Juanita's story

FEAR, a word that has come up a number of times in our home.... I've been thinking a lot about it lately. Our oldest son Isaiah has been having trouble at night going to bed because his fears have gripped him so tightly that it has been consuming him. As a mother, we never want our children to have such fears, but what do you do when you can't 'make' it go away? What if in your world, you can't make the physical fears just disappear and say they don't exist?

We have had so many changes in our world the past 2 months, but especially the last few weeks. I know that this is a terrible thing to bring up, especially for our friends and family who have had to endure a very cold and long winter, and we are NOT complaining, but the heat has definitely been a change. It takes its toll on everyone especially the women and children!! lol Annah was wishing for the snow and wanting some relief from the heat the other day.

School has been another adjustment, and we are so proud of the kids for their attitude and ability to slide into another group of kids and pick up with their schooling. Isaiah and Annah's teacher, Edwin says that they are an answer to prayer because he has been hoping for a way to further his english and so now every friday the grade 3's, 4's and 5's have English class with none other that Miss Annah and Mr Isaiah!!! :) We cannot get over the overwhelming kindness and generosity of the kids at school. They have been showered with little gifts and these things they call 'tazo chips' all so they can play and be included in the group.

The sounds that we hear are new! Its not so much what we hear as it is when we hear it. For example, let's talk about the garbage truck. I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that we have garbage pick up here. Because we live on a corner we get garbage picked up on M,W,F and on the other days T,Th,S also get the pick up! This is amazing for someone who gags at the smell of garbage and can get rid of it every single day! The teeny issue is that to let you know they're coming they bang on a piece of metal with another large piece of metal clanging to all in hearing range that they are near! I wish you could hear it... its something else! Still, not a HUGE problem you might say? Well, 2 days ago they came at 3:45 AM!!! And most other days its anywhere between 5 & 6 AM.... Why not put it out the nite before you ask? Because the dogs tear it apart and spread it as far as they can. Another great thing for a gagger!! I'll say no more on the issue. Except that when the garbage isn't being picked up the army is running by singing their song!! Also between 5 & 6, just when you've fallen back asleep from being woke up from the clanging!!!

The presence of the army is seen everyday. They are many, and for the kids especially, its different to see guns everywhere you go. Some of them even wear a black ski mask to intimidate even more! Here they are seen as protection and are very friendly to everyone passing by. They are doing their job, well I think. It's just that we never see guns at home.

A new Home, which has been a huge blessing. We live in a great duplex, with the McAllisters below. Its safe, clean and in a great location. The hospital, police station, church, market, school, central park and Super Selecto (grocery store) are all within a 5 block radius.

New rules for driving apply! Like when you want to make a left hand turn, it's a good idea to shoulder check over your left shoulder because chances are good that someone is still going to try and pass you on the left! People pile into the backs of the trucks here like we pack cattle into a truck! They are hanging off everywhere, and not just in town but down the highways!! Its common to see a couple of people just sitting or laying on top of a huge load of bricks or produce on a flatbed just cruising down the highway! I wish I had a picture to show you!

Honking is a given, people are always honking! Sometimes to just say

'hello', or to let you know they're there, or 'please open the gate' or "I am going to drive over you if you don't get out of the way!!" Carie and I took turns driving to the capital yesterday, we did very well and only had a couple of angry honks!!!

Smells. This is an entire topic for me. As I mentioned earlier I gag a lot, and I am getting better! But I do miss our clean streets, and no littering bylaws! When we came back from a field trip on friday, as we neared San Vicente the kids and parents started unloading their garbage out the bus windows!!! Sometimes the smell is a bit much and combined with the heat, smoke from burning garbage and the cheese and meat in the market, it can be a bit overwhelming at times.

Why tell you all this, and what does it have to do with fear? Well for some, I can just hear you say, "why would you ever want to go there? Are you not afraid?" My answer of course, sometimes yes, but compared to the fear others live in each day, these things are not something to fear but only to get used to!

