The Adventure to Guatemala: Part 2

Cesar pulled the car over and we examined the tires in the storm. The front left and the back left were flat. We changed the front tire, which was completely dead, but we only had one spare. In order to secure a safe spot on the side of the road, we had to turn around and drive against traffic. The only lights visible in the night were those of the oncoming cars. We pulled over to the side and Cesar rang the doorbells of nearby homes to no avail. I noticed he was wincing in pain - his forefinger had turned green. He injured it while changing the tire.

Cesar called for help from Guatemala City - an hour away - and we waited. Mima sat quietly and the girls typed away on their phones while Cesar soaked his finger in the rain. Three hours later, Cesar's brother showed up with a truck, who knows where he got it from (there's no AAA in Central America). Cesar drove the van onto the back of the truck and I gazed through a misty windshield as we were driven back to Cesar's home, lost in a state of exhaustion and surreal silence.

We were the lucky ones. The next morning I awoke to a television report about landslides, "rumbas", throughout the country. The road to Antigua was closed; rescue teams were sent out, searching for people buried beneath the earth. Nine people were reported dead.

What I found most striking of all from this experience was the way the Palacios responded to the situation. Not a single complaint was made by any of the teenage girls. Not once did Mima express fear or incertitude. Cesar took charge, understanding his duty to his family, and seemed unaffected by his wife and daughters' gentle laughter when he wrapped up his finger in a makeshift splint of band-aids. I taught the family the word game "Ghost" and they demonstrated the English they had learned at their bilingual school with giggles and squeaky voices.

Things move at a slower pace down here than most places - let alone the New York area. There is less stress and worry - at least on the outside. Maybe having gone through a 36 year civil war, countless corrupt governments, and little in the way of human rights, the people of Guatemala are able to let a small crisis (or inconvenience, depending on how you look at it) glide down their backs like the falling rain. All people encounter tragedies in their lives of some form or another. Perhaps it's how we respond in the face of these events that really defines us.