Hail

During rainy season we get some big thunderstorms, occasionally accompanied by a few minutes of hail.  This hail was the size of marbles and punched a marble-sized hole in a section of clear polycarbonate roofing which we later had to patch up.

The photos make it hard to see, but it was certainly LOUD on our metal roofing!  The corn fields growing all around us had their leaves shredded a bit, but fortunately not too much damage was done by the hail.

The cross

This is the intersection where we turn to the right off the main highway to our community.  The name of the intersection is known by everybody here as "La Cruz," which means "The Cross."  We're not exactly sure why (although the telephone pole in the middle of the photo is appropriate.)  When I took this photo a "chicken bus" had just passed by, leaving this unfortunate bicycle rider in a black cloud of fumes!

More posts

We have been planting posts and have quite a garden now!

These are about half the posts we will need for the house.   The rest of the posts go in a running foundation, which would fill with rain water like a bathtub during rainy season.  So we are currently doing other preparatory work while we wait for rainy season to be over.  Here comes another shipment of posts ready to be welded together:

Dogs

I wanted to title this post "Making it through a pandemic with dogs for company," but that was too long!  We are staying at home in Chichicastenango every day of the week but one, when Michael goes shopping.  Veronica and I (Heather/Erica) go with him and wait in the car.  It isn't a very social outing, but at least we get out of the house!  During the long days at home, it is nice to have a dog's company!

On the other hand, having a dog around can also be hilarious, as our other dog Dorado has demonstrated recently.  We had been separating out our burnable trash into a bucket with an easily removable lid, which Dorado got into easily. 

I assured my family that the other trash cans, where we separate the food from other items, would be harder to get into because the dog's head would get trapped...  I went outside for two minutes and came back in to this scene!  Hahaha.  Guess it wasn't such a problem after all!

Our trash cans, by the way, are now up on plastic tables!

Upside down sign

This sign was on a temporary detour which directed traffic from our community into town by back roads while part of the main road was being paved with paving bricks.  No kidding, the sign is backwards.  We are guessing they accidentally painted the arrow going the wrong direction, but since the letters are invertible, they found an easy solution: flip the sign!  There were actually three signs like this along the way.  But hey, even as we chuckled, we were very grateful for the signs!

Needy newborn

I (Heather/Erica) got a message this week from Odilia, a lady in our church, asking if I knew if ASELSI's milk program is taking new clients.  She wrote that a lady from her neighborhood, Roxanna, had come by asking for help because she had no milk to nurse her 3-week-old newborn baby.  Roxanna's husband had recently left her to live with another woman, and Roxanna had given birth at home alone and scared.  Her husband had come by to threaten her that he would take her two children away (the newborn and a 4-year-old girl) if she didn't take care of them, and the stress of the conflict caused her milk to dry up.  Her husband has not given her any money, and she has no way to earn an income during this pandemic in order to buy formula.  She was only giving water to her baby, and Odilia said the baby was tiny and thin.

I wrote to ASELSI's director on her behalf, and he informed me that they are only able to support their currently registered clients since they have been shut down by the government during the pandemic.

We wanted to help Roxanna buy formula, but we didn't want to give her cash.  So I arranged with Odilia to come by our house and pick up a cash donation.   Then she went the store and bought formula and a supplement to help boost milk production.  She delivered the formula and supplement to Roxanna, who was very happy for the help!

Then, several days later, Roxanna brought her baby back to see Odilia.  What a nice surprise to see a healthy, round baby!  We ask for your prayers for this little life!

Thanks to Odilia for the photos!

Trash troubles

One of the services we took for granted in the United States was trash pickup and removal.  Now that we live just outside of Chichicastenango, the municipal trash truck doesn't arrive at our door like they used to before we moved further out of town.  And there is no public trash dumpster available.  So for the last two years we have been taking our trash weekly to a missionary friend's house in town, and she would set our bags out with hers.  But recently her landlord asked her to stop helping us. 

So we decided to venture out to the area's trash dump.  It is about 20 minutes away, down the curvy highway into a ravine and back up again on the other side, and then down a narrow dirt road towards billowing white smoke. 

Vehicles can drive in and drop off their
trash, where it is tossed into the
ravine on the left and burned.
The smoke is thick and smells bad.

This man came to charge us the Q10 fee
(about $1.30) for dropping off our 6 bags
of trash.  The fee is higher for larger
loads of trash.  It isn't healthy for the
workers to be breathing this smoke
all day!

When the coronavirus lockdown started in Guatemala a couple of months ago, we heard that there were many children and adults waiting in this trash dump to rummage through the trash and see what they could find to eat.  I don't think our safety was in question, but since we are trying to avoid gatherings of people for any reason during this time, we decided not to go back for now.

Michael had found a couple of public trash barrels in the market in town, so for a few weeks he took our trash there when we were in town for shopping.  But when the government closed all markets, he no longer had access to those trash barrels! 

Our current temporary solution, which we are very grateful for, has been to take our trash to ASELSI, a local ministry.  Before their clinic closed for the coronavirus lockdown, they weren't able to add our trash to theirs because they were already at the maximum volume of trash allowable for the municipal trash pickup.  But since the government closed their clinic for now, they have room for our trash!  Thank you, ASELSI!!!

Who knew trash disposal could be so complicated?  Hahaha!