The Where We Were

View overlooking downtown Xoxlac

As a team we'd read about Xoxlac, saw it on the map and looked at a small photo or two on the advanced information provided by Hands for Peacemaking.   But of course we really wouldn't get a true sense of the place until we were there, on the ground and could see this northern Mayan village for ourselves.

Town jail

Downtown Xoxlac consists of four churches, a crude play yard, a school compound and a health clinic. There are a couple of Tiendas (small roadside stores that sell mostly junk food like chips and pop). If you know what you're looking for you can look up the hill and see the town jail - a tiny, low-slung building where they will throw in chronic drunks or other miscreants for a few hours or, depending on the severity of the crime, up to a day or two. If that doesn't do the trick the offender will face the whole town on the next offense where they will beat him or her silly. I got the feeling there isn't a court of law, attorneys or the like. Call it the Xoxlac justice system.  The town is generally peaceful, and you can't buy alcohol there, so its jail doesn't get much use.

Turkey on the hill

Just up another hill overlooking the village is a compound where some of the women and teen girls bring their corn each morning to be ground. There's a guy who has a little gas-powered grinder and for a few Quezels he can spare them the labor-itensive process of hand-grinding the meal, which is used primarily for tortillas. The line was fairly long the morning Larry and I climbed up to look inside the grinding shack. We were met along the way by a big tom turkey, suitable for any Thanksgiving table.

Mr. Corn Grinder helps a client with his mean grinding machine

Here's how to get to get to Xoxlac: Find the city of Barillas, wind your way through narrow, crazy streets and around the street vendors while avoiding dogs and pedestrians, until you're on the other side of town. Climb the hill past the old coffee plant that was hit in the middle of the night by a devastating mudslide last fall, killing 11, and just keep going. You'll pass through many small villages along the way and the roads, save a few places where paved, will just keep getting worse. If you make a wrong turn you'll probably land in Mexico, possibly in the hands of the cartel drug traffickers known to frequent other parts of northern Guatemala. (We were told this wasn't a concern in our particular region).

Eventually you'll see a gravel road that cuts sharply to the left and up. Take that. Drive another hour or so, passing a huge tree on the right growing out of a deep valley, past the areas where the locals have supplanted corn on the slopes where trees once stood.  Shortly after seeing a scrawny dog standing on a big berm you'll reach a T-intersection.

Scrawny dog on the berm

Go right for another couple of miles and you're there. Oh, I should mention that if you don't have a sturdy four-wheel drive vehicle or a big dirt bike you probably won't make it as there are too many serious hills to climb and rocks to jump over. Someone in our group compared the drive to Xoxlac to one of those Ford truck or Jeep commercials where they are trying to prove the toughness of their latest model. Only more so. Pastor Jon waggishly described the road as a "no nose picker." Rueben called it pure "shake and bake." Three of our team (Larry, Maxx and John) chose to make the long trip standing in the back of a Toyota pickup.  They have my greatest admiration, and hopefully their chiropractors' as well.

We were told that each morning around 1 a.m. a pickup truck with a standing rack passes through Xoxlac and other villages and as many as 30 people will climb in the back to make the long bumpy ride to Barillas for shopping, work and the like. I wouldn't have believed this, except one morning I awoke to the sounds of voices outside, dogs barking and then a truck rumbling through.

On his first trip to Xoxlac a few years ago, our host, Marco, had to unexpectedly spend the night after his hefty Landcruiser got stuck in the mud on the trip out.  It poured all night, pelting the tin roof on his makeshift lodging in the school house so he didn't sleep. The next morning he had to walk five hours to a distant village to meet his help. Worried his wife sick as she'd been expecting him home. Marco has a winch for his vehicle now in case this ever happens again, but it has yet to be installed.

A warm welcome from the Xoxlacians

There is probably a linguist somewhere who can tell us whether the proper way to describe people who live in Xoxlac as Xoxlacians, Xoxlites, Xociables for Xoclettiers. I don't really know, but I do know that these resourceful band of Mayan villagers do know how to throw a good welcoming ceremony.

Larry shows photos

As we arrived at the village a little after 5 p.m. Sunday, there were dozens of villagers lined up along the road to greet us, the young and the old and all in their best dress. Fireworks started lighting off immediately and we were greeted with open arms and gentle embraces.

We would learn later than we were the first Americans - and most likely the first Caucasions - to ever enter the village. The reason: While there are many mission groups that come to Guatemala, few venture the distance that our team did. Most are centered in the major population areas.

John Kirk makes friends with the kids. They dissed me.

