Juhlin Missionaries to Guatemala

On Monday morning I could not sleep so began my devotional and listening to Spanish tapes. Had opportunity to listen to the morning and this is what happen.
6:07 First bird starts singing and it sounds like a shrill hear meeeee hear meeeee hear meeee.
Dogs start Barking
At 6 :12 a noisey volloy of fire crackers lets loose for about 30 seconds. It seems like an eternity. Letting off firecrackers is how they celebrate birthdays down here.

A few more single fire crackers go off.
SOund of big trucks
owe eeee oweeee oweeee
then the pigeons are cooing in the background.
a group of birds show up in the big tree and they sound like a bunch of bamboo sticks being smartly snapped together.
Horns are interspered
eeah eeah ee aa
Well that is my rendition of waking up here.

We looked at vehicles today.
Money movement is a problem. Seems the GOv. burned the old money and the new money has not arrived from canada yet so banking is difficult. For example if we want cash for say 806 canadian dollars (5000Quetsels) We could go to a money exchange write a cheque from an account here in guatemala ( say from a close friend) The go to a bank to get the actual cash. INstead of receiving 5000 Q we might get 2000Q and get this an IOU for the other 3000Q. It's a banking crisis.

Caught myself saying the security systems here are stupid since there is no way anything is secure! Have to watch my thought life on several fronts!

This place is much more dangerous than one thinks and the vigilence required to move around the city is significant. For example before we open the gate we have to peek aroung the corner to see if there are any suspicious characters. Many stories of assults robberies and theft.

We are off now to try and secure a vehicle and set up plans for all the guests arriving for the open ceremonies on Saturday.

I meet Luis my friend who now works for the protected areas program. He will be assisting in the Trees for Global Renewal Program.

Salut