I want you to meet our good friend Juanita! Juanita is 44 yrs old and lives in a small 2 bedroom house with 3 of her 5 children and 1 grandchild. Juanita's husband was shot while at work driving a bus exactly 2 years ago. Why? Because he was told he needed to pay the $3000.00 for the deeds to his house. He had already spent years paying this off and when it came time to get the papers, they said they'd never paid and wanted the money! Of course they couldn't pay this, so they shot him. 38 yrs old, 5 children, 2 grandchildren, and a wife left without work. The bus was full of people and the police were called, but because there is such a fear of what might happen if they stand up and make a statement of what they saw, not one person stood up! So the police can do nothing. Juanita has had little work since (and what she had paid very poorly) She is often afraid to be in her house for fear they might return! She is always looking over her shoulder. She was very nervous around the anniversary of the shooting last week that they might return... Thankfully, nothing happened. When she came to work in our home 3 weeks ago, she was so thankful to have work, to be able to do what she loves..... cook (which we are all thankful for) :) and be in a home that feels safe to her. The other day she apologized for being late, because when she went to leave her house there was a drunk man outside her door and she could not get passed him! She is lovely and is great with the many children we have and we all love having her in our homes. I can't think of what it would be like to have this kind of fear? Do I look over my shoulder ever? No. Do I wonder where I'm going to get food to feed my family? No. Do I hope that my child won't die because I can't take them to the Dr knowing they have Dengue fever? No. Have I ever wondered if my husband is not going to come home at the end of the day? No.

She was sitting with one of the kids helping them with their spanish one day when I noticed she was holding the book very close. I wondered if maybe she couldn't read, but then quickly realized that it wasn't because she didn't know how, it was because she couldn't see! We were able to take her in to see a Dr and have her eyes checked! She now has a pair of bifocals and a smile on her face!

She also has such huge faith. However after her husband died she did not return to church. Pastor Jorge would ask her everytime he saw when she was coming back. All along this time she continued to pray. She told me that the night before she started to work with us, she spent the night on her knees praying that she would find some work, so she could feed her children. She said God answered her prayer with a resounding YES when the very next morning we went with the Pastor's wife Maritza to find her in the market and ask her to come work with us. She left what she was doing immediately and followed us home!! Two weeks ago she met us at our house on Sunday and came with us to church. To see her eyes filled with tears and her heart filled with the holy spirit that day was an amazing sight for us all to see. This is her story, and she is our friend. We have many more stories like Juanita's and people we want you to meet.

So what do I really have to fear? Not too much. And when I do, there is nothing I can do but give it to my Father. We all have fear, it just looks different. We were not made to live in fear and there is very little that we can do on our own to get rid of it! Maybe by hearing what other people fear every single day, may make our own fears seem not so bad.

Kerrie-Lynn

one more thought...

Volcan Chichontepeque

(we live in its shadow)

hello again,

just had one more thought i wanted to add to the last blog. we also want you to use your gifts, talents, abilities and passions while you are down here. we are experts in very little, but with all of us together we are experts in a lot of things. from farming to building and healthcare to daycare you are experienced in many things that can help down here in so many ways. so start thinking of the things you would like to bless the people of el salvador with and let us know your thoughts so we can start planning together! we are excited as we think of the good we can do together...

--

quick facts about el salvador:

population - 6,822,378 (plus 12 white people in san vicente)

31% of that number lives on less than $1 per day.

in other words 2,114,937 people live on less than $1 per day. imagine that! it would take a full work week to buy a vente low fat vanilla latte... puts things in perspective to think of this way, for me anyway.

trent

visit jefferson

hello again. well now that we have internet we can actually communicate a bit better. you can expect the blog updates to come on a regular basis... but don't hold your breath. things never go that smooth in central america it seems! we know of a lot of people wanting to visit us this year. family, friends and many who want to minister to the poor of el salvador along with us. this is exciting for us and we look forward to it with great anticipation. in order to accommodate everyone, we need some info from you and to let you know our thoughts...

first, our questions:

1. we would like you to email us if you are interested in coming down. also, let us know a rough or detailed timeline of when you are thinking of traveling.

csmcalli@gmail.com

family@berstad.org

2. please let us know what you hope to do while you are here and why you want to come.

second, our thoughts:

1. we hope to establish a number of goals for ourselves over the next few weeks. we really want you to join in with us in that ministry. we hope that sharing our journey here will be what makes the trip special.

