A farmer friend of Benji’s wanted to buy a tractor so he traded this piece of property for Benj’s John Deere.

As their house in town is rather small  they felt the need for a larger house.  So as they have funds they are gradually building the new house on the hill.  This house will have a full basement and a garage.  At present they have their 3 small children and 4 others boarding with them.  Sounds like another girl may move in when school opens in Jan. (Victor and Lorena’s girl)

With only 2 small bedrooms in their present house plus a lean-to on the back of their house for Josue, the 14 year old that also lived with them last school term, this new house will be a huge blessing.  (see part 2 of this story)

 

I had forgotten which day we had gone to the hill but looking at the pictures, I see that we did that on Saturday.  I missed getting more house pictures.  Sorry about that.

While Vernon and I were out at the hill with our children, Victor,  one of Benj’s farmer friends, stopped in at the house and when he found out that we were visiting invited us all to come for supper on Monday.

Monday, Oct. 7th.   I decided to take advantage of opportunity to fix Holly’s serger.  I had found a couple of Pfaff sergers on Ebay a couple of years ago and had given one to Holly.  Unfortunately when it started giving her fits, she couldn’t just drop it off for me to look at.  So, I got it out and began to fix it.   First, I needed to clean and oil it.  It was fun to have little grandson help me.  Here is one thing we found inside.

There was also some of the accessories inside it.  The accessory box is inside and apparently when they took the serger down from the States some of the little things got lost in the interior.  Holly said she wondered where the other presser foot was.

We left sometime Monday afternoon to go to Victor and Elena’s.  I think we left about 3 PM.  Vernon and I rode inside the crew cab pickup with Benj and Holly and Lanet while Josue, KL and Tiana jumped into the back with Ben and Sue. The littlest girlie was wary of Grandaddy but got over it somewhat when he had the tube of potato chips. 

The road was extremely rough….1 and 1/2 hours of bumping.

The scenery was lovely and some of the town names interesting: Once (Eleven), Doce (Twelve), Trece (Thirteen)…..in order,  11 km, 12 km, and 13 km from the highway, thus getting those names.  I was glad to finally arrive.  I had fun getting some pictures.  Elena apparently loves flowers and someone has an eye for beauty.  Check out the wagon wheels on their porch.

Wagon Wheels grace the finca’s ranch house

Victor has Benj to buy used cream separators on Ebay…..many are shipped to our place for further shipment to Guatemala.   ( We just sent about a dozen of them down this week.)  For the Guatemalan farmers, the cream separators are a huge step up and so they are in demand.  Victor fixes them up and resells them at a good profit.  I am assuming that this one was one that was too far gone to be fixed.    Makes a great flower planter.

 

Ben loved the parrot:

After supper we said good-bye and and bumped another 1 and 1/2 hours back out to El Chal and the wonderful bed at Judy’s.  Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep very well.

The next morning I woke up late and was sure I had the flu.  I ached all over.  Benj had been over to pick us up for breakfast and I hadn’t even known he was there.  Vernon told him I wasn’t feeling well and that we’d come later.   I figured I may as well have the flu at Benji’s so Judy called a Tuk tuk to go over there. 

Vernon went up to the hill to help pour the porch floor and I spent most of the day sleeping.  I did get up and tried out the serger and made Tiana and Sue look alike dresses.

I finally figured out that my ‘flu” was just my body rebelling over being rattled for 3 hours on that bumpy road the day before…

That evening they had a special guest speaker at church instead of prayer meeting.  Jimmy Dinsmore gave a talk on Reaching the Catholics.  Very interesting and thought provoking.  Of course, this was in Spanish but I was amazed how much of my Spanish came back to me while I was there.

Wednesday was our last day with our family and I was reluctant to have it end but as all things do we made the best of it. KL had gone to her University job that day instead of waiting until Friday as she normally did.  She and Pris usually went to a Day Care Center on Fridays but KL wanted to travel to the City and parts west with us so traded days.

Vernon and I set out after breakfast to visit the mission clinic (Buen Samaritana).  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a charged battery for my camera so missed getting photos of that.  After the tuk tuk ride to the clinic,  Priscila showed us around there,  the different exam rooms, neb center, lab, etc.

