Diary Friday August 17, 2001

Diary

Friday, August 17 Guatemala and travel to Quetzaltenango
Saturday, August 18 Quetzaltenango
Sunday, August 19 Guatemala
Monday, August 20 El Salvador(
Tuesday/Wednesday August 21/22 El Salvador/Guatemala
Central America 2001 Home
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Pictures

Set 1 Guatemala and travel to Quetzaltenango
Set 2 Quetzaltenango on Saturday, August 18
Set 3 Guatemala City August 18-19
Set 4 Guatemala City August 19
Set 5 Guatemala City August 19
Set 6 Guatemala City -- at Senor/Senora Perez's
Set 7 We enter El Salvador August 20
Set 8 El Salvador Dental Office
Set 9 Social get-together at Cisneros in San Salvador
Set 10 Earthquake damage at Las Colinas August 21
Set 11 Goodbye to El Salvador and back to Guatemala

At 11:30 am my wife Bev and I landed in Guatemala City to start what would be one of our most interesting, sobering and inspiring trips ever. In the next five days we visited in Guatemala and El Salvador and were able to come to a better understanding of what Central America is really like and what some of the needs are.

We are able to donate $5000 for LifeNets Guatemala initiatives and over $4000 for a El Salvador scholarship program. There have been many people that have come to us asking “what can I do to help?” We have answers and will post the specific needs. If you want to contact me directly about what you can do, please call me at 317 216-0802 or email me at kubik@lifenets.org.

I was sobered by the trauma that this part of the world which is so close to the United States has suffered in the past few decades: earthquakes, hurricanes, civil wars killing tens of thousands, volcanic eruptions in times past, unstable and corrupt governments etc. Each of these calamities has brought on massive numbers of deaths. The people generally live in poverty with incomes of no more than usually $150 per family. In addition, El Salvador suffers a 40% unemployment rate.

Saul Langarica, United Church of God pastor who serves seven churches in Guatemala picked us up at the airport an took us back to his home where we became acquainted with his wife Carmen and children Susy (10) and Saulito (7). The public is not allowed into the airport arrival lobby so Saul waited outside for us. We brought a 165 toys for the Fall Festival from Linda Schreiber and the SE Minnesota churches along with eye glasses and white shirts. We were concerned about going through customs, but sailed through without any problem.

Carmen prepared a delicious lasagna dish and we got ready to drive four hours to Quatzeltenango, Gautemala’s second largest city with a population of 500,000 where we would attend a combined church service with San Marcos. The Langaricas will be leaving Guatemala October 15^th for their new assignment in Santiago, Chile.

Guatemala City is the largest city in Central America with a population of 2.5 million. It’s followed in size by San Salvador and then San Jose, Costa Rica. One quickly notices the Indian culture who are descendents of the Mayans. There are actually 23 distinct Indian languages spoken along with Spanish in Guatemala.

Guatemala has concluded a 32 year old civil war four years ago in which over 175,000 people died. It was a guerilla war in which the leftist faction encouraged by Cuba fought to bring more economic equity. The government conducted a "Terra Arssala" (erasing the land) campaign in which entire villages and settlements of people were destroyed on tips of harbored guerillas. The military killed 90% of the people who died in the civil war. They were often stuffed into wells to attempt to hide evidence from the worldwide human rights awareness. The current president was the government leader of the military. The Guatemalan Catholic Archbishop was murdered at the main cathedral in the center of Guatemala City three years ago for writing about some of the atrocities during the more than a generation-long civil war.

Green Guatemala is mountainous leave few flat areas. There are deep chasms and ravines. The slopes are covered with corn, coffee, bananas and beans. Everything grows well here. All the agricultural work is done by hand. There is not a tractor or any mechanized implement in sight. The reason is that a tractor could not be used on the steep slopes. Also, the people fear mechanization taking jobs away. And people prefer hand made corn tortillas to those made by machines. Farmers walk along the highway carrying hoes and other farm tools.

In Solola, on the way to Quatzeltenango, we stopped at spectacular Lake Atitlan which is a volcanic crater.

After we arrived in Quatzeltenango we went to the home of Oscar and Martha Queme for dinner. It was a memorable evening for all of us. They killed the turkey in their yard earlier in the day for the special meal a Quatzeltenango specialty. The entire family of the parents and two sons Oscar Jr. (Ever) and Neitez ages 13 and 15 live in two small rooms. One is a sitting room by day and bedroom by night and the other is a kitchen and bedroom by night. While eating dinner a cat jumped on the thin tin roof above and made a loud noise. All the sights and sounds were very interesting.

We are trying to understand what the needs of the people are. As we have been talking for some time, we have either completed or funded the 15 concrete floors asked for by the Guatemalans. Now, we were learning about the need for seven or eight roofs that are leaking badly that need to be fixed or replaced. Also, there is one family living in a home having only cardboard walls and another family of nine that lives and sleeps in one room. This is unacceptable and must be remedied.