Guatemala, I miss you.

 
I miss the everyday sights

• Early in the morning, the mountains slowly appeared through the mist and stood like powerful sentries around the village, announcing to anyone who paid attention that our Creator God was bestowing bountiful blessings on this little country of Guatemala.
• Flowers cascaded down front gates, lined window boxes and pathways to homes, and sold for pennies in the marketplace..
• The market in San Juan Sacatepéquez was teeming with the vibrant color or produce for sale and lively bargaining between vendors and buyers at 7:00 in the morning.
• Children played outside.  A soccer game, marbles, or simple tag might take place in the village streets or in the alleys.  
• Vendors and housewives carried their wares on their heads.
• Dogs roamed freely and without the territorial viciousness I often see back home.

I miss many of the things I smelled there.

• Freshly washed clothes hung on the line, wafting their scent of lavender in my direction when I walked by.
• A jasmine bush grew by the driveway, and Barbara picked a few flowers for our desk just before we arrived.  For days, I smelled their fragrant aroma whenever I walked into our room.
• Walking up the driveway, I’d stop to smell the jasmine and the roses that grew there.
• Before a rain, you could smell it coming.  After it left, the natural smells of earth and grass were more prominent than before.
• Tortillas or tacos for sale at a roadside stand tempted us as we walked by.
• The fragrant aromas filtered out of the kitchen several times as day, awaking our senses and making us ready to enjoy the next meal.
• Of course, there were some not-so-nice smells that I sometimes smelled, but even those were a reminder to me that I was not at home.  Bus fumes, garbage, and manure could not overcome the positives things I smelled there.

I miss the sounds I heard there.

• Firecrackers at midnight announced the beginning of someone’s birthday.
• Dogs barked, and roosters crowed their way-too-early greeting of the new day.
• Buses blared their horns, as early as 4:30 in the morning, to announce their departure for the capital city.
• A lonely cat let everyone know of her presence as she sat outside mewing for attention. 
• Children played on the patio, their laughter and imaginative conversations drifting in to where I quietly worked on my lesson plans for the day.
• The gentle rain pinged off the metal roof, quieting the other noises outside and lulling me to sleep.
• Children called out “Gringos!” to each other whenever we were out on the street.

Barbara teaching the children.

But mostly, I miss the people.

• Giovanni and Barbara Avendaño and their wonderful family. Our house seemed way too quiet when we returned. 
• The indigenous women in their colorful dress celebrated their distinctive culture.  Their shyness made it obvious to me that they had different cultural values from the ladinos in their midst. 
• The church people sang enthusiastically when they gathered for worship.
• Hosts and hostesses warmly welcomed us into their homes for a typical Guatemalan meal.
• At prayer meeting, their prayers were fervent as they lifted their voices to God, asking Him to do impossible things in their lives and in the lives of those they loved.  
• Passersby greeted us pleasantly as we walked down the village streets, sometimes stopping to talk or walk with us for a while. 
• Children called out their few English words when we passed and giggled when we stopped to talk to them.
• The people of Guatemala were friendly and welcoming to us.  Wherever we went, they greeted us with a smile.

So, Guatemala, we do not know exactly when we will be back, but we are looking forward to our return.

Guatemalan Snapshots

For those who prefer photos to words.

These are just a few photos to give you a glimpse of Guatemala.

Flower vendors in San Juan Sacatepequez

One of the things I love about Guatemala is all the children.  Here are two indigenous children, one dressed traditionally and one in western dress.

The narrow streets of Cerro Alto.

Overlooking Antigua, Guatemala

Children play outside.  In Cerro Alto it was common to see a soccer game going on in the street.  When a car would come, they would run to the side and resume when the car passed.

Bakeries are common, and they may well make the best cakes in the world!

Two teenagers head home from school while a street vendor sells her bananas.

A classroom in Guatemala.  There is another row of chairs that you cannot see in this photo.  Most of the classrooms had at least 30 children in them.  One had 46.

Soccer is the favorite sport.  They were quite excited to learn that people from the U.S. are finally interested in watching the World Cup.  

Saying Goodbye to beautiful Guatemala.

August News

Dear friends and family,

What a wonderful month we had in Guatemala.  

Giovanni Avendaño, IPM’s missionary church planter in Guatemala, asked us to come for a month because he knew that the module format that we often use would not work well with his people.  Instead, we would teach a series over the course of a month.  Charlie taught on Biblical counseling for two hours on Tuesday nights in their Bible institute.  Joan taught on teaching for two hours on Wednesday nights following prayer meeting.  We also taught in the monthly men’s and women’s meetings.  On weekends, Charlie preached, we both taught Sunday school, and we were both involved in the teen meetings.  It was a busy, yet rewarding schedule.

