After breakfast, I ran errands with Mari. One of my goals for this trip is to become more familiar with the demands and rhythm of day to day life in the city. Mari is a great teacher for this. As she went to the bakery, pet store, and shoe shop, I remained in the car, so we could be “somewhat legally” parked in a city where there are few parking spaces. As with driving, you make up the rules as you go along in finding a place to park. I am more sure than ever before that I will make use of buses, taxis, and “took-tooks” (motor scooters with passenger compartments attached to the rear) when I move down.
As we shopped, Mari insisted on buying me a “cafecito” (coffee) and sweet bread. I guess she was afraid I would become weak if I did not eat at least every hour. The coffee here is wonderful, and I’ve been unable to locate “pan dulce” anywhere in Omaha, so I gratefully accepted this gift.
We then went grocery shopping at my favorite store, “La Bodegona.” This is comparable to almost any grocery store in the States, except much more crowded. Prices surprised me. Some items, such as paper products, seem more expensive than at home, others are much less. Avocados were 3 for $1! Meat and cheese are about the same.My friend, Bill Pearson, who is a missionary in the Dominican Republic, has told me that most of the life of a missionary is taken up with the mundane tasks of everyday life. From today, it appears this will be true, since our few purchases took a full morning to accomplish.
After lunch, I went over to see the kids at Hermano Pedro. Hermano Pedro houses about 240 individuals with physical and mental disabilities. People refer to this place as an orphanage, but it seems to me to be more like our state institutions for the handicapped in the ‘70’s. Most of the kids there have families, and many are just returning from visiting and home over the holidays.I knew that in the afternoon many of the children would be confined to their cribs, and I was not disappointed. A few, including Elmer and his brother Minor were up in their wheelchairs. Though they didn’t remember me from previous visits, they immediately recognized a sucker for play, and we soon had a “train” of wheelchairs traveling around the courtyard area.
When I grew tired of pulling/pushing the train of boys, I went to the bed of one of my favorites, Melvin, or as he is commonly known, “Romeo.” Cerebral Palsy has left him unable to speak, and with a twisted body, but a beautiful heart! Whenever you speak to him, his eyes dance and his face comes alive, and despite his limitations, he is quite the flirt. He is one of the young men I hope to be able to develop a communication system for in the future.
As I stood by Melvin’s bed, I heard someone call out, “Quit spoiling those kids!” I knew it was my friend Dick Rutgers, who had originally introduced me to Hermano Pedro about four years ago. Dick had spent the morning preparing for our trip to the mountains tomorrow. Now he was ready for some R & R with the kids. Predictably, he went straight to the bed of Ervin, aka “Monster.” Ervin is a delight and a destruction rolled into one. Since he can be quite something to manage,
he unfortunately spends most of his afternoons in his crib. Dick changed that immediately. Together, we coaxed/forced Ervin to walk. I was pleasantly surprised at how much better he could get around with support than he had been able to even last June. I really believe if someone worked with him daily, he would soon be able to walk. I don’t know if the nurses would appreciate this or not, but this is definitely at the top of my “to do” list when I move down.
Dick then took me up to the malnutrition ward to meet Lionel, one of his favorites. Lionel came to Hermano Pedro five months ago, a ten year old weighing about 17 lbs. Since then, he has doubled his weight and gone from being somewhat of a “rag doll” to a delightful boy with a quick smile. We also visited Alex, who had been moved to malnutrition a few weeks ago from the dormitory downstairs. Our time feeding and cuddling these two ended much too quickly when Dick invited me to watch a soccer game his neighborhood kids were having in Chimaltenango.
We arrived in the middle of the game, played, believe it or not, on a concrete court. The kids didn’t mind, and almost seemed to “bounce” when they hit the ground. The game was under the supervision of Ben and Andy, two young men visiting from Canada. They were absolutely amazing with the boys, and allowed Dick and me to remain spectators rather than participants. Activities like this are so important for the kids, who otherwise would be left to roam the streets.A treat for me was getting to meet Miguel, a young man I am sponsoring in school. I learned of Miguel from Dick’s blog a few months ago. He is about 15 and was working all day in a bike shop and going to school in the evenings. Talk about burning yourself out early! This was necessary, though, because he wanted an education and his father, who cares deeply for him, just doesn’t make enough money to provide food AND schooling for his family. Now, Miguel helps Dick repair wheelchairs, and still goes to school at 6 pm. In fact, we visited so long, he was already late for school, and it was only the second day of class. (In Guatemala, the school year runs from the end of January through the end of October.) Before leaving, though, Miguel thanked me repeatedly for helping him with school, and promised to study hard. I have no doubt he will, and can’t wait to see what God does in the life of this amazing young man.
After bringing me back to Antigua, Dick and I had a quiet dinner to plan our trip to Huehuetenango, in northwestern Guatemala. After all I’d experienced in the past few hours, it was nice to just sit and reflect on all that had happened, and anticipate what was to come.
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