Travels, Travels...

Hey yáll!
Lesson of the day(s)...patience and flexibility.
I left the States early Wednesday morning, and watched a nice sunrise as I took off from Louisville. A stop in Atlanta, and then, in a matter of hours I was in Guatemala again. The weather was the same, warm and humid, but the classic developing world smell of diesel exhaust hung in the air as I left the aeropuerto. Actually, Guatemala City Airport has been remodelled extensively this last 1/2 year, and is quite modern and comfy these days.
Out of the Airport I caught a taxi to get to the bus station. I always have a fun time in the taxis, because usually I´ll have a good conversation with the driver, them speaking english and I speaking Spanish. I´m surprised to find that after not practicing spanish for a month that I can still do ok.
Got on the bus, and relaxed for a couple of hours. Guatemala looks different this time around- everything is nice and green from the rains. Eventually I ended up in Zacapa, and stayed the night in a cheap hotel...probably a 1/2 star rating if not less. But, it was only for one night as Melanie was coming to pick me up on Thursday, and then we´d head up the mountain.
Or so I thought. On Thursday I met up with Melanie, who had bravely descended the mountain, only to hear that unfortunately, there were some funeral arrangements to make. Very sadly, one of the students from Matasano had been hit by a car the day before, and had died later that night, likely from head injuries. After making all the arrangements, with the help of Carlolina (the pastors wife) and Charlie (one of our good friends in Zacapa) it was no longer sensible to drive back up the mountain...it was evening and it had been raining hard that afternoon. In the end it was better that we were in Zacapa Thursday, we were able to help the greiving familiy and hopefully give them some sense of consolation.
So we stayed an extra night in Zacapa, in a much better hotel (I think the hotel from the night before is a ónce only´deal...) and today we´ll head up.
All in all it hasn´t been too bad. In Guatemala nothing is 100% cerain, so I´m always ready for a slight delay or change thrown in. As I like to say, that´s part of the game.
Patience and flexibilty...great ´talents´to possess. I think of people in the Bible who had these- Christ, with his disciples, needed a lot of patience. They never ´got it´when he told them important things. Paul, he was certainly a flexible fellow, continueing his ministries whether he was in prison, or kept from visiting the various churches. There are tons of other examples I could bring up, but that could take a while. For now...I´m glad to be back in Guatemala. Not everything goes as planned, but that keeps things interesting.
OK, up the mountain we go!
Koos