Maury River Mission Community and    Shenandoah Living Waters Team in  Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala Written by Mac Sterrett   Back

Friday night, May 29th Day is done; work is done. They get it!  When we arrived for the celebration this afternoon they had run a half batch of water this morning and had bottled about half of it.  All systems go!  They are doing a great job. The celebration went well and we all had a lot of fun.  Were all were very surprised to receive lovely gifts from our friends:  hand-carved birds, made by craftsmen here in Santiago Atitlan.  Exhaustion, though, is setting in, and sickness has claimed two of our team, with two others on the edge.  We are back at the hotel now getting packed for tomorrow morning’s departure.  Before leaving, however, we will return to the church for some last-minute system improvements we want to make before we leave.  Then on to Antigua for an afternoon of seeing the sites and shopping. Praise God!  This has been a wildly successful trip, and all of us anxiously await the chance to return to see our new brothers and sisters in Christ. Blessings from Guatemala, Mac

Thursday night, May 28th Major success!  The system is running perfectly, no leaks or problems, and the operators have caught on very quickly how to run it – properly.  Due to space constraints, system capacity is smaller than we normally install – this one is 250 gallons rather than the usual 300- or 600-gallon capacity we normally install.  But that means they can still fill 50 garrafones (5-gallon water bottles) per batch, and it doesn’t take nearly as long to run a batch, either.  The women here use smaller jugs that hold about 3-1/2 gallons, called tinajas; they carry them on their heads.  When we were getting ready to leave the church yesterday, we shut down the system.  Minutes later, though, we went back to look for something and there were three women who had just walked in carrying their tinajas, looking for agua pura, and two of the elders had turned the system back on and the women were filling their tinajas at the filling station.  Were we proud?  I’d like to tell you we were, but since pride goeth before the fall, let’s just say we were glad to see everything seemed to be working well J.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get my camera out it time for that shot, but you’ll see one later. We went with the five elders this morning to a property they own a couple miles out of town.  They need money now to purchase a right-of-way and wanted us to know of their need.  Now we know.  We’ve got our hands full money-wise with this water project. Because things (seem) to be going so well, we are purposely taking the morning off and staying away so they can run the system some on their own without us hanging over them.  We return to the church this afternoon for the dedication of the water system and the big celebration.  The children of the church will be doing skits, singing songs, there will be other hoopla, of course, and then everyone there will taste the agua pura.  Should be a great time. Today on our (only) morning off we will visit two other small villages on the lake this morning.  We’ll take a boat over, have lunch in one, and return by boat to our hotel by around 12:30 or so.  We are looking forward to the break.  Except for a couple hours after work at dinner and devotions, we have been working late every night, usually until around 10:00, the women preparing lessons and activities for the classes the next day, the guys with their noses buried in technical manuals and notes and sketches trying to figure out how to solve the latest crisis, and I’m on the phone or computer (I know my wife will be surprised to hear that J) making arrangements, working out logistics, arranging meetings, filing trip reports, etc.  It amazes me how many of the phone numbers that worked here only six months ago no longer are operational, and it takes a lot of effort to reach people.  Do you know that we cannot buy large trash bags here, only small ones like we carry our groceries in?  The printer at the hotel ran out of ink two days ago; can’t get it here.  We wanted to borrow four sheets today from the hotel for our celebration.  Sorry, they will lend us tablecloths, but not sheets; they are low on sheets and if something happened to one, they cannot be purchased here.  5-gallon water bottles?  Nope.  Water tanks (at least the small ones we needed)?  Nah.  Check valve?  Ha!  We had to improvise with other valves.  Oh yeah, and the hair dryer we needed to shrink the plastic around the bottle caps?  No such animal (thanks, Rhonda, for the donation of your hair dryer; I’ll bet they have fun with it after we are gone).  All of these things, of course, can be had in Guatemala City, but that’s a four-hour drive from here. Please hold us in your prayers this afternoon and know that you are part of this wonderful relationship that has been built this week.  This will continue for many years, I am sure of that.  Thanks for all your support. God bless, Mac

