Last week I told you a little about my trip to Guatemala and how much fun it was to be in a Central American country during the World Cup.
I hope you’ll allow me to continue reflecting on that trip with a few more thoughts from our trip and connect it to us in America as she celebrates her 242nd birthday Wednesday.
My wife and I arrived in Guatemala City less than a week after a volcanic eruption claimed the lives of hundreds of people, most of whom will never be missed or matter to the government there.
The official government total of lives lost is somewhere around 200, depending on what source you look at.
While I was there, I met with a family who had lost relatives in the “pyroclastic flow” that barreled down the side of Volcano Fuego and buried several small villages on its slope.
A young man in his mid-20s named Axel lost his wife, two young daughters and two brothers that day. I met with him five days after it happened, and he was still very much in shock.
Those I met with included a mother and grandfather and several other small children, seven people in all. They were far away from the area when the avalanche of gas and ash changed their world forever. They had just come back from returning to the place where their house had been. I was amazed to see the cell phone video they took, which showed a utility pole buried to within eight feet of its top by the eruption.
Everything in its path was just entombed where it was. There was no hint that anything had ever been there before.
I asked one of them what they planned to do next. Where will they go? What will they do?
They, in unison, dropped their heads as the spokesman for the family said somberly “we have no idea.”
They were staying in a one-room living area that was open to them about 10 miles from where they had lived before – three generations of them. There were only a couple of beds, but these are people who have learned to adapt and cope.
I was asked to pray for them, which I was honored and humbled to do. As I left, the family asked me to remember them as I came back to America.
How could I not? The memory of the face of that young man who lost his wife and daughters and brothers – a blank stare off into the distance – is burned into my memory forever.
I tell you that story because I want to put the things you and I go through every day here in the Warsaw area into some perspective.
During the four days I spent in Guatemala, I saw people sitting along busy streets day after day with no plan. They seemed to have no agenda, there was no sense of urgency.
And you got the feeling the next day and the day after that would look the same.
I met people who were thrilled to have a job that paid the U.S. equivalent of $14 per day.
You can’t relate to that, and neither could I.
You are no doubt frustrated by the railroad crossings and roadwork in downtown Warsaw. Imagine if the road in front of your home was cobblestone, or if it was impassible when it rains because it was a dirt road too steep to travel up and down safely. What if the street signs and driving laws were not enforced?
You might complain that your favorite restaurant hasn’t set up shop here. Imagine if you had tortillas, beans and rice every day for every meal because that’s all you could afford.
Wish your inlaws wouldn’t stay so long during their summer visit? Imagine living with as many as 20 family members in a residence that consists of a tin roof over four tin walls with a door cut out of one side.
Upset because the aspiring young athlete in your house ‘is not being used properly’ by his coach this summer? Get over yourself. Imagine your kids using a sock filled with garbage as a ‘futbol’ to live out their own World Cup dreams.
Complaining that your local, state or federal government isn’t doing what you want or isn’t doing it fast enough? Imagine if your wife and family were buried alive by a volcanic eruption and the government didn’t even acknowledge they ever existed.
I witnessed all that over four days in Guatemala.
Happy birthday America! God has already heaped his blessings on us … what are we doing with them?
