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February 20 Day 5

Today, we had to pack up and leave the Backpacker Hotel our rustic “home away from home” on the river. Ludwig, our friendly and safe driver, picked us up for our ride to Quirigua’. It is the location of some preserved ruins of an ancient Maya City. The grounds are beautiful and we had a perfect day to walk around and marvel at the Mayan culture. Elaine and Vic especially enjoyed this and were amazed to learn that these ruins date back to 400 AD. I joined up with some birdwatchers from California and got to see a very rare bird. So far on their trip in Guatemala, they have identified 195 different birds. After our history stop, we headed down the crowded highway for our next meal which was Guatemala’s version of KFC. We understand it is our only “fast food” meal while we are here and we all agreed it was superb. When we arrived back at the center, Rosemary and Lubia were waiting to share with us. Rosemary has received a scholarship for several years from STDG and has completed high school. She is gorgeous and intelligent and her dream is to go to design school. 

 

It is paramount that Rosemary gets educated and secures a good job because she will someday have to support her family and her three physically handicapped sisters. Her gentle mother Lubia, who looks much older than her age, currently cares full time for her 3 adult daughters who have a horrible disease and their health is deteriorating. In addition, she tries to supplement their income by selling food on the street in their dangerous neighborhood where they average 2 murders a week. This family is sponsored by a Lutheran Church in Casper and their money helps buy milk and diapers for the girls and pay for medical treatment. I hope our Wyoming neighbors know their help is deeply appreciated and greatly needed. Rosemary has  had a scholarship from a family in New York. It was impossible to hold back the tears when Rosemary and Lubia talked about their lives and the love and respect between them is obvious. It was truly an emotional time for all of us!

We ended the day on a bright note as we sat out on the upper deck overlooking the glorious city lights and watched the lunar eclipse. It was spectacular and we thank Ed for calling us as we are really clueless about what is going on in the world or for that matter even what day it is. We haven’t listened to any news and we would love it if we come home and find out the war has ended and our courageous troops are on the way home. For now, we will continue on our journey here learning more about the numerous amazing entities of Sharing the Dream and meeting more people who have been greatly impacted by the generosity of those who have contributed in so many ways.


Go to February 21