Long Weekend in Guatemala

We started our drive to Guatemala just after 1:00 p.m. and it took a little less than two hours to reach the border.  That would have normally been a good thing, but . . . . . you might remember that last October the bridge between El Salvador and Guatemala was badly damaged when a 2000 pound over-the-limit semi tried to cross.  The bridge is now being repaired and is only open from 11:00 to 1:00 and 3:30 to 5:30.  So we had a 30+ minute wait for the bridge to open.  Once it's open, it's still only one-way traffic.  Five to ten cars from El Salvador and then five to ten from Guatemala.  We finally crossed at 4:00 p.m.  The repair work has made the bridge very uneven and scary to cross in spite of the 10 mph speed limit.  

Our view as we crossed

View looking out my window--surface is a combination of concrete slabs
 separated by sandbags.

The trip on the Guatemala side was uneventful (thankfully) because once we cross over the border my El Salvador phone has no service and, unfortunately, my Guatemala phone did not have any minutes.  

We made it across Guatemala City and to Nelson and Rosemarie's house about 6:30.  She was just starting on the pupusas!  

Worshiping at Iglesia Bautista Vida Nueva, Guatemala City, is just like being in our home church . . . . lot's of friends, great music and excellent preaching.  After church we had a quick lunch at Wendy's and then, along with another 3-4 couples, went to a park to hang out.  The guys played basketball (about 4 hours.)  By the time we left, they were exhausted!

Monday morning after a great breakfast at Capistrano, one of our favorite restaurants, we drove to Antigua to visit our Spanish teachers.

   Stephen's breakfast!

It's getting late, so the rest of the story will have to wait until tomorrow!  

I Like Change!

If you have known me for very long, you know that, as a rule, I like change.  If you read my last blog post, you know that I like to change up the things I eat and the things I cook.  Well, the same thing goes for the things I do.  So, the good news is that I live in a place where it really isn't hard to change things up.  You see, things rarely go as planned here and as our friend, Dave, says, "when anywhere in Central America we must acknowledge the 11th commandment:  Thou shalt be flexible!"

It's almost VBS time!  Public schools all over Central America will be winding up their year by the end of October.  I'm sure that there are countdowns written on many white boards in classrooms across this country.  We are having VBS (goes by the initials EBDV, in Spanish) at the church in Guatemala City on November 11-15.  Last year, Stephen and I drove over a few days early to help with last minute preparations.  A couple of months ago, Pastor Nelson Rivas and his wife, Rosemarie, invited us to spend October 23-28 at their home in Guatemala in order to help with VBS preparations. Of course, we said we would love to come and that we would drive over on the morning of October 23.

A little over two weeks ago, a tractor trailer carrying a very heavy load of vegetables (almost 3 times over the weight limit)  caused extensive damage to the bridge between the border of El Salvador and Guatemala.  It was a miracle that the bridge didn't completely fall, plunging that truck, other cars and people to their deaths.  

Obviously, the border was closed and all traffic re-routed to one of the two other borders between the countries.  Trucks were asked to use the more southern border near the ocean, while car traffic was routed to the more northern border.  Since we have never driven the northern route through San Cristóbal, everyone thought it best not to take off on our own.  So, 11th Commandment time--on Sunday, we bought bus tickets to leave at 6:15 a.m. tomorrow morning.  First time on a commercial bus, not the church's school bus!  I have to admit that the bus looks pretty fancy--our tickets are for the 2nd level.

 If only the roads were going to be as smooth as the interstate highways in the states and not the pocked marked, sink hole, narrow and congested roads that are normal here.

Current news reports announce that one lane of the damaged bridge was reopened to car traffic yesterday; they are allowing one car at a time to cross. 

Full repairs are another 1-2 weeks away.  Since normal traffic on the bridge is more than 5,000 vehicles, the lines will be horrendous. Not to mention my confidence level about bridge repairs is not very high. We're very happy that we opted for our first bus ride!  Hopefully, everything will be back to normal when we travel (on the church bus) to Guatemala for VBS in November. 

My next blog post will be on the other side of the border and, hopefully, I will be able to report that the trip was painless!  In any event, we'll have a great time of fellowship with the Rivas family while we're cutting, pasting, painting, printing and preparing for VBS!

Appreciate your prayers for traveling mercies!