Greetings from Guatemala (February / March 2009)

We are starting our 6th month; boy time goes by fast. A summary of our experience is change. Originally we assumed to be well into our building project. We haven’t started; partially because my savings is shrinking due to the economy; partially because of the reduced urgency. It’s not a dead idea but for now it’s on hold. Another change is in our tutoring; we’ve had 20 different elementary aged students; some can only attend occasionally because they must work. This makes it hard in lesson planning. Our teenager / adult class is quite diverse; one has a good command of the language and needs only occasionally pronunciation grammar correction. We’ve discovered the others apparently have a higher priority of basic education instead of English. We have 4 ladies from 12 to 22 that have only received 2 years of schooling; so we are teaching English and Math. We assume that this will expand when our Spanish skills will allow it. Mathematics can be taught without advanced Spanish skills. We’ve noticed most people will make a single item purchase, pay for it and then request a second item, pay for that item. If they have money, a third request and so on. We are assuming this procedure of multiple payments is because they cannot add the costs together for a single payment.

We thought about scolding our housekeeper (empleada) because of her missing several consecutive days of work. She surprised us and came much earlier than expected the following day, apologizing for missing work due to the death and funeral of her Father. The hardship this girl faces is overwhelming; her Mother died a few years ago and Dad remarried abandoning his children. She and 1 older and 1 younger brother are living in the family house. She is responsible for 100% of the domestic duties. The brothers work in agriculture. They are now assuming they will lose the house to the widow. If she wants it, she can take it from them.

Another overwhelming experience. We traveled for Christmas to Maura’s house about 3 hours away. After about 1 hour of travel we were in the mountains; we noticed some children on the side of the road waving at us. We assumed it was a holiday greeting so we waved back; another ½ hour and several hundred children, we assumed it’s more than a holiday greeting. We then recognized there were no children near the villages; only in the extreme remote areas and their general appearance indicated poverty. We had nothing with us except for some bread from our neighborhood bakery. We gave that to a young mother; possibly 13 – 15 years old. She was overwhelmed and expressed great gratitude. We felt much different as we drove past several hundred more all enthusailly waving, all hoping to receive something, anything for Christmas.

We’re hoping to collect things to give away to these children with the potential of being a teaching aid; crayons, markers, pens, pencils, paints and notebooks. Maybe cash to cover the expense of shipping the items to Guatemala or giving cash away about $2.00 to $4.00 per family that could provide a nice meal for them.

Another change is we are doing Marriage Counseling. Sometimes we feel overwhelmed, the only training that we have is 36 years of experience. The newlywed couple travels about 4 hours one way. This month’s topic is happiness-contentment-joy. Of course, we will explain the source of our joy is God’s love and grace.

February, we traveled to El Salvador to visit our past students and their families. All went well with our trip; we were smart enough to bring a translator. She was a big help when asking for directions [several times]. An afternoon of playing marbles with nieces & nephews, the play area is dirt with ¼ inch of dust. We didn’t play “for keeps” because we only had 4 marbles and 2 rocks. We also visited the family of a “this year” student. The road to her house is s path without trees in the way, and crossing the river, without a bridge. We did ask a boy on horseback if we could make it and he said I think so.

We thank God for these unexpected opportunities and continue to look forward to more opportunities as God provides. Our health is good, and we are (almost) living within our budget. We found a monthly internet plan cheaper than the occasionally day plan, so this will improve E-mail commutations

In His love,

Dennis & Sue Santkuyl