December 29th through January 3rd

December 29^th through January 3^rd:  Monday we loaded
up the temple van (sorry President Crayk, yes, we have a 12 passenger temple van) and headed down to the dental clinic that the church has here in Guatemala.  The 3 dentists that serve there are called and set apart missionaries.  They serve the MTC missionaries who arrive not having their teeth repaired and also serve a children’s orphanage/school right next to the clinic. They offered to clean our teeth for a Christmas present. 

At the dental clinic.

 We then did our usual shopping trip to Walmart and Price Smart.  Tuesday we did the morning shift and then did errands, picking up the cleaning, another grocery run and yada yada yada.  (that means I can’t really remember what all we did)  Wednesday morning I worked on family history and then we did the afternoon shift.  Thursday we decided to go and find the ruins at Mixco Viejo.  Getting there was an adventure.  I’m going to include the blog post of Elder John Price.  He describes it much better than I ever could. 

 “The morning sky was that kind of intense blue that comes with perfect weather and was disturbed by just enough puffs of cloud to keep it from being boring. We set the GPS for Mixco Viejo, Old Mixco, and rolled rapidly out of the busy city and wound our way up into the mountains that surround it on all sides. The foliage got thicker and the banana trees got taller as we climbed. This is the Garden of Eden and the peace and beauty of the day was proving it.

On the way up the mountain.

We topped the mountain and followed the ridge until it tilted down into the next valley. Here and there along the road, Guatemalans were going about their business, several sitting beside or walking along the road, the women dressed in those pretty and colorful dresses, many with a bundle or basket of something balanced on the crown of their head and holding a child by the hand as they walked. The men often carried loads in their arms or strapped to their backs. Others were working shovels or wheelbarrows full of concrete as they labored on construction projects on the down-side of the road. Where there was a break in the thick green, we all had a spectacular view of the valley below.

Beautiful scenery all around.

I don’t think the workers had the time to appreciate it as much as we did.  

We passed an eight-year old boy struggling up a slope with a cloth sling around his forehead, supporting a very large, obviously very heavy bottle of something resting on his back. He had both hands grasping the sides of the sling and his young body was bent over under the load like an old man’s.  A very likely vision of what much of his future life was going to be.

After an hour or so, we dropped down the side of a second or third mountain valley into the town of San Pedro. It’s easy to get disoriented and lose track on this road.  The towns are frequently nestled into the crease at the bottom of the narrow valleys. As we twisted down that crease, we encountered the traffic jam. The approach to San Pedro is wide enough for a row of houses and businesses on either side of the narrow, two lane road and little else. It is barely wide enough to accommodate all the traffic that was suddenly stopped dead still by the accident there at the bottom of the hill. We sat for a while. Moved forward a few feet when it was possible, jockeyed for position and tried to see what was going on down the hill at the same time, but generally, we were stuck, along with everyone else on the narrow winding road, and in both directions.

The traffic jam.

Mom and Sister Price doing what they do best.

ESCAPÓ

That is when the little two-year old boy dressed in dark blue stripe shirt and yellow pants came rapidly toddling off-balance from somewhere up behind us on the left side of the road, crossed in front of us and disappeared below the hood of our car. He wouldn’t have made more than a little thumping sound if we had been moving

He was so small, I did not even see him until he came unsteadily into view in front of our right fender and wobbled uncertainly down the road toward the gutter, obviously off balance on the slope, leaning back and trying to stop. He then leaned back away from the gutter, alongside a pickup loaded with lumber and then back into the gutter trying to get his balance before he could fall and land on his face on the pavement. I expected to see a distraught mother come chasing after him any second as he escaped, but there was no one. He was on his own and in the middle of a busy road and luckily  in the middle of a traffic tie up. That tie up undoubtedly saved his life, since the cars were not moving much at the moment.  Even at that, if he decided to cross between cars again and no one knew he was there, he would not have much of a chance.   He was in real danger!

