We went back out to the Pan Am highway for further travels to our old stomping grounds.  As we waited there at Los Cipresales,  so called that because of the cypress trees there a few buses stopped but were not going where we wanted to go, so it was a little while before any of the right buses stopped.  One was a Tacana that tried to get us to go with them.  I noticed that Vernon didn’t seem too anxious to ride that one, but  I just figured it was because it was too full.  Shortly afterwards, another Tacana stopped.  Since it was going to Los Encuentros and on to Xela  and was nearly empty I said to Vernon,  “let’s go on this one.” He still hesitated and said something to the effect, “do we want to ride a Tacana?”  I didn’t understand why he didn’t want to go especially since this one wasn’t overcrowded.  Of course, the bus boy could see we were debating and encouraged us to get on.  So Vernon said alright and we got on.  Vernon and I sat right behind the driver and the girls each found a seat behind us.

Off we roared, up the mountain toward Chichivac  at the top, and around the many curves.  This highway is now a 4 lane highway and is lovely.  I am not sure how many curves if any, were removed when they put in the 4 lane but if my memory serves me correctly there is at least 15 or 16 curves up that side of the mountain.  (I honestly believe there are more than that but I don’t want to stretch the truth. ) I once knew how many curves were between Tecpan and El Novillero where we lived for 13 years but I’ve forgotten but think it was around 130.  Mile wise…hmm.  Tecpan is about km 90 and Novillero is km 144.5.   Anyway, back in our time it took us an hour to get from Novillero to Tecpan.

We weren’t on the bus very long until I realized why Vernon was so reluctant to ride a Tacana.  It has the reputation of being on of the fastest bus lines between Guatemala City and San Marcos.  He wasn’t sure that we were up to that kind of speed.  We never figured out why we were traveling almost empty when another of the same bus line was overcrowded just ahead.   We never did catch up to the other bus which was only about 5 minutes ahead of us when we left Tecpan but it seemed that the bus driver was trying his level best to do so.

I was hanging on for dear life!  Kendra Lily and Tiana were enjoying their ride but I think I would’ve had my fingernails gnawed to the quick if I hadn’t been hanging on so tightly.  I noticed the shape of the handrail in front of us.  “Look,” I told my family, “I think Aunt Pam must’ve been riding in this bus before us!”  I looked for a hole in the floor where she had been trying to put on the brake but couldn’t find any.

We made it up the mountain, back down the other side and through Los Trampas  (the part of the trip called the Traps because of how foggy it becomes during the night.—–how well I remember traveling that stretch and only knowing where we were by following the right line on the edge of the highway for a guide—-it can be very dangerous to navigate.)  This time it wasn’t night nor foggy but the bus driver took those curves like the devil was chasing us.  He would go around the curves to the left and hang onto the window frame then take the next curve to the right and hang onto the door opener to keep from sliding off his seat!  We made it to Los Encuentros  (The Encounters, where the road to Quiche meets the Pan Am Highway) in 30 minutes flat.  It had been one of the few really hair-raising bus rides I’ve had.  Another was one out of Quiche…..those buses are notorious for reckless driving on hairpin curves.  I did it once in an emergency and the emergency would have to be a whole lot greater for me to take that risk again!  Of course, the story that was floating around this time of a bus going off the road and down into the barranco killing over 50 people didn’t help my nervousness any at all!  Kendra Lily pointed out the saying on the front of the bus and asked me if I wasn’t glad that it was true.   Believe me, I was.

 

At Los Encuentros, we got off the Tacana, with alacrity on my part and immediately boarded another bus bound for Solola.  This bus filled up rapidly and soon we were headed down to  that town.  Solola was the capital town of the department or state of Solola where we lived.  This was our market town where we did our marketing when we lived in Novillero.