Wednesday night, May 27 We have water in the system!  This morning the installation team began testing and troubleshooting the board, running water through the system to test for leaks and other issues.  And of course we found them, as we always do.  While several men were working to repair the leaks, others dismantled the tank system to clean and disinfect both tanks.  Others continued building the bottle washing and rising stations.  We also made some plumbing improvements to their pila (sink) so they now can wash their hands from a spigot instead of scooping up a pan of water.  We will shock the system with Clorox first thing tomorrow morning to fully disinfect it.  Then testing and training the operators will begin in earnest. About a dozen women showed up for this morning’s training classes.  This has been an interesting training, as only two of three women have been here for all the classes.  Every day we have 8 to 10 women in attendance; just different ones.  Looking at the positive, that means a lot of women in the congregation and community are getting some exposure to the health and hygiene education classes.  The two main women trainers are outstanding and have been here for every minute, so we know there will be some very good continuity with their continuing education after we leave. Tomorrow morning several of us will accompany the pastor and elders to visit another undeveloped property they own.  They want us to see it and hear of their plans.  At lunch tomorrow, the pastor and elders will meet with us and a translator to share with our entire team their vision of what they hope to be doing in the future with programs, development, etc.  This no doubt will give Maury River Mission Community countless possibilities for expanding their mission here on future trips, if they so desire. We have been working a lot today with a third translator, a young woman from British Columbia, Canada, who is a member of this congregation and is married to a nice young local man.  It is a blessing for us to have someone who speaks “American” (even though she is Canadian) to help us at times.  She was a very big help to me today as the pastor and elders and I discussed their business plan for the water system.  We are especially grateful for her presence because only a week ago she gave birth to her daughter by C-section. We continue to be made to feel a part of this congregational family.  They are so patient with my pigeon Spanish and do everything they can to help.  Every night after our devotions and de-briefing we are exhausted but glowing with pride and excitement in all that is being accomplished in the name of our Lord. Bendiciones, Mac

Tuesday night, May 26 We all slept well last night; everyone turned in early as all of us were exhausted after a long and exciting day filled with hard work.  Because Guatemala is two hours behind U.S time, all of us continue to wake up early in the morning.  It is great fellowship time, as we all gather for morning coffee and some of us take off to explore a trail which leads along the lake.  People are out early working their gardens, and the fishermen are out in their small boats getting food to feed their families.  The mornings are always beautiful, and each morning has been clearer than the previous one.  We have been very fortunate in dodging the rain; it is the rainy season and normally rains every afternoon, but we have had only one day of heavy rain and one other day of light rain for only an hour.  Every day around 1:30 or 2:00 it clouds over and cools down, and nearly every evening there has been thunder and lightning.  The temperature is in the mid-70s every day. Today our progress has been steady and unimpeded in both the system installation and education classes.  About 10 men are always present to help with the system installation, and the health and hygiene classes are going very well.  The installation team actually completed constructing the system late this afternoon and were hoping to try to run a little water through it, but when they went to do so they found a man on the roof, draining the municipal water storage tank on the roof so it could be cleaned.  We were going to ask him to stop so we could do some testing, but when we looked in the tank and saw the water in it was the color of coffee, we thanked him for his good work and encouraged him to continue draining and cleaning the tank.  Tomorrow will be plenty of time to begin testing and troubleshooting! About 35 children were present today for the afternoon session of the health and hygiene education classes. Skits, cutting and coloring activities, and Bible stories revolving around water and cleanliness filled the time.  Certainly the highlight of the class today was a skit in which yours truly played Pharoah, while a local man played Moses.  I only had two lines:  “NO!” and “GO!,” but in the excitement and anxiety that all big stars must feel in their debut performance, I forgot to say one of my one-word lines in Spanish.  Since “go” in English sounds so much like “no” in Spanish, the fact that I failed to shout “vamos” instead of “go” had all the children of Israel very confused.  Oh well, drama never was my strong suit…… One hundred garrafones (5-gallon water bottles) were picked up today in Guatemala City, a four-hour drive one way.  Two men left at 5:00 a.m. to make the trip and arrived back here around 3:00 this afternoon after a successful journey.  We are becoming much more comfortable in moving around the town when we need to go out for supplies, and everyone is very helpful.  Although this is a town with a population of 50,000, it seems everyone knows each other. Our lunches are always a time of good fellowship.  The hotel delivers box lunches to us at the church, and the eight of us go up to a third-floor patio area and eat lunch with our interpreter, Franklin.  Franklin is an artist who paints beautiful murals here in town and in other towns, and he plays the guitar at lunch and sings songs for us in Tzutuhil, the local language.  Today he entertained us with a dramatic reading of an original poem he had written, accompanied by music on a boom box.  He is delightful and we all love him.  Coincidentally, the electronic translator I always have in my pocket and use frequently is a “Franklin”, and yesterday the pastor noticed that and began laughing.  All week whenever we have needed help we have been asking Franklin, but now we also “ask Franklin in my pocket.”  Today they began referring to it as “Franklin number two.”  The local men seem to prefer eating in their own group in the sanctuary, and the women all eat at home.  We have a great deal of friendly and fun interaction with all of them as we are working, and I think everyone – we and they --  is using lunch as a time to re-group, debrief and plan for the afternoon. We are looking forward to the next couple of days of testing the system and beginning to train the two designated operators.  There will be much for them to learn, including proper recordkeeping, but they are so excited and grateful for everything that we know this will go well.  They obviously are very proud of the system, as we are proud to be here working with our new brothers and sisters in Christ. Blessings to all from Guatemala, Mac