2. we would also ask each group to raise money to go towards building a home for a family in great need while you are here - we are asking you to ask others, not to pay more of the cost out of your pocket. the cost of a home is $2700. when you return home you will have lots of people who contributed asking how your time was and hear the stories about the family you helped. whatever you come up with financially is fine, we simply want everyone to do their best at trying to raise the funds. we will take care of the rest!

3. we are working on approx. costs for living expenses for visitors: accommodations, meals, transportation, etcetera... we would love to be able to foot the bill for all of you while here, but the reality is we cannot afford to host groups and cover those costs as we ourselves are living with help from others!

4. we are thinking that about a week plus or minus is a good length of time to come, so consider that when planning. let us know and we can figure just about anything out though!

finally, please know that we truly want lots of visitors. we look forward to sharing our world down here with all of you.

--

Kerrie with Jefferson and his mom

on another note, we just finished up five houses today. 5 in 3 days with a team of 10 people from BC. we were able to build for a family which has quite an amazing story so i thought i'd share that one today. Jefferson is a 9 month old boy who lives in the village of san antonia where we will be focusing our ministry this year. in november a team was here and left money behind to take him to the doctor because he has hydrocephalus (water under the skull). without the money to pay for medical care there was little doubt he wasn't going to make it too many more weeks. his head was easily twice the size it ought to have been. our friend pastor jorge took him in to the clinic here in town. here is the note he sent us back in november...

I would like to inform you that we took the 5 month old child to the Pediatric clinic for the consultation in San Salvador with dr. Fernando Moreira Mendoza who is the pediatric surgeon. It was a MIRACLE as we got their at 10am and he examined him immediately and spoke with us and also asked how we met Jeferson Antonio.

The doctor was touched by God and closed his clinic early to help out. He moves his other consultations to 3:00pm and he joined myself and Jeferson to the Benjamin Bloom hospital. He spoke with the director of the hospital and he ordered the operation for Jeferson on Tuesday November 23^rd.

The consultation cost was $100 but he did not charge us at all and he also said that he would take care of everything. We are grateful as this happened through the glory of God.

fast forward a few months and jefferson has had the surgery. completely successful! and too top that (if possible) the doctor paid the whole bill! not one penny spent to save his life. yesterday we finished framing his house, today and tomorrow they are working on the concrete floor. so i just can't help but think what a different story would have been told here without a bit of help from some regular joe's from canada who decided to take some time and some money, maybe even sacrifice some stuff or an all inclusive and help this family out. i can't help but wonder what kind of difference it will make to have a "non-dirt" floor and a 'non-leaky' roof for a 9 month old recovering from surgery on the brain! i have a hard time imagining... the things we never consider going without are commonplace here. doctors, medicine, surgery, shingles, floors... we are concerned with carpet or tile or hardwood, but never with the sub floor beneath it! so it was a good couple days. it's emotional to see that family working away on the blocks and concrete for the floor. their eyes are full of joy and hope. a good day. thanks for reading and letting me share this story. hopefully you'll get to meet jefferson this year if you're one of the ones hoping to join us this coming year! below is a picture of our door. drop by sometime! (just let us know when)

trent

this is a shot of the springs and frame of basilio's truck. he drives four guys and all the tools in it each day to work with us- half hour one way. amazing what rope can do! i think it would even be more amazing to see what a welding machine could do!

This is Major Tom to Ground Control

We're stepping through the door,

And we're floating in a most peculiar way,

And the stars look very different today.

  Sorry for the lack of communication over the last couple of weeks.  Our Internet capabilities have been sketchy at best.  In fact as I write this I still don’t have a way to put this on the Web, only hopes that someday I can share these words with you.

