Here is a second picture of the Mayan woman.

Here is a pictures of the woman that this poem is written about: The second picture is of me in Guatemala with a local artist and picture we bought to remember the area.

Mayan Women

Mayan woman smiling on the street
Begging for money, flippers for feet
Same woman smiling has no legs
Little wonder on the street she begs
Hands are hardened, they work as feet
A kind of leapfrog without legs so to speak
I walk by rather fast
A casual glance at flipper feet that lasts
As I walk by tiendas in the people’s market
Buying this buying that but cannot forget
I will give her a five on the way back
Walking to our casa on the homeward track
I hand here a five and ask for a picture
She smiles rotten teeth and I sense a mixture
Of feelings, glad to see her smiling
But confused about a culture and crying
inside for ways to help the living and the dying.

Hi Tim here
The picture is of Sheila and I with little Esther, now an American citizen.
The other day I had to get to the Vocational School before seven. Unbelievable traffic at 6 in the morning. I was following behind 5 chicken buses and the black diesel smoke was so bad I could not see.
Because the sun is up at 5 and it is dark at 7pm the whole country has adapted to the light. At 10:30 PM the place is pretty quiet and at 6 am is very noisy. School starts at 7am.
With the nice days I am still thinking sun until 10, a nice evening fishing at Alison Lake, but no, my life is reading, studying, or watching the idiot box by 7 PM. Hmm may have to change that.
Our bible study is going well. It is all in Spanish so is great listening practice. Just discovered that the dealership where we purchased our vehicle belongs to someone in our study group. Another couple were connected with Deb and Ernie in the choosing of plants for the William Cornelius. Another fellow is an agronomist working on special fertilizers and I will be touring with him at some point looking for synergistic ideas for the William Cornelius. One couple just gave us an NIV Spanish new testament on disk, so now we can read our Spanish NIV's and listen to the tape.
Found a classified ad section for musical instruments. Flutes sell in the local music store for 4800 Q and in the classified there is one for 800 Q. Anyone wanting to buy this for the Vocational School Music program should drop us an email.

Purchased a 5 piece drum set and extra cymbal and stand. Still need saxophones, flutes, clarinets etc.

Have a hundred zucchinis growing in the garden. All the extras will be going to the kids at the school to take home.

I am working hard at Spanish every morning with tapes, flash cards, book exercises, reading and trying to talk Spanish during the work day. It is a 5 year challenge for sure.


Well by for now.
Tim

Hi

Weekends are the hardest. Being away from family and friends a real challenge. Here is a picture of me with Baby Esther who is now an american citizen. She sure is a doll. We have a grandson about the same age and our son says people are always trying to hold him. We will hold him next year having missed a good part of his first 2 years.

I found a 5 piece drum set with cymbals and stands and the whole thing cost less than 1900 q which is less than 300 dollars. Will pick it up on Monday at 11 AM.

Our first bible study was interesting. About 20 people all in the 40 to 60 range. They appear to be at about the same social class as us which is good. Funny how in Canada this would never be an issue but down here there are just places we cannot not go to for safety reasons. For example we were going to attend a smaller local church but found that there was no protected parking so it was out of the question to leave the car out on the street. We need a church with guarded parking so where we attend now is fine.

By for now
Tim

Hi

Here is a nice picture of Sheila helping out with an English class. There was a donation of easymix brownies so the cooking of them became the focus of one english class.

I was assisting with guitar during a music class and heard some heavy drumming. It was a student with sticks who was beating on the case for a trumpet because he had no drum set to use. Well I am now looking for a set for the school. Funny I put out a call for instruments in a previouse newsletter and received one comment but no donations of instruments. There just has to be many instruments sitting in closets that no one is using. Do email me at tsjuhlin@gmail.com if you have an instrument to donate to this budding program.

We will be attending our first bible study with a group in San Christobal. I am finally getting the Spanish so hope that most people in the group do not speak English. Will let you know how this goes.

On a personal level we are doing well. We are basically locked in each night by 6:30 because it is dark. Health wise we are both fine. Sheila is a hot number having lost weight and I am trying to put some back on... just kidding .. but it is true that if we do not find some means of additional exercise the weight may soon return. My Asthma seems to be very tied to my allergies so if I avoid eating out, canola and soy I can breath fine.

I will keep adding to this site as life unfolds.

All the Best
Tim

Hi Again Tim Here

We are having more difficulty now than we had in Antigua with adding to this blog site. It seems that the internet is pushed to the limits from noon on. This means that for us we have no internet in the afternoons or evenings. This is proving to be very frustrating. I should tell the internet company that I will only be paying my bill part time and will choose which month I will pay on time. I guess that would go over like a lead ballon!

Communication is proving slow and a constant challange. My phone ran out of minutes a week ago and finally today it was triple day for Tigo (our provider) so now I have 600 minutes on my phone for 200 Q or 30 dollars. We are not sure what it actually costs to phone home. Sometimes a long distance call is the same as a local and sometimes (I suspect when everything is working) we are charged a higher rate. So I will be making a number of calls to family in the next few days.

Still working on a coffee plan and Trees for Global Renewal but each is requiring input from others before we can move ahead.

I spend plenty of time in our garden trying to nurture the melons and squash. Most everything else did not germinate. Only peas and beans are growing great guns but I see lettuce all over the place. This means to me that I planted the seeds too shallow and the heavy rains and birds have dispersed the seed.

We visited the large Guatemalan family west of Antigua and brought them some food again. Walked up the hill to look at their gardens. I will download some pictures and get them on the site soon.

Tim