March 2005

Greetings from Guatemala!

We continue to see how different it is to live in a developing country.
This past week water supply –which was always irregular – is even more irregular because the electric company is cutting off power to the water company at irregular intervals! Apparently the water company is millions of quetzals (hundreds of thousands of dollars) behind in their payments to the electric company due to corruption in the previous local government. So when the electric company gives the water company power we get water otherwise we do without or we call in a tank truck and have the tank truck fill our cistern. We’ve had several times in the past week when there has been NO city water to refill the cisterns for 2 days or more! Now the cisterns I had originally piped in last fall for the capability of giving us additional water for use each day are now used as emergency reserves in case water is not supplied at night. I shut off the emergency cisterns first thing in the morning so they can’t refill our cisterns till that evening when I open them again to give them time to fill our main cistern for the next day. At least we will have some water for the second day if the city water pressure doesn’t refill the cistern at night.

In Canada and the States we NEVER give it any thought that there might be no water when we turn on the tap. Here we’re pleasantly surprised if the water lasts all day!

Yes, as Charles mentioned, living in a developing country is different and calls for flexibility. Yesterday I decided to make pasta for supper. I opened a package of still sealed spaghetti, but, as I emptied the bag into the boiling water, I discovered with surprise, that little black “bugs” floated lifelessly to the surface. What should I do?
Throw the whole batch out and try again with a new package (which, most likely, would be infested as well), or continue with the dinner preparations and ignore the bugs. I chose the latter. After all, by now the spaghetti were cooked and the bugs disinfected.

What really surprised me, though, was James’ reaction to the extra “protein”. “OK. Before we eat, let’s just pick out those crawlies first.” Keith’s comment was, “After I am going through my spaghetti, just add sauce over all the noodles. That way, if I missed one or two bugs, at least I won’t see them when I eat them.” Jonathan’s request was, “Please put the critters onto a separate plate, instead onto the rim of my plate.”

Well, friends, what do you think? Are adapting to our life in Guatemala, including a more primitive lifestyle, or what?

May God bless you richly in all the work you do for Him.

Love,
Charles & Petra Wirrell
serving at the Christian Academy of Guatemala