GUATEMALA

Entrance to the community clinic

Volunteers

The clinic is very Spartan at the moment

Entrance

Weaver in Antigua

Our hosts

Tortilla soup

Isabel conducting staff development on conflict resolution

John found some math on one of the rooms

We are now in Guatemala. Christ for the City started a work here nine months ago, and we are here to get to know the workers and the work.Guatemala City has a population of four million. It is very nice. I don't know what I  expected, but I am pleasantly surprised. The main problem here is security, which is puzzling in a country that is 50% evangelical Christian, and that brings me to reason why we are in a luxury hotel. :) Our host wanted us near his house, but the safest hotel nearby is this 5 diamonds resort. When he called, the only room available was an executive suite, but our host negotiated the price to a standard room. It is still a little pricey, but wow! We are really enjoying comfort here.

Our host, together with a sister and a brother, own a chain of seven private schools, all fully accredited. While we were working on our agenda for these three days, he asked us if we could do a workshop for his staff. We suggested conflict resolution because we did it for the couples in our town last January. We made some minor changes from couples to staff. It was a 90 minute workshop, and it well received. That is how we stay flexible on a short-term. We visited some of the school sites. Everything is computer-based. It is obvious that they are efficiently run, and they turn a good profit.


Yesterday we went to the site of one of the clinics. I thought we were going to go to a very dangerous area, but the clinic is actually located in an area on the edge. This site was chosen to be accessible for the community, but not too dangerous for the volunteers. Our host did not want to take us to the other site.

We also visited Antigua, which is the original  capital of Guatemala. It is a very picturesque town. We enjoyed walking around the stone streets and taking pictures. We had dinner at our host's house. It was delicious! Fish with spinach and rosemary on a bed of spaghetti. We stay very late talking with the oldest daughter and the parents. Today we got up at 3:00 am to catch our 6:00 am flight back here. We arrived at 7:30 am and all went to take a nap. We just woke up. Tomorrow somebody from the hacienda is going to pick us up to take us to our condo. It is going to be quite an adjustment from this busy schedule and from the big cities to our little town.

Until then...from the beach...