You didn't hear it?

Monday June 4, 2007
What do you mean you didn't hear it? Surely everyone on this half of the globe heard it! Let me be a little more specific.... I'll start with the bells last Thursday night that rang for TWENTY continuous minutes from the Catholic church that's on my block. I'm told that they ring on the last Thursday of every month for 20 min, yet nobody can tell me why. Joy! Then, starting mid-day yesterday, there were loud blasts that sounded like cannon balls being shot in the vicinity of the same church. They continued until sometime during the evening...sometimes one after the other...sometimes taking a break for 20-30 min. between firings. The noise from the "boom" was so loud that it kept setting off car alarms...now that's loud. And we won't speak of how many dogs suffered (and then in turn the humans listening to the dogs). I'm told yesterday was a celebration of one of the saints (sorry I'm not up on Catholic holidays)...but more importantly...the firings were to remind everyone that the celebration of Corpus Christi is only 4 days away...Thursday. So, this was just a warm up. I can't wait!!!

Antigua seems to be returning a normal...the public buses are running again. Apparently one of the really bad gangs here has been threatening the public bus drivers and telling each driver that they had to pay 1000 Q to them every week, or they would be killed. Last week, a driver and his assistant were killed by one of the gangs when they didn't pay. Therefore the drivers went on strike (and I don't blame them!) But there are lots of common everyday folks that depend on the bus service to get get to and from market and to other jobs. It's quite a hike to get to the next "bus station" (just a place, not a building, where the buses gather) which is not on the way to anywhere. So it takes more time to get to the bus and it means longer on the bus and one additional bus change, which means leaving earlier and returning home later, and also means more money for the extra fare each way since it at least one additional bus transfer.

I understand this sort of thing is common place everywhere in Latin America. Currently the police are supposedly riding some of the buses, but we all know that it's only a period of time until the cycle repeats itself. The private buses seem to not be affected. I wouldn't have known about this news if it wasn't for a teacher mentioning it to her student, my friend. (Especially since I don't understand the language enough to overhear the local folks talking, and don't have access to a TV.) Likewise, if any world wide news isn't important enough to land on the top line of the Google page (Mon-Fri), then you can assume I don't know about it. Please feel free to enlighten me.

Another thought about the struggles of the people here...or for that matter anywhere. When it's rainy season here (for 6 months of the year), how do some people survive? For example, there's a guy just a little young than me, who shines shoes for a living. He sits on a short wall next to a highly visited Catholic church. I pass by Lewis every day. Certainly folks have become accustomed to seeing me come and go each day. Lewis has uncontrolled epilepsy and can't afford to buy medicine. I've seen the evidence of blood on the ground when he's had a seizure and assisted back to his house. I've seen the splits on his forehead from where he fell forward off the wall during a seizure. Lewis is not the brightest crayon in the box...understandably. When I asked him, he says he can't do any other job because of his health limitations. Everyday when I pass him, he tells me he's hungry. However, I usually see him eating some little bit of something around mid-day. But on the 3rd consecutive day of rain last week (mentioned in a later blog post) he approached me saying that he didn't have any customers that day, didn't have money for bus fare, and hadn't eaten. My got told me this was true. He hasn't ever directly approached me for money before. I gave him enough for a meal and the bus ride home, but it caused me to wonder how folks like this survive the rainy season. (By the way, Lewis was thankful for the money and hasn't approached me for more since then.) There are so many people, street vendors of food, trinkets, etc., that depend on tourists. I suppose some don't survive. There's the other lady beggar lady that I see nearly every day. She wears work gloves on her hands (probably given to her by some good hearted person) and drags herself around, skirt and all. Now trust me, I do understand that this is a universal problem, far from being isolated to this area. But still, my mind ponders their plight and my heart breaks for them. But what can be done?
I am so blessed!

By the way, we had gorgeous weather this weekend. No rain Sat, Sun, and the first half of today...really a rarity in rainy season. And it was actually in the 80s yesterday and today, which is quite a change.
I send my love out to all of you.
Deb