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Dear family and friends:

We are a little late with our update from Guatemala; a little because of things are typical most days.

We are more accustomed to the daily inconvenience but consider them an interesting part of living in Guatemala. One such inconvenience is not having water; typically we get water every 3 days and we have a storage container on top of the house that will hold approxiatematly 275 gallons. This can last from 5 to 7 days. A few weeks ago on our day to get water; we did not get any assuming that there was a small problem (such as a funeral; they get priority) and we would get it tomorrow; tomorrow and the day after no water. Certainly our next scheduled water day we would get water, replenish our tank and everything would be great; we did implement some conservation efforts that were helpful but now we are on day 7 and still no water so we went from conservation to rationing. One way of rationing is to use our outside bathroom during the day; this doesn’t require water. I checked the tank level on day 8; we were down to about 25 gallons. Day 9 we got water; only it was a very small trickle similar to November and December; during the dry season we would only get a trickle so I bought a small utility pump in order to help it along. Appromately 3 hours later, we felt wealthy again because we had a tank full of water.

Another inconvenience is finding a car mechanic; we made a day trip to the beach with Sara and family; my van was full and another pick-up truck full of people. Typically a 3 hour drive; as I followed the pick-up; my Guatemalan driving skills were tested. Things were going well until about the last 20 miles and the van would hesitate when passing; not the best thing because I could only pass 4 or 5 at a time instead of the typical 10 to 15. It also hesitated enough that I couldn’t prevent being passed while passing but the day at the beach was great if you like crowds. The pick-up with half the people left a little early to beat the traffic unfortunately they also left with Dennis’ glasses. We assumed it would be OK if he didn’t have to pass too much and it wasn’t. The hesitation was now much worse; instead of a few coughs and spits it was near death. If I was on a flat ground and babied it a little bit, I could get it up to 30 or 40 MPH; climbing the hills; I proved to be the slowest car on the road. With a little luck; I could get it to 10 MPH; obviously at this speed, my impaired vision wasn’t a handicap until the sun went down. (Remember many cars in Guatemala do not have headlights or tail lights.) We are now about an hour away; the remainder of the trip is on a mountainous, gravel road; we found out by accident because we needed to stop for a bathroom break that after restarting the car; I could again get to 30 MPH even up hill. We arrived home a little late with only one major incident. Oh yes, the mechanic; talking with some of my advisors; they suggested where to bring it. We found a leaky gas tank probably from excessive vibrations on the bumpy roads. The mechanic said this could be the problem because of insufficient fuel pressure; I kind of guessed it was a sensor between the transmission and engine. The second visit they said our “candles” were bad; it took a little bit ingenious intreptation to figure out they were referring to our spark plugs. I suggested multiple times that they connect it to a computer analyzer rather than guess at what might we the problem. After replacing the fuel pump, my problems were solved; I thought it inconvenient that they had to remove the gas tank twice. A few days later while Sue was shopping someone asked “what is the best orange juice?” After conversation, we found a new mechanic; he has a computer, speaks English; and was trained by Porsche.

Life is good! We are teaching English 3 times a week; we have students age 5 to 30. We are finding out how much we really don’t know about the English language; for example did you know that the letter O has 8 different sounds? I am very happy to say that 2 of our students; ages 21 to 23 just completed the vowel sounds. Another is studying suffixes and prefixes. She asks questions like why don’t you just use loosen instead of untie? So here’s a challenge for you; we were able to give her a qualified answer to this question; can you? Please explain increase and decrease, the in and de were the easy part but how do they connect with crease?

We are planning a trip home for our annual doctor visit; more importantly annual fishing trip; we will also visit family and friends. This is July and most of August. Maybe we will see you while we are here. It seems funny to say that we have 2 homes but indeed we do.

Dennis and Sue