Sunday, day two, after the 5:45 AM awakening, Team One 2002 crafted an excellent scrambled egg, fruit salad, English muffin, and sweet bread breakfast. We then organized and assembled the Vacation Bible School (VBS) bags. Over 200 in all were required for the next days adventures.

The Noah flood story was to be our VBS message, delivered via a rainbow outline drawing (to be colored), a slit paper plate (to be colored blue), for the vast flood waters, the Ark (to be colored), complete with occupants and Noah's family, a tongue depressor to provide for Ark's motion and propulsion, and finally a box of crayons. Work went quickly - what a team!

Since this Sunday was to be a non-structured day we took a vote on what to do. Eleven people (four men, seven women) so the vote split was right down gender lines. SHOPPING by eight to four. Obviously, someone voted twice! Oh well!

Unfortunately we did not have a driver so Senora Carla persuaded some close friend or neighbor to lend us a small van or SUV thing. And Senora Carla would drive. A great mistake was made when Senora Carla was asked to show us "where we were staying, on the map" and "where we were going, on the map". First, she held the map about two inches from her face so she could see it, then said "I'm not too good with directions". That should have been a clue! Oh well!

Three sat in the front two bucket seats, three sat in second seat row, and five sat "in the back". Some of the vehicle's seats were not attached to the frame so they, the seats, and their passengers, slid around as Senora Carla flew low through the very narrow, very crowded, very chaotic city streets. The driving experience reminded us all of those driving video games, just keep between the left side of road and right side of road, try not to hit things, and go very very fast.

You get points for slamming on brakes, making pedestrians move, and making other vehicles slow down or brake. I think there are extra points awarded if driver gets the pedestrians to actually jump back. Approaching one corner, a challenge arose, an old man on two crutches and holding a hat in his hand for begging, dared to step into our path. Senora Carla accelerated, the non-contact brush back would have done any New York City taxi driver proud. Double points are given for forcing another driver to change direction or slow, triple points if other driver actually stops.

The primary "I am changing direction" notice-giving instrument, in Guatemala, is the horn. The law in Guatemala says the horn must precede every driver's action. Stopping, starting, left turn, right turn, lane change, merge, what ever. First you toot!

There is another rule of the road requirement Senora Carla showed us. This is a hand motion that usually precedes a merge or lane change but also may be used for turning right from the left lane across four lanes of traffic. Oh well!

The appropriate arm and hand is stuck out the window, fingers are wiggled and something like, "socko la mano", is verbally expressed with feeling. The left arm is used if a move is planned to the left and the right arm if the move is planned to right. It is fully acceptable to enlist the cooperation and assistance of the passenger riding shotgun to assist in the fingers wiggle pre-move action. We are still not sure who gets to verbalize, driver or passenger. Sometimes both were required to yell at the same time to get permission to cut off really big and fast moving vehicles. It was not until very much later, the next day to be accurate, we were told this action usually does not work against bus drivers, since most of them are drunk!

We arrived shaken, but not beaten, at the nice shopping mall. Once again Senora Carla did not let us down. This was a very nice, gated shopping area with more expensive and very nice stuff. Ladies bargained with Senora Carla's help until all were exhausted. The treasures were loaded in the SUV thing and we headed off for our dining experience.

Nice late lunch/dinner at something like Nais Restaurant. Excellent appetizers, food, and desserts. Most ordered local type food with lemonade or orange drink made with soda water. Interesting concept. Two cautious souls played it safe with the chicken fingers special, chicken fingers with french fries. No one was disappointed. The food was all excellent and even though we had not saved room for dessert, three were ordered to share. Three hours after we arrived we all rolled into the transportation for home.

But first Senora Carla needed to stop at the market to pick up a few things. So, off to the food mart we went. In order to save time, several guarded the car, and only a few went inside to the Guatemala megamart. We probably did not need to guard the car, since there were security guards patrolling the entrance to the parking lot. The parking lot also had a few guard towers scattered around complete with armed guards keeping watch.

The food mart was described as a cross between Sam's Club and a carnival. Hundreds of family groups shopped, from babies through grandparents. All moved quickly through the aisles to snatch bargains and necessities. "Pardon", I believe, was the word most used, espanol for sort of "excuse me, but I am coming through right now". Keeping the cart close to Senora Carla proved most challenging. Team work was called for again. One person was charged with keeping Senora Carla in sight, another was charged with keeping that person in sight and so on. Every so often, like at the deli, Senora Carla was forced to wait for service. There, we could regroup.

The Deli was interesting, with all sorts of unusual things hanging from the rafters. Someone, unnamed, thought, "what a photo opportunity," with Senora Carla waiting in line in front of all that stuff. The designated camera man was dispatched, post haste, to capture the moment. Just after clicking the shot (yes, he got the shot but took one for the team) three armed security guards, hands on their guns, surrounded him. Undaunted, our camera man faced the fear, nose to nose, quelled his shaking and smoothly asked the first guard, in English, "Do you speak Spanish?" That really threw the guards into a quandary. Luckily, Senora Carla came quickly to the rescue.

