Mi querida familia, September 20, 2009
I don’t always know what Jeanine writes about, but I think it’s important that you get the word from a second source. If there are discrepancies you’ll know down in your heart which one of us to believe.
The front and rear iron doors (big gates in block walls) have new double locks and are double locked at night or when we are gone. We’ve installed an additional deadbolt lock on the front door. All of the locks in our apartment have been re-keyed and I have installed inside pins with padlocks on them. We put a sheet of plywood next to the window AC unit that makes that secure. Someone could conceivable get a lift up over the 12’ walls of either patio, but unless they knocked out a window, they can’t come in. Everyone seems to have an expensive solution, i.e., install an alarm system, which would be connected to a telephone service, or put iron bars on the windows. I think we’ve done the best we can and we’ll have to rely on the Lord’s help with the rest. We do sleep better at night with the reinforcements we have made on the doors.
The El Niño weather phenomenon has hit Guatemala very hard this year. This is especially true, here in the eastern part of the country. We almost haven’t had a rainy season. Consequently the corn and bean crops have been very poor. There is genuine hunger out in the agricultural villages. We were talking to some people who make their living with fishing on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala. Because of the warm water the fish have gone back out into the ocean to find cool water and so fishing is out. So, “Eat your food! Because little children in eastern Guatemala are starving!” On a side note when we went out this last time on the dentists’ trip to the country schools, the kids were drinking a big glass of oatmeal mush, which they receive before going home. That’s right. School lunch is a glass of liquid oatmeal. If there isn’t something at home to supplement it, that’s what they are living on. The government only provides this in the very poorest areas where starvation is a major risk. We took a bunch of pictures of them with their glasses, but they didn’t turn out. OK, you’ll have to take my word for it. I inquired about it and school principal said that if they want another glass of mush, they can request it, but generally their stomachs are full with one glass. Now my grandchildren: I hope you could live on a glass of mush and a tortilla or maybe a few boiled beans. You can have all the salt you want. Worry, no chocolate milk for Carter Raymond! Sorry, Alexander’s, no Bear Claws for birthday breakfasts. Sorry all, no pizza for anybody. Just mush!
There is a neighborhood here in Chiquimula that we visit, where the kids go down to the river to get a drink. They have had major diarrhea. There is also a little epidemic (yellow alert) here with Dengue Fever. Our medical students were canvassing the city with the Public Health Officials this weekend delivering insecticides to put in their washing facilities (pilas) to help eradicate the mosquitoes. Dengue is carried by mosquitoes. Bad stuff! The second contraction of the disease can lead to hemorrhaging. There are several children in this part of the country who have died with it. We are pretty careful to put on strong insect repellent for protection. We also treat our clothes with Permetherin every six weeks.
We are excited about the new Church Bible coming out. We’ve had the Bible published by the church for a number of years in English, but it’s just coming out in Spanish. We were told it was because the Catholics shad a copyright to the Spanish. I don’t know how we got around that (assuming it was correct info), but now it’s coming out. The inexpensive copy for the members with limited resources is being shipped to the wards and branches for about $1.20 to $1.50. When we get to the Distribution Center we will pay around $27 for a leather bound copy with the thumb indexes. A nice cover with native Guatemalan cloth will be maybe $5-6 more. But it has the footnotes and headings that are in the English Bible. The copy I saw didn’t have the Bible dictionary or topical guide (but lots of the information is in the “Guia” at the back of the triple combination). It does have the Joseph Smith Translation, the maps and the references to the other standard works.
We’re going to have the members from Esquipulas come for lunch on Sunday October 4th between the sessions of conference. The Branch will provide the transportation and we will give them a simple lunch. It’s about six blocks to our apartment. We hope they will come. Their attendance has been poor at conferences and they usually have stayed for only one session. We are trying to encourage them to come to both sessions on Sunday.
We are heartened with the people who came to Esquipulas this morning. With just a few priesthood members it makes a big difference. The few I’m referring to, have disciplinary actions or just have guilt they are wrestling with, but are showing potential. We’re talking about church on the frontier. I can visualize what Joseph Smith was dealing with.
Despite their understanding and lack of “faith”, they have had so many tragedies to deal with. One good brother just lost a 5 year old granddaughter last Saturday. This Saturday he put his wife in the hospital with diabetes and kidney problems. She is in bad shape. Another sister we were trying to seek out had her 16 year old son (a taxi-moto driver) shot and killed in his little taxi-moto about four weeks ago. Another brother’s wife has had surgery in Guatemala two weeks ago. She has to be there for three more weeks. A counselor in the RS presidency has been sick for three weeks (and no one knew why she wasn’t there). Jeanine was taking the RS President around to get reports from the husbands and become informed about these illnesses. One brother, who had been very active, was having relations with another brother’s wife. That hit the family hard and two brothers became inactive. All of the members are “under the cross” as they say with financial struggles. More than one sister makes her living at the market selling candles to the masses of people who come to see the “Black Christos”. Esquipulas is the center for the Catholic Church in Central America.
President Lajpop makes his living repairing TV’s, using old parts in other old TV’s. He can make almost anything electronic work using other junk parts. His wife works at the hospital. Their oldest son (19) ran his motorcycle into a car and miraculously wasn’t killed. After his family nursed him back to health he shacked up with a girlfriend (and calls her his wife). That is such an embarrassment to President Lajpop as the leader of the Branch.
I feel good that we are able to go there pretty much every Sunday and every other Saturday. We spend about $50-60 on each of those weekend trips where there is a hotel involved. The hotel staff has been good to us. We arrive and check in about 10 AM. We have access to a refrigerator and a microwave. We come and go frequently during the day, spend the night. We have a hot shower and we can leave our things in the room while we go to church and not check out until 1:00 PM or a little later. The price for this is about $29. We are getting where we can’t hold up under as much walking and so we take the taxi motos most of the time now with destinations of more than ½ mile. The sidewalks and roads and masses of people near the cathedral are a little too much. With the taxi-moto and the hotel room, we can manage. Also, almost always we will have a lesson or talk to prepare for on the last minute basis. So with a room and tables and lights, we can study and prepare. I’ll leave the stories of noise for Jeanine to tell. That’s a whole new subject. With the pilgrimages of people to the Basilica there is every kind of worldly activity that you can imagine.
Time keeps ticking away. We’re having wonderful experiences, not always pleasant, however we are being blessed and protected. I think we could do without the challenges now, will probably be missed when it’s all over.
Love,
Spencer/Dad/Grandpa and all the other names you may want to use on me!