June 11, 2004

Some random thoughts on returning home

It felt like shifting down a gear, maybe two, as I returned to my Guatemala home. The pace of life is slower here, and everything takes much longer to accomplish. I am still trying to buy a new cell phone to replace mine, which no longer receives a good signal. I have visited five different phone agencies and at each have been told, “you can buy a new phone, this is the model you need, you can keep your phone number, but.we don’t have that phone at the moment.” Who knows when the moment will arrive that the phone I need is available.

The rhythm of life is different here. Guatemalans don’t believe they can extend the daylight hours, so there is no daylight saving time. The sun begins to peek over the horizon about 5:00 a.m. and by 6:00 p.m. the sky is darkening into shades of black and gray.

It did not take long for me to fit myself back into this “early to bed, early to rise” routine. Especially since there is a wonderful chorus of birds outside my window to awaken me each morning.

As I traveled around the United States, sharing stories of women in Guatemala, I often told the story of Lesbia. I told how Lesbia had not been able to continue her schooling after sixth grade because her father said it was not worth it for girls to have an education. To support his argument her father used as an example Lesbia’s cousin, who had continued her schooling, become pregnant, and married. But Lesbia had a dream and held onto it. When I first knew her Lesbia was 17 years old and working in the kitchen at the seminary. One day a week she studied in a nearby town to become a midwife. I told Lesbia’s story as an example of the longing for education among many Guatemalan women. To be honest I had my doubts that Lesbia would be able to continue in school, but I told her story and showed her photo. I had only been back in Guatemala for a few days when I saw Lesbia at the bus stop, and guess what! She is continuing with her schooling! She now has a better job in Quetzaltenango working five days a week and studying to complete her high school work on Saturdays. She came to visit me last week and told me she still dreams of becoming a nurse.

I never cease to be impressed by how carefully most Guatemalans use the small amount of money they have. A pastor in the Presbytery of Suchitepéquez received 200 dollars in gifts to help with the schooling for his four children; with that money, a small gift from the Christian service organization here, and the efforts of the entire family, all four of the children are in school this year!

I don’t have the variety of food I enjoyed in the States—lasagna, broiled salmon, fresh spinach salads—but here each morning I pick lemons off the tree in front of my house and almost every day at this time of the year there are avocados falling from the trees, and the markets are brimming with mangos.

I ate pan dulce (sweet bread) warm from the oven in the bakery in San Felipe without a thought that such a food item is not on the low carbohydrate diet of thousands of North Americans. Guatemalans are simply grateful to have food.

I enjoyed my time in the States. It was great to have the use of a car, an apartment, access to a computer on-line 24 hours a day, a microwave, a telephone line in my apartment, a laundromat close by. I treasure every moment of my visits with family and friends; it was wonderful to travel to new and familiar places to share some of my ministry in Guatemala. But I am glad to be back in my Guatemala home. The bird chorus each morning is nice, as are the mangos, avocados, and tortillas, but what really draws me to this place and these people is what I tried to share in my travels in the United States. Life here is real. People struggle to have the very basic things of life, like food to eat, the opportunity for education, enough money to visit the doctor and buy the medicine, a place to live, relationships with family and their faith in God which holds it all together.

I believe that this is a description of the abundant life Jesus came to bring all people. Brothers and sisters in Guatemala struggle each day for this abundant life, and I give thanks to God that I have the opportunity to be with them in their struggle.

Ellen

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 133