There is a reason I always say.."this is not a trip for "A" type personalities. First all two weeks after reserving a coaster bus...somewhere between and van and a bus....the owner calls to let us know he has already revered it for someone else that day so we only had one other option and that was to hire two vans in order to fit 18 people in. One of those picks me up for our 3 hr ride to the city. We arrive safe and sound at the airport a little before the first group to arrive at 11:30 AM. So much fun seeing so many familiar faces retuning to Guatemala. The majority of this group are those who have been here with me before. Maybe that says I'm getting better at not offending people...we can only hope.
Once we have gathered everyone from the airport and loaded all their donations..which requires a pickup along with the 2 vans... we head to Hotel Barcelo to gather those who arrived a day and some two days earlier. I have divided the group so that I have the majority of the newbies in my van.
A couple minutes after we are on the road the driver gets a call from the other van...there is a problem. I have to call Sharon of MF to translate to me what is going on. We turn around and go to the gas station where the other van had stopped to get more gas, since it wouldn't have made since to do that while they waited over 2 hrs. for everyone to arrive, and it turns out after much discussion and translation they have put gasoline in a diesel tank. Just like Oregon you don't pump your own gas here so it was not the drivers fault. Thank heavens Sharon had Eric, who was driving the MF pickup, come be with us. Eric is a driver for MF and I know him well and even though we speak different languages we can communicate. He understands just enough English and I understand just enough Spanish, then you throw in a few hand signal and we are good to go.
Tanks are drained, filters are cleaned..all of this with much discussion....the problem is taken care of. So two hrs. later we are on the road again. Thank you Laurin to have the sense to use your time wisely at the hotel to go buy beer for everyone to have on the road trip. We needed it for our wait at the station.
We get to the hotel in Panajachel none the worse for wear, unload and get checked in, which no matter how much advanced planning is still always total chaos. The hotel had a tray of Mojitos waiting for us and by this time I had to have two of them.
Two MF pickups came to pick us up for the ride to Sharon and Dwight's home for a lovely welcome dinner. Zoe, who is Sharon and Dwight's oldest daughter, had invited one of my sponsored students, Belsar, to have dinner with us. What a treat.
Everyone got returned to the hotel and I went home for some much needed sleep. Monday we will hit the ground running.
Once we have gathered everyone from the airport and loaded all their donations..which requires a pickup along with the 2 vans... we head to Hotel Barcelo to gather those who arrived a day and some two days earlier. I have divided the group so that I have the majority of the newbies in my van.
A couple minutes after we are on the road the driver gets a call from the other van...there is a problem. I have to call Sharon of MF to translate to me what is going on. We turn around and go to the gas station where the other van had stopped to get more gas, since it wouldn't have made since to do that while they waited over 2 hrs. for everyone to arrive, and it turns out after much discussion and translation they have put gasoline in a diesel tank. Just like Oregon you don't pump your own gas here so it was not the drivers fault. Thank heavens Sharon had Eric, who was driving the MF pickup, come be with us. Eric is a driver for MF and I know him well and even though we speak different languages we can communicate. He understands just enough English and I understand just enough Spanish, then you throw in a few hand signal and we are good to go.
Tanks are drained, filters are cleaned..all of this with much discussion....the problem is taken care of. So two hrs. later we are on the road again. Thank you Laurin to have the sense to use your time wisely at the hotel to go buy beer for everyone to have on the road trip. We needed it for our wait at the station.
We get to the hotel in Panajachel none the worse for wear, unload and get checked in, which no matter how much advanced planning is still always total chaos. The hotel had a tray of Mojitos waiting for us and by this time I had to have two of them.
Two MF pickups came to pick us up for the ride to Sharon and Dwight's home for a lovely welcome dinner. Zoe, who is Sharon and Dwight's oldest daughter, had invited one of my sponsored students, Belsar, to have dinner with us. What a treat.
Everyone got returned to the hotel and I went home for some much needed sleep. Monday we will hit the ground running.
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