Prayer... everyone?

From our house we could hear the background noise of singing almost all day.  A couple of streets over, by the landslide on the main highway, there was an interesting get-together for prayer.  Everyone was invited:  the Catholics, the Protestants, and those who practice the traditional Mayan religion.  They were gathering together at the edge of the landslide to pray (to whomever they wished) for the edge of the ravine to quit falling away little by little.  Each group took a turn leading the event.  We were struck, once again, by how ingrained and accepted the syncretism is here.

Bus terminal

While they were working on making a detour around the landslide (which closed the main north-south road by our house), the "chicken buses" couldn't get to their normal bus terminal in the town to the north of Chichi.  So they went as far as they could and parked along the road right outside our neighborhood.

That meant I encountered scenes like this as I tried to go into town to go shopping.

Somehow, by easing in and out between the big buses, smaller buses, tuk-tuks, and cars, everyone succeeded in getting by!

Thankfully, they have now opened the detour, so the road is clear again!

Arise! dance group

I (Heather/Erica) have started teaching this year's Christmas dance to a group of kids from our church.  I couldn't believe it, but 25 kids showed up to join me this time!  There are 10 boys and 15 girls, mostly ages 9 to 13, with a few younger ones.  Our dance group is called "Levántate!" which means "Arise!"   It is so exciting to work with these kids!

Parades

We had fun attending two of the three Independence Day parades in Chichicastenango.   For three days, the main highway through town was closed for a couple of hours each day for the parades.

Waiting for the parade to start!

Guatemala's national flag.

High school students dressed up in
traditional costumes.

A smaller version of some of the idols
the Mayan priests transport from place to place.

Monkeys went into the crowds and messed up
girls' hair, which nobody seemed to like.

A Mayan priest.

There were also rows and rows of sweet school children, since every school in town participated.

We were grateful for several mornings of sunshine in the middle of rainy season!

Landslides

There have been two roads closed near our house due to landslides last week.  One is a major north-south highway through Guatemala that runs right by our neighborhood.

In this photo, you can see the hole in the highway, which is at the edge of a huge ravine, hundreds of feet deep.  More of the road has been falling away each time it rains, and we are still in the middle of rainy season.  They are letting people walk really close to the landslide, which is terribly dangerous.  People wanting to travel north or south by bus have to get off the bus on one side and walk across, carrying their heavy loads, and then get on another bus on the other side.  We are blessed to be on the same side of the landslide as town, so we can still drive into town for shopping.

There was also a landslide closing a smaller road leading to ASELSI, which we can see from our upstairs balcony.  This is difficult for ASELSI, which has several medical clinics a week and a Bible school.  In this photo, you can see how they covered the edge with a tarp, and they also dug several new ditches trying to keep the water from washing away more of the road.

Thank you for your prayers for our roads and for people's safety.

ATM scam

We have heard about ATM scams in Antigua, a tourist town in Guatemala, but last week we discovered that our very own tourist town, Chichicastenango, has been hit, too!  We found out firsthand when our ATM card was cloned and used in Spain and Venezuela to drain our account.  Fortunately, our bank returned all our money to us!  So we are no longer using ATMs here and are investigating other methods of getting cash, which is essential in this cash-based society.

Multi-stop shopping

One of the most common differences I encounter between living in the States and living in Chichicastenango is the shopping experience. After shopping at Walmart for 3 months this summer, it was a big change to come back here and take my normal trek through town to gather what I need.

Each store is within a few blocks of the others, but with cars zooming past, broken sidewalks, and air thick with car fumes, it seems like quite a task. I shop each Wednesday, and here is the route I took this week:

1. Parked in one of town's two parking lots.

2. Stopped in Elektra, an appliance store, to see if they had any little-kid bikes. Nope, none small enough for Veronica.

3. Carpentry shop to buy a board to prop up one of our sagging plastic tables at home. The man trimmed and cut a board to the measurements I gave him.

4. Plastic store for clothesline clips and cleaning gloves. They had a cute little bike, which I will get another time if they haven't sold it already. This store sells trash cans, plastic bowls and bins in all sizes and shapes, dishes, disposable cups and plates, plastic sheeting, and an assortment of toys.

5. Ice cream store for a treat for Elena who came with me this week. The girls take turns coming with me for safety in pairs. We don't buy scooped ice cream, but the pre-packaged items seem to be fine.

6. Hardware store for washers to help our car battery clamp fit better. Had to draw a washer on a piece of paper and ask how to say it in Spanish.

7. Plastic-sheeting store to visit the Sunday school director of our church, who works there, and let him know we are back in town.

8. ATM to get cash, which I use at every store except the small grocery store, which fortunately takes a credit card.

9. Store that sells pre-packaged meats and cheeses and yogurt (and liquor) to see if they had any ham in a chunk... nope, just sliced. This store is the only one where I have found decaf coffee, but they were out. If you ask when a store will get more of something, the answer here is always “next week.” I have figured out that means “probably not ever.”

10. Paper-products store for whiteboard markers and masking tape.

11. Things-for-animals store to buy flea powder. I have to keep a fresh supply around the wall near my bed and one of my daughters' bunk beds to keep the bedbugs away.

12. Thread store to buy an embroidery hoop for a counted cross-stitch project for Carrie.

13. Girl sitting in an aisle of the market selling beans. I bought 3 pounds of “piloes,” a type of dried bean they sell here. She held up her balance made of two bowls hanging from a stick with a string in the middle. She put a bag of something in one side (supposedly weighing a pound) then put beans in the other bowl until it was averagely level. I have no idea how much that bag weighed, but the end result looked like about the right amount.

14. Fruit lady's stand in the market for bananas, plantains, pineapple, and canteloupe.

15. Vegetable lady's stand in the market for potatoes, carrots, red bell pepper, onion, and a few other veggies. She has an actual scale.

16. Walked past an old lady that is always sitting in her wheelchair in the hot sun begging. I always give her a quetzal, which is about 13 cents. She can hardly talk, but I found out her name is Anastasia and she loves it when I speak a bit of K'iche' to her. I'll have to take her photo sometime and post it here. Beautiful, wrinkly old face with a huge smile.

17. Banana cart for some more bananas. I always walk by this guy and his bananas are small but usually not too banged up.

18. Back to the car to deposit all this stuff before hitting my final stop: the “grocery store.”

19. Grocery store for bread, ketchup, yogurt, chips, cookies, eggs, etc. There is quite a variety, even including some “American” foods, but with American prices, so the locals don't buy much of those items. I was excited to find peanut butter this time!

20. Paid 15 quetzales ($2) for 3 hours of parking.

21. Drove home and spent several hours putting away groceries and disinfecting the fruits and veggies.

After that long list, I will mention a few places I didn't stop this time, which are sometimes on my way, too: the chicken guy, the beef butcher guy, the pharmacy, the auto parts store, the craft store, and the piles of used clothes.   Whew, I didn't really know how many stops there were until I wrote this blog entry!