So many times in this last month I have taken a time warp.  When I was younger, Little House on the Prairie was one of my favorite series.  I read the books, watched the series as well as other shows like Christy.  As I rode through town on my old school motorcycle, and nearly missed a chicken running across the road and then watched a young girl scoop it up and put it in a bag without hesitation….. I was reminded of how I used to visualize things like this in my mind and now it is a reality.  I went to the tailor to get alterations done and bought rice by the pound in market.  There are some days here that feel like a time warp.

We have also experienced these life changes in the school, in the way education is done and nursing is done.  We are constantly asking ourselves, how do we raise the level and yet keep the Guatemalan system.  How do we do it with integrity and hold the students to a higher level?

What do you do when someone comes into clinic and is in need of a surgery that we cannot offer here?  We do what we can and pray.

What do you do when the roads are blocked with protests and you need to get to the city?  You suspend your trip till another time?

What do you do when the electricity is out for a “planned” power outage ?  You go to bed early 🙂

The stark differences between two cultures that are extremely different are evident the longer that I live here.  Likewise, there are things that I notice less and less.  I am accustomed to people urinating wherever or riding in tuk-tuks.  I am accustomed to 28 people loaded in the back of a cattle truck or adobe houses.  I turn my head when I see a new truck in town.  And many of reversions to a simple life and now every day life.  There are fewer choices to make – because they do not exist.  And so we live this life and ask for patience every day to endure that which comes at us challenging our faith.