Mom lost some sleep over the weekend worrying about Vincent’s arraignment Monday (turns out that we should have been more worried than we were). When I talked with her Sunday, I managed – inadvertently – to make her even more worried about my Guatemala mission trip which starts this Friday (in two days), more concerns about security (robbery, kidnapping, carjacking, arrest, etc.) than malaria, or what Stephanie faced: blood clots. I’ve done something to try to prevent malaria – since we’ll spend three days in the malaria risk zone – taking anti-malaria medication, spraying most of my clothes, bags, and sheets with a substance called Permetrin (pictured above and below doing this this past weekend), and bring strong 30% DEET insecticide to apply to my skin. Of course, it turns out that I might have been (and still could be?) at risk of having to flown back to the United States for dental surgery.
Now, it is true that all of the guide books say to avoid flying into Guatemala City after about 2 p.m. and don’t linger at all in the capital city. And we’re flying in at 9 p.m. Friday and spending three days in the city! Still, we’ll be picked up and will be staying on the campus of a Mennonite seminary a little outside of town, run by a woman who served as a missionary (then from Honduras) among those in my church in 2004 (Soila). We’ll also be with a woman (Ellen) who was a Presbyterian mission worker in Guatemala for 11 years. And pastors local to the remote area we’ll spend half our time in will be shepherding us through that area (even though buses do get attacked in that area and North American tourists were killed while on Lake Izabal about a year ago). One of the people traveling with us has led dozens of mission trips to another Latin American country (the Dominican Republic).
I told Mom that the three main things I’m worried about the trip: staying individually with a family and negotiating a draft written partnership agreement with presbytery leaders – that both of those things go well. And I’m worried about SCABIES – tiny microscopic insects that are worse than bed bugs because they can survive for months and are very hard to get rid of (I got them twice before, originally from someone who had been traveling in GUATEMALA). To get rid of them, you have to ruin most of your clothes and you have to pour tons of toxic chemicals on yourself and you frequently while working on this pass them on to others. Pray that I don’t get scabies.
Another worry: Mass layoffs are expected at the Presbyterian Center this Friday – while I’m en route from Cincinnati to Houston on the way to Guatemala. And although I am reasonably hopeful I will not be among those laid off, you never know (recall I came oh so close to getting laid off three years ago), and certainly lots of people I know – people with whom I’ve worked, people from my church or in my Toastmasters club – will get laid off. Already there’s a pretty poisonous atmosphere at the Center. Latest rumors: the Center will soon close at 7 p.m., instead of 8 p.m. and will be closed all weekend (instead of open Saturday morning – recall that I stopped by there last Saturday morning), and more mass layoffs will probably be in store for this September.
These layoffs will no doubt put further strain on our local church budget, since we have so many members that work there (5 of the 12 people at our church session meeting tonight), and people who get laid off will have trouble making their pledges.
I’ll be calling my manager before liftoff in Cincinnati and then at home in Houston, to find out if he or I still have our jobs (and who else might have gotten cut). Three years ago I had a window over looking the Washington Street entrance and could watch laid off people heading out the door with the boxes of their stuff all day. This time no one will find out until the afternoon, and so there may be a lot of exits with boxes at the end of the day.
Pray for my colleagues and me.
-- Perry
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