This town is also where Wycliff Bible Translators have an audio and video productions for their work.  It was through this that we met our friends Paul and Cheryl Bendele in 1993.  They were living Guatemala City part of the time and knew Anita Ovalle who was teaching in Wycliffe’s school.  They needed a midwife and asked Anita if she knew of any.  She referred them to us and I became Cheryl’s midwife for their son Elisha who was born in Feb. 6,1994.  Paul’s co-worker Pedro Bocel and his wife Cristina were also expecting a baby at the same time and wanted a home delivery so they asked me if I’d deliver her baby too.  I ended up having 1 day between the 2 births.   Joel came on Feb. 8th.

Through this contact our families have been good friends ever since.  (Paul’s left Guatemala in May of 1994 and have served in Australia and  Argentina and now are in Orlando, FL with Missionary Ventures.)

We came to love Pedro and his family over the years and have appreciated their commitment to the Lord.  Pedro used to go to different places to record the scripture being read in the different dialects.  He even got Vernon to help with the Quiche New Testament that they dramatized.  I think he was an angel in the Gospels and they had him read the book of James.  Pedro was often gone for weeks at a time so he finally had to choose between his work which was an important one to the furtherance of the gospel and his family.  Since he couldn’t take his family with him many times, he chose his family.   Now he is involved in going to public schools and doing talks and videos to try to reach young people for God.  Choosing this path was hard because he had a well paying job with Vina and now he is self-supported and at times has difficulty making ends meet but we feel that he made the right decision.

Click here for a link to Vina’s website: http://www.vinyastudios.org/en/home/history.php

Click here for a link to Quiche being read:  this is the main Mayan Indian language spoken in Novillero.  http://globalrecordings.net/en/language/48

Anyway, at the end of our bus ride we disembarked, looked around and saw our dear friend Pedro waiting for us with his trusty Isuzu Trooper.  (He has had it for probably 15 years.  )  He took us home with him where we had a nice reunion with Cristina, Joel and Pablo (their youngest son who I was supposed to deliver but he did not wait and was born about 2 days before we returned from furlough.)

They have 2 daughters who are older than the boys and are married…..we didn’t get to see either of them much to my dismay.     (I did do a story on these people a long time ago…..here’s their picture when the children were small.)

It was pouring down rain most of the evening but we were cozy in their snug little house.  The girls and I helped Cristina make tamales for the next day for a celebration they were having….their oldest daughter’s baby was being dedicated at church.   I had a hard time staying with my job making tamales as I wanted to hear what Pedro and Vernon were talking about….some of their struggles and their decision to stand up for what was right.  We again had to appreciate this brother’s understanding of the Bible and Jesus’ principles in spite of what it cost them.

After a delicious supper—again a big bowl of guacamole!  Since Cristina was so busy with making the tamales, Vernon and Pedro went and bought fried chicken…..it certainly didn’t meet her standard of cooking..she is one of the best cooks in C. A. in our opinion,  but it did hit the spot.

We spent the night there and in the morning Pedro took us up to the Square or Park to catch a microbus out to Novillero.  This is a glorified minivan….Mitsubishi van with a rack on top for luggage.  We crowded into the back of that and on the way found out just how many you can crowd into one of those vehicles.  No, we didn’t have anyone sitting on our laps but its amazing how many people can get into one.  Of course, they can’t get the door shut after a while and its hanging out  the side after awhile.  .   We were glad to see our old hometown come into view.

The driver did as he had promised Pedro to leave us off at the bridge in Novillero.  Right beside the abandoned church that we had worshipped in for 13 years.  After greeting Pablo and Rosa Vasquez (Rosa is Victor Ovalle’s younger sister) we headed down the street to Lencho and Rosa Ovalle’s.

