At church today the choir director asked me to sing with the choir for the Easter program in a few weeks.  They had the first practice today & Dad agreed to sing with us also.  We are singing the Lord's prayer in English, I think I can do that one, and then a hymn in Spanish.  I am going to have to work on the pronunciation of that one a little.  I asked one of the girls how long practice would be and she said one hour or maybe just 30 minutes.  It was a total of about ten minutes and five of us practicing.  It will be fun to do and part of the fun is that it is nothing like at home.  The choir director asked me to say the closing prayer, I only knew she was looking at me and saying something.  Dad had to lean over and tell me of her request.  She said I could say it in English and then Spanish.  I said I could say it in English but she would have to wait a couple years for me to do it in Spanish.  So I said the prayer and then she said, in English, while still bowing her head.  "Now in Spanish, we don't want to wait two years."  Every Sunday I find another person or two that speaks English!  I am sure there are more here that speak English than people in my home ward that speak Spanish.  In fact I met a lady today that has taught English in secondary school for 23 years.  If I would have thought quicker, I would have started and ended the prayer in Spanish and the middle in English, then I would have fulfilled the request of Spanish and English.  

     We have a cute little lady that cleans are apartment every two weeks.  Dad met her as she was cleaning another apartment here and while I was in Utah, he asked her to clean our apt. just before I got back.  Her name is Fulvia and she charges 100 quets each time she comes, which is about $12. We finally got a picture of her the other day.  So here she is.



     I realized that I didn't have any pictures of the outside of our apartment building so the other day I went out and took some and have shared a few with you.  

     I ran across a BYU devotional today given by Brad Wilcox about Grace that I really liked.  He explained it so well, I feel I learned a lot from him.  It is one of the most listened to devotional talks so they have or are publishing a book about this topic and Brad's explanation.  Remember the book "Believing Christ" by Robinson and his story about the bicycle??  This one for me is just as impactful and memorable. I would really suggest this one to each of you and because he has been so involved with the youth and EFY it is really great for your kids too!  He speaks on everyone's level.  Here is the link:  "His Grace is Sufficient"  given July 12, 2011.  The link is also here about the Angel Moroni being placed on the Rome Temple.  That's a bonus.

     Women's Session of Conference was really good.  We had a going away dinner on the roof for two couples leaving in 10 days.  Then the women went to one apartment and watched Conference and the guys went to another apartment and watched a basketball game.  I am looking forward to conference this year because it will be a church meeting I can understand!!

Love to all,   MOM, Grammy,  Shaun

    A little over a week ago about 20 of us women and a couple of the men here went on a little excursion to the city dump.  Well, actually they didn't take us right into the dump, but first to a cemetery above the dump so we could see it from afar.  You see, there are lots of people that work at the land fill but don't get paid, in fact they have to pay to be there.  These are the poorest of the poor who live as close as they can and then spend their days sifting through the garbage for something that they can use or sell.  This is how Guatemala recycles.  First the men who gather the garbage from the homes and businesses sort through it for metal, plastic, glass, cardboard and whatever they want.  Then it is taken to the landfill and is gone through by all these other people.  Somehow they can tell from what area, or Zone, the truck is coming from and will jump onto the truck as it is coming in to unload and they claim the contents.  People use to live right in the landfill but laws have been made to change that and also the age at which a person needs to be to work there.  They are trying to protect the children.  I heard that a few months ago there was a land or garbage slide at the dump and 30 people went missing.

     In 1999 a young girl named Hanley came to Guatemala and saw the plight of the children of the dump and knew she had to do something.  She sold all she had in the States and opened a little school/care facility for these children. She started with about 45 kids.  It has grown to about 550 kids and three different facilities for the kids and to help educate the mothers who want to learn and perhaps graduate from school.  Hanley was killed at the age of 37, as a runaway bus hit her car, but the project still is going strong.  They teach the ladies to make jewelry out of paper that they get from the dump.  They roll  and shellac it to make beads, then add other beads or chain or whatever to make necklaces, earrings and bracelets.  Then they bring it to a little store there at the Safe Passage buildings and leave it for sale.  After it sells they get a percentage.  If you are interested they have a website:  Safepassage.org.  Go to "who we are" and then "our history" to see a picture of the dump. There are other pictures of the schools and kids there also.  I was going to send my pictures, but the sites pics are much better.

    I was really touched by this and that this young girl made such a difference in so many lives.  Seeing this reminded me of a book I read a while ago, "The Rent Collector".  A story about people who lived at a garbage dump in Cambodia. A memorable book.

     I have added some pictures of the cemetery.  Yes, these are mausoleums, not small homes.  The pic of the long building is where the people with less money are laid to rest.  It is kind of a big wall of lockers.  The fee is approx. $30 a year for one space and if not paid the remains are dumped over the cliff  into the landfill.  

     So.....on a brighter side.  Here is a picture of the front of our clinic.  The door is just behind the pole.  

The Clinic

We had some volunteers here this last week, so all five chairs were busy, busy!  A dentist from St. George, Dr. David Brown, his Hygienist, two assistants and his two kids. They were really great and he plans on coming back in May with his wife and other assistants.  

Dr. Brown & Volunteers

     Doug Gray is coming in April with three other people to help out and do some site seeing too.  We have to turn in a report on the work done at the clinic each month, quarter and year.  The last two months we show about $120,000, but they haven't adjusted fees for a while so I think we will check on that.  $120,000 is about 922,111 Quetzals, the money used here.

