Charlas y Caminatas

Hi everyone!
Charlas y Caminatas (Talks and Hikes) have been a big part of things for me lately. I´m now doing little talks in the schools, going from kindergarten up to 4th grade. It keeps me hopping, It´s getting easier...at least I´m not as nervous about it... I just jump right in...with both feet into my mouth.I´m doing some talks to mothers, those who are recieving food aid and those recieving scholarships for their kids. Latest topics The right way to wash your hands, Preventing infection to cuts and scrapes, Keeping Skin Healthy...I´m also leading a couple of groups of hikers into the countryside on Saturdays. I talk with them about Nature and Taking care of our world. There were 11 kids in the 10 to 12 year old group. ´We had all been to the dump the day before, kind of a nightmare scene with garbage trucks rolling in every minute, hundreds of people picking through the trash for usable and recyclable stuff, vultures flopping around, and buzzing flies. We talked about what it was like and who was responsible and what we could do to keep the world from becoming like that. Then we scampered up a nearby mountain. I felt like I was herding wild goats. The younger kids about 20 of them went a little slower. We caught a lot of crickets. Besides talking about caring for the earth, we talked about the pine that grow here and Nance, another fire resistant evergreen(broadleaf) that puts out sweet little yellow fruits. I picked up an old scout book and hope to use some of the ideas as we get out into the wilds each week. It looks like I´ll be doing some talks for the staff on health issues, too.

We´re moved into our place now. Nice and quiet in the morning. The rains have come and things are greeening up beautifully. We´ve got some chorchas (orioles), bright orange and black birds that make hanging nests. A brilliant accent to this bucolic scene. We´re getting around OK on the busses, although it´s a challenge ( packed in, 3 to a seat and standing jammed together) to see out of the bus to know where to get off. Getting off is a something you have to start working on 5 minutes ahead.

We get thunder and lightning daily along with the rains and at night afterwards there are hundreds of lightning bugs shining everywhere we go. My mom would love it, having grown up in Arkansas.

I´ll sign off before the power goes off.

Getting Busy

Hola Hermanos y Hermanas, We're into the thick of it , this week. Jane has been meeting with staff of the school and children's home. The Children's home has been needing a psychologist since January and the School's psychologist is going on maternity leave in June. Jane's working to set up groups for kids that really need help. I'm getting our place together- some safety and plumbing issues mostly. I'm doing my first health talk to a mothers group, on skin care- preventing infection, dealing with problems like rashes and sunburn, etc. They want me to do a talk to the kids on respect for animals. I've been thinking about working with some of the older kids (8-12) taking them on nature hikes, a chance to teach respect for the earth, so this fits right in. I was on the bus hitting the hardware stores. Haven't gotten too lost or missed many stops, people have been really helpful getting me pointed in the right direction. Jane and I celebrated our 13th anniversary Sunday. What an adventure! Thanks so much for your prayers. We're looking to find a church close by, where we can build friendships. We learned just yesterday of Maxine's going home. When she let her light shine, it went off like a roman candle. What energy. What warmth. What sparks. I think God used her in a major way to link Bethany to our African brothers and sisters. We'll miss her terribly... still... I can just see her, in bright colors, "marching in the light of God". Til later, Gil.

one last look at Guatemala

Hola Amigos. We just got back from visiting Coban and Semuc Champey. We invited our Korean friend Carmela along. She´s been in Guatemala several months and hasn´t had much opportunity to travel around much ( a Catholic sister and a nurse, so she´s a worker). The area around Coban is wet and cool, ¨cloud forest¨country ( think of the Olympic rain forest, just a little warmer. Semuc Champey is really out in the sticks, miles and miles of dirt roads in 4 wheel drive to get there. Hot springs meeting a cold rushing stream over eons have created a fascinating sculpture of stairsteping pools over caverns that the river has dived underneath. We swam and jumped from pool to pool, climbed down a rock cliff, swam under a waterfall, and climbed up into a cavern. A strange place of wet, glistening, fantastic shapes. We finished with a 15 foot leap into the stream. Wow! All this barefoot so as not to damage the fragile limestone. To top off this jungle experience Howler Monkeys sang us their version of ¨Good Night Irene¨. After 2 days we caught one of the very efficient minibuses they use to get from town to town here and went to Biotopo Quetzal. This is a park set aside to protect cloud forest habitat, a place where the increasingly rare bird, The Quetzal, lives. This is the national bird of Guatemala, with the feathers of a showgirl, but terribly shy. We never saw one but we did see a green toucan, a heliconus charitonus (sp?) butterfly ( black wings with yellow lightning bolt and red heart markings), and some really great trees. I love this stuff. It´s amazing nature´s variety. We´re packing up now to leave for Honduras at 4 AM tomorrow morning. We met a friend, Mike, from our last time down here. From my last post you know how dark the future looks for Guatemala. Mike encouraged me, pointing out a couple of things. One is that we modern Americans have gotten away from looking at things from the long view. Our forefathers , like many recent immigrants, worked and sacrificed, living through really hard times, keeping hope for their grandchildren and great grandchildren. Think how heavy are snowflakes? How heavy is the last one that breaks the branch? The other thing was the candle in the dark, Amnesty International´s symbol. Each little light makes it a little harder for the dark powers to have their way. The moment will come when they will have no place to hide. Today I read Psalm 103:4-6. God will come to the defense of those who suffer violence. Til later, Gilberto