Lencho is Victor’s first cousin and one of our oldest son’s close friends.  One day back in 2000, our boys told me that a neighbor wanted to talk to me.  Lencho and Rosa came and immediately we bonded.   I delivered Betsabe (Betsy) on Feb. 5, 2001,  and delivered Honoria,  her sister on Dec. 28, of the same year.  (I started and ended up with the same couple that year.)  Lencho is Catholic and his wife was evangelical when they married.  That created a divided household even though they loved each other dearly.  For the sake of peace and allowing Lencho to be the leader of their home, Rosa has joined the Catholic church.    Anyway, in spite of our differences in beliefs we are very close to this family and admire them in so many ways.  In a lot of ways, they have a higher standard than their evangelical neighbors.  We continue to pray that they will be open to God’s leading in their lives.  We believe that are sincerely trying to serve Him as best as they know.  ]

Well, I was hoping to wrap this all up today but didn’t get it done.  I am going to post a few pictures and try to finish next time.

Here’s a picture of a Guatemalan map;  Department of Solola is the little yellow one west of Guatemala City.   Unfortunately it doesn’t show how curvy the highways are.  Our children that are living in Guatemala live in the Peten region: the big orange department in the north.  They live in El Chal which is between Poptun and Flores.  Novillero is in the mountains and Peten is jungle.  We lived about 15- 20 miles from Lake Atitlan as the crow flies.

Until next time,  hasta luego.

Friday morning, Oct. 11th–After breakfast,  some of us went fabric shopping.  Since Kendra Lily needed to go to the University to pay her tuition, Vernon took her south of the Periferico while Tiana and I went north on the Periferico with the group going to Zone 1 where all the fabric stores are, planning to meet up later on.  Was I geared up for this!    Any one who has been fabric shopping in Guatemala City knows that Zone 1 is fabric heaven and since I’ve done a fair amount of shopping there in the past I knew where I was going and what  I was looking for.

Or so I thought.   Hmmm.  The huge store near the tourist market where I usually found my best bargains was still there but I was very disappointed in the selection.  Oh yes, the store was still loaded with fabric but nothing looked new or fresh.  Why some of the fabric was the same stuff they had 6 years ago when I was there last!  I went into the section where the plaids were, hoping against hope that I could find a piece of the beautiful blue plaid that I had gotten for Susana and Adam but didn’t find any.  I really didn’t see any that really caught my eye.  The bolts of fabric down toward the floor had a thick layer of dust on it.  ICK.  So I went to the area of the store that was poly/cotton.  I love the Iusaela prints. (aka tropical Breeze)  They do not fade  quickly as they are stamped so well that its hard to tell which is the outside versus  the inside.  Well, there was a huge selection but one BIG problem…..hmmm, I had that print in my store, that one, and that one and that one,  so it went on and on.   Oh granted, there were some that I hadn’t had in my store  but those I wouldn’t have wanted on my shelves anyway.  They were ugly and/or gaudy!  To say I was disappointed was an understatement.    Oh well, there were a lot more fabric stores around so who cares if you strike out on the first one, better luck next time.

Glendon Martin from PA was down on a business trip and his wife had asked him to bring a bunch of fabric home to sell to the home ladies.  Now, most men wouldn’t be caught dead in a fabric store let alone picking out the fabric for someone else so it was interesting for us to have him along.   This experience of being with Glendon that day made the day worthwhile regardless if I didn’t find any thing to suit me.   Time has dulled my memory enough that I cannot remember who all was with us on this excursion but I believe Tim and Rhoda Korver and maybe Larissa Good and a hired girl from the mission.  I know it was more than just Tiana and I but by the end of the day it was just my girls and I with Glendon.

So, we walked across the street to a nice clean store that I hadn’t remember before….oh, that’s right, this is where the Pollo Campero ( Chicken) restaurant had been!  Apparently, the fabric store that had been there had remodeled and used up the 2 sites and made a nice new big store.  Actually, there was more there to my taste but the dress fabric that I like still had old prints.  I ended up buying 2 pieces of fabric that my girls had dresses out of when they were 3 and 5 years old back in 1998!

These girls are now nearly 19 and 21 so you can imagine how old the fabric is.  But since I had really liked those dresses I bought some for Kaity anyway.  It has small daisies all over it.  Melisa and Tiana’s dresses were in green and I had one in blue.  I would’ve bought another blue one for me as it had been one of my favorite dresses but green and lavender were the only colors they still had.  I did find a nice blue plaid for myself but there certainly wasn’t much there either.

