Spring 2008

“Spring Greetings” from our home to yours’!

Besides keeping busy with our regular activities of teaching auto and wood shop classes, helping fellow missionaries with their car problems, volunteering at a home for mentally challenged adults, we are currently also involved with helping a local family to get back onto their feet.  Charles will tell you more about Arnoldo’s situation.

Arnoldo was the guard at the school gate when we arrived and had been the gate guard for about 10 years.  He is also a tailor which he was able to do while there was no one to be let in or out at the gate.  In his off time he drove a taxi which was enough to make ends meet.  He and his wife have three boys, the youngest one of whom has a medical condition that requires expensive medication.  Here in Guatemala public school is available only to grade 5 after which folks need to enroll in a private school.  Obviously 5^th grade is not sufficient to make something of ones self.  Arnoldo has enrolled his boys in school beyond 5^th grade and is struggling to make ends meet with his current job as well as his wife’s job.  He is currently driving the TransMetro bus but was not paid for the first 3 months of work during his trial period which further makes things difficult.

He had been driving his car as a taxi but it is in very poor condition.  He was often faced with the dilemma “Do I do an oil change on the car or buy medication?” or “Do I fix the radiator or send the kids to school?”  This has lead to the inability to continue using the car as a taxi.  Currently, the costs to get his car into a safe working condition, is excessive even here in Guatemala.

We’d like to see if there is someone up north who might have a car that they would like to donate to Arnoldo so he is able once again to provide sufficiently for his family.  Here a taxi is NOT a big car.  Most taxis are the same size as a Toyota Echo or other small car.  The ideal vehicle for a taxi here would be a white Toyota Corolla or Echo four door sedan with a manual transmission or similar type and size of vehicle.  Mid-‘90’s or newer is easier and less expensive to import to Guatemala as they prefer having newer vehicles coming in.  The body condition is not as important as the mechanical condition.  There is no smog check here so if you have a suitable car that doesn’t pass smog but is otherwise reliable that would also be suitable.

If you have such a vehicle that you would like to donate or if you’d like to help in other ways to bless Arnoldo and his family to allow them to make ends meet, please e-mail me and we can discuss what  the specific requirements are to get the car from up north to down in Guatemala.

You can see some photos of Arnoldo and his family as well as their living arrangements and his old car.

Please help to bless Arnoldo with the means to adequately provide for his family by obtaining a newer reliable vehicle to use as a taxi and getting this car into Guatemala.