We were surprised to see Ruben Benito in the pharmacy with his sister Sandra. Ruben had lived with Benj’s family for a year about a year and a half ago….but had moved back to San Bartolome to help his father, Jose.  Jose Benito was our bishop when we lived in Guatemala so Vernon and Jose had worked together in the ministry and are great friends.  I guess Benj had invited Ruben to accompany him to Belize the next day.

From the clinic we walked a couple of blocks up to the mission school, Arbol de Vida (Tree of Life).  It was teaming with activity.  I have no idea how many children attend there but there are 12 or 13 teachers and staff workers.

The school is in the mission farm’s backyard.  When I first visited El Chal in 1993, Mark and Norma Gingerich lived in a 2 story house with a small clinic and tiny church and small school on the premises.  Now they’ve added a third story to the house, built a large new church down the street and the school has been enlarged a couple of times.  The clinic was enlarged and outgrown and now they are renting a house along the highway.  Eventually they hope to build a bigger clinic on the edge of town.   I was really bummed that my camera was out of commission.

From there we walked a couple of blocks to Stephan and Brenda Gingerich’s.  It happened to be Brenda’s birthday and little Jeffrey could barely stand it that all her gifts weren’t being opened.  We added some mini Hershey chocolate bars to her pile.  They were babysitting Santos and Clara’s children for awhile as Clara was in the hospital with their youngest baby who had been sickly ever since it was born.  Santos was in the City working.  So, Stephan’s had a houseful too, although most of them were in school at the time we were there.

That evening our family went to a Pupusaria for supper.

There were several choices:among them were Cheese, chicaron (cracklings), and beans.

They are made by making a tortilla, filling it with the filling, then reshaping the tortilla and frying it.  They are very delicious.

Each order was 3 pupusas served with chile or slaw.

I love pupusas but my gut was complaining from all the typical food I had been eating so I could only eat 2 of mine and I actually didn’t even enjoy those.    I did enjoy my strawberry licuado though.

 

 

Benj took some out for his workers who were still doing concrete on the porch and who would be staying out all night to work on it so it wouldn’t crack…..while he was gone the kiddos had a lot of fun playing with Grandaddy.

KL purchased bus tickets for us to take a night bus into the City.  We went out to wait on the bus about 9:45.  I think it was 11:15 when it finally arrived.

That poor bus.  We had the same nice, decent drivers that had brought us up but it certainly was not the same bus!   One of the first things I noticed was the restroom was Fuera de servicio!  (Out of order).  Oh dear, what was this person who had the Guatemalan Revenge in her lower half going to do???!!!!!!

The bus had some problems in it’s lower half too.  I sometimes wondered if it would get to the City all in on piece.  Oh, such interesting clunking and clanking going on all night.  These seats were not so very comfy either and finally about midnight KL got up and invited me to join her in the back of the bus where there were several empty seat rows to stretch out on.  The night wore on and I did get some shut eye.

Sometime along the way, several hours later the bus pulled over so the drivers could get out and get some fresh air.  I popped up like a Jack-in-the-box as fast as I could and was out after them.  I told them that I needed to “use it”.  “Oh”, they said, “the restroom is out of order.”   Do tell?  Don’t think I already had that figured out?  Hmmm….as if that solved MY problem simply.  Huh….that’s what they must’ve thought but I informed them in no uncertain terms that I was in desperate straits.   Hey, if any of you are laughing, desperation will cause me to become bolder, in case you have any doubt.    So those kind gentlemen told me of a restroom to the hotel beside which we were parked and I headed for it as fast as I could.  I noticed there were 3 or 4 other ladies right on my heels.  I beat them to it and what a relief it was!  We’ll close that curtain right now.    Salvation in the middle of the night.

Back into the bus for the rest of the night and into the morning.  We got there sometime after 9 AM I believe.  The bus did make it but the timing was way late and we were in rush hour traffic too for awhile.  Fortunately, we didn’t have a schedule so we waited in the depot for Don Nayo to bring us the car.

This time it was fixed right.  The mechanics had found a loose wire, although I don’t know just where it was but it was nice to not have to worry about the thing dying at every city block.  We ate breakfast at a McDonald’s close to the tourist market.