I was about ready to give up when I found some tie-dye look in blues and lavender that caught my eye.

 

Tiana, who’s favorite color seems to be orange found a piece for herself.

Resigning myself to the fact that I didn’t find anything much there I paid for my purchases and was waiting on Glendon to finish his buying when I saw some fabric that I had been looking for.

It was only Q10 a yard.  So, I took that roll into the store (it was on a display outside the store) to have some measured off.  I don’t know why I didn’t just buy 20 yards of the stuff but didn’t want to shoot all my wad there in case I found something else I liked.

 

Next stop was at the tourist market up the street about 1/2 block.  That in itself was an experience as you pass by little shop after little shop chuck full of souvenirs.  The moment you pause to give something a second glance you have the owners asking if they can help you and they will do all they can to make a sale.  I wanted to buy Melisa a piece of typical fabric to make a skirt.  I found something I was sure she would like but they only had 2 yards.  I have been bothered ever since that I should’ve gotten more.

I also found a little typical jumper for Lily, our newest grandchild and a little typical romper for Melisa’s expected baby.  Since I didn’t find the dress fabric for the church ladies, I decided to buy them typical purses.  Also I found some quetzal bird keychains  made of beautiful beads for the librarian ladies.  Tiana wanted to buy a couple of items for her Miller friends here at church.  Glendon was ready to head out to do some more fabric shopping so we went out to the parking lot where we met up with Vernon and Kendra Lily.  Vernon took Tim Korver’s back to the mission and we stayed with Glendon.

I thought we should try 7th Avenue and hit the Pacifico and Continental stores but after making the loop a couple of times and not finding those stores I suddenly realized it was 5th Ave. not 7th.  Even so, we didn’t find either of those stores.  Either they went out of business or we didn’t go down far enough to find them.  We visited a couple of stores that we did find but didn’t see anything we liked.  I did have the girls pick out a piece for Abbey Lattin who was staying with our children at home.

Meanwhile, Glendon, who loves to talk just kept us entertained.  Story after story.  I am not sure who had the best time that day, us: listening to him or He: having an appreciative audience.  But finally we  were too tired to keep shopping so called it quits and went back to the mission.

We were invited to Byron and Karen de la Rosa’s place for supper that night.  I regret not getting any pictures that night but the meal was delicious and it was the first we had been offered any guacamole.  Avocados were not “in season” at the time but since Byron had 20 or 25  trees( I believe my memory is serving me correctly) which bore approx. 1,000 avocados each season they had enough to serve us the coveted guacamole.   Not just a little dab of it either.  There was a serving bowl….I’d say at least a quart or more of the stuff and plenty of tortillas to eat with it!  Karen is a sister to Stephan Gingerich’s wife Brenda, a Canadian, so this was a bi-lingual home which was interesting.  they have 2 young children that are comfortable in either Spanish or English.

We had quite a time finding Byron’s house and ended up turning around several times in San Lucas but it was fun as Glendon was still as entertaining as he was earlier.

Next morning we left before breakfast and hiked out to the Pan Am highway to catch a bus for Tecpan.  Tecpan used to be the capital of Guatemala many years ago when it was a Mayan empire.  This is also where the people from Palama relocated after we lived in Palama….but these people are still our people.

We boarded a chicken bus, so called because they haul chickens, produce, etc on top of these buses.  They also cram you in like sardines in a can.  The further you go, the tighter they pack you in.  We were seated toward the back…actually, Vernon and I were next to the last row.  These buses are reconditioned school buses.  Mostly Ford Bluebirds.  The seats comfortably seats 2 persons per seat.   The 4 across the row turned into 5, then 6.  I think there were some rows that may have had 7.  I was wondering how the bus boy would manage to collect all the fares as they don’t get the money when the person gets on.  After awhile I saw him squeezing by and he managed to do what he set out to do, although he did end up hurting a little boy standing in the aisle.  The little guy begged the man to get off his foot but the bus boy acted as if he hadn’t heard him.  That caused my ire to rise a little….ok, a whole lot but what could I do?

