Dicey detour

As we reported in an earlier post, workers recently concreted a section of the main road past our street, which didn't affect us.  That section has now been closed for several months, although we aren't sure why they haven't opened it yet to the people that live there.  However, they have now begun putting paving bricks on the part of the main road that does block our street.  Our neighborhood has two access roads: one main street that is now blocked and one back road that is virtually impassable due to parts of it being too narrow and other parts being too muddy.  

So someone had an idea to put in a new, short "detour" bypassing the roadwork directly.  It is basically a wide dirt path with one very tight switchback down the side of a hill (so tight a vehicle requires a 3-point turn to make it), then around the edge of someone's cornfield, and exiting through the middle of the community soccer field.  We ventured out this week for groceries, but our tires spun on the hill and we slid while going around the cornfield.  Heather used the word "treacherous," and Michael's term of choice was "dicey."

View looking down at the switchback.

View looking up.
Here I gooooo...
(The black marks are from 
spinning tires.)

Driveway difficulties

Our driveway is "shared," which we don't really like, but we have found ourselves in this situation.  We have four neighbors that have a key to our driveway gate at the street.  Two of those have houses behind ours that have no driveway, so they can only access their houses by walking.  So we gave them permission to use our driveway temporarily if they have deliveries or visitors, which allows them to get about halfway to their houses.  The other two neighbors actually have property bordering the road, but they don't want to put in their own driveways.  They prefer to use ours, which we think is weird.  But we wanted to be friendly, so we gave them a key, too.  

The current driveway trouble actually has to do with one of these road-access-owning neighbors.  He has frequently blocked our driveway, or has left the gate open, or has taken our padlock into his house repeatedly over the past six years.  Heather (Erica) finally solved the missing padlock problem by wiring a chain from the padlock to the gate!  We also recently reminded this neighbor that he only has permission to pass through our driveway and must leave the gate closed and locked, or we will change the lock and not give him a key.  Since then he has been much better.  Fortunately, the other three neighbors use the gate appropriately and usually even ask our permission first.

Padlock chained to gate

English student

Heather (Erica) has one English student, Ana, who meets with her on WhatsApp video chat for English conversation class once a week.  Ana has studied with our family on and off through the years: first with Carolyn, then with Elena, and now with Heather.

Ana is about 35 years old and is very dedicated to improving her English.  She occasionally does some translating for medical teams that come to Guatemala, so she and Heather are currently studying our 7th grade homeschooling Life Science curriculum together.

Roadwork

The town of Chichicastenango posted drone footage on their Facebook page of the roadwork being done near our house.  (This is not the road our house is on.)  This area is what we call "downtown Chulumal II."

Stocking up

The main road through our community, which actually connects our town with another, is a dirt road, with only about 500 meters at the entrance paved with paving bricks, and another 500 meters or so paved with concrete.  This year the community decided to pave another 500-meter portion with concrete, but it is past where our road connects and hasn't affected us.  However, there remains a portion between the already-paved portion and the upcoming concrete installation which is still dirt.  Our road is connected to this portion.  When they eventually pave that portion, we will be blocked in for at least 3 months.  (There is a small back road, but it has dangerous edges and tight spots.)

Preparing the road

Our most reliable informant in the community, Sebastián, told us last week that he heard a rumor that plans had changed and they were about to block us in immediately.  So we headed to the grocery store to stock up on non-perishables, planning to hire someone with a motorcycle to bring us fruits and vegetables during the blockade.

But then our informant decided the rumor was baseless and our road wouldn't actually be blocked for a while, and the start date is yet to be determined.  At least we are stocked and ready when the time comes!

Windows... finally

After waiting 4 months for our 17 windows to be made, we had the sum total of 1 working window and 6 partial windows.  They don't sell "factory-made" windows here, so the windows had to be cut and pieced together by a worker.  We had only been occasionally texting the contractor to ask about progress, and we decided it was time to get more serious.  So starting in January, we began texting the contractor daily!  It still took another month of constant text-badgering (politely of course) and stopping by the workshop once a week, but we finally received delivery of the remaining parts of the partial windows and the other 10 windows and frames. 

In fact, we were so disappointed with the shoddy job of installation that the workers had done so far, we told them we would install the remaining windows ourselves!  The original windows were also variously wrongly-sized, so we gave the contractor a list of our own measurements for the remaining windows, frames, and screens.  Fortunately, he only made a few mistakes in following our measurements, and we will be able to make do with what he did produce.

On Valentine's Day, we gave each other the gift of working together to install our first window!  Michael held things and measured, and Heather used the drill and tools.  The window is still lacking sealant and a screen, but at least it's a start!  We had to make modifications to the improperly-sized latch openings the worker had cut, which slowed us down a bit and will have to be fixed on the remaining windows, too.  But, a little progress is better than no progress!!!

Andrew and Carolyn's visit

We had a wonderful visit with our oldest daughter Carolyn and her husband Andrew.  They came for a week and a half, and it was fun to have them here! 

Carolyn grew up in Guatemala from age 11 to 16, so she liked introducing Andrew, who had never been to Guatemala before, to her hometown of Chichicastenango.  Andrew seemed to enjoy his visit to the market, shopping in town, attending a church service, and going with us up to the next town with a bigger grocery store than ours.  He was shocked by the crazy traffic and bus drivers and laughed at seeing a pickup truck with two bulls in the back parked in the grocery store parking lot.  

Following Michael through Chichi

Choosing Mayan fabric to purchase

Buying vegetables in the market

Laughing about bulls in a pickup

Noticing the parking lot attendant's big gun

Shopping in our small grocery store

Attending church together

Stopping by a plant nursery

Enjoying ice cream from a neighborhood snack store

Visiting the neighborhood sports court

Andrew was intrigued by the men calling, "Dale! Dale! Dale!" (which means, "Come on!") whenever any vehicle needed help in getting through some tight situation.  It was fun seeing Guatemala through the eyes of the uninitiated!  Fortunately our cable TV was working, so Andrew and Michael were able to get in some football games while they were together!

And during the visit, we recorded a video for all of our supporters, thanking you and giving you some information about our ministry: