Guatemala - Day 1, Part 3

Here is Installment 3. Yes, she knows. Sharon... is... slow. Go ahead and say it (or type it) to her face, she won't be too awfully immensely hurt.

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It was still the same day. The team had just landed in Guatemala. Three buses were waiting for them... one for luggage (mostly), two for people (mostly). Off for the mission house. Along the way they took in the Guatemala sights of hot-pastel colored buildings and infamous desperado chicken buses - which will pop into this story again at future unnerving intervals.

The mission house lay at the end of many one-way, steeply inclined, narrow streets in San Lucas. When they arrived, it felt like 7 p.m. and their bags were promptly dumped and they were ushered into a big room with the places already set and served what they supposed was supper... Afterward, during announcements, they were given their freedom for several hours till supper (Oh my goodness - do we have to eat again, so soon?) and strict orders about the type of relationship allowed with the tap water. Basically, it was a total mouth-off relationship, aguatically speaking: no drinking, no inhaling, no brushing your teeth with it, unless you wanted to go on medication the rest of the trip.

After this, many people went off to brush their teeth, including our heroine, who promptly had people screaming in her face "NO! NO! Don't use the water!!" as she rinsed out her mouth... time to trot off for some Cipro.

At this point, most of the team was ready to just settle down and relax after the long day of traveling. One person was, however, very antsy after being cooped up on planes all day - despite enjoying them immensely - and somehow she persuaded some other young folks to go on a walk. It started out as a group of 3 girls, who were informed they had to take along big, tough guys. So they collected people and walked down from the mission house into San Lucas. Their friend Sam excited their appetites by pointing out a dead smashed cat by the roadside as their future supper. Down in the middle of the town, they found a little round structure with a deck for the second floor. There were lots of kids playing around this and on the soccer court, and some of the team members instantly made dozens of friends by pulling out digital cameras and taking pictures with the kids left and right.

They got back about dark, to find people huddled in coats and blankets complaining about the 40-degree cold, and a sumptious supper awaiting them. Right after supper the 4 teams were listed off - 2 medical, 2 VBS, one of each on each bus, to go to separate locations each day. But for Saturday morning they would all be together in San Lucas.

And after all of this excitement, and that excitement, after translators and friends of the team showed up to visit, at some point they all fell into bed and slept hard.

The End of Day 1!