But the main question we want to answer upon our return is not “What did the Farleys do?” but “What did God do?”  While there may be things we will never know about, here are some of the things we do know.

• One child asked the Lord to save him.  He talked to his parents during the week, and the on Sunday asked the pastor if he could be saved.
• Four people were baptized.  Three were adults, and one was a teenager.  It was a day of joyous celebration.  As Giovanni said, “I want to make a big deal about the important things in people’s lives.”  So we spent the afternoon together as a church family.  After the baptism in a swimming pool, the children went swimming and adults played soccer.  The rest sat around and shared stories.  Then one family, whose child’s birthday was that day, passed out bags of candy to everyone and hung up piñatas, one for the girls to break and one for the boys.  Then we all sang “Happy Birthday” and had cake.
  
  
• Another church has been started since our last time in Guatemala.  According to Giovanni, it is taking a lot more work to get this one up and running than the other two he started.  Yet he is confident that the Lord led them to do this, and that the Lord will build his church in San Raymundo.
• God granted safety and health throughout our trip.  While Joan battled a couple minor things while we were there, she was able to teach whenever it was her turn.
• God opened the door for us to teach in the public school.  The principal, one of the new people in the church, asked if we would go teach English and the gospel.  Charlie used English sentences to talk of the gospel with the older grades, and Joan used colors and then taught the wordless book to the younger grades.  The following Sunday ten children from the school showed up in church.
• God used us in our teaching.  Over and over people thanked us for what they had learned and talked of how they were already applying it in their everyday lives. 
• We saw obvious change in one young woman’s life after a brief time of counseling with her.
• God is building a strong church in the small town of Cerro Alto.  Three new couples recently started attending, and Giovanni is taking them through discipleship classes. 

Thank you so much for your prayers for us while we were gone. 

Your co-laborers in the Gospel,

Charlie and Joan Farley

Getting Acquainted with Guatemala

A month is only long enough to start to become acquainted with a place, so we have only just begun.  Experts say the tourist or honeymoon phase comes first when the wonder of the new place has not yet worn off.  In the month we have been here, we are definitely still enjoying the wonder of it all.  
For the past month we have lived in the small town of Cerro Alto.  It is a rural village with a population of about half indigenous people and half Ladinos, located about 12 miles almost due north of Guatemala City.  By road, it is about 24 miles away.
These are some interesting things we have learned.

Shopping:

• Flowers are incredibly inexpensive, at least by US standards.  Twice Charlie bought me flowers. The first time it was a mixed bouquet of roses and other flowers.  Since it was an anniversary gift, I don’t know what he paid.  The second time he bought a mix of daisies, carnations and coneflowers.  He told me the bouquet cost about fifty U.S. cents.  
• Bargaining is a way of life here, and a skill I have yet to master.  Every vendor in the market has the “best price for you,” usually close to a third or even twice what you should actually pay for it.  Bargaining is a fine art that we haven’t learned well yet.
• About every fourth house on the main street will have something for sale:  tortillas, vegetables, fruit, snacks, and tiny packages of household staples.  So if the household runs out of something, a child is dispatched to buy it at a neighbor’s store.

Food:

• In our town, milk comes powdered in a foil bag or in a can.  You can also buy UHT milk in a carton.  (When I lived in Guatemala city many years ago, we bought fresh milk in plastic pouches.) 
• Guatemalans may make the best cakes in the world.  Instead of using frosting, they usually frost with whipped cream and add fruit for both decoration and flavor.  Their cakes are moist and full of flavor.
• Small, fresh corn tortillas can be purchased at the local tortilla vendor for about three cents a piece.  It is no wonder that tortillas are a staple here.
• Corn is the staple food.  People plant it in every available piece of ground.  It cascades down the mountain sides.  It decorates front yards.  It can even be found clinging to the foot-wide edge of the road. 

Travel:

• It takes a long time to get anywhere.  Although the town where we were was only about 25 miles away from the capital city, it took two hours by public transportation to make the journey, and a private car was only a little faster.
• The roads are narrow and full of twists and turns.  Even if they are paved, you do not dare go fast because of what might be sitting in the middle of the road around the next bend: dogs, a bus, or people casually walking down the road.
• Fairly smooth, dusty roads turn to into a bone-jarring washboard after a good rainstorm.
• Roads are quite narrow.  We watched two buses try to pass each other.  Each one sent the conductor out to make sure nothing on the far side was getting to close while the drivers kept an eye on their side.  They passed with inches to spare.
• If you own a car, the mileage will stay low, but the bumpy roads take their own toll on the cars.
• In Cerro Alto, 95% of the pickup trucks and 99% of the minivans are Toyotas.  The buses are almost entirely retired Bluebirds.

