Rats, Cats, Snakes, & Lizards

There is a wonderful time of day at about noon where all 3 of my children are asleep at the same time for 2.5 hours or so. This is usually when I sew or update this blog. Well yesterday during that time someone came to the front door (they really are on the other side of the fence, but it is close enough to the front door not to have to open the gate to be able to carry on a conversation.) I was standing there talking and all of a sudden something very large crawled out of the plant on the wall next to me and ran down behind the couch. I yelled and moved to the window in the office to explain why I left so abruptly. They thought it was funny... I didn't.

There is a very important point to make here. We have been rat free since right before Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if we have ever been rat free before that. It was a beautiful thing to wake up to the smell of victory... dead rat in my storage room. I knew he was the last one and it took us almost 6 months to get him. RAT FREE for almost 5 months now is unbelievable. Jimmy even installed steel screens in the storage room and kitchen windows, so those jokers would have to show up with a hacksaw if they wanted in this house.

I called Jimmy right away because I was sickened that we might have another rat. Of course he was far away. He called Pedro, the gardener who cuts our grass. Jimmy mows our grass at our forever house, but we pay Pedro to chop our grass here with a machete. Anyway, he came over right away. He asked me if it might have been a snake... what?! I had not even thought of that. You are making it worse!!

I closed all the doors in our house, so that if it was a rat it only had access to our hallway and outside doors, then I gave Pedro a broom and stood on top of the boys' toy box. He looked all over for the dumb thing and couldn't find it. He even flipped the love seat over thinking it crawled in there.

Finally I saw something hanging off the fan. It was a huge ugly lizard. One of those that stands up on its back feet and walks. So much better than a rat!!! He grabbed it by the tail, but it wouldn't let go of the fan. Then he rips its tail off and it takes off towards me and I run yelling down the hall. Finally he barricades the thing off and shoos it, tailless, out the front door. My kids slept through the whole thing!

This guy has to think I'm an idiot. A couple months ago Pedro had to come over one morning and let me and the boys out of their bedroom because we had locked ourselves in there. Silas plays with the lock sometimes and it is on the outside so that he cannot lock himself in his room by himself. I forgot to check it before I went in there with them. Oh well, I'm glad he has a key to our gate or we would have been locked in there until Jimmy came home that evening.

A couple months before that I had to ask one of our neighbors to come get a cat out of our yard that our dogs had killed. They kept tossing it around like a chew toy. I tried to do it myself with a shovel, but I couldn't bring myself to look at it close up. Thankfully it wasn't his cat!

But... the time it mattered the most I took care of something myself. Before we left for Guate I was outside with the boys. They were playing on our rock patio. I was filling up the dogs' water dishes when I saw about a foot-long snake by the spigot. I yelled at the boys and dogs to get back and then I called Jimmy. I HATE snakes... more than rats. I described the snake to Jimmy. He was with Lico and Lico said it was poisonous. I then hung up the phone because the snake started to move towards the patio... where my boys were. If I lost this snake there is no way I would ever allow my boys on that patio again. I grabbed a shovel and started yelling. Then I went running towards the nasty thing. I chopped it in half... screaming while I did it. It must have been pretty cool looking because the boys kept reenacting it afterwards. There was a blood smear on the wall of our patio until the next rain. Jimmy called me back and I told him it was dead. He had been really worried and was very surprised to hear that it was dead. That's what happens when the mama bear comes out. The snake got too close to my boys!

So we are still rat free with only a couple small lizards living with us. I am very thankful!

Policewomen, Poachers and Prayers

Friday afternoon at 4pm I (Jimmy) was supposed to meet with the entire town that has been stealing wood from the Institute's property. They have been becoming more and more abusive and this week started showing up with pickup trucks and guns so that they could haul more wood and the guard would not approach. By the time the police would finally arrive, the wood had been hidden. Through all of this, you would think they would have been ashamed or felt guilty, but instead they turned angry at us for trying to stop them. So the mayor came to ask me to a meeting so that the town could tell me why they were going to keep stealing my wood.

Naturally, I wanted the authorities to be there with me. I have been on good terms with the police department through all of this, so I knew they would go with me, but because of the new administrations in the various levels of government that will be taking office over the next couple of days, that was the only support I got. Elías and I went together, followed by a police truck with 8 officers inside. As we were loading up at the station for them to follow me, the officer in charge asked me again what village we were going to. I told her and she told everybody to go back inside and get the machine guns, just in case. That's not something you want to hear.

We arrived early and the mayor got on the loud speaker to tell everybody to hurry up and get to the school. The police officers pulled me aside again and told me that I needed to be very careful about what I said because these people were very hard-headed and very unified. They told me that things could quickly get out of hand and they may not be able to stop it. I told them that I knew things might get out of hand and that's why I had invited them in the first place. She assured me that they were there to back me up, but as we were having this conversation they were turning their truck around so that it pointed to the exit...

