Day Eight - Monday, April 2

We have another leisurely start to the day, but by 9:30 we are loaded into vans & on our way north of Tactic to Coban. Coban is the capital city of this area of the country & it is the third largest city in Guatemala. When we reach the outskirts of Coban, we take a detour east to travel up to the "Grutas del Rey Marcos", the caves at Rey Marcos.

Rey Marcos is a series of kilometre-long caves. National Geographic has been through these caves, mapping & photographing the wonders hidden inside. We don hard hats with a light & over-sized rubber boots and hike up to the entrance of the caves. Everything in Guatemala seems to be uphill! The entrance is about 4 feet high & maybe 2 feet wide, so many of the boys must double over & squeeze inside. Almost immediately the sunlight disappears & we are surrounded by bare rocks looking brownish-yellow under the glow of our headlamps. The rocks are coated with iron deposits from the rainwater that drips constantly from the ceiling overhead. As we slowly climb (again with the uphill thing) we pass formations that look like icing squeezed out by a baker. The passageways we clamber through are narrow with hanging rocks that we constantly bang our heads on. At times we squeeze through openings that lead into larger channels & as we climb we begin to hear the roar of an underground river. Soon we come to a large cavern through which the river rushes, it's movement echoing off the rocks that surround us. We hold onto a series of connected ropes & with carefully placed steps we ford the river and journey on. Soon the sound of the river dies away. We squeeze through one final opening & step into a huge cathedral-like room. As we look around, we can stalagmites & stalagtites. Standing in the centre of the cathedral, our guide tells us to turn off our lights. For the first time in many of our lives, we are enveloped in complete & total darkness. There is no difference between open or closed eyes. We cannot see one another, nor can we see our hands that we desperately wave in front of our faces. Nothing. Is this what eternity separated from God could be like? Some of the group sing as we click our lights on & begin the descent out of the cave. We have only gone a small distance into the caves. Our guide tells us that the caves continue on for another 4 hours into the darkness under the earth. Wow, another example of God's creation here deep inside of a mountain.

We leave Rey Marcos for the short ride to Coban, where we lunch on chicken & fries at Pollo Campero's. It is quite hot today. The restaurant is two story without air conditioning, and we are sitting on the second level. A good lesson is learned about how hot air rises. For some reason, the meal is very slow in being served & we sit baking for almost two hours. Les is concerned over the slow service, because visiting hours at the nearby hospital will be over soon & we are scheduled to go and give toys to the children on the pediatric ward.

Eventually we head out to the hospital. Les talks with us about how many of the local people view the hospital as a place to go to die, so when they are sick, they often times won't go the hospital. As we walk through the hospital, we are struck by the differences from our hospital experiences to this third-world hospital. It's not very clean & there appears to be no medical machinery anywhere. We went into the intensive care unit on the pediatric ward & saw children with unknown diseases. A 9 year old girl who was so malnourished that she looked like a 2 year old. An abandoned 3 month old baby with heart problems caused a great deal of sorrow on our team. We prayed with each family we could, and one of the moms of the sick children accepted the Lord. We went onto the maternity ward & gave away packages of blankets, clothing and toys to the new moms. Nurse Henders & Mrs. Goosen went into the labour & delivery room to pray with two women in labour. Everybody we asked to pray with was very happy to allow us to do so. When we debriefed in the evening, many of the team shared about the hopelessness they felt in seeing the things we saw. Yet Les gave us the understanding that we gave hope to each of those situations & we may not know the good we did until we are before God's throne in heaven. Even if we were powerless to "fix" the problems, we did something, we did what we could do.

That evening, we participated in perhaps the most unique cultural activity of the week. We walked to the home of a local Guatemalan family where we helped make our own dinner. We walked with a bucket of corn to the local corn mill, where it was ground into corn meal. Just in case you're ever in Tactic, here's the instructions to find the corn mill. Follow the concrete path past the barking dog, turn left at the little boy who says "gringo". Then it's over the puddle with the flat rocks, past the tienda, through the gate, and then past the field with the cow. Walk towards the bright light, past the pig barns & then turn left at the house with the 3 guys talking. Cross the bridge, through the goats & there's the mill! It was so easy to follow these instructions that Dr. Garth & Mr. Werth made the trip 5 times without getting lost, so you can too. Upon returning to the home, we washed our hands & learned how to make Tolluyu's. It's like a pizza pop without the meat or a cheese perogie. We made about a 100 & then waited an hour while they are deep fried in oil. The Tolluyu's were served with a spicy tomato sauce & a hot, blended, rice drink (for those of you reading this from last years team, think squash soup). Most of the team enjoyed the meal. Because it was our host's birthday, we sang Happy Birthday in English & Spanish, and had a traditional North American birthday cake.

Back at the guest house, Les debriefs the day & many of the team purchase weaving made by our host family. Interesting day!!