Progress

Yesterday a transformer blew in our neighborhood, leaving us in the dark until about 9:00 pm. We always say we would rather live without electricity than without water, but now that there is no city water, we need the electricity to pump the water out of our cistern! At least we can still pull it up with a bucket if needed. I think a letrine would be handy about now.

But the lights came back on last night and are stable. Yea! Nothing like a good flushing toilet!

Things are moving slowly here in the way of repairs. We have seen several commuities trucking in pipes for water projects, so there's hope. We keep hearing about the woes of the water committees going to talk to the people in the region where the mountain springs are (in the bordering department of Totonicopan). Apparently, those towns are not very nice, and traditionally try to gouge prices for land and water rights. Well, they too suffered an awful lot of damage from the storm and haven't had any help from their departmental government(Totonicopan) or local mayor. So, they came to a meeting with their heads down asking forgiveness for treating everyone so badly and asked the Chichicastenango towns to ask our mayor for help with machinery to dig out their roads. The committee members were Christ-like in their behavior and agreed to help them instead of giving them what they deserved. I'm sure God was proud of them.

Today we head to the capital to pick up Dr. Alvillar. We will get a first-hand view of the highway situation. Buses have been passing through, but it is down to one lane in many places. They hold traffic from one lane as the others pass for 10-15 minutes. Just like the good old days before our superhighway!