Wetzel-Mission

Does Guatemala have a 4th of July?

of course - right after the 3rd of July ☺☻

Colomba is a town up in the mountains, about 40 minutes from our house. The temperature is about 10 degrees cooler than where we are. We were there visiting some members when the sun went down.

It is rare to see these sunsets.

On our way to Quetzaltenango there are some volcanos. We have not been able to see them before because of the constant cloud cover. This day was better.

The objects in the foreground are not grass huts, rather mounds of dirt from a dump truck

Nice little town on a hillside. Good place to retire ☺

We went to the temple in Quetzaltenango for the 4th of July

We went with another couple to have some good food (not much where we live). We shared a meter of cut steak and chicken, roasted onions and peppers with salsa. Here our waiter made some custom salsa, adding our choices of things.

She got her hair done. Only 250 quetzales and 3 hours! But she feels way cooler now.

We were invited to a talent night with one of the wards here. It was great! These 2 10 year old boys danced to the music with several old dances, including the twist ☺☻ I will try up loading the video.

Critters are everywhere. We don't mind until they come inside the house.

This guy is about 2 inches long. The other night Vicky opened the gate where we park the car. She bent down to pick up what she thought was a rock, but it was a toad. She screamed loud enough that the owner neighbor came to see if she was alright. By that time we were both laughing pretty hard.

We were invited to have dinner with Adonias, the goat herder in the olive shirt below. They killed the old billy goat (look at pics in May or June).

He blinked. She had her baby 2 weeks later.

Thier kids. The one is yellow will be baptized next week by her father, Adonias

Maria makes torillas on the street. I like the tortilla stove, with the pipe coming up the back. The fire is inside.

I saw these 2 brothers with their kite and asked to take a picture.

Sister Flores with 4 kids and a niece.

3 generations

Drismy, Heidi, and cousin Esmeralda

It is hard to see, but on the top shelf is a whole pig. Each day they come with a new one.

Little Mario's father builds cabinets, wood closets, etc. He built a truck for his son.

Heidi (in yellow) will be baptized this month by her father Adonias, who was baptized in March.

Heidi's mother is learning to read. Vicky was a reading teaching for quite a while.

I know it is not a great pic, but from 30 yards away I saw what I swear was a humming bird,

Cute ☺

Vicky taught the Relief Society how to make bread.

Since most of them cook over fires and dont have ovens, they fried the dough and made scones with jam.

Some of their children

I like bamboo and there is plenty of it here. This bunch goes up another 15 feet above the picture.
They use it a lot in construction. They will build the 1st floor of a house (with cinderblock and cement) then use 8 foot lengths of bamboo to support the cement roof they pour till it dries. Stout stuff.

First time I have seen these flowers

Sunday was our 40th wedding anniversary. Nobody knew, but Vicky got lots of compliments on her hair.

I got my hair done the same day but no one noticed. ☺

William and Nancy have a nice family. The boys are Angel, Bryan, and William.
Nice hispanic names ☺☻

The Elders needed us to drive them up into the mountains for a baptismal interview. I am trying to find a way to take one of these ferns home next year.

We still have another 30 minutes to get to their home.

Elder Garoz is from L.A., Elder Nelson from Canada, Elder Bejar from Mexico

Heidy's birthday is on Pioneer day. They killed 3 chickens to feed everyone.

Sister Fave is a Tongan who lives in Fontana, California. Sister Peguero is from the Dominican Republic.

Today Adonias baptized his daughter, Heidy Celestina Rodriguez Lopez.
It was very nice service. Their neighbor came, along with 2 of his sisters.

Last month I got Dengue (den-gay), dangit. ☺ First I had a raging fever, and my body ached from top to bottom. I checked out dengue symtoms online and was pretty sure that's what I had. I sought advice from our zone leader who told me to get some "suero" and drink 2 packets in a glass of water every 4 hours, along with 2 tylenol. The suero is a small packet of powder that is full of electrolytes, potasium, and other good stuff. It comes in 2 flavors, strawberry and coconut. So in 3 days or so I was feeling much better. Then last week I had a low fever. I didn't feel bad, just the low fever. I also sweat constantly even though I wasn't hot. This week I finally went to the doctor. He is a member of our ward, recently returned from Texas doing Medical training. He is a surgeon, but does family doctor work in the morning. So we saw him on Tuesday. He had some lab work done on me and confirmed I had had dengue, and that I had dengue now - 2 times. He told me to go home and rest. and come and see him in 2 days. Also got some medicine to take, along with more suero. When I returned they took another blood sample. My placettes had increased from 109 to 115. The doctor then shared that I had hemoragic dengue, the worst of the 4 types. But because I was in good shape I didn't bleed or suffer the way some do. Last year the doc's placettes were down to 75 and he was hospitalized for 3 days. 2 days later I feel the best I have felt in a few weeks. So the bad news is I have had 2 kinds of dengue. The good news is that I have had the worst, and I am unlikely to get it again. It is interesting that Vicky gets mosquito bites 4-5 times a day, even with repellant. I get bit just a few times a week, but I got sick, not her (for which I am grateful).