Weather:

• Guatemala is called the “Land of Eternal Spring” because of its year-round spring-like weather.  Most of the country is in the mountains.  Days warm up to the upper seventies or low eighties, and nights are usually in the sixties.
• The rain is usually gentle, though it does come down hard for brief periods of time, and tin roofs make it sound like you are inside a tunnel inside a waterfall.
• The pleasant weather means that flowers bloom year round.  Many houses decorate their front walls with numerous flowers.  After a rain, they seem to abound even more.

People:

• Perhaps it is the people that make Guatemala so attractive.  They are friendly and ready to accept a foreigner into their circle of friendship.  They greet one another on the street and smile readily. 
• The indigenous people still dress distinctively and have held on to many of their traditions.  The women dress in colorful, attractive outfits which still give cues to their family heritage.  They are glad to be indigenous and happy to let others know of their heritage.
• The people are the reason we went to Guatemala – to teach and deepen their understanding of God’s word.  It was a privilege and a blessing for us to be there.

Other interesting facts:

• It costs about 25 cents to use a public restroom.  The cost is reasonable when you realize that it means that toilet paper is provided as well as cleanliness.
• Birthdays for children usually include a piñata, which is lots of fun for children who are quick to run and grab the candy.  The rest, however, may feel left out.  We saw more children in tears at a birthday party than we saw at any other time.

So much of Guatemala still remains a mystery.  We have spent most of our month just in this small town, and even though it is small in size, it holds more than 7,000 people, most of whom we have not met.  We would need to spend years here to feel that we really had an idea of what Guatemala is really like.

Worth the Trip

 

“We need to leave the house at 6:30 tomorrow morning,” Barbara told me smiling.  “The Bible study starts at 9:00, and the bus we need to catch leaves at 6:45.”

As I drifted off to sleep that night, I slept lightly, hearing most of the sounds that had kept me awake the first night but that I now ignored.  Dogs barked.  Roosters crowed.  Bus and truck horns blared.

The next morning, just before the alarm went off, I awoke.  Even though the morning’s first light was filtering through the window, I lit a candle to help me find my way around the room.  I quickly dressed and sat down on the bed to read and pray a little.  At about 6:25 I left our room and headed into the dining room to wait for Barbara who emerged just a few minutes later.

By 6:40 we were at the bus stop, but the bus was not there.  Instead, a 15-passenger van was there waiting.  Barbara approached the van driver and asked about the bus.

“Oh, it already left,” he told her.

She smiled and said to me, “Bus times are not always reliable here.  I asked yesterday, and I was told it would leave at 6:45.”

So instead of taking the bus, we jumped in the van.  Before long, other passengers arrived, and the van driver thought he had enough people to begin the trip.  He drove at a walking pace through town, beeping his horn at every location where he thought people might be interested in boarding.  When we reached the paved road and the houses were fewer, he sped up to a normal speed.

We drove through several small towns until we reached San Juan Sacatepéquez, where we jumped off to catch the bus to the city.  We walked about a block until we saw the bus for the city.  At the back of the bus, two seats beckoned.  We had hoped for a place with two empty seats together, but there were none.  We were thankful, though, for seats.  We sat down, one in front of the other. The radio blasted from the back of the bus, so I put my fingers in my ears.  It was so loud it hurt.  Even with my fingers in my ears, I could clearly hear the words.  I intentionally thought about other things since I did not want some of those words running through my head all day.

The bus passed by the market, already in full swing.  Then it wound its way through the mountains, passing makeshift greenhouses, vegetable gardens, and furniture builders.  We went through San Pedro where many people disembarked for their day’s work and others who worked in the capital city boarded.  With the shift in passengers, Barbara and I were able to find seats together, though the loud music made it hard to carry on a conversation.

Eventually we arrived in the capital city.  Traffic sometimes came to a complete stop.  Motorcycles wove in and out among the cars, and pedestrians sometimes took their lives into their own hands trying to cross.  Vendors got on and off the bus selling their wares.  “Three for five quetzales,” one called as he held up small packages of cookies.  I quickly did the calculation.  That was three packages for about 65 cents.  Snack food is certainly inexpensive here.