We got all of our gear off the Landcruiser caravan and the villagers well, just kind of took over. The men got our luggage off the truck and stacked it at the doorstep of the school building where we would stay. Meanwhile, teammate John Kirk, who is fluent in Spanish, went right to work with the kids. He gathered them around, giving candy, smiles, warm greetings and otherwise breaking barriers.  (I tried for a time to infringe on this little party, asking Jon to ask the kids if they could gather around me for a photo. They were shy and refused, to which John said with a smile, "you gotta make friends first, Brian!"  Language barriers, ugh! Plus I didn't have any candy). John had also purchased two new soccer balls in Barillas and threw them out to the kids right away. They really liked the balls, forming teams and playing away in their big, rut-filled field with a big rock in the middle of it.

Xoxlac kids for teams for a soccer game. John Kirk brought the ball.

Marco, our Hands for Peacemaking host, also told us that the kids love seeing their pictures on our digital cameras.  Guatemala mission veteran Larry Schmick remembered, and proceeded to take kid photos and make friends that way too.

After settling in we were invited back to the central compound, where Pedro, the headmaster for the village school, collaborated with Marco on a formal introduction ceremony. The villagers gathered around and after some introductory comments and overcoming technical problems with the microphone, we were each invited to introduce ourselves. We all knew enough Spanish to state our names and after each introduction Marco would ask the crowd to repeat our names again and again until the villagers could say them.

Villagers stand in line to sign, or thumb, contracts for stoves

After this ceremony the villagers congregated for the most important part of the evening - signing their contracts for the stoves. This was the deal: Each family would pay for part of their own stove (or probably the whole thing, they thought). In exchange they would be obligated to participate in a village clean-up project (trash was all over the place in this village as with many others) and remove their old stove or open fire system from their cooking area. And if for whatever reason they welch on their contract, their extended family or fellow villagers pick up the share. Peer pressure, yeah. Some of these people don't know how to write, so sealed the deal with thumbprints. I think Pastor Jon got a photo of this so hopefully he'll send.

Meantime, we had a team dinner, got a feel for the place and, after a very long drive, settled into our nice new digs on the mattresses in the schoolhouse. Jon, Rueben and I attended a rather lengthy  evening church service, sitting in the back pew behind the women's side (men and boys on one side, women and young children on the other).  Okay, I was the first to bail because I couldn't understand a word they said (the sermon was in their native Mayan language of Q'anjobal), other than to hear "Washington" and see folks turn around and smile at us at one point. Jon gave me grief about bailing later, so hey, I had to point out that he bailed shortly after I did too. Any Marine View readers feel this way after one of Jon's services? :-)

We would get up early Monday to start stove installation, but tonight we would rest and prepare for a busy day ahead.

First Cougs in Xoxlac (with Doug DeVries)

And Rueben Swept

One of the points of a short-term mission we had learned - from Pastor Jon, from our advanced readings, and from Hands for Peacemaking staff, was that we were there truly to serve and that, by doing so, we would feel especially graced and humble by the act of helping others who have so little by our Western standards.

Rueben in the Landcruiser

While we all did our jobs in building stoves and making friends among the villagers, no one among us took this to heart as much as our teammate Rueben Weeks. Rueben told us during devotions one evening that, while growing up in Fairhope Alabama, he spent a lot of his youth in the fields picking pecks of potatoes (there are 20.5 pounds of potatoes in a peck) for something like three pennies each. The farmer would get Rueben and his fellow pickers to the farm, but come payday would dock them the price of lunch and other "expenses," leaving them with a very short check. He looks back now and sees this as latter-day form of legalized slavery.

After losing his natural mother at age nine, Rueben went on to a troubled childhood which lasted well into his adult years.  Perhaps it was that humble background, along with a strong sense of justice for those less fortunate than himself, that drove Rueben to really practice what was being preached while we were in Xoxlac.

Today, at 63, Rueben is a man of strong faith who during our mission could be seen reading the Bible while the rest of us on the team might be engrossed in a good spy novel or other secular fare. We also learned that Rueben is an eloquent master of the spoken prayer and Doug would call on him frequently to say grace before meals.

Rueben on water duty

This isn't to say that the rest of us didn't work hard and show our faith by example to the village. We did. But Rueben would go the extra mile, helping the water carriers by lifting their three-gallon jugs into the large cisterns after bringing them up the hill, and helping our kitchen crew with kitchen duties like sweeping and washing the dishes. He would sometimes disappear for a time, usually to offer a hand to someone else.

On the return plane ride to Houston from Gautemala City, Rueben met a man from another mission team from Mobile, Alabama - just across the bay from Fairhope.  By happenstance they had same-aisle seats and during in-flight conversation determined they both graduated from rival high schools in the same year and knew many people in common, including one of Rueben's cousins still living in the south. So not only did Rueben make friends in the village, but just about everywhere he went on our mission. A true inspiration, that Rueben.

