Episode 02 - Working with a Short-Term Team

Good day, this is Dr. Stan the Missionary Man, podcasting to you from Tartik, Alta Verapaz,

Guatemala.

So, I'm at the Guatemala airport right now, and we're just meeting up with the second

team I'm going to be involved with, and say hi Jessica.

Hello.

So, it's me, Jessica, Les, and Eric came here, we spent the afternoon here.

Eric and I actually got pulled off the road by a car.

By some policemen, and anyway, they just wanted to check us out, and maybe see if they could

get some money out of us, I guess, but the guy who came to my window was, well, he was

drunk, and so he had some interesting questions.

I just feigned ignorance of the language, and so, yeah, sorry, no habla espanol, and

I use my dictionary a lot, so, yeah, it was pretty funny, it was pretty funny.

Anyway, Eric's such a jovial.

He's such a jovial guy, they let us go without any problems, but they asked to see my passport

and stuff.

Anyway, so the last time I was here at the airport was about a week ago.

We dropped off a group of men from New Brunswick, and had a really positive experience with

them, and anyway, we were riding to the airport early in the morning from Antigua, and it

was, yeah, I felt kind of sad, because I felt like I should be leaving too, I felt like

I had spent a month in Guatemala.

And now it's time to go home, and, but, yeah, that soon passed, and it was kind of fun to

say goodbye to them and know that I was going back to Taktik again, so.

Oh, well, I'm at the seminary, it's, I don't know, about 7.15, I guess, in the morning,

and we take teams here after picking them up at the airport, because it's pretty late

at night, and this is a pretty, this is a pretty secure place, it's just nice and safe,

quiet.

You can drink the water from the tap, and just nice to be able to give them a good restful

night before sending them to work.

Yeah, pretty good team, 19 people from northern BC.

I was chatting last night, hey, I've actually got wireless, a Wi-Fi system here, so Les

and I stayed up late last night chatting and reading, listening to the news, that kind

of thing online.

I was chatting with Carl, my buddy, who works for an organization called C.A.R.E.D.

He's working directly in South Africa with the AIDS epidemic and the fallout from that,

and, yeah, it was pretty good to chat with him.

We haven't connected for a while, and he sent me a link to the Rolling Stone interview with

Bono, so that was good, and you guys got to read that, I don't know, if you enjoy reading

Rolling Stone.

I don't know if you enjoy Bono, but either way, read it anyway.

Hello.

Can you speak Spanish enough to one of these young fellas?

Go for a walk and get a shovel?

We'll dig a trench here and just get rid of this water and dry out.

Buenas.

Bienvenida.

We're in Puro La, in Baja Verapaz.

This is the department just south of Alta Verapaz, where Tactique is.

Yeah.

We have a team of 19 Canadians here, and we're about to put on a children's program that'll

run for four days.

Is he going to get one?

Yeah, he's going to get two.

All right.

We're just tracking down a shovel here so we can get rid of some of the water in the

yard here so the kids can play soccer.

Yeah.

Is that a recorder?

Yeah, I'm recording.

Oh, yeah.

I've got a podcast.

A broadcast?

Yeah.

I have a little radio program on the internet.

Oh, yeah.

Once a month.

And so, yeah.

They're just setting up, and there's already probably about 20 kids, and we're only supposed

to start in about 15 minutes, so Les said we could have anywhere from 20 to 1,000 kids,

so sounds good.

Right, Les?

Right.

This is going to be great.

Yeah.

Here's our first batch of kids.

Yeah.

First presents, really.

First anything in Puro La.

Let's see.

There you go.

Great.

Thanks for watching.

Bye.

See you.

Bye.

See you later.

Bye.

Okay.

Bye.

So kids are coming. There's, I don't know, probably about 45 kids now, 45 kids.

And there's still kids that can see them on the paths coming here.

And a lot of people are looking outside of their houses.

The school overlooks, it's kind of on the side of a hill,

and it looks down a hill and at a facing hill and a facing mountain.

And so, yeah, we kind of have a great view from here.

There's banana trees and little gardens, and there's a basketball court.

Yeah, it's quite nice.

The school we're using right here is actually owned by the municipality

and has never been used.

It's been standing empty for eight years,

and the municipality wants us to put a school here.

But there's a problem that the sewer and the water is not cleared for safety.

It's not usable, actually.

So we're trying to get rights to put those in if they would give us a school,

since it's just sitting here.

And since the municipality really wants a school here,

we're thinking that that might happen.