                Well we made it!  Thanks be to God.  We arrived in San Vicente, El Salvador on the evening of February 26^th, after a fairly uneventful bus ride from Antigua.  Apart from the driver not having an excellent sense of which route to take we arrived around 6 p.m., 5 hours later than we assumed,  at the same hotel that the short-term teams has been using for the past few years.  It is comfortable, secure, and easy but can become expensive quickly, so our first priority was to find suitable housing for the twelve of us.  Shortly upon arrival, we were greeted by Pastor Jorge, his wife Maritza, son Jorgito, daughter Jackie and her husband Oscar, our new family (don’t worry old family I’ll think about you from time to time).

    Sunday was a day to go exploring for our new home.  Oscar returned bright and early to go for a run with Trent and I.  He had mentioned something about this the night before, but I really didn’t believe he was serious (with the heat here you drip sweat when sitting, let alone dodging traffic through the streets of the San Vicente).  Anyway, it was a good chance to catch up with Oscar and get the legs moving after being cramped up in a bus the day before.  Later we all walked to Central Park and climbed the clock tower.  You get quite a view from the top of the surrounding area.  There was a mix of emotions from the kids; some didn’t want to open their eyes because of the height, others were ready to climb over the railing for a better look (I love seeing this world through my kids eyes as well).  We ended the day in a service at Pastor Jorge’s church (El Primer Templo Christiano), where we were welcomed as the church’s new missionaries.

                Monday morning we hit the ground running (actually walking and driving because we had learned our lesson the day before).  We gave ourselves a list of three things to try to accomplish for the week: 1) Find a house or houses that would work for the two families, 2) Find a vehicle (walking works well within the city but the majority of our building work will be in small towns outside the city, so a vehicle becomes essential), 3) Find a school for the kids.  We figured that if we could get at least one or two of these items knocked off the list by the end of the week we would be in good shape.  Well by Tuesday we had rented a house, put a deposit on a truck, and had the kids registered in school, to begin the following week.  The Lord has provided!

                We live somewhere in San Vicente?!  I know our house number is 28-A but I am a bit unsure of the actual street address because street signs are few and far between here.  I do know that we get garbage pickup everyday because our house is on a corner  (garbage gets collected in one direction Mon-Wed-Fri and the perpendicular direction on Tues-Thurs-Sat.  This alone is worth its weight in gold).  When people ask where we live, I usually just tell them that we live across the street from the offices of FMLN, the communist party in El Salvador.  I guess depending on who is in power; this could be a good or bad thing, but so far they have been nothing but friendly to us. 

Our house is really more like two houses in one, with each level having its own kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms.  It is clean, spacious, and functional, and I bet that if we drew a point on a map minimizing proximity to things like the church, the grocery store, the market, etc., we probably would have put a star on this house.  It is ideal in so many ways, but probably mostly in the fact that we live together but can have defined family space.

 The following weekend, a team of group leaders arrived from across Canada in order to build a couple of houses in a new area of El Salvador, to build relationships and communication, and to define some vision and goals for the World Partners organization going forward.  It was great to see some familiar faces from home, and to put faces to many of the names that we have heard over the years.  We spent 3 days in Victoria, Las Cabanas building and providing a free medical clinic to people from this village (supposedly one of the poorest in El Salvador).  We are exploring new opportunities for teams that will be coming down in the fall.

                But it was a busy week at home as well, as we rented an unfurnished house, we continued to set up our house with furniture and appliances, and Carie and Kerrie learned how to wash clothes all by hand, and then we decided it would be better to give someone else a job by paying them to do it!! Then all the kids (with the exception of our youngest Violet) began school.  They are attending La Escuela Adventista, a small private school not far from our house.  Uniforms are required so we bought material and had a local seamstress whip them up for us.  They look pretty cute in their sky blue pants and skirts and white shirts.  I’m just not sure how long those shirts will remain white, but they sure looked good on the first day.   School starts at 7 a.m. for the older kids and goes until noon.  Winnie, Elias, and Ellis are all together in Kindergarten, and they attend from 8 a.m. to 11:30.  There is no English in the school, except for an hour on Friday mornings (and I heard that Annah and Isaiah were teaching their classmates last week) so I know that our kids should be fluent by the end of the year.  Everybody has been excited making new friends and getting back into some form of a routine.  We are extremely thankful for a good school, with excellent teachers.