 

We finally got off at the Tecpan entrance and hired a microbus to take us over to Doce Cuerdas (Colonia Mennonita).  There was a group of people standing beside the school waiting on Carl Rohrer to take them to Antigua for a church service.  The people stood there wondering who we were when suddenly Alejandro Colo and his wife Emiliana recognized us and made a beeline for us.  This couple was our closest friends when we lived in Palama.  Actually, Vernon and Alejandro were good buddies when Vernon lived there 2 years prior to our marriage.  I love Alejandro’s big grin.   I think if they could’ve changed their plans for the day, they wouldn’t have thought twice of doing so but they went with the group soon after we got there.

We headed over to Timoteo and Romelia Cristal’s who happen to live the closest to the entrance and the first thing he said was “Is this Vernon and Kim or is it their angels?”  Had a lovely visit with them too and they served us some tea and something to go with it.  Good thing, as I was getting rather empty. 

 

Timoteo’s were also among our closest friends.  When we were young, we, Alejandro’s and Timoteo’s often did things together like birthday parties. etc.  We have many fond memories being together with those 2 families.  Our children were the same ages, etc.  (Emiliana is Timoteo’s youngest sister and was with John Troyer’s when he was killed in Sept. ’81)

 

I delivered Romelia’s 2nd child, Edwin Jonathan in March of 1986, my first Guatemala baby.  Here he is today.  I should try and find a picture of him when he was born. 

 

Next stop was with Angela Colo who is Alejandro’s mother.  Her mother Fidelia Colo was old when we lived there in 1985-87.    Now she is ancient!

Angela thinks she is 110 but no one knows for sure.  Fidelia is a very independent soul and still lives alone although she cannot hear nor see very well.  She was the local midwife for years and years and was wife of  Bro. Jose Colo whom we loved dearly.  By the way, not only is she Alejandro’s grandmother but she is a sister to Emiliana’s mom….so how does that do for Alejandro and Emiliana?

Angela always thought Susana was cute and would always say, “Tan chula”  (meaning: how cute)  when referring or talking to Susana.  One day, Susana, age 2, said, “Mommy, there is Tan Chula!”   Actually, Susana was right….Angela was and still is cute.  She is a very emotional person and of course in the course of the visit she had to shed tears when she talked of days long gone by.  She was sure she would never see us again and she remembers all the good things we did when we lived in Palama.  Especially she remembers when Vernon and another VS boy had to take her to the hospital to deliver Erica after being in labor for a couple of days.  She was so embarrassed  to be in labor in front of these two young men but she says she owes her life and her child’s to them for taking her for a C-sec.  Oh how we dearly love that little lady!

Next stop was with Amalia.  She is Alenjandro’s younger sister and one of Anglela’s daughters.  Ah, now she is the cream of the crop!  This little girl came to work for me when Benji was a baby.  She was only 13 or 14 at the time, so little that she had to stand on a chair or stool to reach the clothesline.  Actually I hired her to entertain Benji so that I could get some sewing done.  She would play with him for a little then ask me, “Do you have any thing for me to do?”  I would remind her that she was working, taking care of the baby.  “Oh no, that’s play, do you have anything for me to do? “  Eventually she stayed on the workforce full time and I wouldn’t have traded her for any one else.  We actually started a home bakery so that she and her sister-in-law would have some work to do.  She and Victoria did my cleaning and laundry but Amalia was (still is) one of a kind and there is not one lazy bone in her body.