Barbara turned to me.  “Our stop is coming up,” she warned, so we got out of our seats and headed to the front of the bus.  We got off and climbed the stairs to the overpass to cross the highway.  On the other side, Beth, a missionary here in Guatemala, waited for us in her car.  When we arrived, she was busy studying her lesson.

After a short drive, we arrived at the home of the hostess.  Even though it was only 8:35, there were already quite a few women there.  When another few arrived, Beth instructed the group to load up their plates and have some breakfast.  With my stomach rumbling, I was glad the food did not come after the study.  I checked my watch.  It was only 8:45, yet here we were starting.  I guess things start here when enough people have arrived.

We loaded our Styrofoam plates with breakfast sandwiches, papaya, melon and grapes, filled our cups with black sweet coffee, and sat down.  Soon everyone was enjoying the food and the camaraderie around the table.  These godly women shared their stories of things going on in their homes and churches.  More than once laughter rang out.  Other women arrived and joined the group.  By this time there were twenty women around the table, most of whom were wives of pastors in the area.

By the time breakfast was over, everyone was ready to dive into Bible study.  Out of large purses came Bibles, pens and Bible study notebooks.  For the next hour, we listened to Beth teach and many chimed in with personal insights.  It was a group I knew I would love if I lived here.

As soon as we were done, we headed home again. 

We walked to the bus stop and stood watching the buses as they whizzed by.  When one marked “San Juan Sacatepéquez” approached, Barbara lifted her arm to indicate that we needed a ride.  It stopped.  We quickly climbed on and it took off again as we held on to the luggage rack to make our way to a couple empty seats in the back.  Once again, the music blared.  I did not think it was possible for the music to be louder than it had been on the bus in the morning, but it was.  I turned to Barbara and said, “I need to move forward away from this noise.”  Once again, that meant we could not sit together, but it was worth it to not have my eardrums hurting quite as much.

When we arrived in San Juan Sac, as it is affectionately called, we got off and walked to the bus stop for Cerro Alto.  There were quite a few people already waiting. 

“You need to be ready to move quickly when the van comes,” Barbara told me.  “There will be a rush for the door.”

Sure enough, when the van came, the entire group surged for the open side door.  But Barbara was smart.  She asked the conductor to open the back gate, and we climbed in the back and settled in the back row.  By the time we headed out, twenty people were crammed into the 15-passenger van.  Another four stood on the edge at the open door, hanging on to the roof, and the conductor was hanging on to the ladder on the side. 

As the van was leaving San Juan Sac, a whistle blew.  A policeman on the side of the road signaled to the van.  The van pulled over, and the four men who had been hanging out the door jumped off, ran to the side where they climbed the ladder to sit atop the van on the luggage rack.  The conductor moved inside to start collecting our fares.  I smiled.  Evidently, it is against the law to hang out the open door, but it’s not against the law to sit atop the van on the luggage rack, and it certainly does not matter how many people can be stuffed inside.  Before long we were home again. 

When we started out that morning, I wondered if I would be willing to make the four-hour round trip every month for a Bible study.  But after having been there, I realized why it was that important to Barbara.  It was a refreshing time with other women in ministry.  It was certainly worth the trip.

A Walk through the Village

This afternoon Charlie and I took a walk through the village.  Along the way we greeted the people we met and stopped and talked with a few.  When they asked why we were here, we told them we were teaching at the local Baptist church, gave them a tract and invited them to attend one of the services.  Join us on our walk through the village.

As we leave the house, at the top of the driveway we can see the mountains across the valley from this village.



Flowers abound.



We pass the catholic church.  Every town in Latin America seems to have one, usually in the center of town.  A strong majority of people here will claim Catholicism as their religion.



Children peer out open doorways to watch the “gringos” pass by.  Others call out to us.  Some even try to use the one or two words they know in English.  “Buenas tardes,” I call to a couple girls who respond in kind, and then go running away, giggling.



Anyone need a Laundromat?



Wheelbarrows are put to good use here.  Doesn’t this look like fun?



Eventually we arrive at the church, about a half mile from where we are staying.  No one is here today, but tonight it will be bustling with activity.

On our way back, we walk through the main intersection in town.  In reality, it is the only intersection, though many small roads, wide enough for only one car at a time, are like fingers off the main roads.



We pass dozens of little stores like this one.  This one is larger than most.  Besides the actual stores, many houses have baskets of produce in front of their homes ready to sell to passers by.



The white picket fence, the only one in town, lets us know that we are back at our hosts’ home.



Thank you for taking this walk with us.