Monday night, May 25 What an amazing day this has been!!  This project, and especially this relationship, is going to be awesome!!  We all can feel it. Today we began actual construction of the system at and instruction in the health and hygiene education classes Iglesia Alianza in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala.  The amazing organization, the level of enthusiasm, and the number of people the church has involved – and in such a short period of time, too – has us completely blown away. On the construction crew, they have 12 to 15 men who are actively participating:  gluing pipes, mounting components, carrying and installing tanks, etc.  They actually had to drive all the way to Guatemala City, four hours away, to get the right size tanks needed to fit in the available space.  They were installed today.  And tomorrow, a couple more men will drive all the way back to Guatemala City, another four hours each way, to purchase 100 5-gallon water bottles (garrafones) for distributing water to the users.  Work is progressing nicely on the system; I think we are on good schedule there. Our health and hygiene trainers began training nine women in the church this morning to be health and hygiene educators, and it went extremely well.  In the afternoon we were hoping to be able to have the newly-trained educators practice teaching up to 30 children, but they didn’t get 30; they got more than 45!  It was a glorious site to see so many children having such a great time while learning about germs and other nasties in water that is not pure.  It was so crowded in the classroom that tomorrow we are moving the H & H classes into the sanctuary.  What a great problem to have. Our two translators are really wonderful – and very necessary!  While a lot of the translation is into Spanish, the translators also are fluent in Tzutuhil, the local language, because all the people understand Tzutuhil and are more comfortable with it than Spanish.  The church is so grateful for our presence and the gift of clean water that they have scheduled special worship services every day this week from 5:00-6:30 p.m., just to thank God for this relationship and gift.  We have made the pastor and the elders aware that this gift from God has been made possible by the generosity of very many people in very many churches in Shenandoah Presbytery.  They continually thank us – over and over and over -- and the pastor said that is why he has scheduled these special services. The church has set up a very organized schedule for us to follow: when we begin and end our work day (8:30 – 5:00);  when we are building; when we are training trainers; when the teachers are practice teaching children; when we break for lunch; when we have to leave so they can have their worship services.  They have a pickup truck come to our hotel every morning – on time, too – to pick us up, and the truck is waiting at the front door for us to load up for the trip back to the hotel promptly at 5:00.  We are so grateful for their generosity and their punctuality and organization. Every evening after dinner we gather for a time of devotions and reflection on the day, and review our plans for the next day.  Our team is growing closer and closer each day, and everyone is working very hard and with much enthusiasm.  This is a great group of people! Blessings from Guatemala, Mac P.S.  For the appetizer at dinner yesterday we had guacamole served with squid ink.  I can truly say that was a first for me.

