Home for the Next 10 Months

Hello all,

As mentioned in the last blog, I have made my way to Cobán - which will be my home for the next ten months or so. The city has about 50,000 people or so in it. There is very little nightlife as it rains daily in the evening. Not as bad as it sounds though. It is great weather the rest of the day, creating a very green and lush landscape year round. The actual city is nestled in a ravine between several large mountains. The Caribbean and Central American plates actually split the city down the middle, a perfect equation for disaster – though little activity has been prevalent for twenty five years or so (minus weekly tremors!). In my room I am sitting at 4, 150 feet – the only reason my place is bearable as the altitude means cooler temps, but more importantly NO snakes or mosquitoes (not sure which one is worse…).

The actual compound I am in is relatively nice when compared with its surroundings, but unfortunately that is not saying much. I am trying to convince Fr. Bernie to replace the sharpened glass bottles on the security wall with barbwire, but will probably not happen anytime soon. There is a lot of potential though! There are currently several buildings clustered throughout the square block compound, but there are several more under construction. By mid January this year, there should be two brand new educational buildings up and running. The buildings have space for several classrooms, a media room, kitchen, dinning facility and dormitory area for 150 students coming down from the aldeas (mountain villages – primarily Q’eqchi’ Mayan). This has everyone very excited and I will provide pictures soon.

My living quarters are very modest but acceptable. I have a single bed, a desk, closet and my own bathroom with shower! The monks living here are very nice. There are fifteen in all. Three from Blue Cloud Abbey in South Dakota, the remaining are from throughout Central America – including two Q’eqchi’ Mayans. Only one native monk speaks English, so learning Spanish and a little Q’eqchi’ has become a must to interact. I’m learning a lot. I quickly learned one of the monks is a marathon runner, so I have been running with him. He speaks no English, and I speak limited Spanish at the moment, so our runs provide the perfect “mobile classroom.”

I will be going to my first futbol match tomorrow night, and then visiting our building project in the mountains on Monday, so check back in for an update in a few days, friends.