The municipality will also help us get us permission to operate our school in Chikoi,

because Chikoi is also in the greater municipality.

So, yeah, here we are in Purula.

I never thought we'd actually do that.

We didn't do much in Purula, because it's a fairly large town,

and it's about a half hour from Taktik,

and it's, you know, we have enough work to do in Taktik and in the surrounding villages.

So, yeah, it's kind of neat.

We're kind of duplicating here.

If all this works out, pretty exciting.

And he did not use Saul's arms.

He didn't use his armor as protection.

Y tampoco usó la armadura de Saúl.

So they just finished the David and Goliath skit.

And we've got over 150 kids here, and they're still coming.

And probably about 40, 50 adults.

And, yeah, we could end up with 250 kids and 100 or so adults.

That should be pretty good.

This is just the first day.

Ha, ha.

So it's kind of exciting.

We came here two days ago,

and we split up into four groups and walked in four different directions,

just passing out invitations

and just inviting people to bring their children to this program.

And, yeah, we'll see.

This is the first introduction that we have in Purula,

and we hope to have planned a school here.

It could be in January.

We'd have to hurry up and get a sewer system set up,

but at least a children's program.

It's very, very exciting.

We can see God's hand moving here.

It's pretty awesome.

So they have over, I don't know, probably close to 200 kids now.

Anyway, we've got them running relay races here.

And it's pretty funny, because I don't...

You know, my Spanish is sketchy at best,

and so they had me translating the rules of the game.

And then I'm thinking,

I only think about half these kids understand as much Spanish as I do.

They all speak Pocomji.

So that was the first day.

We're going to skip over to the fourth day,

the final day of the children's program.

Oh, man.

So we've had quite the...

We've had quite the morning already.

We took the vans and the team here to Shashin,

the top of the mountain,

and we showed them where the Mayan corn god is honored

in the Catholic church there at the top of the hill.

And anyway, we went up there and we prayed.

And then on the way down, the Toyota,

the brakes just kind of not seized up, but they overheated.

And the engine was overheated as well,

and so it wasn't...

It wasn't responding, and so we finally got it to a stop.

I mean, you got to understand, this is a steep, steep hill.

It's at the top of a mountain, so...

Anyway, so I was driving.

A little freaky, but it was all right.

We got it to a stop and then let it cool down a bit,

and then Les drove it to the bottom of the hill,

and I got into the other car.

And so then we got...

They filled up the radiator and stuff like that,

and so it seemed like it was all right.

The brake fluid's up.

Anyway, then I drove the Kia here,

which is in Purula,

and we were already 20 minutes late for the children's ministry.

And so we have half the group,

and then the other half, their vehicle conked out.

And so they split into two small vehicles,

and they're still on their way.

But a lot of opposition, it seems.

We're running into a lot of stuff just getting in our way,

getting this to happen.

It's been pretty amazing.

We've had over 200 kids for...

This is the fourth day and final day,

and they're distributing little packages of treats to all the kids,

with toothbrush and a little bit of candy

and a little baseball cap and a toy.

You know, it's really neat.

This team's really put a lot of thought

and collected a lot of stuff to give away, so...

Pretty cool.

Yeah, I'm really...

I've been really touched by this ministry here.

This is our first step into this community,

and this is the amazing thing.

Yesterday we got word that the director of education

that had denied us authorization to start a school in January in Chicoy,

which is in this same community,

he just told us yesterday that we had authorization to do...

Buenos dias.

Que tal?

Bien, bien.

Ah, gracias.

¿Qué está haciendo?

Ah?

¿Qué está haciendo usted?

Sí, es un cámara.

Pero ahora yo engravo una...

Solo, solo mi...

Ah, ¿está grabando?

Sí.

Yo hablo.

Ah.

Sí.

¿Habla...

¿Habla en español?

No...

Ahora sí.

Pero antes...

¿Qué?

Sí.

Un poco.

¿Y van a la... a colegio?

Sí.

¿Aquí?

Bueno, no me dio duda.

¿A dónde?

No sé saber.

No se sabe.

¿Por qué?

¿A Cobán?

Oh, es lejos.

¿Qué año?

Ah, segundo básico.

Segundo básico.

¿Y usted?

So, a little embarrassed at the Spanish...

No, no, no.

I can't really speak Spanish.

I really can speak better than that.

But, anyway.

The third of the three guys I was talking to at the end didn't go to school.

There just isn't enough schools and he can't afford to go to Cobán to attend high school,

which is more like junior high.

So he's not going to school.

He works at a little convenience store in Purulá and he's probably about 14 years old.