                And know our so called ‘work’ or ‘projects’ begin, but even as I write these words I realize that these things have begun long ago, and more often than not the important things we do are simply the small things.  Maybe my work (our work) is to say “Buenos Dias” to the neighbour 6 or 7 times day as I go in and out of our house for various things.  Maybe it’s to hand a juice box to the little girl that has been peeking in our door all morning.  Or maybe it’s to help another neighbour clean what’s left of his house off of the street at 11:30 p.m. because it blew over in a freak wind storm this afternoon.

                I leave you with some words I love from Henri Nouwen, speaking about his thoughts on our mission in this world:

                More and more, the desire grows in me simply to walk around, greet people, enter their homes, sit on their doorsteps, play ball, throw water, and be known as someone who wants to live with them.  It is a privilege to have the time to practice this simple ministry of presence.  Still, it is not as simple as it seems.  My own desire to be useful, to do something significant, or to be part of some impressive project is so strong that soon my time is taken up by meetings, conferences, study groups, and workshops that prevent me from walking the streets.  It is difficult not to have plans, not to organize people around an urgent cause, and not to feel that you are working directly for social progress.  But I wonder more and more if the first thing shouldn’t be to know people by name, to eat and drink with them, to listen to their stories and tell your own, and to let them know with words, handshakes, and hugs that you do not simply like them, but truly love them.

Stuart

Scrabble Anyone???

A week left until we head to El Salvador. Then it seems as if we will have to start all over again. We still don’t have a place to move into, so we will likely be staying in the hotel there for a couple of days or maybe a week. I can’t help but wonder how the kids will readjust because it seems like they are just starting to “normal out” here.

I keep praying though. I pray that I will hear God’s voice and not just my own (or my children’s). I know he tells us not to worry about tomorrow, but the mother in me has a hard time with that. The kids have done really well with school and it would be nice to get them into school in El Salvador ASAP to get them right into the swing of things language wise. I am really enjoying my lessons. Yesterday we spent our whole lesson playing Spanish Scrabble. My teacher had never played before and I had borrowed it from Ana Louisa who lives at the house we are staying at. First we played in teams against Kade and his teacher, Soledad and Winnie’s teacher Jessica. I came in last. Then I said to my teacher that after the break we should do some work. We did one exercise on Preterite and Imperfect past tense verbs and then she asked me if I wanted to play again! I think she liked it!! We are going to go today(Saturday) and check out if I can find Scrabble to give her as a gift at the end of next week. (Update.. it seems as though there are none in Antigua)

On Sunday we went to the hill of the cross and climbed up it. It was magnificent and an awe inspiring view of Antigua.

Stuart has been having conversations with his teacher about Christianity and using the bible to explain why we are here. His teacher Yoli has been asking some hard questions that would be hard to answer even in English! He has also been having conversations with another teacher at the school whose daughter is a single mom of 3 children and has no place to live. They have been praying for years for a home for her. Finally a piece of land has become available to purchase at a decent price, but if they buy the land they can’t afford to put a house on it. We kept talking about trying to give something meaningful as a parting gift, and this seems like an answer, but we have no idea how the logistics would work.

Today my friend Emily is here from Calgary with her two kids and husband who has meetings with coffee farmers all week for his roasterie, phil&Sebastian www. philsebastian.com , so tomorrow and I am going to meet with her and show her all the hot spots around town. Ha, after a month I guess I no longer qualify as a tourist.

I am excited for this new chapter and to see Pastor Jorge and his wife Maritza and their daughter Jackie and her husband Oscar. I am very excited to get connected with the community of people that we will be working with to build houses for and start building relationships.

I am excited to learn how to cook Central American style and give it a go. I might need some prayer on this as well!!

I am excited to have teams and visitors come down to see exactly why we are going to El Salvador. Soon we will send out some information about what you need to know to come down and we will start a calendar with dates of upcoming visits.

