Good Evening

Just had some corn bread to die for. I always wondered why people like that, now I know. The receipe used is different than Sheila's.
Today we ventured onto the streets with the Ford Expedition a rather large vehicle. Seems big but with all the crazy drivers I like having the mass! I will tell you one thing the motorbike operators are suicidal!
Anyway we headed out with good directions made an early wrong turn and quickly arrived at a sign saying we were leaving Guatemala City. Looking down I realized that the vehicle had 1/8 tank of gas so drove until finding a station , picked up 200 Q of gas 21.66 for regular per gal. then started back for home. We started over found our mistake and arrive at the William Cornelius in a mere 1.5 hours . Not bad for a 20 minute trip!! Boys I think you might like driving here, vehicles have the right of way and everyone looks at you funny if you stop to let them cross. I did this for 3 pedestrians on my right and 8 heavily armed soldiers on my left. Big guns and little people!! You can ride a little on the wild side and it is normal.

The William Cornelius Vocational Training Center will be open for business on Jan. 15. and they will start with 30 students. The place is a buzz of activity in preparation for the big service to be held next Saturday. We will post pictures before heading off to language training.

Saw an old man walking. He had sewn the back end of his pants so many times I was amazed. He picked up some sort of a large bag with a harness and walked off with the load on his back.

Some people are paid by missionaries a wage equivalent to $10 per day, and they work 6 days per week. They are happy??? I ask it as a question because it seems to me that they accept it because it has always been that way. Me a big gringo would like to change the wage so that a better standard of living is available to all however the problem is systemic. If we were to start tomorrow paying someone say the equivalent of $5.50 per hour guess what would happen? Word would get out and that individual's family would be in jeopardy (I am not talking the game) with someone assaulting them or holding them for ransom. Systemic problems such as this do not go away easily and it is my belief must be dealt with by changing the culture one person at a time. It is our hope that we can improve lives and begin the needed changes.

It is surprising that when required to speak spanish I am almost unable to speak what I do know. Like learning the guitar I could for a long time strum the strings on cord but as soon as called upon to do so in public I became a fumbling ninnie. Well I am looking for breakthroughs and am keeping up my language cd learning.

Have a great Sunday and I will try to connect tomorrow night.

Oh I bet your wondering what a Quetzel is worth? 7.75Q = 1 USA dollar. and 1.21 canadian dollars = 1 us dollar(6.61Q=1 Canadian $). Have fun converting the prices.


Tim Juhlin