The other two travel...

It would be about an hour to school.

from where they live just to attend junior high

because the junior high does not exist in Purula.

It would be great if we could provide that someday.

Right now, as it stands, we're looking at opening a school in Chikoi

as long as we can finish the bathrooms in time

and possibly operating a children's ministry

or like an after-school tutoring thing in Purula.

So, yeah, it's actually expanding quite fast.

We're looking at adding over 100 kids to the sponsorship program in January

and then in subsequent years we'd be adding more than 100, about 150 every year

because we'd be opening new schools every year and new grades in each school.

So, yeah, pretty exciting.

Now we're going to be in Antigua.

Antigua, just the day before we send this.

Team off.

So in 1976 there was an earthquake here.

¿Cuántas miles de personas murió en esta?

En 1922.

22,000 people were killed in all of Guatemala from the earthquake that happened in 1976.

22,000 people.

¿Y cuántos perdieron sus casas?

Unos 40.

He says 40,000 people lost their homes.

It was quite a disaster.

And so there were some buildings that were kind of on the edge like this

and that earthquake pushed it over.

In 2002 there was a tremor and that was kind of the test to see if this was all working here

just to hold it all together and it stayed put.

I was here, we were living here already when that tremor happened.

And I don't know if you're familiar with that, but in Almolonga, 90% of the people are born

again evangelical Christians.

The jails have all closed, it's a city of churches, almost all the bars have closed.

It's an amazing thing.

So they came here to go work against that.

So there's this mix of Mayan religion, witchcraft, and Catholicism, and it all happens here.

So go and have a look.

So what you see when you go down into the, into the city, you see that there's a lot

of people.

You go down into this cave.

It's under the altar in the biggest cathedral.

Yeah, it must be the biggest cathedral that was destroyed three times over in Antigua.

That's a major tourist destination.

It's actually under the protection of UNESCO.

Anyway, you go down into this cave and it's where for decades, probably hundreds of years

actually because this is when they were constructing the cathedral where they sent to the local

Mayans to worship so that they could be worshiping under the umbrella of the church.

Anyway, what you see down there is a black Christ with tons and tons of coins all around

him.

And he's black because of the candle smoke.

And so this is something that's regarded as quite sacred, the candle smoke.

So everything's covered in this really thick soot.

So I just wanted to clarify a few things.

You know, the Mayan religion and Catholicism was mentioned a few times.

So I just wanted to clarify a couple of things so that people don't think I'm a judgmental

bigot and all of this.

What I see here in Taktik are some problems and these are directly linked with a lot of

their spiritual beliefs and practices.

And so we just want to bring kind of clarity to the people that are suffering.

And so what we see is severe alcoholism.

I mean, you have fathers selling their wives pots and pans to buy alcohol and then coming

home and beating their wives or cheating on their wives or abusing their children.

This is a major problem.

So you have lots of broken families, a lot of superstitions, so they'll go to the local

Mayan priest.

And get him to renunciate a curse that was supposedly put on their home or their garden.

Or go to the priest for a blessing and make a generous donation when already these people

are quite impoverished.

And alcohol is a huge part of the festivities, the Mayan festivities.

Now where Catholicism is implicated in all this.

Is that.

These people who are practicing their Mayan beliefs are also practicing Catholics.

And we see this as a real problem because the Catholic Church is not denouncing much

of this behavior.

The alcoholism, the unfaithfulness, worshipping all these other gods when, you know, Catholicism

you're supposed to be worshipping one god.

So the Catholic Church is not doing that.

The Catholic Church is not doing that.

And in fact, many of the traditional practices, polytheistic Mayan practices are practiced

right in the church building.

Or in conjunction with it.

It's very interesting.

So, in Taktik, these two are blended in many ways.

And if you want me to unpack that sometime, email me.

I don't want to bore everyone with my rant.

Or have I been? Oh, no.

Anyway, we'd love to hear from you.

You can email me at zawk at zawkistan.com,

that's Z-A-A-K at Z-A-A-K-I-S-T-A-N dot com.

And you can go there and check out videos of my family and my baby

and pictures of what we're doing down here.

Anyway, this is a group singing from Canada.

Just before they left, they're in the basement.

Actually, they're in the root cellar of an old convent in Antigua.

Just wanted to give a shout-out to Tay, Amber, and Alan,

whose birthdays are successively the 27th, 28th, and 29th of November.

Happy birthday.

Hey, have a great December.

We'll talk to you again at the end of the year.

Blessings to you. Bye.

Thank you.