    Hope everyone had a fun St. Patricks Day!.  Make this next week a great one and remember who loves you!

  Love,  Grammy, Shaun, MOM

Clinic Staff

Guatemalan Food

    Last week one of our counselors in the Bishopric asked if we could come to their home this week to have dinner with them.  Mario Gomez is about 22 years old, single and lives at home with his mother, brother and sister. The story I get in bits and pieces is that his father is in the USA and has another family, something common here and in all of Central and South America. Hermano Gomez also teaches at the CCM and today, Dad said, he gave a really good talk in Sacrament meeting about how we all need to step up and be more committed to the gospel.  Both of our counselors are in their 20's and returned missionaries.  It seems that Priesthood leadership is a little thin down here.  As I look around the congregation in our ward there are a lot of sisters and some children, not a lot of men.  One of our senior missionaries serves in a district presidency here because there isn't another Priesthood holder in that district that they can call.  

   So we went to dinner at the Gomez home, the red one in the picture. This probably looks a little familiar to you, J.M., similar to Brazil?  The picture of Dad and I was taken in the hallway just inside the front door. 

Notice the pictures that she has hanging on the wall.  Sister Gomez made the best drink.  I thought it was orange juice mixed with something else. Dad thought pineapple. She said neither one was in it, but it was just the Jocote Marañon fruit or the cashew nut fruit.  The fruit in the picture hangs on the tree with the nut at the bottom.  

It was sooooo good, we had about three glasses, hope all is well tomorrow!!  It was a traditional Guatemalan meal, rice with chopped red pepper in it, a pot of a reddish sauce with pieces of carrot, potato, green beans and meat in it, served with tortilla's.  They told me they usually eat it a lot more spicy, but kept it mild for us, which I appreciated.  Dessert was cooked mangoes in a honey sauce.  It was also really good, just a little difficult to eat because the fruit was still on the pit.

   I have added a couple of pictures of kids we saw at Antiqua last week.  We see some really cute little ones here.

   We went with the Harris' yesterday to the open house for their new church house.  It is a portable church house that the little district is so excited to have.  They placed it on a lot that use to be a bus parking lot. The open house was suppose to start at 2:00 but didn't get going until 3:30.  At home everyone would have gone home before then but here it is typical.  There were four little girls that kept us entertained while we waited.  Three of them are Catholic invited by their friend that is a member, she is the tall one.  They were so cute and not at all discouraged that Trudy Harris and I didn't speak Spanish very well.  They just kept trying.

   Some advice to all of you who are thinking you might want to learn a language.....Do it now.  The longer you wait the harder it will be.  Duolingo is a great way to practice.

        Love you all!!!    MOM, Shaun, Grammy

We spent Saturday in Antiqua with six other couples and had a fun day.  Here is a picture of the girls standing in front of a "chicken bus".  

They are very bright and colorful buses and you see them all around town.  The Guatemalans don't call them chicken buses though, I guess it is just the "nortaes", or North Americans that do.  There are chicken buses, tomato buses (because they are all red), and green city buses.  Oh, there are some really nice bright light green buses that are really long with that bendable area in the middle.  Buses are the main way people get around here.  We have been asked not to ride any of them.  The tomato buses have the reputation of one place here that you can be robbed or as least pick pocketed.

 

On Wednesday Dad was bequeathed the responsibility of being the Clinic Director here because Rick has just four weeks left and then will be heading home to Arizona.  Thus, the Captain hat and the hand piece around his neck.  He also got a thumb drive with all the Clinic info on it.  I guess that makes it official.  We don't like seeing Rick go because then there will be only two dentists here again.  Three is such a good number.

Driving home today from church we saw this motorcycle next to us.  Can you count how many people are on it??

Last week we had an afternoon of just missionaries from a mission here in Guatemala City, six of them.  This is a picture of one of the girls Dad and I helped, the dark haired one.   

She is from Mexico and has an interesting story.  She is 26 years old and is a Dentist!  She finished Dental school in Mexico and practiced for two years there, but felt she really wanted to serve a mission.  Her family is inactive and tried everything to discourage her from going, but she was determined.  Just before she went through the temple her family changed their minds and told her that she was doing the right thing.   She has been here about a year and had a toothache.  It was a wisdom tooth that was putting pressure on the tooth in front of it. She is also the Mission nurse, because she knows more about medicine than anyone else in her mission.  Her companion is from the States and has a Guatemalan mother. Two very mature, competent Sisters!

We have  a group of 15 future missionaries coming in tomorrow morning at 8:30 and the are the whole day's schedule.  They are traveling 4-5 hours to get here so we are really hoping that we can get them all finished, but have our doubts.  We kind of see that the kids that come from the furtherest away generally have more work to be done that the kids closer to the city.  Luckily we do have three dentists tomorrow, but we are going to be busy, busy.  That makes the day go faster though, right?

And one last picture for tonight.  

This is in a parking lot of a store called Pricesmart, very much like a Sam's club.  We call them sniper towers.  Yes, they do have a guard in each of them who watches over the parking lot with gun in hand.  In this particular area there were two towers.  I just can't imagine this in Cache Valley.

Love to all,   MOM, Shaun, Grammy