Better late than never! Challenges, Choices & Comitancillo

Getting there is half the fun. Right?

"Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore."

Cesar Chavez, address to the Commonwealth Club in San Fransisco

It wasn't just that I wanted to get out of the skin-numbing cold. I wanted to get back to Guatemala's tough sweetness; the shy, distraught, sad happiness that I struggled to understand in 2011. Two yearforward I feel differently about me and I am curious to see how my perceptions might change. I know I want to give more...or at the very least do more. Let the learning begin...

Damn, but first I  have to get there!

TACA, the Central American airline we are booked on from San Salvador to Guatemala City,  takes over from the grounded United. They get the connection right but mess up tbe Ottawa to Toronto piece of the puzzle. Liz spends Saturday on the phone, like thousands of other weary winter travelers,  trying unsuccessfully to print boarding passes. Although our tickets are now dated Feb. 11, we decide to head to the airport Sunday evening. Our comrades, Janice, Ken and Janet, are already in Comitancillo, San Marcos.  We have a busy schedule planned, with 100 stoves to document in a dozen rural communities...most not reachable by car.

Freezing rain is predicted. Our Ottawa to Toronto flight is still uncertain. 

We do what any hearty travelers would do. We head downtown to the bus station, where we wait for 4 hours before departure.