Kendra Lily needed to pay her tuition at the University San Carlos in person but she needed to pay it in cash.  So here was the routine for doing that.  First we went to the Uni, and she found out how much she needed to pay.  She had gotten a grant for 1/2 of the usual.  So, that was $1,400, I believe.  Then to the money changers…..Oh, first we called Holly to tell her to go online to our bank and transfer that amount from KL’s account into ours.  Done.  Then I wrote a check for that amount to the money changer.  He then wrote Vernon a check for that amount in Quetzales.  Exchange rate was Q7.78 to $1.00.  By the time we got all that done there wasn’t time yet that day to go back to the USC to pay it so she decided to go the next day.  We ended up eating out again because this was quite a lengthy process.  She’s glad to have that out of her system until next fall.

Then back to the Doctor’s office to discuss what the lab results were…..the stone was gone for sure but I still had a UTI so he ordered another antibiotic for that.  They also found an inflammation in my pubic bone, apparently from when I had delivered Kaitlyn 5 and 1/2 years ago.  He suggested we have that checked out when we got home to Wisconsin.

We arrived back at the mission in time for Vernon to meet his fellow ministers from by-gone days.  It was a glad reunion to say the least.  Bro. Rigoberto, Vernon’s co-pastor was so happy to see him.  Jose Benito, too; he actually hailed me later on that evening before we retired for the night to tell me good-bye as he would be leaving early the next morning before we got up.  I didn’t get to visit with all of them but the majority of them made a point to say hi.  That was a real highlight for us.