While this is going on the mayor is announcing on the loud speaker that "the gringo is here and he must be more important than the president to have all of these body guards and ha ha ha does he think we're going to kill somebody ha ha ha everybody hurry up and get here..." He was intentionally inciting the people against me for about 15 minutes.

Therefore when everybody was there and gathered on the basketball court (in the sun they said where I would have to sweat like them instead of hiding in the shadows where the mayor knew I wanted to be), instead of letting them start the conversation, I started right in telling everybody how thankful I was that they had come. I apologized for taking so long to call this meeting and that I felt because of my delay there had been a lot of confusion and misinterpretation. I then told them that what they had been used to had changed concerning the property, that I was now the legal owner and had full rights to the property, but that I would be the best neighbor they could have. I explained the purpose of the Institute and that it was not for personal gain. I explained the benefits to the community concerning our future improvements to their schools (so that our student's children would have a good place to study) and our collaboration with the water supply and the jobs the various construction projects would create.

Then I explained our need to save the wood on the property for our use, but that I understood their needs as well. Therefore in order to get along we would allow only the people from their village to cut firewood from our land, but only after they reported themselves to our guard so that he could verify they were from the village. If somebody was on the property without permission that would be trespassing and we would call the police. They can take firewood for personal use, but not haul off truckloads to sell. They also have to enter only through our approved entrance and not cut the fence in addition to only cutting firewood during the day.

It seemed they were all in agreement with this. The large trees will not be cut down anymore. If people from the village do try to steal wood, we will cut off the firewood supply from everybody, so in that way they are responsible for policing their own people. I explained our desire for everybody to get along and that if they would forgive me for not having called the meeting sooner then I would forgive them their actions over the last month and we could now all move forward with a better relationship.

After translation and dealing with a few interruptions it took about an hour, but I believe almost everybody was happy and in agreement. The ones not happy will have to answer to the rest of the community and our goal is to not get the police involved any more.

There was a large hoard of people (around 450) during all of this and Elías and I were surrounded on all sides with the police about 50 yards away. The benefit of speaking first kept them from getting all riled up. After all was said and done the mayor became my biggest supporter.

My original plan was to sit in the woods with night vision goggles and a paint ball gun... But as we were sitting there waiting on everybody to arrive and I was steaming thinking about all of these thieves and how blatantly abusive they have been over the past few weeks, Elías whispered to me, "Just think, some day all of these people will be part of the church we start here." It's good to surround yourself with people more spiritual than you so you can keep things in perspective.

There's No Place Like Home

We had been planning to return to Petén in 2 days, on the 25th. We have been really excited about getting back home and back to work. There has been a lot happening while we've been gone. Last week we received a link to a news article about a massacre in Petén. After quickly reading it we were not too concerned. It was drug related and the workers killed were all workers from a drug lord's home town working on a drug lord's farm where he received cocaine shipments. While it is a tragic story, everyone there was involved and knew who they were working for. Again, Petén has always been a violent place, but the general rule was that if you stayed out of trouble, you wouldn't get into any. The narcos who have been running our department kept it safe. It was really a relatively peaceful place to live compared to Guatemala City.

The very next day, while driving through rural Indiana towards Ohio, Shelley was reading the facebook page of one of our friends in Santa Elena. She was hold up in her house listening to grenades, helicopters and machine gun fire. That dealt with this story. Even if you don't speak spanish, the picture from that article might interest you.

It is exactly next door to where we used to live in Santa Elena. (We only moved from there to find cheaper rent.) Basically there was a 3 hour fire fight between some Zetas and the military/police. This caused all the businesses to close for two days and schools to close indefinitely. This is where we go at least once a week to buy our groceries and pay our bills.

It happened that President Colom was in Petén to fly over the massacre site when the fire fight happened. That night he declared a State of Siege, also known as Martial Law for the department of Petén. This basically means that the military is in charge and there are no individual rights. They have imposed curfews and can arrest anybody, impound any vehicle and enter any house, all without warrants or due cause. Normally this is not a problem, as the military is often more trustworthy than the police in Petén, but during a raid of a Zeta camp they found many military uniforms among the weapons and drugs. In fact they are notorious for dressing up like officials and carrying out their kidnappings in broad daylight.

Then a few days ago there was the story about a kidnapping in Dolores, Petén. 17 armed men entered a woman's house and kidnapped her, while only asking for around $6,300. The family negotiated down to $2,700 and during the exchange 4 men were arrested. I have heard that this family was also "involved in things" but the paper does not say who the woman was nor whether they saved her. An unconfirmed addition to this story states that while 4 men were arrested, others took the money and the family member who was carrying it in addition to already having the woman. We live in the county where this took place, Dolores.

