El Viaje a El Rosario (The Trip to El Rosario)
While spending through Guatemala in Pastor Freddy´ s van over what our hotel host and driver calls “ las carrateras malas”(bad roads) I decided to take my mind off the wild traffic and rough conditions and practice my Spanish by reading billboards and signs and observing all that came into my changing windshield view of life in Guatemala, The scenes shifted ´from colorful city streets and market stalls filled with people and three wheeled taxis to stretches of cane field, to pastures filled with Brahma cattle and groves of mangoes almost ready for harvest. We passed precariously close to Bluebird School buses retired from school duty and now serving as brightly repainted public busses which link the rural communities to more urban areas. Modern hotels, modern houses and neighborhoods stood in sharp contrast to squatter´s thatched shelters beside the highway. All along the highway people walked or rode bikes carrying heavy loads of firewood or other material on their heads and backs. Children in school uniforms strolled in groups going to and from school. The only people in a big hurry it seemed are those of us zigging and sagging at high speeds to avoid the holes on the carrateras malas!
I read everything from campaign billboards to advertisements for tire repair stations. I was struck by the number of what appeared to be small storefront churches with the logo “Estoy con tigo!” I am with you! This being a mission trip I thought I knew what I was looking at. I commented to Marco about the great numbers of these churches he looked puzzled and then laughed. He said that these were all advertisements for the telephone company Tigo not the Word of God! I think that it may be both!
Lesson learned. Just because you see something and can read the words beware of being blinded by your own frame of reference. Good advice in general and especially good when encountering another culture anywhere in the world!
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