Rueben and I at the airport in Guatemala City

Of Monster Bugs, Fire Ants and other Crazy Crawlies

We quickly learned to expect the unexpected around the village of Xoxlac, including a big bugs, attack moths and other creepy crawlies, especially at night.

When I went out to wash my hands after dinner the first night, a big black "Rhino Beetle" about the size of a shoehorn was legs up and squirming in the sink. Thought I took a picture but can't find it now so if one of the team members reads this and has one please send.

Moth on latrine door

The doors of the two metal latrines up the hill, well lit and shiny and night, were caked with large moths and other winged creatures.

I tried to read by flashlight at night but soon learned that I could not because the bugs would see my little light as a big bullseye and soon swarm all over my book. There was no way to keep the bugs out as the school had open eves. In fact the Hands for Peacemaking staff sealed off the dining area with Visqueen in the rafters to keep out the resident bat population.

One night John Kirk introduced us to a moth with a wingspan of a legal male Dungeness crab that had gotten into the school house. Later while reading the same fellow tried to settle on my hand. I didn't want to kill him, so shooed it away. That  just made it mad. The heart-shaped apparation winged beast quickly started dive-bombing my hands and face. I yelped quietly as I tried to push him off me..it eventually settled down on my blanket, which I considered a happy compromise. The next morning, we saw that he had made his way over to Steve's boot, where he stayed for some time and even posed for photographs.

Our attack moth settled on Steve's boot at foot of his bed

I think it was that night, while I was inside printing photos on the portable printer Jon Schmick had brought, that John Kirk spied a hand-size something or other with big red eyes and yellow-brown body that was clinging to the wall of the school house. He was able to grab a photo and if he sends it to me I will post it here.

Another night, while we were in the middle of devotions outside of the dining hall, we heard an urgent "psst" of sorts from one of the villagers to another small group near us. The villagers took off to see what was going on, and Jon Kirk followed. When he returned he reported that someone had spied  a snake - he thought a deadly coral snake - over in the playing field across the road.  The villagers killed it.

One of the primary team tasks at every stop was to level the ground where the stove would be placed. This was not an especially pleasant job and especially at first proved time consuming to get the ground just so. Doug and I were working on our first installation and Doug started digging dirt with the claws of a hammer then his bare hands. Suddenly he felt a painful, burning sensation all around his fingers as he was bitten by itty bitty fire ants. A few minutes later I spelled him at this task and quickly learned for myself the horrible sting of these little nuisances as they gorged themselves on the bare flesh of my fingers. Fortunately the sting was short-lived.

Over the course of the first night I had to get up several times to, well, do what people must do when nature calls. Since the latrines were some distance away I just did the guy thing and went across the road. As I was standing there looking into the hills, I saw hundreds of flickering lights in the trees. Fireflies! We don't really get these glowbugs in the Northwest and it was kind of fun to see these small-winged creatures light up at a distance.

Later on the trip, while exploring the nature preserve in Panajachel in the Sololá district, we visited an enclosed butterfly area. Hundreds of beautiful butterflies, of which species I just don't know, were fluttering from flower to flower and very colorful to watch as we walked through the containment.

Bumping into Barillas

(Note:  I am home now, but this was a post I typed up the night of April 14 on my little smart phone after our arrival in Barillas. Due to difficulties with our Wi-Fi connection at the Mission House, and some additional technical challenges that I could not resolve while there, and unavailability of Internet in the village, I decided to save up my photos and experiences and present them in a different way in this space than "traveling blog" style. So please check back soon! - Brian).



Team with a view. From top left is John, Brian, Larry, Jon, Rueben,
then Marco, Steve, Maxx and Doug

The heavy rain, unusual for this part of the world at this time of the year, has quit pounding on the tin roof of the mission house for now. The noise if the rain has been replaced by a loud chorus of men singing in Spanish at the church nearby, part of a continuing service that's been going on for a couple of hours this evening.

We are now in Barillas, a city of about 125,000 in the upper northwest quadrant of Guatemala. The drive here from Huehuetenango was quite an adventure. Larry, who brought a GPS, reported it was just about 35 miles away as the crow flies but over the windy, hilly and bumpy "highway" it took nearly 7 hours to cover not quite 80 miles in our Landcruiser caravan through the hills of the Sierra Madris.

A cross marks the spot where a bus went over the hill, killing about 30.
Notice the posts without guardrails - locals steal them for the metal.