Sunday afternoon, May 24 A note this afternoon while we have a little bit of down time – likely the only time this week, since we were not allowed to begin work at the church today, it being Sunday.  We had hoped, but…….. Things are looking real good.  We met this morning with Gaspar, the administrator of the school where we were supposed to have installed the system originally.  Veronica went with us and we all were very grateful for that.  It went very well, we parted friends, and learned a lot.  Sure enough, he has built, but only partially, a much, much larger building than was necessary, and it is not completed because he ran out of money.  He hopes that sometime in the future we can work with him, and we did not slam the door but left only a small crack in it.  Anyway, we all felt the meeting went very well, it was very, very cordial, and we have a good feeling about the way things now stand.  I’m glad, too, as this part has been very stressful for me. Immediately after our morning meeting we raced to the church to meet with the teachers, children, elders.  Although we could not do any actual construction today, we did spend a couple of hours there doing some measuring, planning, figgerin’ and head scratchin’ to figure some things out.  Things seem to be working out well, and there certainly is no lack of interest, as they had about 8-10 men there this morning helping to figure things out. The people of the church have been ferrying us back and forth in a small pickup truck; we all stand in the back – about 12 of us.  When in Guatemala, do as the Guatemalans….. We walked back to the hotel, about 20-minute walk, and had lunch.  This afternoon we will be organizing and figuring out more logistics.  We go back to the church at 5:00 to worship with them this afternoon, and then tomorrow we really get started. The weather was absolutely beautiful this morning, but as everyone has told us, and we are now beginning to figure out on our own, around 1:30 – 2:00 every afternoon it begins to rain and it does so for the rest of the day – every day, very hard.  It is 2:00 p.m. now as I write this in my room as I watch the rain moving toward me across the lake; I will don poncho and, if I am smart, a rubber raft to get to the hotel office to access the internet to send this to you after I write it.  If yesterday is any indication, monsoon would be a good word to describe what we likely will encounter every day.  I hope this note finds everyone one safe and well. Mac

Saturday night, May 23 A long but wonderful and very productive day.  The drive to Santiago Atitlan took four hours, with a stop to have a snack of fresh coconut and a couple of stops to look at the scenery. We arrived in Santiago at 1:00 p.m. and had lunch at the hotel with Veronica.  About 3:00 we went to the church and met with the pastor, elders, and several others, about 15 all together.  When we arrived it was cloudy but about a half hour later the heavens opened and it poured for a couple of hours.  As we were (thankfully) riding to the church the street was a veritable river with rocks washed down.  I couldn’t get my camera out in time to get a picture, but believe me, it was wild!  We stayed there about two hours and they are very excited and are going to be so good to work with. Tomorrow morning at 8:00, Veronica, the pastor, and four of us who were here in December will meet with the school administrator [at the location originally planned for the water system] to try to repair that relationship.  We think it will go okay; that story changes day to day, but we now know that he never did finish the building we were to put the water system in because he ran out of money, so we would have really been in a pickle if we had planned to install the system there.  Long story, but things will work out fine. We then go to the church at 9:00 to meet with Sunday school classes and will worship with them tomorrow afternoon.  They will not let us begin work on Sunday, so we cannot begin construction and teaching until then, but we have a LOT of work to do before that can start Monday, so Sunday will be very full for us anyway. All of us are well, and the rain gear got a really good workout today for starters. It promises not to be the last time, either.  We did have a scare for about two hours as one man lost his wallet, but it finally was found in one of the vans we rode in.  Now all is well. I have attached a photo taken from the window from the room Dan and I are staying in.  Shhhh……..   don’t tell anyone how difficult this mission work is. (shown on previous page) Hope all are well.  Thinking of all of you, Mac

Saturday morning, May 23 We slept really well last night.  We all went to bed around 9:00, since on Guatemala time we had been up since 1:00 am.  Woke up feeling thoroughly rested at 3:45, but did get back to sleep.  Some did get up about 5:30; they are two hours behind Virginia due to daylight time. Breakfast this morning is at 7:30, and then we leave at 8:30 for Santiago Atitlan, about 3-1/2 hour drive. Veronica, a friend we work with here in Guatemala, is meeting us at our hotel for lunch at 1:00, and then we will all go to the church at 2:30 where we will be working to meet with the pastors and elders.  I had another nice note yesterday from the pastor and they are so excited; they have 8 men to help build the system (we usually have 2), and they have women lined up to be teachers and children for us to teach, so I think things are really falling into place.  They have already mounted the board for the system and have electricity run there.  They are going to be great to work with. No rain yet, but it is very humid and fairly socked in.  The exquisite view of the volcano towering over the lake that greets us on our airport approach pattern was not to be seen yesterday; that is always an awesome sight and and I look forward to it.  But I am sure we will see many of the other beautiful sights we are accustomed to seeing in this magnificently beautiful country.  I am looking out the window of the room here in the seminary at someone's yard and see an eight-foot tall poinsettia.  You gotta love it! Off to shower and get ready for today's adventures. Love to all, Mac