The day after the massacre we received two emails from the US embassy asking all foreigners to avoid Petén, not even going to Tikal or flying into Santa Elena. After that the Guatemalan Tourism Agency (ASISTUR) gave the same notice. For this reason we had to cancel our next 2 teams. One was a KBI module scheduled for next week and the other was a youth team that was going to do evangelistic outreaches in new Kekchi villages scheduled for July.

So presented with all of this information we have decided to extend our stay in the States for a short time more. The State of Siege was only declared for 30 days, so we might stay until then. Every day we are monitoring the situation and talking to friends there to get a feel for the situations. Our town was known for being a base for the old family who ran things, but they have now fled Petén. There are many situations we have to be concerned about. While not concerned about checkpoints or housing raids by the military, I would be concerned if what appeared to be the military ended up being a group of Zetas dressed up like military. We cannot gloss over the fact that if there are groups hoping to profit from extorsions and kidnappings, we would be likely targets.

I am confident that the government will soon have the roads secure and the larger cities. We are always careful when visiting rural villages and have had in place a personal rule against traveling in rural areas close to the Mexican border. At the latest we will return after the State of Siege is lifted, but it is possible we will return even sooner. We request your prayers for our national friends who are in this dangerous area and do not have the option to go somewhere safe. Please pray that the Zetas do not take over since they are much more violent. Please also pray that we will have wisdom as to when to return to Petén. We just want to go home and get back to work.

What's Going On

So here is some of what has been going on... in New Horizon at least.

Missionary How To: Get Kicked Out Of a Village.

Missionary How To: Make It Unsafe To Return To a Village.

Pastor Andy and his wife are here now. We enjoyed lunch with them today and then several hours of just talking. It was really nice and a perfect time for it!

Safety Issues/Prayer Request

Things have been tense in our life and ministry for almost a week now. There are some serious safety issues that have arisen in New Horizon. Please pray for Jimmy as he still has a couple items to get from our old building and will be going there today along with Lico and 2 metal workers to remove our doors and windows. We are seeking wisdom from God for our next move regarding this dark place. As of right now we do not feel safe even going in there. People who carry guns around while the are drunk and high are nothing to mess around with. Thank you to everyone who is faithful to lift us up in prayer. We will update more on this later.

Since everyone in there knows where we live and feels comfortable just showing up at our house we are looking to move to a new rental house in San Francisco (Petén). It will be in a much safer area... and I am praying for a wall! Please pray that we can find a house soon and can somehow in the midst of teams coming and all the outreaches we have planned in the next couple months find time to move. Thanks! We are ready for things to calm down around here!

Well It Happened...

and I am not happy about it. Last night we were at a wake in Santa Rita. It was dark with only a few candles around. For this story we will say that I had Baby A and Jimmy was in charge of Baby B. We were sitting with some of our friends when I turned around and realized one of them was holding Baby B and NURSING him! This may sound humorous if it is not YOUR child, but it is actually pretty dangerous. You can catch all kinds of infectious diseases that way. While our friend looks healthy and has 2 healthy children, I don't know her history... and it is not that she is Guatemalan, it is that she is anyone other than me. Baby B had just been fed, so I am hoping he was only pacifying. He wasn't hungry. Our boys get held a lot in Santa Rita. The indigenous believe that if you look at a baby and don't touch and hold it you could give them the "evil eye"... plus Jonah and Silas are completely adorable! Before I hand any woman my child I always think, "do you make milk?" because I knew this could be a possibility. Well Jimmy did not think anyone would ever do that. He was sitting right beside her, but to his defense a representative from the family had come to talk to him about trying to get the son's body back to SR for burial (story here) so he was distracted. Jimmy called our pediatrician in Guatemala City last night, which is a different world from here by the way, and his first response was, "Why did she DO that?!" He said there is a small chance that he could have caught something and to keep an eye on him and her.

So that is a piece of what life is like raising children here. PLEASE pray that God will protect Baby B and that he did not catch anything. And you should probably pray for Jimmy too since he is a very good daddy, but is living with the wrath of a very protective mommy right now... last night wasn't pretty.

Our New Life

My mind is so sporadic I am having trouble forming a post. I think the being away from home for over 3 months is getting to me more than the 90 minute sleep incriminates. My need to have everything at a specific angle in its specific place is not being met! I feel like we have stuff everywhere. I cannot wait to put all the babies' things away in their dresser drawers and get back to my organized life. I keep thinking about our ministry and how I want to still be a part of it and how I am going to deal with everyone touching my tiny babies at first! We both are thinking about New Horizon and wonder how God is going to work that out. Our life in Guatemala will be forever different when we get back... the unknown is making me impatient.

Here is our family of 4! Jonah is grabbing at his brother!

This was their first time in their little play yard. Jonah rolled over to hug is brother.

