Guatemala Team Reports

(Second of a series about the Marine View Guatemala team’s May 23-June 2 mission trip to the Western Highlands of Guatemala to install 128 stoves in the remote Mayan village of Rio Azul).

I stole a suitcase. In fact I stole two pieces of luggage, with no regrets. My first theft was a few months ago, when I spied a big purple bag on top of our neighbor’s trash bins, soaking in the rain. I just walked across the street and took it. The second was a flimsy fabric-sided old green thing that I snatched from the closet of my parents’ former vacation home a couple of weeks ago. It made many trips to distant parts of the world when my folks traveled, but as they no longer do I figured it was free for the taking. Some of of my mom’s travel jewelry was still inside.

These two old bags, along with six more, each have one more trip in them. Now loaded with supplies, they will mix with our team’s personal luggage as we board the plane to Guatemala this week. They will first be loaded on the plane in Richmond, B.C., be transferred to another plane in Mexico City to Guatemala City then finally make the two-day trip with us to Barillas along roads that have too many potholes to count.

Today was a big day for the team. Six of the nine of us were “commissioned” by the Marine View congregation, at both services in fact. Pastor Jesse Skiffington called us up, asked me to introduce the team, said some words to describe our mission ahead then blessed us with a prayer. For us it was also a chance to thank the congregation that has given so generously over many years to make these mission trips possible. Many outside the church have contributed as well, but without Marine View sponsorship this trip just wouldn’t happen. As I wrote earlier three other churches are represented among our team members: the Packwood Community Presbyterian Church, Rockcreek Church in Marysville and the Iglesia Cristiana LA VOZ Guatemalan church that meets in South King County. 

We set up a model stove and information table in the Marine View fellowship area and covered it with some of the supplies so we could give church members an idea of what we are taking. Then we gathered in a room upstairs where our supplies were stored and started packing.

There was a lot to pack: 130 backpacks stuffed with dental and school supplies for the children, five impact wrenches with batteries, several hundred pair of reader glasses of various styles and strengths (so many were donated that we don’t have the capacity to take them all), 12 solar powered flashlights we’re taking for helper gifts, 128 pair of hot pads, pencil sharpeners, several wrenches and more. This includes the 15 soccer balls that were given to us by my brother Tom’s dental hygienist and about 200 used tennis balls that our friend Eugene Montgomery collects from Decatur High School for just this purpose – he has hundreds more at home and is anxious to give them away to groups that can use them. These balls will make the kids very happy – our practice is to throw soccer balls at random out the window as we make our way to the village to some of the young people we see. The soccer balls we’ve seen them play with on past trips are pretty ragged and dirty. These will be like new to them.

Each of these eight bags weighs close to the airline maximum weight of 50 pounds – had we taken Bibles this year we would have been overloaded. (The Spanish language bibles are waiting for us in Guatemala this year).

We had our last team meeting on Wednesday to go over final preparations. We learned that we are in very good shape financially – so good in fact that we decided to add another $500 to the school supply kitty that was started by a high school student from Vashon Island. The $1200 Libby Scott raised buys 40 student desks and $200 in library books. Our addition of $500 will buy a large water tank for the school so the pupils can have cleaner drinking water, plus another $200 in books. One of our team members chipped in another $250 to buy two teacher desks.

This completes the list of everything the school principal at the village of Rio Azul listed as needs – and all very unexpected as our main mission is to install stoves. While he did not ask for white boards, if any readers would like to chip in for them they are $100 each and we know they’d be welcomed. Funds for more library books are also appreciated. Just let me know for ordering purposes, and donate on the Marine View giving site.

By the way, I did ‘fess up to my crimes to the previous owners of the luggage. They were thrilled that their castoff bags could be put to good use one more time.