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| Zaida in our hotel room in Guatemala City |
We started the trip by staying in Guatemala City for two nights, treated to several good meals and good fellowship with a Guatemalan couple, Gerry and Patty Townson. We first met them in Puerto Rico two weeks before our trip! They came to share their testimonies at our church and it was definitely a connection orchestrated by God. I am so grateful to the Lord for bringing them to us, since they took us to the bookstore to get grammar books on K'iche' so we didn't have to take a taxi. They also took us to Antigua, where we had a lovely day.
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| At Gerry and Patty's house in Guatemala City. |
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| A K'iche' - Spanish dictionary. |
Another wonderful couple, Erv and Sally York, came to drive us to Chichicastenango. They live in Quiché which is 30 minutes past Chichi. The drive to the capital is about 4 hours each way, so we appreciated their generous offer of time and effort to transport us. We enjoyed learning a lot from their stories of their experiences in Guatemala.
Once in Chichi, we stayed in the Hospitality House at ASELSI (web site: aselsi.org) which was very nice. We met several of the missionaries and staff who work there, and we asked lots of questions.
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| ASELSI's Hospitality House |
We only found one small two-bedroom/one-bathroom apartment available in the Chichi area, so I agreed to rent it. We will be squished for a while, but we will also be renting the apartment just below it (same layout) starting in July. That means we will have to go outside to get from one apartment to the other, but we'll make it work somehow for a year or so. Our landlord is American and has taken good care of the apartment. There are 5 apartments within our gated wall, and we will have parking inside the wall. Opposite our home is a lovely forested lot, so we will have a nice view.
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| Looking inside our gate at our upstairs apartment. |
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| We will start upstairs and will also rent downstairs beginning in July. |
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| The view from the street (dirt road). Our place is past the people walking, on the right. |
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| There are two bedrooms and a bathroom (just out of the photo, to the left). The door to the right is the front door. |
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| Behind our apartment... a walkway and another apartment. |
On the last few days of the trip, we went shopping for items like dishes, a single-burner electric portable stove, a high chair, mattresses, and blankets, so we will at least have enough to be able to move right into the apartment in May. Although the apartment is small, whenever I think of Kevin and Shalene Massie in their tent in Africa, I feel hugely blessed to have a roof over my head!
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| Zaida is trying out her skills of balancing a load on her head. We had fun, but we need more practice! |
We test drove a 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser that we will be buying when we return in May. It has 4-wheel drive which will be great for some of the dirt roads around the area in the rainy season.
We enjoyed shopping in the market on Thursday, and went early enough to see them setting up on Sunday. The fabrics and artwork are beautiful.
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| We took a tuk-tuk to the town. It is a mix between a motorcycle and a golf cart with seating for 2 in back... or 8 Guatemalans. You just wave at one to stop, and they have a set price (about $0.75 per person). |
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| Shopping in the market, where we tried our hand at bargaining. I'm sure they got the better deal! |
We attended a Spanish church on Sunday evening, and I went to the Missionary Church Ladies' Bible Study on Tuesday evening.
We met with a K'iche' teacher, who recorded 45 minutes of K'iche' onto a cassette tape. Now Michael and I can begin the task of learning how to pronounce this difficult language.
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| K'iche' teacher, Victoriano, recording a lesson. He traveled three hours to get there. |
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| The next day, Victoriano returned with his grandchildren, Pascuala and Claudio. |
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| The boys to the right of Zaida are Abraham and Benjamin. |
We also visited a Christian school (totally in Spanish) where we plan to enroll the girls from June through October, which is the end of the Guatemalan school year (it started in January). The girls have already finished their school year of homeschooling, so this will just be for Spanish practice.
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| The schoolchildren were all inside their classrooms when I took this photo. |
It was really a blessing that Zaida and I were able to go on this fact-finding trip. The end result is that we now have tickets for the family to travel to Guatemala on May 17! I already paid May's rent on the apartment, so we are all set. Now for the many details like purchasing a water filter suitable for a third world country, arranging transportation from Guatemala City to Chichi with our mountain of luggage, reserving a hotel room for our first night in the City, selling our stuff here in Puerto Rico in a yard sale, and preparing for downsizing once again.
Praise the Lord! We're on our way!