Carie

pop bottle luging

Guatemalan Stickup

so a couple weeks back we went to the beach and met a family from the U.S. - Mark & Gina. carie asked what they were doing down here with a family of 5. turns out they had been involved in ministry back in the States, a few years back started to rethink the purposes of the church, realized it needed to move outside the walls of the church building with its comfy chairs and move into the neighborhoods of the poor. so a year and a half ago they sold everything and moved to the village of Magdelena to serve the poor. they came with little ideas of how to do that, but simply knew that’s where they needed to be...

so this weekend we went out for a visit so see what they were up to. we had a great afternoon chatting, questioning and seeing what they were doing and being in that community. first off, you could see the love they had for the folks in the village and even more evident was the love that the locals had for them. their faces lit up when they saw them as we walked past their homes. it was obvious they spent a lot of time in the village. it seems most NGO’s are based out of the large cities, living in gated communities, coming out to the village a couple times a week to check in on their projects. the difference we saw here was a family who had moved right into the neighborhood. living, playing, working, eating and sleeping right there. cool.

quickly the similarities between their work and our vision became spookily (not sure if that’s a real word) apparent...

they started a home building project, with homes the same size and layout and cost as ours in el salvador

the situation of the folks receiving the homes were in the same state as those in el salvador

they didn’t know spanish, but learned on the fly once here

2 of their kids were isaac & eli

they employ a group of locals to build the homes (one of our main plans)

kids went right into spanish school

host many teams from the states

started their own ministry

rejected the ‘american dream’ to serve the poor

learned what was needed before they started anything

made friends first, created projects second

deepstream is the name of their ministry

12 kids among three families (i messed that up earlier for you keeners)

as we walked and talked thru the village the similarities were laughable. for us it was like a snapshot of us in a year. a huge blessing for us all, even more so for carie and kerrie-lynn i think. they got to see a family living in central america in a home similar to those in san vicente doing the same things and in all likelihood experiencing the same frustrations and difficulties as we will along the way. the kids hit it off splendidly. playing soccer in the street and riding empty 2 liter pop bottles down the street! who knew you could have that much fun on a very steep concrete road and a bottle out of the ditch. it was good to see the kids having so much fun without it being a wii game or some other electronic device. the other couple working with them is building a sports facility and starting a mentoring project for young boys - using sports as an in to teach about life and faith and health and responsibility. it brought to mind a few names of friends back home who need to move down too ;-) all in all, we are so thankful for this family, encouraged by what they are doing and filled anew with hope for life in el salvador.

Mark & Gina’s ministry website is http://www.deepstreamguatemala.com/ if you care to check it out!

trent & kerrie

The tip of the iceberg

Well 2 down and 50 (give or take) to go. No, I’m not talking about the demise of our children (although some moments feel a little bit like we’re running an elementary school), I’m referring to weeks, to time (don’t worry, no children were hurt in the writing of this message . . . yet). And time is a different thing in Antigua, Guatemala; it feels a bit different then time back home. It’s hard to describe but the moments feel a bit thicker here, a little more robust. Sometimes it feels like time is being stretched, and then compressed, and then stretched again, as if we are in the bellows of an accordion. These two weeks have been filled with an eternity of moments passed by in a blink. Maybe we’re just allowed the opportunity to be a bit more present in the time, in this place.
And what a place this is. I’m enchanted by many things here; the culture, the people, the history, the geography, the climate (sorry about the foot of snow and minus 30 temperatures in Calgary this week), the food, the sights, the sounds, even the smells (well most of them anyway). They all weave together to create a tapestry for the senses. I know that there is a newness to this all, and some of this will likely wear off after this honeymoon stage, but I already feel my heart planting and rooting itself in this place.
As most of you are aware we are in Antigua to take Spanish lessons for a month. Our minds are being poured into, as we attempt to let ourselves be moulded around a new language. And we feel that this shaping is imperative, for as Kerrie-Lynn has said, she hopes to be able to understand the hurting and be able to offer encouragement and hope. I echo this sentiment. Often we are very tired at the end of the day, with feelings of having been challenged. But everybody is making progress, and most of the kids do not even realize the amount of information that they have sponged up. This year is going to be good in many ways and for many reasons.
On the subject of learning, I feel that I am being taught, and not just in my classroom. For those of you unfamiliar with Antigua, it is quite a beautiful city, actually a bit of an anomaly in Central America.  