The boys went to their first doctor's appointment and got a great report. The NICU conditioned us to measure everything, so we went to the doctor with a notebook of all their feedings and diapers. Their pediatrician is a musician friend of my dad and I had met him before too. We are thankful once again for the awesome folks God brings into our life. He told us to chill out and just be parents! We got rid of the notebook!

The boys are eating very well now. They sleep anywhere from 3-4 hours. Hopefully we can get them completely off the bottle feedings soon which means less pumping and that will add to our sleep time.

I will leave you with some photos of them flashing their dimples!

Jonah

Silas

The Tale of the Green Booger

So not sure if this was a nice little warm up or if it is going to be this scary every time. Before we left the NICU they went over how delicate our babies' immune systems are and that we need to be very careful and not even take them anywhere for a while. No one should see them unless they are willing to bathe themselves in hand sanitizer. If they do get sick it is probably RSV and that is absolutely HORRIBLE! Well, that is how I processed everything we were told and stored it in my mind. Jimmy's version is much calmer I'm sure.

Last night as I was swaddling them after their feeding I saw a booger coming out of Silas' nose. It was nice and clear. I wiped it gently and realized it was one of those nasty ones that just keeps coming. It basically extended all the way back into his throat. At the other end was a nice green blob. GREEN! That's bad... right? Well you know I googled the mess out of "preemies with green boogers." We had been so careful with him. Where could he have found germs? We immediately took his temperature. 98.6... it was just a normal digital thermometer. Us being still very concerned, Jimmy made a 1am run to Walgreens. He returned with some saline drops to clean out his nose and a temple thermometer for babies. Sure enough his temperature was still at 98.6.

Silas made it through the night... and seems perfectly fine! This was the States where Jimmy could run up and talk to a pharmacist. Not sure how I am going to handle something serious in the middle of nowhere. Maybe this was a practice round to condition me for Petén!

Still In Shock

There was a vehicle in New Horizon for us to rent this week to take to Santa Rita. It would have been nice of them to tell us it was broken before they handed us the keys, but we found out about 10 minutes down the road. Jimmy, Carlos, and Gerardo took turns pushing it back to New Horizon. It would crank every now and then. The last time it quit running the guys stopped to rest a minute and Jimmy turned the flashers on and let the truck cool off a little. I saw a car coming from behind us, it looked like it was flying and it wasn’t getting over to pass us. I yelled at Gerardo to get out of the road. It barely missed us and was within a foot of him. We all turned to watch this crazy driver who had just flown by us. The car didn’t try to slow down, but instead whipped back over into his lane. At that point he lost control of the car. He flew off the road. The car went up vertically on its front end and then slammed back down into a cow pasture 15’ below the road They had family members in a car traveling behind them. They had not been going as fast, so it took them a while to get there. When they saw the other car smoking off the road, they pulled over. They started screaming and running to check on their family members. While this was going on Jimmy was calling for an ambulance. Here a mob can form quickly, even in the middle of nowhere. In less then a couple minutes there were about 150 people gathered around. Mobs are known to lynch people who they decide is responsible. Jimmy and Carlos went over to check on the people in the car and Gerardo and I went to put branches in the road to slow people down. (Soon after the other car pulled of the road someone else flew by and almost hit them.) There had been 4 people in the car and 3 of them were walking around. Jimmy got some of the people in the crowd to pull out the 4th older man that was still in the vehicle, since it was on fire. The man was breathing, but he wasn’t talking and he could barely open his eyes. One of his ears had been split in two. Jimmy prayed with the man’s family. The driver was walking around with blood coming out of his ear. He reeked of alcohol and couldn’t remember what happened. He kept saying things like, “What happened to the car?” ”Who was driving?” We are not sure why 3 sober people would let a drunk man drive them, but that explains why he didn’t slow down and why he changed lanes so abruptly. Jimmy did as much as he could and then we left. We later passed the ambulance on its way there. It took them 45 minutes to get there.

We are so thankful that he didn’t hit Carlos or Gerardo. He could have come a little earlier and we would have been in the middle of the road trying to turn around. God definitely protected us. If something would have happened to Carlos or Gerardo we would not have been able to work in this area anymore.

Please pray for this family. Everyone was alive when we left. The driver must have been the hurt man’s son. The hurt man’s wife immediately went over and took off his watch and cleaned out his pockets so nothing would get stolen at the hospital.

We are still shook up. We keep thinking if we had not have rented the truck we would not have been broken down and this man would not have changed lanes. It is difficult to process everything, especially when you watched it happen. The crowd kept saying a tire must have blown. We are just thankful they were not upset with us. I wish people here could understand how destructive alcohol is and that way they wouldn’t let it into their life. We read in the paper here that Guatemalans have a greater chance of dying in a wreck caused by a drunk driver than dying of old age. We believe it since this is the second accident in 3 weeks just in our lives that has been caused by a drunk driver.