|
Tomorrow will be 6 weeks
since we left home. Seems like we just got off the plane. We are
very settled in, driving around Guat. like crazy, or is that
crazy to be driving around Guat. As I'm all of you know we are
living in Xela and working some here in an existing clinic. The
altitude here is about 8000 ft. and very cool and nice. The 2
clinics we came here to open are about 1 1/2 hours south of here
towards the coast. There it is hotter and kind of jungle like
with banana trees, coffee trees and such. We have been going to
Paquila 2-3 days per week for the last few weeks and cleaning,
painting, repairing, etc. Two weeks ago when we were cleaning we
found dead bats and live scorpions. Now we have a large rat
problem. They are living in the ceiling and doing their thing
all over the floor. Hopefully this week we will finish painting
and put the RAT PROBLEM TO BED. We have some windows to replace
and some lights to hang and we will be about ready. We have set
the date for our first clinic at 4/4 then 4/11, no clinic Easter
week then 4/25, all in Paquila. We have hire a lady Guatemalan
doctor , Diana, for all the Fridays in April and May except 2and
we have our own Dianna. We are also needing to hire about 4
Quiche to Spanish translators. We are getting a Medical team for
a few days the end of April or the first of May. We will be
taking them to Chuisamayac to have our first clinic there. We
also have a Medical team from Florida for a full week in June
and thanks to Rev. Nick Elliott, SEJ, in Atlanta, we will be
getting a med student for about 6 weeks starting in June. God
just keeps providing but it seems first he/she puts us through a
little test, (see car below).
We are renting a 1988 Suburban from
Phil Plunk, a dentist here in Xela. First I need to explain that
he had the automatic transmission go out a few months ago. The
people here don't do much with American cars or automatics so
they replaced it with a standard transmission out of a bus. Yes
I said BUS! Three weeks ago we were driving it about 3 miles out
of Paquila and a million miles from anywhere when it just died,
and I mean died, nothing, zip, nada. To avoid a really long
email I'll just say that after about 2 hours we got a mechanic
from a town about 30 min. away to come out and look at it. There
on a dirt road just past nowhere with about 7-8 Mayans coming
out of the jungle to chat a gaze the mechanic worked for 3
hours. He finally hotwired the car to get it running. We agreed
to let him take it to his shop to work on it the next day. About
8 p.m. the next night we got our car back. The cost was 1000Q,
about $120.00. The next morning we took off for home. About 1/3
of the way in a little village we were going through, the car
died again. Same problem. Again God had already provided. We
broke down about 100 feet from another mechanic. He and a friend
of his worked on it for about 2 hours, again on the side of the
road. They couldn't fix it but they did hotwire it again so we
could get back home. If i don't learn anything else here I will
have learned how to hotwire a car. When we got back home we gave
the car to Phil and let him get it fixed. He did, something to
do with the switch in transmissions. The only thing that didn't
work was the lights. Seems when Phil's guy corrected the wiring
problem he forgot to add headlights to the list. So I took it to
a mechanic that does auto electric. And again on the side of the
street he rewired the lights, cost, about $4.40. Last week we,
with faith and confidence, went back down to Paquila to work. We
stopped by the church to get the pastor to get the keys to let
us in the clinic. Got the pastor, got the keys, got in the car
to go to the clinic, about 4 blocks away, you guessed it, it
wouldn't start. At least this time we could start it by letting
it roll down hill. So for 3 days we parked on hills. Finally
Friday we got back to Xela and went straight to our now friend
Juan, the electric expert. Right there on the street he yanked
out the starter, took it in his shop and rebuilt it right there.
Cost, 50Q, about $12.00, time 40 min. What a great country. So
tomorrow we try again. If anyone has a car prayer now is the
time to use
it.
Continue Page 2 |
|