After we left Palama in Oct. ’87, she didn’t have the same relationship with the people who came to replace us although I cannot understand why.  So she left home and began working for some other people who didn’t believe the Bible as we did.  I am not saying they were unbelievers but they disregarded any scripture that didn’t suit them so in the next 2 years dear Amalia got so mixed up that she really didn’t know what she believed.  That in turn caused us grief…

So, (forgive my history lesson here) when we returned to Guatemala in 1989, I told Vernon that I wanted to hire Amalia to be my helper in El Novillero if I could.  I wrote her a letter and told her that we were coming back and invited her to come live with us.  We arrived in November but hadn’t heard from her so we had hired Juanita Ovalle to help with the housework.  One day when we returned home from the City Juanita told us that Amalia had stopped to see us but we weren’t at home.  She was up in Xela helping her older sister who had just had a new baby.  We didn’t understand all that Juanita said or maybe Juanita hadn’t understood Amalia as she hadn’t known Amalia at all.   Anyway, we didn’t let any grass grow under our feet, we hightailed it to Xela and had a nice reunion there.  She hadn’t gotten my letter until that week and after talking it over with her family they all advised her to take us up on the offer.   We made out for her to come a few weeks later.  She came and stayed for 2 years.  Which in all of our opinion was a very positive decision.   In case you wondered what we did about Juanita.  We offered to teach her to knit sweaters for a steady job.  I taught her to knit and she turned out to be the best knitter I ever could have wanted.    She and Amalia turned out to be very close friends.

She got her life straightened out and now is a deacon’s wife.  During the time she lived with us, she had me so spoiled.     The first evening she was there, we had been to the City for overnight so we had a suitcase to unpack.  Vernon often teased me about me not getting around to unpack very quickly.  I remember that time clearly as she had the clothes put away before I knew it, then asked me what we were going to have for supper.  I suggested spaghetti and before I knew it she was calling for supper!  I had told her that I wanted her to take charge of the lunches since I was trying to homeschool Susana.  We awoke to the smell of pancakes frying the next morning and she was my cook ever since.  And a GOOD one too.  Her specialty was Chow Mein.  She loved to bake and alway seemed to be making something.  I made a little card with Spanish-English translations such as flour/harina, sugar/azucar, etc…..  it didn’t take long until she could take any of my cookbooks and make whatever struck her fancy with very little help from me.  Not only did she cook and bake she did the laundry and kept our house clean.  Often she had baby Kendra Lily tied on her back Indian style.   She got along well with the 3 oldest children too, but they already had known her.  She was also a sister to Lily, Vernon’s sister who came down a year later to teach our children.  By far the best worker we ever had…..never did find another Amalia. 

Ok back to the present.  We went to visit Amalia.  Her husband Juan Cristal and oldest son had gone with group to Antigua but we still had a nice visit.   She teased KL about carrying her around when she was a baby.  Kendra Lily told her she thinks that she could carry Amalia around now. 

She extracted our promise to come back for lunch….not that we had to be persuaded much.  No breakfast so I was starving anyway but I was ready for some of Amalia’s good cooking again.   Anyway, I was pretty sure it would be her chow mien.

After visiting with a few others and passing by Sinforosa’s gate…..Amalia’s mother-in-law, who was also a dear sister but has lost her memory and now stands by the gate and watches the passers-by and doesn’t know anyone…..that was sad to see, we returned to Amalia’s.

Ah, we were right!  Scrumptious chow mien.

After lunch we returned for our luggage which we had left at Timoteo’s.  He offered us a ride out to the highway to catch a bus to Solola.  Of course, they had to give me a sweater as a gift and Romelia gave me a piece of corte fabric.  I had been admiring her dress so she gave me a piece of the remanants.  I plan to sew a purse for myself with it.

Timo’s have a sweater factory:

 

This post is getting long enough so I will leave off here.

Next time will tell about our bus ride to Solola and our time at Pedro Bocel’s.  ~to be continued.

I was going to do the next installment on our Guatemalan trip but it took most of the afternoon to upload the rest of the pictures.  Now it is time for supper and I think Vernon wants to retire early for the night.  He never has been one to let me stay up after he has gone to bed.    So I doubt that I’ll be able to do anything tonight.

I will post some pictures that I missed on our El Chal trip.

 

Ok, I guess I will call it quits with this post.   More to follow when I have time to do it.  Until then, tootle do.