I think I will call it quits on this story and resume it another day.

~~~~~~~to be continued~~~~~~~~~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning, Oct. 6, 2013—

We woke to a beautiful day, a bit warmer than we were used to in Wisconsin, of course, but not bad.  After breakfast, we headed to church with Sandra and Judith.  We walked several blocks to church.  I am not sure how far it was but we enjoyed visiting as we walked.  Judith had just gotten over hepatitis so was taking things in a slower mode.

We enjoyed hearing our oldest son preach that morning besides meeting with other friends we have known for a number of years.  I wish I could remember what Benj’s sermon was but its been long enough that it escapes me.  I do remember thinking that he does have a gift of public speaking and he did make it very interesting and thought provoking even if it were in Spanish.  I should’ve taken notes.

We loaded into Benj’s pickup for a ride back to their house for the rest of the day.  After lunch and a short nap for some of us, (Vernon and I tried out the 2 hammocks in the back yard) Benj, Kendra Lily, Tiana, Josue, the 2 oldest grands, Vernon and I piled into the pickup to the El Chal Archaeological Ruins.

These ruins are up behind the town of El Chal and has a walking trail.  This area was once a huge Mayan city.  There are lots of artifacts.  I will just upload some photos of that nature walk.

Its amazing to think about how much of this area was covered with a Mayan Empire.  We had hoped to see and hear some Howler Monkeys but I think we were too noisy. 

—-to be continued

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday morning, Oct. 4th– We were supposed to go to the Dr. office at 11:30 to hear what the results of the lab work but since we had no wheels we had to depend on, it was either a city bus or a taxi.  Vernon had Priscila Alpires to call a taxi for us.  We stood around waiting for it to arrive but it was getting later and later and it still hadn’t come.  Finally Priscila called them back and the driver claimed that he had been there and didn’t see anyone so had left.  Oh great.  Well, after awhile one did show up.

While we were outside the mission waiting on the taxi, a man came out of the mission.  He shook my hand so I asked him who he was.  “Ross Good, and yours?”   I told him my name and mentioned that I’d heard of him.  He then shook Vernon’s name and asked “And you?”  When Vernon told him, a light bulb went on and he exclaimed, “Oh, yes, I have seen your face many times…….in the faces of your children!” 

Maybe I should also introduce a young man who lives at MAM headquarters:  he answers to the name of Craig Martin.   It turns out that Vernon is related to him in a couple of ways.  First, his mother is Vernon’s first cousin Ellen (Shirk).  Ellen’s mother was Vernon’s dad’s sister….so Craig is related to Vernon through the Martin’s.  Next, Craig’s dad, Jerry Martin, is Vernon’s mother’s first cousin.  So, Jerry is a first cousin once removed……through the Layman’s.  Then to tangle the mess just slightly more-  Jerry’s father was a brother to Vernon’s Aunt Matie who was married to Vernon’s mom’s brother David.     I told you that Vernon has relatives and family connections everywhere we go!  It never fails. 

Back to the story:  We got into the taxi and went to the Dr’s office.  His secretary said he wasn’t in yet and wouldn’t be until around 4.  So we decided to go around the street corner to our children’s pediatrician office to see if he was there.  When we got to his office, Dr. Wyld was standing beside his secretary’s desk reading something and didn’t look up until I greeted him.

He seemed happy to see us, asking how we were, and invited us into his office to visit.  There were no patients at the time, which seemed extremely different from when we would go and have to share the waiting room with a lot of others.   On the way into his office, he stopped in his tracks and said, “Martin’s!”  He had known we were former patients, but couldn’t put a name to us when suddenly he recognized us….he said Vernon’s beard had thrown him off.  Before we sat down, he assured us that he still had our family picture in his first exam room and took us over to show it to us.  He also had a photo of Lloyd Mast’s family.  I think he is pretty proud of those pictures as both are framed.  Ours is 11 years old so he would’ve had plenty of time and opportunity to discard them.

We had a nice long visit, he telling us of the difficulties Guatemala has been facing with crime, etc.  He no longer works Friday afternoon since it takes him 45 minutes to travel 7 blocks to his home in the rush hour traffic.  There a million cars on the streets in Guatemala City alone not to mentions the thousands of motorcycles so when you are in rush hour traffic, you are really in it.   To walk is too dangerous and he fears of being mugged.  He said he would trade rural Wisconsin any day with all the snow for the freedom from crime.    He just kept commenting how he loves it when we former missionaries come to see him on our visits back.  He said he doesn’t understand why we would want to visit him and that he had seriously thought he’d never see us again when we left 11 years ago.  I told him that we have never found another Dr. Wyld and I seriously doubt we will ever find one we like better.

Our time with him started back in 1984 even before Benji was born when Susana, 2, just wasn’t getting over the Guatemalan revenge.  After a number of doctors and about 22 different medicines we decided we had had enough of guessing for her and went to a specialist.  We have never, ever regretted our decision.  So, he was our pediatrician until after Jonny was born.  Saw us through all sorts of vaccines and traumas.  Pneumonia for a couple of them, measles, births for 2 of our boys, broken skulls for 2 of our girls, dehydration, surgery, concussions, burns that required hospitalization, the list could go on and on.  Through it all he was a calm non-invasion doctor.  We trusted him when he’d say that he wouldn’t recommend something for his own child, then we wouldn’t either…  Only once did he recommend something that we didn’t go ahead with and that was a CT scan to see if Melisa had brain damage.  Vernon didn’t think a scan would help even if she did have damage, it wouldn’t change anything.    He was a very good doctor and all of our children that remember agree about that.  He always humored us when we did our own doctoring.  Once when he saw some sutures in KL’s forehead he asked me about it.  When I explained that Vernon had sewn her up after she had fallen.  He wasn’t upset at all, he just said, “I’m not surprised coming from you, but next time use a smaller suture.”  Then he told us where to buy the smaller sutures.  Another time I was telling him about a hernia that came from coughing, his remark was: “If it happens again, come into the city immediately.   THAT is something that Vernon wouldn’t be able to fix.” 

