.

I won’t translate this entire banner but basically it is announcing a blessing and procession commemorating the move to a new site for this important center for medical care and social outreach.

Thousands turned out to process with the handicapped, the hospitalized, and the staff of the Sede de Las Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro.

This morning at Mass one of the readings has always been a particular favorite of mine, so I felt a desire to share it.  Whether you are a fan of The Bible or not, it’s hard to argue that this isn’t a beautiful and poetic description of peace.  It looks a little odd on the site because the spacing from draft to publish doesn’t translate exactly.

Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,                                                            and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;                                                 

The calf and the young lion shall browse together,                                          with a little child to guide them.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    The cow and the bear shall be neighbors,

 together their young shall rest;                                                                                       the lion shall eat hay like the ox.                                                                                

The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,                                                                  and the child lay it’s hand on the adder’s lair.                                                

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;                                 for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the Lord,                                    as water covers the sea. 

I’ve mentioned this church in a couple of previous posts, and seeing I’ve shown you some photos of the Cathedral, it’s only right that I show you a small taste of this famous church.

The grounds of La Merced are actually quite large and include a monastery.  This, the entrance to the current sanctuary area, is the newest part of the structure, but it still dates back almost 300 years.  I think I’ve mentioned in a blog before that I’m not much for taking pictures inside worship spaces.  But I encourage you to go on line and search La Merced, Antigua.  You can find many fine images including some of a large and spectacular fountain in the courtyard of the monastery.

The Mercedians (Order of Mary Mother of Mercy), were the first group to establish a male monastery in Guatemala.  This was not the original location.  Through lot’s of government wrangling about where the capital was going to be, they were asked, (read that forced), to move to this location in the late 1600s.  About 200 years later they were actually kicked out of Guatemala for a time.  All part of the roller coaster history of Central America.

This arch, on the avenue leading up to La Merced, is one of most widely known, photographed, and painted images in Guatemala.  You can see in the background how the volcano Agua looms over Antigua.

For those of you who knew Fr. Arnold, I think I’ve discovered the young, Hispanic Fr. Arnold here at La Merced.  He generally speaks for 3 to 5 minutes before the opening sign of the cross, gives his homily of course, and then, another 4 to 6 minutes before the closing prayer.  When I attend morning Mass here, this reprise of Arnie’s style, and his memory, brings a smile to the start of my day.

The preparation of the church grounds for the Christmas Season has begun in earnest.