Well, I made it to Guatemala on Wednesday afternoon safe and sound. The drive from the airport in Guatemala City to San Lucas took about three hours or so. I was exhausted from the travel and from not being able to sleep the night before, but I figured it would be a light first day. Not quite...I arrive near San Lucas and by coincidence Bob Hentzen, and founder of CFCA, was there with the team from San Lucas doing a preliminary walk to get ready for the big walk from Guatemala to Chile in December. We pulled up to where the team was and walk stopped. Don Roberto waves me over. I get out of the car and he walks over to greet me and introduces himself. "Patrick, it´s so good to meet you. You feel like taking a walk?" I said "of course. I´m ready". While this is happening all the CFCA members on the walk are cheering and the streets are full of people who are taking pictures and celebrating while we shook hands. What a moment! The one thing I did not know, however, was that it was going to be about a 12 kilometer "caminata" and it was also about to pour from the heavens!! The walk must have taken over two hours. The rain was intense. The wind was whipping around us and the thunder sounded like bombs exploding overhead. I also realized a few kilometers in that I still had my passport and wallet on me. They are currently drying out. During the walk, I thought we were finished like eight different times. "Just around this corner...that´s got to be the end...nope...not yet. We just kept plowing through the rain. Finally, the walk was over and everyone cheered and celebrated. For the next few days everyone would ask me how I like my "gran bautizo" (great baptism). Quite the initiation into the CFCA family down here.
For the last few days I have been learning the ropes by working in the correspondence department making sure all the letteres get to the right destination. There are so many letters it is unbelievable!
It looks like I will be in San Lucas for another week or so getting trained before I head to Sololá. There, I will start teaching English classes, help translate letters, and coach some soccer. Should be a lot of fun! Tomorrow I will be going to mass with Hermano Jorge then everyone returns on Monday for another week.
Life is good here in Guatemala. Just trying to take it all in. More to come in the weeks ahead.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
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