Accidents happen....

Well, the beginning of Semana Santa (Holy Week) wasn't quite what we expected. Bill and I ride the KLR 650 that belongs to the mission into Antigua (about 8 miles of twisty road) every weekday for Spanish lessons. With gas at almost $5 per gallon, it makes so much more sense to ride than drive.

Yesterday morning, we were in Antigua, and heading down the main street into town. We were in traffic, as always (work starts at 8:30 in most places, and it was 8:10) and  this car pulled to the right side of the road, going slowly. Bill moved to the left and just as we approached his rear bumper, the car made a left hand turn in front of us without using his blinker. We were not going fast, (it doesn't pay to go fast on cobblestones) and we started sliding as Bill tried to avoid the car. We went down low side, and slid probably 15 ft. Bill had his left shoulder rolled back as we slid, with his knee dragging the ground. Bill's head just missed the concrete base of the light pole. I was able to avoid everything but the light pole. The bike slid into the side of the car with it's front tire. No, the car didn't try to avoid us. He didn't even slow down, and Bill made eye contact with him as we connected.

Someone helped me get the bike off Bill. I have no idea who it was. Then I grabbed my phone and started making calls. Our director, Randy, was 40 minutes away. I called our pastor's wife, and Mike was there within 10 minutes. He called the insurance company for us, and then called the assistant pastor to come and translate.
Antigua has a group of people called PMT, and they are like reserve officers. They do a lot of traffic detail. Several of them showed up, and soon the "real" traffic cops showed up. The man who caused the accident spent an awful lot of time trying to blame everything on us. The bomberos(EMT) showed up and checked Bill and I over. Bruises on our left hands, Bill's shoulder is strained, and his knee...it looked like a 15 lb shot put by the time we got home. We were able to witness to the bomberos while we waited for the insurance guy to arrive.

We waited, and waited, and waited. Our insurance person arrived, and started to sort the whole thing out. Eventually, we told him to pay the man for the damage to his car (we never did see his insurance person) since it wouldn't raise our rates. The insurance man cut him a check on the spot. The pastor rode the bike to the church and called his mechanic (they both ride KLR 650's as well) to come get it. The damage (gear shift and handlebars replaced, fairing reattached) will cost us approximately $65 to repair.

We'll be back on the bike as soon as it's repaired. God blessed us in innumerable ways yesterday. He is good all the time. Most accidents don't turn out nearly this well. It's obvious to us that God had His hands all over us yesterday.

God Bless y'all!
Lisa

Solar lights and more....

Oh what a great week! Even though I started out with a migraine on Monday (darn cold front!) we packed a ton into 4 days.  The gym, a trip to the city, Spanish lessons every day, and to top it off, we installed two solar bottle lights.

The solar bottle lights are so ingenious. A two-liter bottle, filled with filtered water and a splash of bleach (to keep the water fresh); a piece of corrugated tin (called lamina here), silicone, tin snips, and a power drill with a hole saw is all it takes. The drill isn't necessary, but lots easier!

Many of the houses the Guatemaltecos live in are made of corrugated tin. Walls and roofs both are lamina. Construction is done piece meal as funds are available. Many of the houses don't have windows because believe it or not, even at 15 degrees latitude North, it gets down close to freezing. I think we saw 35 degrees this year.

If you don't have windows, then you don't have light in your house. Electricity is dangerous, expensive, and not always available in Guatemala. But...you do what you have to. In the typical Guatemalan house, the idea of an electrical code is an imaginary, fleeting thought.

This week, we installed two solar bottle lights in our friends' house. They have 1 window and it's not in the kitchen/bath. So...we made a difference for them. It'll save them money, and I won't spend my nights worrying about their safety.  Check out the pics below!

Never boring....

Whee! Since my last post, we've taken 18 more days of Spanish lessons, ridden the KLR 650 15 of those days (plus a couple of extra trips) and felt like the wind was going to blow us away more than once. We have trees that are well over 50 ft. tall all around us, and they sway like there is nothing to stop them from falling over.  In some cases, they do fall. On the way home  from church today (we had the mission pickup, as the wind was gusting well over 40 mph) we came around a curve to cars stopped in the road. A tree had fallen onto the power lines and snapped a power pole in two. The tree, the power lines and the pole were all in the road. One lane was completely blocked, and the other was partially blocked. As we were waiting to take our turn at skirting the debris, the lines arced together and exploded, not once, but twice. The vehicle that was two places ahead of us hit reverse in a hurry!  We cautiously skirted the debris, and saw the police arriving as we went around the next curve in the road. Had it been any longer, we might not have gotten through for several hours.

I know we've described the power situation here many times...but it is flat scary! They pull the lines by hand, and if a new meter is installed, the line is just strung along all the others, and across, and on top of....so entertaining. Power outages are common here...I wonder why! :)  The power was out when we got home today from the tree falling...even though that happened several miles away.

We are busy with our Spanish lessons. No one ever told me learning a new language in my forties was going to be this hard! We are both making good progress though. Vocabulary is more a case of memorization, and the structure? Don't get me started. I will learn it though. I have to in order to do the work God has called us to do here in Guatemala.

I think I hear the oven calling me...chicken enchiladas tonight. YUM! I'm gathering typical recipes from Guatemala now...look out...you may find that I ask you to buy a cookbook! :)

God Bless y'all!  Keep us in your prayers, and if you are able to contribute financially to the work we are doing here in Guatemala, please go to www.mvi.org/donations fill in the appropriate information, and then click the field coordinator box and write in "Rileys" in the blank.

We love and miss y'all bunches!
Lisa