That was when Hermana Norman yelled – horrified -something about the little guy not being in the best of circumstances for survival, slammed the door of the car open and raced down the hill after him.  The mother instinct is a powerful force.  She had caught the little truant, scooped him up into her arms and was doing serious triage on the little fellow before I even got my door open.

We were all relieved as she came back to the car with him in her arms. He seemed to be fine and so she looked around for his mother or anyone who was missing a little boy. No one. She walked over to the nearest tienda and asked if anyone knew where he belonged. She got a few terse negative nods, but no one seemed to know him or where he had come from. They were quiet, but very intent on Hermana Norman and the baby.

As she turned back into the street, a man in a pickup pulled cross wise toward her with a very intense look on his face as well. She went over and talked to him through the window for a moment, undoubtedly to ask if he knew anything about the boy. The man seemed very concerned as she explained what had happened.  As she started to turn away, the man seemed to relax and got out of his truck to go with her to find where the boy belonged. It was then that I realized why he and the other neighbors had been concerned when they saw a tall Norte Americana woman carrying a little latino baby in a mixed up situation and the reason for that concern.

In much of Latin America, there is a serious business in buying and selling, trafficking in babies.

In the immigration offices in Peru I saw a large poster on the wall with a baby’s face and the words “No comprar. No vender” – Don’t buy. Don’t sell. I am guessing that those folks in San Pedro were worried that Hermana Norman was going to take the baby and disappear. But they were probably also afraid to do anything that involved a Norte Americana – like trying to stop her. That could have opened up a whole new situation. As it was, things worked out fine.

A few yards up the hill, there was an automotive service place of some kind, with a big sliding gate. The gate was opened about six inches, just enough for a very curious little boy to squeeze through and run happily into the street for an adventure. Sister Norman knocked on the gate and got no response. By this time I had caught up to her and so I used my best street missionary ‘toca la puerta’ knock. You rap on the door hard enough that your knuckles hurt, but don’t bleed, and do it about twice as long as seems polite. A fourteen-year old girl opened the door in the gate and shyly took that little boy, nodded her thanks, and disappeared back through the door.  As we walked back to the car, Hna Norman said the little boy was wheezing badly from croup or pneumonia or something. Hopefully he had enough trouble for the day and would be fine.

Mom saves a little boy.

We went back to the car.

As we had little else to do now, Sally and the ladies did some of what they do best.  But apparently did not find anything to their liking at a price they were willing to pay.

THE MARIMBA BAND AND VEN, SIGAME
After what seemed a really long time, and after we had talked with a few of the locals who had come out and were sitting on the steps watching the traffic jam that wasn’t moving, some of the other drivers began to turn around and head back up the hill, obviously to take another route. The opinion of the day was that it was going to be at least an hour to get the wreckage cleared, which in manana-time means sometime before dark. Maybe. On a road this narrow and with a lot of foot traffic, even turning around is no small task. But several smaller cars had made it, headed back up the hill and were gone. President Norman went for the alternate route.

As he was maneuvering for a space wide enough to turn around, a huge maroon Chevy Suburban came up the hill on the wrong side of the road, crossed over in front of us and waited for the car ahead to get out of his way. President Norman leaned out his window and asked if they were taking another route. The driver said they were, and if we wanted to follow them, “Sigame”. I am not sure if it was a command, a suggestion or a challenge. “Follow me if you can”. But it was our best shot. And besides, anyone who can turn a full size Suburban around on that road on that day has got to know what he is talking about. The big V-8 grumbled up and on its way. It took the president a couple of cars ahead of us to get turned around, but we still had the Suburban in view as we raced back up the hill the way we had come. We had a little parade of four cars going back up the road by then.  We topped the hill and rolled easily down the road, until we came to a little dirt trail that turned off to the left. Everybody else, including the Suburban took the dirt road and so did we.

