Conference Weekend in Senahu

Saturday morning we left at 7 AM to head northeast into the jungle area of Guatemala for a Stake Conference in a stake that is only six months old in Senahu.  There was an accident blocking the road before we even left the outskirts of Guatemala City so we were slowed down about two hours.  John is a very speedy driver anyway but he was going even faster to make up time on the winding, curvy roads.  I was having great difficulty keeping things down.  Then we started on the road that they had warned us about.  We drove for over an hour on a bone-jarring, deep mud puddle, huge pot hole road.  That did in my stomach and I was pretty miserable once we got there and checked into our hotel.  The other three went to dinner and I laid down and by the time they were back I was feeling great.  I got dressed for the Saturday night meeting and could hear John out in the front area chatting with a young boy.  I went out to see what was going on and found him getting his shoes polished.  This little character was such a delight that he made far more per pair of shoes than his requested
 1k ($.14).  His little hands were so black that I wonder if they will ever get clean.  We had many other little boys pester us about polishing our shoes during the two days but none were as cute as he was. He counted to 10 in English and Spanish for us. 

Our room was very basic with cement painted walls and floor, two single beds, one light bulb but very clean and comfortable. We had hot water for our shower.  The entryway and gardens were beautiful.  

The Stake Center was just across the street.  I was in shock. It it a full sized, if not larger than most building.  It and the Catholic church are the only two large buildings in town.  It had beautifully padded benches, pretty tile floors and most everything (no organ or refrigerator in kitchen) that you would find in most Stake Center buildings.  It is probably about two years old.)

To add to the shock of the size of the building (remember we had just driven there on a pot-hole filled mud road and most of the homes were huts with palm leaf roofs or the fancier ones were cement with cut out windows and doors but nothing in them)  We were amazed that that most of the building was filled for the Saturday night meeting and back to the stage on Sunday. Local members took those who had traveled distances to their homes (I would guess very small but closer to town) to spend the night. 

I wasn't able to really get good pictures of anything but the size and quality of the choir were amazing.  On Saturday night the Sisters wore green huipiles (beautiful, detailed embroidered tops) and the men wore ties with green in them.  On Sunday the color had changed to red.  They sang on tune with all four parts covered well.  It had to be several times as big as most Stake Choirs here.

Everything was either spoken in Kekchi (the indigenous language of these Mayan people or translated from Spanish.  I spend several clueless hours but enjoyed the music and felt the Spirit. Mike was able to bear his testimony at the priesthood meeting.  He spoke in English, was translated in Spanish and then in Kekchi.  He said that the spirit was very powerful.
I kept wondering as I was looking around during conference how all of those beautiful furnishings and traditional LDS meetinghouse trims, etc. made it there through those roads. (We went home on a much better road--my answer.)    Sunday Session

                                                  I borrowed this page from Larry Jenson on June 5,2018.  He shows the things that I wanted to capture but was not able to.  (Thanks Larry!)

    

Chris had brought some of the temple dresses and slips that the Temple was discarding for the endowed sisters to have their own dress.  I held this little boy while this young mother tried on her dress.  It was quite the thing as the sisters chatted and pointed at me holding the child.  She is wearing the traditional huipile and cortez (skirt).

After conference John told the Stake President that we needed to hurry on because he didn't want his wife to have to feed the four of us.  We were so blessed as we took a different route home.  For one thing the road was MUCH better and was even paved at times.  When we had drive about an hour and a half we the road was blocked going to a bridge.  We were told that it was being shut down for repairs and that it would be two weeks before it was open again. We would have had to backtrack about an hour and then take the horrible road again.  We had just seen a water truck pull onto the bridge so we knew that it was passable. John got out of the car and walked over to the foreman on the job and asked if we couldn't please get through.  I'm sure that because he was dressed well, spoke Spanish well etc. we were blessed.  They had the water truck back up and let us and two other cars drive across.

The water in the river was a beautiful color that I wasn't able to capture too will in the moving car.

We drove on occasionally passing through little town with scraggly dogs, little stores full of soda and chips and soda and chips and soda and chips, and a few other things.  Suddenly John was turning into a spot named Rio Dulce hotel on the Largo de Izabel.  I'll let the pictures do the speaking except to say that both dinner and breakfast were some of the best I have ever had anywhere.

It was raining when we got there and the rain was still dropping off the thatched roof as we ate but it was dry and comfortable.

This is just a sample of the color and kind of flowers around the place.

As we began the drive on Monday morning we passed coconut trees, palm oil trees, and fields of banana trees.  To our surprise the Normans took us to Quirigua, a national archaeological site (late 700 AD)  that has been uncovered near a river and in an area of banana fields.  It was an amazing place.  (We were given a calendar for 2018 and this picture was included. ) The roads through the banana fields where loaded with semi trucks with every brand of banana we know pasted on their trucks. 

  It has 12 carvings, the largest is 35 feet high, 5 feet wide and 5 feet thick and it was carved wit one piece of stone.  It weighs 60 tons.  They are fascinated that these stones were transported from distant quarries but are not sure how.  One of the things that makes this area uniques is that it has remained largely undisturbed over time.

I didn't get wonderful pictures but will include a few. Apparently another 1/3 of the carving is still under ground,

 

                                                              Mike loved this table.

When we left there we started the drive home.  It was simply fascinating how the climate changed.  We were in the jungle/rain forest and within hours we were seeing cactus and dry, dry ground.

We were going to fast to get a shot of the cactus but this is the territory where they are doing massive road construction.

It was simply amazing all of the different and wonderful things we saw, learned and enjoyed in those three days.