May 25, 2014 Sunday

   We decided to do a Paseo yesterday. We left the apartment at around 7:30am and drove to a place called Tecpan. We guess it has a population of around 25,000. It is located on a mountainous hillside. The day was overcast and a little drizzly. Street signs and directions are non-existent for the most part. As a general rule, Guatemalans love one way streets. This creates some interesting navigational challenges. The majority of the population speaks Ke Chi', an Indian dialect. Most however do speak some Spanish. After some laps around town, we arrived at site. Its name is Iximche'. (E-sim-che) It is a Post Classic era site. There are many ruins uncovered and several still appear as mounds covered with lush green carpet.

This view is looking through the site. This site has many various foundation looking stone remnants.

 

We snapped a foto of this little home. Study carefully what type of materials have been used in it's construction. Corrigated metal roofing, adobe, scrap wood, are among the materials available. All materials would have been found tossed away or discarded by someone. Note the smoke rising from the what appears to be a stove pipe. It is a piece of corrugated metal rolled up to make a tube. At the lower side at the right hand side of the wall, you will note the Adobe block that has been made and used in the construction.

 

These people have to collect fire wood almost everyday. They prepare their food over an open fire inside their home. In many cases they eat what they grow. They have little or no money to run to the  store to by anything. Most of these people are farmers. Some will be found working in larger fields as farm hands. They labor for the day will very little pay.

While we were at the site a group of 16 young people arrived to spend time together and have a little outing. The interesting thing was that they all arrived stuffed in the back of a small pickup truck. This is not an unusual sight in Guatemala.  

Elder Pitcher has given out two Book of Mormons to men who work here in our building. He also gave a copy of the Liahona magazine to one of the men. We saw him later that same day sitting on the cement floor of the garage reading the magazine. This particular young man doesn't work here any more but left to work closer to home and we hope spend more time with his family. Hopefully a seed has been planted. We are trying to find an address or cell number so we can refer him to the missionaries.
   We don't want you to think that all of Guatemala is like what you see here. Life in the larger cites is much different. Size and location just change  the nature of their existence for most. There is a growing middle class. Educational opportunities are becoming more abundant in the larger cities. The positive effects of the gospel in their lives has a tendency to help them have a vision of a better life.
   We love being here and associating with this wonderful , humble people.
   We feel f your faith and prayers exercised on our behalf. We pray for all of you daily.