Back to Sipacapa

I´ll try to keep it light after my soapbox earlier today. I am writing from an office at a school in the town of Sipacapa, having spent the day meandering from San Marcos to here. I say meandering because it involved slow roads and several stops along the way. We stopped at Tres Cruces, the village we lived in for many years, which is the village in the photo in the letter I sent out prior to the trip. Our home, an adobe building with a tin roof, had been a one-room schoolhouse before our time, and as it happens, it's a school again, this time for kindergarteners. The teacher unlocked it and let me in to have a look and take some photos. Apart from several new buildings in the village, electricity and running water, and serious road work underway out front (pavement, yeehaw!), the place took me right back to our days living there.

We visited Mario's mother, and I gave her copies of a couple of photos, including one of me with her family, taken probably twenty years ago. Mom, Dad, and Josh - she sends her greetings. Heidi - sorry, she doesn't remember you as well.

Continuing on our way we took a slightly out-of-the-way route, which circled part of the mine from a distance, so I got out a few times and snapped some photos. Upon arrival in the town of Sipacapa we went to the municipal building and up to the mayor's office where the city council was in session. We took a seat in the back, but when the first matter of business was concluded, the mayor held out his hand and said, ¨Timo!¨ I said hello, and then it became clear that I was to go take a seat at the front of the room and speak with him. I hadn't planned on speaking in front of city council, but it's Latin America, so you roll with the punches. The mayor said he remembered my family and me from back in the day, and I told him what I hope to accomplish and that while I'm here to listen to their stories, I'm also here because the mine and the community of Sipacapa are part of my own story. He said it was an honor to have me visiting again, and I thanked him.

Then they passed out bottles of soda, and I chose Tiky, a super-sweet pineapple drink. As I sipped on it I thought back to what was probably the last time I had Tiky - a school party in the eighth grade when I brought a two-liter of it, banking on the fact that no one else would want any. I was right, and I was subsequently sick to the stomach. But today that bottle hit the spot.

I appreciate your continuing prayer as tomorrow is a big day for interviews, Lord willing.