Arriving in Guatemala

Hola, Como esta… Arriving Guatemala at about 9pm local time on 27th October 2005, I was very excited and happy to meet up with JoAnn again. It has been almost 2 years since we last meet each other in Singapore. She seems to have lost quite a bit of weight.
I was warmly greeted by her good friend in Guatemala Claudet and her pretty daughter Alejandra. Claudet was cooked a welcome Guatemalan Beef stew for my arrival. I must admit that me being a fussy eater, it really tasted delicious.

Since my arrival to Guatemala, almost everyday there are activities lineup - visiting Antigua, and the victim form the recent hurricane storm, and meeting different friends and contacts of JoAnn - attending gatherings and party.

We visited Antigua with 500 years old history, this is a former busy city of Guatemala but now it had became a one of the tourist attraction to visit and learn Spanish language, which is also one of my intention to come to Guatemala.
Somehow, maybe I was so used to space given me for 3 months when I was in USA. When we took the public bus to Antigua, I was kinda agitated or uncomfortable as witness by JoAnn. I assured her to give me sometime to adjust myself to the culture and lifestyle here. I must say that the Latino people are very warm and friendly. Their greeting is to give you a pat on your cheek and a light hug, regardless of genders.

We were invited to attend Rosario’s son 18 years old graduation party. Kind of a new experience for me, so different from the party we used to attend – whereby there are a buffet of food line up to feast on. Here the emphasis is on chatting and dancing with family and friends. Anyway, many of the guest did not turn up or came very late. And I was very hungry, I actually thought that I going to have a feast, so I only had brunch in the afternoon. But the dinner will only be served later at 9pm. Oh no! What a culture shock! Anyway, I had some fun later part of the night when I began to do some latino dance with the host.

Sunday church, JoAnn preached in Spanish and tried to interpret for me in English. It was a good message on Faith. Met Donald, a very passionate and powerful worship leader. He is one of JoAnn most faithful member and leader in Church. Infact, the church consist mainly on him and his family. Praise God, this Sunday we had some additional members 1 family and a member came, so the total attendance was 10. One of my purpose of coming to Guatemala and spending at least 2 full months here is to support JoAnn and her ministry here. And praise God she agrees to my suggestion to organize a 3 days Youth Life workshop. Basically, I will be involving in the whole process of creating the program and the running of it. Please pray for us in this new venture we will be undertaking. Our vision for this workshop is To see the young people in Guatemala being set free from their inner fears, self esteem being build up and to reach for their dreams. Will share more with you as it progress.

After service, we took a cab to Claudia´s house JoAnn friend in ministry, she is a very beautiful and faithful follower of Christ, to stay overnight. Her father pastor Avelino, is very involved with the poor ministry and this time, they will be making a trip up to the recent storm affected area to give out food and clothings supplies to the poor and needy.
And we will be going to help with the distribution and prayer support.
Actually, Pastor Avelino used to run a Feeding Children program for the poor family in his church vicinity, but because of the lack of funds. The program had been stopped for the last couples of months. So here I plead for any of you who is wanting to make contributions and make a difference in the life of these children, do let me know as I would like to see this work continues.

There are just so many needs in the world out there in the 3rd world nation. We are so blessed to be living in the 1st world nation like Singapore, blessed as a nation. Let’s remember that there are poor and needy people out there for us to lend a helping hand to.

On 1st November, 2005, was All Saints Day, we were invited to Claudet´s well to do influencer boyfriend Ricardo’s very Spanish looking villa for lunch at Antiqua, we had a special dish call Fiambre – this is a cold dish filled with varieties of meats and vegetables. It was good dish to try for the first time. Later we drove down to get the famous Pumpkin pie for desert and super. Somehow, although, I do not speak Spanish and they speak very little English, there were just a lot to talk about. They shared with me about their vision to set up a Organ Transplant vision for the poor people in Guatemala. This is a project I really want to see them succeed. I will share more details in my next blog.


my email: joydive@gmail.com