Day 4 Wednesday - Part 2

A Day of Learning, Labor, and…the Unexpected

by Al

“We began the day by driving to a local village and giving out food to needy families, which was certainly a multi-faceted learning experience. To get to this village, we drove down the main road (which would not win many awards of excellence from the Highway Paving Engineers Professional Society) and then turned onto a dirt road with more than the average number of ruts. We passed several fields that seemed under-utilized for agriculture or any other purpose, until we suddenly came upon a densely-packed conglomeration of houses. The road suddenly became paved again, with interlocking paving stones, and if there was a designer to this narrow main road he had a strong aversion to straight lines—in fact, he seemed to specialize in sudden hairpin turns. Our driver took these turns at about 30 MPH, fully trusting that no car would appear around the corner, and he was right because no car ever did. In fact, in Guatemala there are notably fewer cars on the roads, and many more pedestrians, along with many random dogs. Stop signs are not popular, but fortunately for pedestrians speed bumps are looked upon fondly, even on main streets.

The “houses” in this village should probably be more properly characterized as shacks, with tin siding, and tarps, and outhouses, and fire pits, and a few broken toys. They didn’t have running water, but, strangely, they had electricity. We went to one house that consisted of a 10-by-20-foot room that included bunk beds on one side, a double bed on the other, a small table….and a TV where the twins were watching Nick Junior in Spanish. We wanted to take their picture, but they were very reluctant to step away from the TV…kids are much the same everywhere.

When we returned to Village of Hope it was time for me to lead our two male youths, Mark and Thomas, at their work.  In this case it consisted of taking a large pile of combined dirt and rock and separating it into one pile of dirt and one pile of rock, and moving them to two different places. In other words, it was something one might do as a member of a chain gang in the deep south in the 1930’s, and the fact that we were doing this in the tropics just added to the fun. The boys were very game and worked enthusiastically, while I gave them a few samples of what to do and then supervised them very diligently from my place in the shade. The boys seemed to work pretty hard…the fact that Tom went to bed at 6:00 tonight might indicate that they did.

Mark and Thomas earthmovers inc

The last thing on our schedule was to spend time with the children in the village of Chituc. The plan was to teach them a Bible lesson, and then do games with them, and then do a craft. I was in charge of the games so I asked for a few details in advance. I was told to organize some games for them that we would play out on their “field.” Wisely, I did ask a few questions in advance about this “field.”  I was told it wasn’t a “great field,” but would “be fine.” So, I knew the field would not be 100 yards long, or even 50, and the grass might be mostly weeds, but nonetheless I thought of some fine field games, and I brought along a soccer ball (and an extra), so that we could conclude with a rousing game of soccer. It seemed like a good plan…

To get to Chituc, we turned off the main road and down another narrow road, which was paved with interlocking stones. On one side of there road was an orchard guarded by a barbed wire fence, and on the other side of the road was the village. We drove to the end of this road, which abruptly ended in a low pile of dirt on which we parked. My first clue that something was amiss was when my beloved leader, Christine, refused to get out of the van because things “didn’t look right.” We were assured that this was the right place. I stepped out of the van and looked around for my field. Where was this grassy acre where the grateful children of the village would romp and play? There was sort of a field next to our van, but it was occupied by discarded tires, deep ruts, waist-high weeds, and an area that appeared to have been burned in a bonfire. It might have been possible for a homeless person to find a place to pitch his tent, but if there was I never saw it. 

Meanwhile the expectant kids were walking our way. Across from the homeless field was a dirt area that might have served as a field, but was inexplicably surrounded by barbed wire.

To make a long story short, there was no field whatsoever. There was no possible way to do any of the games I had planned. I had to think of some new ideas. How about if we play “Escape From Prisoner-of-War Camp” and have all the kids crawl back and forth under the barbed wire? No, perhaps just a little risky. Meanwhile, Mark and Neil were doing an excellent job with their Bible story (the story of the lost coin).

In the end, I came up with the idea of relay races. I divided them into two teams and had them hop on two feet back and forth between cones, and then hop on one foot, go backwards, kick a soccer ball, bounce a soccer ball, run with a soccer ball between their legs, etc. 

Fortunately, this being a Guatemalan road, no car ever appeared to interrupt us. Finally, I had them worn out and we were able to do the craft, which consisted of a school supplies pencil pouch that they would decorate. 

In the end everything worked out wonderfully. Will I ever trust Christine again? Well, that is a story for another blog…”