Guatemala 2

Eddie is back! We had the privalege of having him over for dinner before our Bible study group started, so we got some precious one on four time. All of us were full of questions for him.
Eddie is a runner and he has been on a strict diet for several months now and before he left he was concerned about not being able to run alone down there and what the food would be like.
So one of our first questions was regarding his food. He told us his group stayed in the city but worked in small villages. They eat breakfast at their hotel which was cereal or fruit, then would pack peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch everyday, and then eat at one of the restaurants in town that evening. He said they ate at Pizza Hut a few times and Burger King.
Next was the weather. It was very warm down there and he was glad he brought SPF 90 sunblock. Apparently he was made fun of the first day, then he was everyone's best friend the rest of the two week time period!
This groups main goal was to get a roof put on a school in a village. Eddie helped with some of that, but ended up spending most of his time plastering. Apparently they use a lot of lime in it down there and since he just had regular work gloves and not rubber ones, his hands got rather torn up.
Here is a scenario of his first day. We got up and had breakfast cereal and then road the bus a couple of hours away. Upon getting to the work site, we met several people from the village. (this group only had one interpretor so there was a whole lot of nodding and smiling and pointing to things between the group and the natives of that town until the guy got there to tell them what was being said). Apparently the cement and mortor stuff wasn't where it needed to be so instead of standing around, Eddie got the group to find out where the bags of this was so he could at least get it mixed up so they could get the day started. So, the men of the group head up quite a ways to a shed that is holding these bags of concrete. These bags are around 60 pounds each. Eddie throws one up on his shoulder and another in his other hand as do the other American men and head back to the site. Some native women nearby see what is going on and proceed up to the shed to help the men bring the bags down. According to Eddie, these women made the guys look bad. Apparently several of the women put two and one put three bags on her head while carrying a baby nursing! (and beat him down the hill to the site!) He now holds those women in high regard! Also he said that the women often came in and helped out with mixing ect. if the guys stopped to take a break, most times getting more mixed and laid than the guys did! So the women of Guatamala are not afraid of some hard work, and many had smirks on their faces as they trotted past the men! Go figure! The story doesn't stop here. Eddie laid down his work gloves in the shed while he carried these bags to the worksite. On his last trip he retrived his gloves and as he was trotting back to the worksite for a meeting, he slid them on. It wasn't long before he felt something sting him. Jerking his glove off his left hand, a black scorpion beat his glove to the ground. A quick thinking friend squashed the critter and they went and tried to find first aid. THe group leader took him to the principal at the school. The principal gave him two blue pills and told him to sit down and it should take effect in 30 minutes or less. Upon hearing of an injury the locals started peeking in on Eddie. Most wanted to know the color of the tail. Apparently that has a lot to with how quickly you will die..
Eddie said he put the timer to thirty minutes on his watch and as the time went by all sorts of things crossed his mind. He said they kept asking him to touch his tongue as that would be the first stage, the tongue goes numb. Thankfully that never happened. He checked it often though, just to be sure! A few minutes into sitting there, an older grandmther type lady came in and milked the poison out of his finger and wrapped it for him. He said once his thirty minutes was up he hung out a little longer then went back to work! (we were told the locals called him Scorpion King after that!)
From then on out everyone checked their shoes and clothing and gloves before putting them on! Eddie said just for good measure he would pound his with a hammer and give them a good shake!
He met some dear children that lived close by the school and they learned to say, "I love you Eddie" in English. That softened his heart in ways he will never forget.
The group was able to hold some Bible school classes for the children and share the plan of salvation with them.
They toured several orphanages and found one that we will be working with. This particular one is run by three nuns, and they keep it in tip top shape. These ladies want some chickens and some fruit trees from us if at all possible. Isn't that neat? The other ones just wanted money.
There are two trips coming up in June and July to Guatamala this year by our church. Eddie hopes to go back on one of them.
When he was asked if this changed him his reply was, "I knew I would be, so I kept my heart open to such things, these people and the children especially touched my heart, I cannot imagine not going back to help these people. I'm thinking more than once a year."