Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Tragedy in Chiquimulilla






I just returned home last night from Guatemala. We had a good trip, visiting wonderful friends, seeing dear children whom I love, and successfully completing the closets of the third duples.

On Friday, the 15th of August, we were in Chiquimulilla visiting Anibal and his wonderful school, Evangelico Collegio Shaddai. This is a wonderful school full of beautiful children. At noon we were at our hotel, Los Arcos resting for a while. I decided to return to the school so that I would be there to see Gaby and Luisa, as well as Gaby's sisters. When I got close to the school I found a very large crowd. Two cars had wrecked in front of the school. A scooter was also involved. One of the cars had been sideswiped, and the one who hit it had ended up across the street on the sidewalk right in front of Anibal's (my friend) store and home.

Two pri-school children had been on their way home with the parent of one of them when this accident had occurred. They were all struck. One of the 5 year-old girls was killed, the other injured, and the mother will require several surgeries to restore her legs and other injuries. It was a terrible blow to the school and to my friends. The mother who was injured was the cousin of Gaby, my young friend, so they were at the hospital and I did not get to see here anymore. So, I was greeted by Luisa and gave here the presents I had brought.

On Friday evening, Ruby, the young lady whom I led to Christ when she was 17, came by with her mother and Anibal so that I could have an hour with her. She is doing well. She now is working as a teller at the bank and is making 1800 Quetzales per month, or about $225, a good amount for a young worker.

The next morning we found out that our ride would not be there until 11:00 a.m., as his van had broken down and he was renting one to come and get us.

We then traveled to Antigua, the ancient capitol city of Guatemala where we had a wonderful end to our travels.

Our next adventure of any length will be traveling to Colorado Springs for our granddaughter's wedding. I will post a time or two between now and them.

Our adventure for the winter will come soon. We are planning to spend a month or two in Baja.

More later.

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