Oh, did I mention that we were following a marimba band in the Suburban?  There were six hombres, each dressed in a matching and spectacular black and red jacket with sparkling silver and sequin embroidered trim?  We of course realized immediately that they were a marimba band who had apparently gotten trapped in the traffic and were late for an appointment.   Who else would they be?  So here we are in a little impromptu parade heading into the jungled back roads of Guatemala, a bunch of gringo Mormon missionaries, following a Guatemalan marimba band in a dash through the backwoods and mountains in search of an ancient city and sacred site and going so fast that not even Lola and the GPS can keep up with us.

This downgrade is at least a 30 degree angle.

The road itself was an absolute amazement of engineering design, or lack thereof. On the really steep parts near some of the little wide spots that were undoubtedly villages consisting of several concrete and corrugated metal houses, the road consisted of two concrete tracks, just wide enough for a pair of car tires to fit on. Around the tracks, were cobblestones and river rocks. Really not a bad road for such primitive conditions. Of course, whenever we got more than a little ways from the little clusters of houses and tiendas, the road faded back to dirt and rocks and ruts. And on those steep hills, up or down, I would not want to be driving if it was raining. They would be beautiful mud and beautifully slick. As a matter of fact, I would not want to drive on the concrete tracks if they were wet either. Those are some steep hills.”

 

The trip there took about 2 ½ hours, our little side trip was maybe 45 minutes of that time.  We arrived and found a lovely ruin high on the top of the hills.  This city was easily defended and until the Spanish found the secret tunnel from the river up to the city, they were having problems conquering it. The pictures will do the talking. 

It was a beautiful day.

There were many platforms and temples.

The rock retaining walls were very impressive.

Lots of terraces and buildings that got smaller as they went up.

Resting. It was hot and we did walk quite a bit.

Notice the human head in the mouth of the jaguar.  There is one on each side of the ball court.

Can you tell I am playing the ball game.  They used their hips to hit the ball.

There were 5 major groups of buildings.

A large stele that told the history of the city.

An explanation of the stele.

This was the tallest building and very steep.

Mom waiting for me to climb the tall temple.

From the top of the temple.  That's mom down there.

You would have to go down a small valley and then back up to the next group of buildings.

The stone work was very interesting.

Here you can see that the buildings would have had a stucco covering and would have been painted in bright colors.

L to R Eldon Hurst, John Price and Dawn Hurst.

The buildings cover the top of a number of hills.

Round walls.

Another smaller ball court.

This was a family that was at the park singing and praying.

Elder Hurst found this guy as we walked around.

When we came out to the car we had some friends that had been watching the car.

We got home about 3:00pm and then had many of the missionaries that live here in the temple housing over for games and then at 10:00pm we made strawberry waffles.  Some decided to stay up for the fireworks, but mom and I headed to bed, but not before mom spent an hour cleaning up.  We found out today that Laura and Luis Perez from Oaxaca would not be able to come and visit us after all.  They arrived at the border and could not get the right type of visa for their car, so they turned around and went back to Oaxaca. We are sad they won’t be able to be with us next week.  Friday we had a power outage and so we spent the morning taking down the Christmas decorations.  I made cauliflower soup and we had the couples that are going to be traveling with us to Tikal over for a planning meeting and a bowl of soup.  We are all set.  We are going to leave on Monday and spend one day in Rio Dulce and then 3 nights in Flores up by Tikal and then one night in Coban on the way home.  We decide to take the temple van so we would have a little more room.  We should have a fun trip.  Saturday we went over in the morning and did the training for the first 2 shifts and then came home for lunch and we started our fast.  Then we went back for the afternoon shift.  The temple is now closed until the 19 of January.  We have the first week of the closure planned.  After our trip to Tikal we will see if anyone has the energy to go somewhere else.  Sunday we got up and went to church.  After sacrament meeting I came home not feeling well.  I slept for 3 hours and I hope that I don’t have a bad bug that will interfere with our trip tomorrow.  We will be leaving at 6:00am.  I am blogging today because I won’t have time tomorrow before we leave.  Happy New Year to everyone. 

We finally took a picture with the nativity at the temple.