We threw ourselves at their mercy, and explained that "No we had not seen nor read the big 'NO Photography' sign, and even if we had, we don't read espanol so good!" They let us go. Shopping was wrapped up, check out was uneventful and forty-five minutes after we entered, we returned to a not too happy group still guarding the car.

Quickly, very quickly, we arrived at the Mission House to assemble the 600 hygiene bags. Fast work was made with our assembly line process. We did Henry Ford proud. Starting with Zip lock bags being opened, then filled with a bar of soap, a wash rag, a tooth brush, tooth paste, then sealed and placed in a large shopping bag. Soon we were done. Off to bed! A very good day!

Love Servants Heart Team One 2002

In spite of my last message, the Team One 2002 Chronicles are being reopened, due to extraordinary events.

Friday started out with good attitudes and high spirits. We were to do a little missionary stuff then off to Antigua; about a ONE-HOUR ride southwest of Guatemala City. Antigua, not to be confused with the Caribbean Island, has no beach but is an absolutely beautifully quaint and very old town. But I should not jump ahead.

The Ministry portion, the good old standby Noah story and VBS, was planned at a new ministry area called San Juan or San Pablo or something like that. Someone, who shall remain unnamed, agreed to this little add on jaunt because it was on the way to Antigua. Although a 10:00AM departure was targeted, that was obviously Guatemala time. We did get loaded up and headed out around 11:00 AM, but should have noticed we were headed NORTHEAST. Oh well.

We were stuck in very heavy city, stop and go, traffic. Then it opened up, just a little. However, then the mountain climbing started. Up and up, honking and honking, switchback after switchback, more honking, tires screeching around every turn, and more honking. We passed car, trucks, pedestrians, and chicken busses at high speed. Chicken busses are those brightly individually colored school busses with interiors completely loaded with people and animals, plus the roof heavily loaded with produce, baskets, and handycraft stuff.

Our driver kept saying, he wished he had a faster vehicle, but we all were thankful he did not. Around 12:30 we met up with another vehicle with our guides to the final location. We filled up with gas again, which should have been another sign for concern. Off we went again, however, this time un-climbing the mountain. Down and down, switchback after switchback, tires screeching around every turn! Knuckles were turning white from holding on! It was now after 1:00 PM and everyone cried halt! Our main vehicle pulled off the road and the lead vehicle also stopped. Time for huddle!

This is where the San Pablo and the San Juan miss-information was discovered. No we were not going to the small town half way to Antigua, the one southwest from Guatemala. The target town was still quite a ways away, northeast, plus a short foot hike. The team, along with our fearless leader, voted to turn around. We headed back, up the mountain that we just came down, then down the mountain, we just came up. The doctor proceeded on with mission supplies and guides. When we saw him the next day he said they went on for another half hour by car, then did a two mile hike carrying supplies uphill in soft sand. Oh well.

Around 3:00 PM, we rolled into Antigua, tired and feeling like we had done nothing but hold on for the last four hours. However, the hotel was absolutely marvelous. Room keys weighing about one pound each were handed out and each room that was explored was unique in design and furnishings. The hotel was very old, the oldest hotel in Central America. We freshened up, had a nice dinner, talked, and crashed.

Saturday was a leisure day. We were up for coffee, followed by brunch at a huge old five star hotel built among temple ruins. The food was fabulous and the hotel grounds were awesome, complete with a pool. We self toured the grounds, and found a large arena type area with forty-foot walls on three sides with a roof. The area was being set up for a wedding (at 12:30). Some of us ignored the sign requiring the purchase of an entrance ticket for the museum area. Security in an underground vault area busted those that tried to sneak in. We were quickly shown out of the vault. Oh well!

The rest of the day was spent visiting the craft shops, photographing people and other things, and eating a late light lunch around 3:00 PM before heading back to town for church. Since we finished everything early, we left Antigua around 4:00 PM, and arrived at church at 4:45PM for 6:00PM service. Oh well, at least we will be on time this week....

We set up all the chairs for the outside service in a few minutes. Just as we finished putting out the bulletins and songbooks, the thunder and lightning hit, followed by hail, and a torrent of what seemed like one-inch raindrops. The winds blew, some of the chairs got wet before we could get them all up, the plastic curtain protecting us from the wind and any light rain was ripped off. The street turned into a foot deep raging river in minutes. It looked like a hurricane, but lasted only about a half hour. Most everyone took it in stride, but some of smaller kids really got scared. Mitch and Michelle were fine.

The decision was made to move our service indoors, so the chairs were wiped off and re-assembled in a small and very compact worship area. The rains stopped, but too late. We were committed. Services were to be indoors. Oh well!

The Service, en espanol, was the same but seemed much better. We knew most of the people in the service from various activities throughout the week. The service leader, sort of a pastor in training, was the driver from the day before. Go figure! We also did much better on the songs. At least we did not get as many weird looks while we attempted to sing in Spanish.

After the service, another pastor took us home to the mission house. We talked and packed and we are ready to go home. Time is now 10:39 PM, and taxis come at 4:45 AM to take us to airport. Good night and see you all very soon.

Love,
Servants Heart Team One 2002