This is our roof. Even though we have a dryer we like to hang clothes in the sun to dry. The yellow house is our neighbor's. Behind the clothes you can see our water tank. We are lucky. A lot of house don't have tanks (the roof won't support it) and they have running water every other day. So the days that they have water is when they wash clothes (by hand).

Every Wednesday and Saturday this lady comes to sell vegetables on the sidewalk near where we live. She wears typical Guatemalan attire - bright blouses and aprons. This is in the late morning and most of her stuff is already sold. This is the best produce around. I like the carrots. They are big, but not woody. As big as a corn cob, but tender and sweet. The potatoes are ok, but small. They would work for seed potatoes in the US.

Most of the time she kneels down with her produce within arms reach. She will offer to rip the tops off the vegetables (like beets, onions, etc) and throws the tops in a pile (to the right). She is very quick with numbers and adds up the amount as she puts things in the bag. Her scale in blue, under the silver pan. In Mexico I was used to kilos. Here they use pounds, and they sell cloth by the yard instead of the meter.

Alma and her son live around the corner from us. She has 2 twin sons about 16 years old. They are very nice boys.

This is a fairly nice pole full of electrical connections. It looks worse than it is. Most of the cables are not 120 volts, rather light stuff for internet or phone service. What ever is left over seems to get tied in a knot and left there for future use.

Simeon and his grandson. I think he is 77. He is a very nice man. He can't walk without the walker. His house sits nexts to the highway and he is usually sitting here watching people and cars go by. Everybody knows him. He has lived here for 25 years or more.

As I was getting in the car I looked down and saw a line of ants, and each one was carrying part of a leaf they had chewed up. It reminded me of the song we used to sing as we hiked in Boy Scouts: The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah , , ,

On May 21st we had a meeting with Pres. Duncan of the first quorum of 70 and his wife. He is the Area president over Central America. These are about half of the missionaries in our mission. We have a lot of Guatemalans, Hondurans, and others from El Salvador, along with a few from Peru, and U.S.
If you click on the picture you can see us better.

Last week we went exploring a little. Took a back road out of town heading north. Along the way I caught a picture of this guy flying his kite, winding the string on a tin can. The kites are made with twigs or straws, then covered with tissue papers, or plastic from garbage sacks.

We live somewhere in the lower valley. Here in the middle of nowhere is a nice soccer field.

These fern fronds are 4-5 feet long.

As we came toward this tree we could see dozens of butterflies flitting around it, looked like swallowtails, but weren't, and some other black and red species.

Same tree. I can't see the butterflies, can you?

Just outside of the town on top of the mountain we found this. The soil here is clay mixed with a lot of sand (volcanic). Most of the work like this is done with a machete. Climbing those stairs would keep you fit.

Near the beach Vicky had me stop so she could take a picture of the house. The whole thing is made from palm/coconut leaves. The walls are split leaves with the green removed, the roof is thatched. The air is able to move thru the house and keeps things cool.

After 5 months we finally saw the ocean. It is about 1 hour 20 minutes from the house.

Vicky said it was nice to put her feet in warm water.

The water is brown for about the first 100 yards or so. Vicky thinks it is that way because of the rain. I think it is brown because there is a good sized river (like the Willamette) that is very muddy that empties into the ocean just a mile or so away.

There is lots of wood, some driftwood, but also lots of twigs, lots of plastic bags, plastic bottles, and flip flops. After we left I mentioned to Vicky that there were not any seagulls.

We went exploring a came across this chapel. I had just asked Vicky if there were missionaries in Ocos (where we are). It is a very small town, but this is where people come to the beach.

It was about 100 degrees this day. I like the 2nd floor - open on 4 sides, with the thatched roof, the coolest part around.

In this small village someone did a nice job with a variety of flowering plants.

These are birds nests hanging from the power wires. Kind of like a long sock, but woven with straw.

All along the highway the trees are trimmed to cover the road, I suppose to provide shade.

Anyone want a coconut?

This is the size of a cantalope. They are not fruit, but the insides are cut out, then used as a water container.

Last month the church had a presentation where the whole city was invited to come and enjoy. I bought this for $65 and played a couple of numbers with some others from the church.

Sister Virginia lives out of town a few miles. After she gets off the bus she walks over a mile down a trail to get to her house. She took us to meet some church members where she lives. She is always in church on Sunday.