The last night in Guatemala for OCA 2011

A final greeting from Guatemala from OCA 2011.

We got into Guatemala City about 8 this evening. We were 2 hours later than expected because our drive was a bit more interesting than planned. We left the Decameron in Sonsonate, San Salvador about 9 this morning. Our first challenge was the bridge over the river that separates El Salvador and Guatemala was partially washed out by the recent rains and there were many many vehicles, mostly semis, backed up waiting to get across the now one way bridge. By God's grace (and some negotiating by our lead driver Eddy) the police allowed our vehicles to move up through the line so that in the end it "only" took about 2 hours to get through customs on both sides. It is normally a 30 minute ordeal. We talked to one of the truck drivers that was waiting on the Guatemala side and realized just how blessed we had been - he had been waiting for 3 hours on the El Salvador side before he even got to get into the line to wait another hour or more to go through the El Salvador side. As we were driving away from the border crossing we counted 37 semis waiting on the 2-lane road to go into El Salvador. Yikes!

The next modification to our trip occurred about 20 minutes later when were required to take a detour over a dirt track that barely met the definition of a roadway. Another bridge on the main highway had been completely knocked down by the swollen river running beneath it. We had had a lot of rain, especially at night, but never really thought about the potential impact to our travelling. We bounced along corn fields and meadows with grazing beef cattle and then crossed a single lane bridge which we were pretty sure was built for tractors and pickups rather than semis and tour buses. So we held our collective breath and closed our eyes (except for the driver, of course) and went across one by one, sort of. Drivers in Guatemala have a hard time waiting when there is open road in front of them. Shortly thereafter we rejoined the main highway and were on our way again for Guatemala City. Of course, about an hour out of the city it began to rain again so we had to slow down a bit due to road conditions and increasing traffic. In the end we arrived a little over two hours later than intended.

Once here in the Panamerican Hotel (our lodging one last time) we had a good pizza dinner and a final big team time to recap the trip's highlights and allow everyone to share what they had learned on the trip. It was a great conversation - the students have exeprienced God in so many ways. And now its past midnight and everyone is in their rooms, repacking their bags and (hopefully) getting some sleep. We will be up at 7:30 to load the buses one last time and then have breakfast from 8 to 9. Jaime Lopez, the SEPAL director who is our trip coordinator, is going to present his story, so it will be a wonderful way to end our stay here. Then it is on the airport and the start of our journey home.

Every one is feeling pretty good, although there seems to be a cold starting to make the rounds. Check the flight information Krista provided so you know when and where to find your student tomorrow night. We are all sad to be leaving this beautiful country and wonderful people, but very excited to be coming home to see you all.

If you would like to here more of the stories of this year's trip come to the Missions Fair at Wooddale Church on July 30 and 31. We will have information on our trip and team members there to share their stories. All of Wooddale's other missions activities will be represented as well so it is a great way to find out what is happening all over the world.

Have a good night! We will see you in person in less than 24 hours!