Road Map of Antigua Showing our house to the school


The bulk of the city fits within a 10 x 10 city block square of cobble stone streets and old colonial buildings and churches. Due to an earthquake in the late 18th century, many of the massive cathedrals were destroyed, but left as ruins; icons of a long-past era. A moment in time preserved in broken stone and concrete.
 For those of you unfamiliar with trying to get eight children to school on time in the morning, it can be a bit of circus act. Most mornings we get everyone off with bellies filled and snacks, books, and clothing attached. But it can be a whirlwind process. Walking to school also takes to the days I spent in arcades playing ‘Frogger’. I am grateful everyday that we don’t become the target of a bus, taxi, or motorcycle as we cross the streets on the way to school.
Between these two things, the beauty of the city and the busyness of our lives and tasks, it becomes very easy to miss the world around me. And I think that this has been my first true lesson over the last couple of weeks. A couple of days ago as we were shuffling ourselves toward school in the morning, we passed a little boy. He was 9 or 10 by my best estimation and was carrying a small black box. This box held his equipment needed to shine shoes in the city’s central park. His clothing and skin were stained from the shoe polish, and as I looked at him and said, “Buenos dias” to him the only reply I got was a blank stare. As we passed the boy, he reached down and picked up a long, thin scrap of plastic out of the gutter next to the sidewalk. He turned it over in his hands, scrutinizing it. The interesting was that this piece of plastic, probably from the top of a chip or cookie bag, oddly resembled a folded Quetzal (the currency in Guatemala). That was the extent of our interaction as we passed the boy, and continued on our way.

This was a seemingly unimportant moment in my day, but I have been pondering that moment for some time since. Questions have been ruminating in my head. Why was this boy not in school? What kind of family situation does he have that he needs to shine shoes to live? Does he have a family at all? Who will shine this boy’s shoes... or heart? Why didn’t I? The first lesson that I am being taught is to look for the story beneath the surface. I can easily become preoccupied with things that prevent me from becoming enamoured and involved in the stories happening around me. (But don’t worry; I will still be watching the traffic as we walk our kids to school). 

This Saturday was spent as are most of my Saturdays in Canada (I hope you can sense the sarcasm in my writing). We left in a van at about 8 am and travelled to the small town of San Francisco de Pacaya. From here met our guide and proceeded to hike about 3km up through a forest to the Pacaya Volcano. There are 35 volcanoes in Guatemala, with 3 that are quite active. Two of these are within a couple of hours from Antigua, and Pacaya is one of them. In fact there was a major eruption here last May. Once we made it above the tree line (I was extremely impressed with the ability of our kids to make it up the steep trails) we entered an area below the crater devoid of life. There was an eerie beauty to the petrified lava flows and sulphur stained rocks. The crater loomed above us with gases and smoke spewing out in bursts. Apparently in the past, people could walk beside rivers of lava flowing down the mountain but this changed with the eruption in May.


The heat is still sneaking out of a few caves in the hardened lava on the side of the mountain, and we were able to roast marshmallows and cheese by holding them over an opening in the rock. The bottom of the hole was indiscernible, but we were told that at night the red glow of lava can be seen through the opening. We trekked across the recently formed peaks and valleys and then hiked back to the bottom. We arrived back at our house by supper time tired, hungry, sore, and covered in dirt, but what a phenomenal experience and view.


But this leads me to my second lesson. And in many ways it has connections to the first. On our descent from the volcano we passed a small cross embedded in the lava in the distance. Last May as activity increased around the Pacaya Volcano authorities evacuated about 1650 families from nearby towns. Yet one fatality was reported. Anibal Archila was a television reporter for a Guatemalan news agency called Noti 7. On May 27th, 2010 Anibal was trying to get footage of the exploding Pacaya Volcano, when he was crushed by falling boulders and lava. This was all the information that I could find about this 32 year old man, and I feel sorry for that. All that I have to remember him by is a small cross in the rocks. Lesson two is that I need to truly know the people around me so that I can tell their stories. And these stories must be told.
Stuart