First Morning in Guatemala

We're closer to the airport than I thought! An hour or so after I turned out the light (maybe 1 or so this morning) a large plane flew overhead! Sounded like it was going to land on the hotel. On the other hand, around 4 this morning, before the traffic kicked up, I heard some great bird calls - some I've never heard before. Enjoyed that and look forward to more.

And thanks to something we take for granted these days I've been listening to Positive Life Radio this morning as I'm getting ready - the Netcast at www.plr.org. Nice to hear the familiar music. Although when Steven Curtis Chapman's "Cinderella" came on this morning it made me miss my two little girls at home. My morning worship today was listening to "Breath" by Micheal W. Smith (among other great PLR songs!)

I can tell I'm at a higher elevation (about the same as Denver) and we're going even higher here in a couple hours and will be at 11,000 feet for a few days.

We head back to the airport in a couple hours and fly to Quetzaltenango. This afternoon we'll visit the Bethania Student Center, at Pasac I, Cantal, 10km south of Quetzaltenango. It's a small community of about 1700. Half the adults there are unemployed. Some work in factories and earn the equivalent of $75 a month. It's a mountainous community where a typical house is constructed of cement floors, adobe walls and sheet metal roofs. The primary ethnic group and language is Quiche.