Fue Loco

If there’s one place where electricians are needed it’s Guatemala. The wiring in every house is a fire waiting to happen; thankfully most of the houses are cement! I must tell you of a frightful event that took place in my shower today (no it’s not another cockroach). The showers here are called Widowmakers and are plastic containers with a heating coil inside which are powered by wires precariously strung overhead; if you touch the shower head while the water is running you’ll receive quite a shock!

When I had finished showering I turned the tap off but to my surprise the water kept coming. Streams of scolding hot water began to flow and quickly turned into steam. A number of thoughts entered my mind: Why won’t the water stop? Should I reach for the tap again with the risk of getting shocked? How nice it is to have a steam room, am I going to die in my shower? I tried turning the tap again….nothing happened, and now along with the steam sparks were flying out of the shower. I tried turning off the lights but this didn’t seem to have any effect other then to illuminate the bright red flashes within my shower head. After a few minutes the shower decided to say goodbye to its last moments of life, hung its head, and then it was no more.

Eventful

Well as you may have guessed the lack of entries are due to a lack of internet and not a result of me falling off the face of the planet. I definitely had the disconnected-from-the-world feeling without internet. I am thankful for my cell phone and that I was still able to call home once in awhile.

There are a number of events that occurred in the month of August. We had flooding (a number of the streets were completely covered in water); many homes were flooded as well. It is also important to note that many of the houses have dirt floors, so if their mixed with water they become dirt rivers. Unfortunately there was a lot of damage done by the rainwater. Please keep the families who were affected in your prayers.

There was a carnival here in Tactic, which brought a lot of people and a lot of noise. They set up giant speakers and blast the music really loud to attract customers to their rides. I’m not sure if it was the loud music or the precarious looking rides but there were never too many people on them. Because there were more people then usual (of all sorts) I made sure to be indoors before it was dark (which means before 6:30). The kids didn’t have school for the week of the carnival, not because they were permitted to go, but because it’s often dangerous; this year was no exception. There were 5 murders in the week of the carnival. It’s not exactly the kind of news I like to share, but it is reality.

A couple from the church I am attending had their house broken into. We were in the middle of a church service when some of the men went running out. Apparently they caught the two thieves as they were coming out of the house with their hands full. They held the men there until the police arrived. Now their biggest challenge is to retrieve their things from the corrupt police. The police are holding all of their things until they can bring receipts proving that the items are actually theirs (even though they saw the thieves leave their house).

Well that was August, it was eventful…not necessarily “good eventful”, but nonetheless eventful.