Crazy Clowns and Holiday Joy

I opened up the newspaper the other day and had one of those classic ¨Guate Moments¨. Those surreal moments that you just can’t believe what you are seeing. Apparently, in Guate City two people were dressed up as clowns and when families came to see their act the two individuals would pull out guns and rob them. Here is the picture of them getting arrested. Not every day you see two clowns getting cuffed in your local newspaper.


Last week my good friend Pablo who works in the Municipal Building like me got into a pretty serious accident. The other driver was not paying attention and hit his car head on. He was rushed to the hospital in Guatemala City and from what I hear he is doing much better this week and is hoping to be back home next week for Christmas. I just ask for you prayers for my good friend to pull through this accident.


Also last week my boss came to do a site visit and check how everything is going with my work. He was very impressed with the Macadamia project and asked if we could go and visit some of the families that benefited. When we got to one of the villages where the project was they were having a town meeting, and asked if I could say a few words. For those of you that know me best understand that public speaking isn’t exactly one of my favorite pastimes (let alone having to do it in a foreign language). However, I knew that I could not decline because that would make me appear very arrogant in their culture. So I stood up and spoke for about five minutes when I realized that I now enjoy public speaking. Amazing the affect PC can have on a person. Many of the trees appear to be doing very well, and the ones planted with coffee are doing extremely well. We were getting ready to head back to town when one of the families came running up to me saying that we had to stop by their house before we head back to town. When we got to their house I was shocked to see that they had prepared lunch for us. What you all back home need to understand and appreciate is that these people are extremely poor and live in houses made out of mud with tin roofs, yet here they are being generous enough to offer me food (these are the moments that are really difficult for volunteers. We get offered food like this and would rather refuse and have them give it to their children, but you also don’t want to give off the impression that you are too good and appear pretentious. I gladly accepted the beans and tortillas and washed it down with glass bottle of Pepsi) It was just one of those amazing moments that make it all worth being here.


This last weekend the group of us that work in the Municipal Planning Office took a trip together to celebrate ¨Feliz Navidad¨ We went to this vacation spot that was about two hours away that had pools, go karts (advertised go karts but in reality it was one extremely ancient kart that barely topped out at 4mph), trampolines, and the all important hammocks. We had a few beers and a great time. Here is a picture of the group that made the trip.



Take care to all of you back home and I wish you all Happy Holidays. After this I hope to never spend Christmas away from family and friends again. ¨ Feliz Navidad…Prospero Año y Felicidad ¨ Merry Christmas…Prosperous New Year and Happiness.



Drewski