The Hayes Zoo

Our Purpose


- to know God and use our entire lives in service to Him.

- to stand in the gap through prayer, giving and service to viable ministries in Latin America.

- to be transparent helpers of fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, using our resources and skills that through the Holy Spirit, we might encourage and equip those who have less.

- to share a living perspective from Latin America to our churches, friends and family in the states and beyond.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

We have arrived

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico, after 5 days and 829.5 miles of driving across Honduras, Guatemala and the state of Chiapas in Mexico. Something akin to the Griswalds on their way to Wally-world, the dad blissfully drove the truck and enjoyed the scenery while the wife cowered in her seat with her face in her hands, praying, and the kids sat in the back plotting evil and vile things for dad when he's old and decrepit.

After a three-hour drive through western Honduras, we spent an afternoon at the Mayan ruins at Copan Ruinas and the next morning at the local bird park. In between, we sandwiched (literally) a ride through the streets and sidewalks of the downtown area in the F350 crew-cab with the trailer. I'm not sure why; I had taken the truck down there before and swore upon all that is good to never attempt to take the trailer there. The ruins and the bird park were very enjoyable.

Two days later found us driving through the Verapaz region of Guatemala. We took a northern route through San Cristobal Verapaz and Uspantan to Huehuetenango, in order to avoid driving through Guatemala City, because driving through Guatemala City would be a pain. This road is yellow on my map, though it is dashed on some others, the better to show the potholes and parts covered in landslides. This road passes through some very beautiful country - massive mountains covered in clouds and rainy mist, with incredible valleys, like something out of the 'Lord of the Rings'. This, of course, also means a road that switchbacks furiously up and down said mountains and valleys, with a river running down the road in some places, and three-point turns with the trailer to get around a few of the tighter switchbacks. The first 20 miles or so of this road (a yellow road, on my map, but dashed on others) was dirt. When passing through towns, the road unceremoniously dumps one onto the narrow streets, and one is left to fend for himself through the downtown area before searching for the exit road on the other side in sort of a 'catch me if you can' scenario. Having said all this, the area was fascinating, with most women dressed in traditional style of woven multicolored skirts and elaborately embroidered blouses and babies slung on mothers' backs in blankets, and men plowing fields behind single-toothed, wooden plows drawn by oxen. I'm not sure my dear wife enjoyed much of it, though.

And so we've arrived at the other side. I've felt lately like packing up everything and leaving a place is something akin to death. It means the end of everything one has been involved with there - projects, aspirations, relationships. A person has hopes and dreams of things to do, things to see, things to learn, things to fix and repair and make better, make new again -- but then time runs out and the broken and saved pieces are tossed in the trash along with other unnecessary items in the rush to make everything fit and to be done with it. We weren't even to the end of our street in Honduras before the neighbor boys were digging through the things we left behind. I suppose moves like this are good in that they remind us that life itself is finite and temporal; we get so used to the routine that we assume there will always be more time, but then one day it all ends and nothing is left but for others to go through what we leave behind. In this case we had the luxury of taking some things with us and scheduling things ourselves, so it's not a real accurate analogy. We are glad to be at our destination, and I don't think anyone is in a hurry to spend more time in the truck.

7 comments:

Missus Wookie said...

Glad you made it safely - hope you feel settled soon.

The Reader said...

So glad you are safely there; praying for everyone to settle in soon.

Jamie Jo said...

"Plotting evil and vile things..." I love it! Great comic relief. Thanks for sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly. Guatemala is gorgeous, though, isn't it? Enough that we actually were tempted to drive to Nicaragua next month. Your blog post reminded me of the rest of the story. No thanks. Think we'll fly.

Birthblessed said...

That last paragraph made me tear up. That's exactly how I'm feeling about our transition here. Blessings to y'all.

Grateful for Grace said...

I'm so glad you all have arrived!! I know Faith probably has a hard time believing this, but I envy your lives. Very cool. Though... driving for five days with six kids my kids' age on the trip you described....egad.

Eric and Hannah Avery said...

I really enjoyed reading some of your blog posts. Your trip through Guatemala sounded amazing to me! I went through Chiapas, Mexico on our way to Guatemala when I was quite young, and I remember it being very similar to your description! Have an amazing time in Mitla!

-Hannah

RonnaH said...

So glad to hear you made it safely. Have been praying for you guys. Sounds like it was an adventure. Really enjoyed my time with you guys in Honduras. Have a Merry Christmas. Be blessed! Ronna