As we climbed out of Huehuetenango, Marco had to keep it in first gear most of the drive up to elevations as high as 11,300 feet. We had fine driving weather with sunny skies most of the way in. The road got progressively worse, marked in places with crosses or other markers where cars and busses had gone plummeting over the side. Every so often we would drive through a village or even a small city.

Lots of cities along the way have colorful hut-like cemetery
markers  like these covering a hillside or two.

In several of these cities we would see hillsides dotted with what appeared at a distance to be small colorful huts. These were actually cemeteries. We stopped at a Tienda (rough translation: crude roadside store) and bought snacks. I bought a hotdog (chaveres) from a young street vendor and had to choke it down out of sheer politeness. It was one of the worst I'd tasted. A van full of giggling young ladies took a real liking to Maxx - they insisted he climb into the van with him so I could take their picture with him. He asked me not to post it but I reserve the right!

At times we saw whole families gathered around large slaughtered animals (cows and pigs). They will take what they need and sell the rest as fast as they can as there is no refrigeration.

A reluctant Maxx with friends

As we bumped down the road into Barillas, Pastor Jon assured me that the worst of our travels was yet to come.



Steve rests his dogs after long ride

The Aller Center where we are staying tonight is quite an amazing place. We were greeted by Marco's wife Mimi and young son Alan at the gate. It is a two story building with full dining facilities and comfortable rooms. There is a large shop building out back and it was there where we learned to assemble the stoves we will be installing in the village. It is somewhat of an oasis among streets of rough cobblestone, dirt and a mixture of businesses and houses in various condition, some ramshackle and some new.



We received detailed instruction on stove assembly by Marco and his two assistants, then broke into our teams of two to build one each on our own. I am teamed with Doug, Jon Schmick with Maxx, Rueben with Larry and Steve with John Kirk. I think there will be some friendly competition on this trip as to whom can build the most stoves. Steve, an engineer, marveled at the brilliance of the latest stove design.


Team receives stove instruction from Hands for Peacemaking
stovemasters. The head stovemaker is Franklin, at right.

Marco tells us the mission isn't about the stoves really. If that were the case we should just send a check. The real point, he told us over eggs this morning, is to make friends, build relationships and share God's word.

After stove training some of us took a short walk around the neighborhood, passing through a carnival with what has to be the world's fastest ferris wheel. I mean it was spinning around at least four times faster than the ferris wheels we are used to seeing here. After Marco told us heavy winds had toppled the thing over three times in years past, none of us has any desire to get on.

After a wonderful dinner of beef and vegetable soup at the mission house Marco gave us an orientation of what to expect in the village of Xoxclac over the next few days. Pastor Jon then lead us through devotions.

He has prepared a booklet just for our mission that he entitled Upside Down Stories in the Bible. He asked us to think about both what we are going to give and receive over the next few days as we serve some of the poorest people in the world. But are they really poor even though they lack what we all have? Then the four mission veterans shared their thoughts about what it has meant to them.

The music has quieted down now. There is still some ruckus out in the streets but not unusual for a Saturday night I suppose. Tomorrow we will attend church in the city, load our bags and make the two and a half hour drive to Xoxloc. The villagers will have a welcoming ceremony for us then we will likely install our first in-home stove in late afternoon.

I won't have Internet access until we return from the village on Thursday so this will be my last blog post until then. May try to get more pics up on Facebook in the morning. The mission has been wonderful so far but the real work is ahead. Please continue to pray for the safety of our team!

In Christ,

Brian

Huehuetenango

Just finished a delightful steak at the Ruinas Resort and am now laying in bed contemplating the past 24 hours of travel - literally - that it took to get to this city, which is roughly the half way point to our village. The road here from Guatemala City was much better than I had expected despite crossing a 10,000 foot pass and many more in a jumbo sized Landcruiser driven by Marco with Hands for PeaceMaking. We had heavy rain through much of the second half of our trip and had to navigate around landslides, slow trucks and the funky old school bus 'chicken trucks' which are in nothing but a hurry. We also had to fight our way through a very busy intersection that was totally out of control.

The roads are supposed to get worse tomorrow as we head forward Barillas. We should arrive early afternoon for our training at the mission house then on to Xoclac. Oops fell asleep while writing this so published Saturday a.m.

Layover in Houston

Our team has arrived safely in Houston after flying out of Seattle on united. We got off to a rough start at baggage check-in due to a computer glitch that kept is waiting more than an hour. We grabbed some breakfast here at the airport and will be on the next flight to Guatemala City soon, expecting to arrive around noon mountain time. Other than the computer glitch and a turbulent flight, all
well so far. That's Maxx hiding under the hat. John Kirk has joined us too so we are all together as a team now. There he is emerging from a catnap.