Never a Full Bus in Guatemala

By Bruce Shumway, Trinity Presbyterian Church

Today had a usual morning start with breakfast and a twenty minute drive to the Association’s headquarters. We’re traveling in a super, brand new bus that comfortably holds our driver, our CEDEPCA guide, our interpreter and our five intrepid travelers. Well, if we aren’t intrepid yet, we will be by the end of the day. The bus holds ten in it’s initial configuration and we have eight aboard.

We stopped to pick up Yohana, Jenny, Yoli, and Felipa (Association staff and Board members) to join us as we visit communities. Are you doing the math? Oh, there are two fold down seats in the way back and with them down and two full size suitcases of medical supplies piled up there, there’s room! Then Rosario steps up on the running board at the open side door and Cathy quips: “There’s never a full bus in Guatemala.” Her enigmatic smile tells me I’m going to find out what this means.

No problem, Rosario’s not going with us. But what about Eddy? Whew, Eddy seems not to be showing up today after all so the “full” bus is going to work out. We’re off to drop off one of the huge suitcases full of medical supplies at a clinic and now…….it seems we’re picking up Modesta in the first community! BUT! “There’s never a full bus in Guatemala.” Suitcase be d….. darned. I’m all out of fingers and can’t get to my toes to count so somehow, behind my seat, everyone seems to have a place. I’m not going to look.

The first community we visit is Los Gonzalez where they have twelve women in this close-knit, family group. We gather in one large room and Carrie tells some hilarious stories about previous visits to this community where iPhones have dropped out of back pockets and into the latrine and somehow miraculously landed on a ledge and not done a deep dive before being rescued. Way to “break the ice” with laughing and giggling before getting down to business.

From the Association, the members have received support for several projects: cows, trees, revolving funds and ten women have received stoves. After introductions we visited homes around the community to see cows in their covered stalls, chickens, stoves and stores of potatoes. The stops were not all at one latitude, however, and the intrepid visitors climbed up and down semi-paved roads, across fields, and finally back up steep trails “short-cutting” our way back to our starting point.

It was obvious that the women in this community have done great work with their projects and are full of gratitude for the support of the Association (and all of you!). They are grateful for the blessings God has bestowed upon them. We feel humbled in their presence and in their successes that have overcome the sometimes harsh environment in which they live and work.

Our last community of the day, Los Alonzos, had one additional project that we hadn’t seen. One of their tree planting efforts was close by, and we got to do some more altitude adjustment to reach the plot. Seedlings had matured for two years and were observed in an area that had both the soil and climate to have a healthy start.

Even the youngsters take an active part in reforestation efforts and seem proud of their part in their mother’s activity in the Association. “It’s never a full bus in Guatemala” as the young people “get on board” as well.

Lastly, transportation is always a concern in Guatemala – most of the women and their kids walked everywhere while a couple of us “more mature” intrepid travelers needed a lift along the way to change altitude. We climbed in a pick up truck and all of a sudden there were six of us in the space designed for three – apparently there’s “Never a full pick up in Guatemala either.”

Tomorrow we are headed to the AJPU workshop to see how the stoves are made. Thanks for following!