We had lunch at another little street side cafe before going up to the Urologist.  Dr. Tecero was there but the lab results still had not come in yet.   He called and asked the lab where they were as they were supposedly been on the way since morning.  Finally the doctor told us that the kidney stone was gone and that we wouldn’t get the urine culture until Tues.  Since this was Friday, Vernon asked if it would be alright to go to the Peten to visit our family there.  The Dr told us to go and enjoy ourselves and he would see us the next week when all the tests were in.

So, we hopped another bus and went back to the mission, stopping off at Walmart to get a few things to take to El Chal with us.  I was pretty happy to find a store that sold Bath & Body Works and that they had some of Holly’s favorite scent on sale.  Well, they were on sale as far as what most of the stuff cost but the price was comparable to what it would’ve cost normally here in the States.  We walked back to MAM and packed for our time up north.

Priscila reserved tickets on the 10 PM ADN bus.  Now, this was supposed to be a first class bus since it was not a “chicken bus” (as the ones are called that hauls freight like baskets of fruit, avocados, veggies and live poultry and such) nor a city bus but when we got onto the bus I decided it didn’t deserve the rating of  first class.   Although this one had a restroom on board and they didn’t squeeze 3 or 4 persons to each seat, it was not like riding in style.

My dear sweet DIL has assured me over the years that taking the night bus to El Chal is THE way to travel.   “All the stress of driving has been taken away….all you have to do is curl up and go to sleep and wake up at your destination the next morning”.  Best thing since sliced bread apparently.  :-0   Since my very first time to try this mode of travel, 7 years ago, was a huge eye-opener for me, I really wasn’t sure how it would go this time.  (That time was when we went up for Benj and Holly’s wedding—we had gotten the last 6 seats on the bus.  At the back of the bus we were scattered among the other passengers.  I had to  listen to a man loudly sawing logs all night, being blasted by the COLD air conditioner, a light shining down in my eyes for the first 4 hours, the smelly restroom just behind me and having a seat that rocked because a couple of the bolts were loose was bad enough, but when Lavina throw up all over herself just minutes after I had gone up and convinced the driver to turn off the lights, was the crowning touch!   It was the most miserable ride I had ever been on up to that point of my life.)  So this time, I faced the trip with slightly more hope….at least this time we were up front and it was just Vernon and I.  How bad could that be?  We were in seats 3 and 4.  No danger of getting carsick.  Unfortunately we had nowhere to stretch our legs so we ended up using the front rail for a foot stool.  My seat was nearly worn out and I could feel a pipe across my back.  We had a decent set of drivers and they didn’t scare me with their wild driving so it wasn’t all that terrible…..I just couldn’t fall asleep and let the miles go by.

We arrived in El Chal early the next morning and the bus drivers knew exactly where to stop and let us off.  There awaiting us beside the road in their pj’s were 2 little grandchildren that we hadn’t seen for over a year and a half.  That made the trip worth all the discomfort.  Just to see their bright little faces and feel their warm hugs.  Also to see our 2 daughters was a joy.  Benj came strolling up just in time to lug our suitcase back to their house a block away.  We got there just before breakfast time.  It had been 6 years since I had been there and Vernon had never been in their home yet so this was very special to us.

I do not remember every thing that happened that day besides reading to the youngsters, reading to the youngsters, and reading to the youngsters.  (It wasn’t quite that bad but I believe they wouldn’t have cared if we had read to them the entire day.)

Grandaddy’s turn

Vernon went up to the “hill” where our son is building a house.  After lunch, I went up to see it too.  The view was spectacular…..it is part of a Mayan Indian ruins.  I want to post pictures of the hill and house site on my next blog.  I didn’t get the pictures uploaded to do it now.

I am sure I made myself useful that day but can’t remember much besides hanging up the laundry.  Holly made pizza for my and Sue’s birthday and we added some Pringles to the party.  I had seen some Mug or A&W rootbeer at the first Paiz we had shopped at but it didn’t occur to me in time to get a can just for tradition sake.  By the time I’d thought of it, Walmart didn’t have rootbeer so we had to skip that part. 

We went to the other side of town and slept at Judy Lehman’s and Sandra Benito’s house that night since B & H do NOT have any extra room in their house.  They have a 2 bedroom house…..one is for them and their youngest child.   The other bedroom is for Kendra Lily, Tiana and Priscila Munoz (the gal that KL is going to nurses’ training with.)  Oldest grandchild sleeps in a trundle bed drawer in the kitchen area and grandchild #2 sleeps on the couch in the living room.  They did add a lean-to bedroom to the house for Josue Ticas….. a 14 year old boy from the City who is going to the mission school in El Chal.  The school in the city doesn’t have upper grades and his parents didn’t want him going to a public school.  Any guests that come usually have to sleep in a tent out in the yard under the coconut trees.  But, fortunately for me, the tent was too worn out to use and they were waiting for her parents to bring a new one.  We could’ve camped out, I am sure but I wasn’t too disappointed that we got to sleep in a nice real bed. 

Sandra Benito is a close family friend.  Her daddy was our bishop most of the time we lived in El Novillero and she had lived with us a few months way back when she was learning to knit on the knitting machine.  Her father had wanted to buy her a machine to help support herself but she ended up going to El Chal and working at the mission clinic.  She’s been there 9 or 10 years working as the pharmacist and likes her job so the idea of making sweaters fell along the wayside.

Well, I thought I would write all about our trip to El Chal in one post but I see that its already getting long enough so I think I will stop for now and resume on a different blog post.

~to be continued~