The town where I live doesn’t have a single traffic light or grocery store, but its dozens of teindas are always hopping on market day.

3 days a week San Andres Sacabaja is flooded with folks bringing produce and wares from the 28 villages in the surrounding villages that call San Andres a hub.

Prices are always best, and the produce the freshest on Sunday. I get pretty excited when I bring back a nice full haul of fresh fruit and veggies that only cost me about 12 USD!

This small town starts to feel pretty big when compared to some of the villages who travel an hour or more to get here. That makes a lot of life seem to flow around market days when the population seems to triple!

For one thing, Sion maternity and nutrition clinic sees more patients on market day because that’s when folks from the villages will find pickups (the Guatemalan taxi) to catch a ride in with.

Part of the reason we don’t have clinic 5 days a week is so we can go out to visit families who cannot make the trip to town. If a family has the resources to make it here, they often have some resources to buy food.

One family we have been visiting struggles for work. Grandma was left alone with two daughters with special needs by her husband. Now the family has increased to include 3 grandchildren, but no men to work for or represent the family, and the daughters are limited in options for work.

When they can find work, it’s usually in agriculture.

The oldest son, about 13 years old, and two of the women go and work from 7am until evening.

They earn about $4 USD.

That’s about 33 cents/hour without benefits, job security, or stability.

So that’s $12 for the family of 6.

And that’s WHEN work is available. It often is not.

Now let’s step back to the price of veggies.

As a single adult household, $12 is sufficient to buy plenty of fruit and vegetables for me. Alone.

But as you have likely recognized, $12 a day is not enough to buy vegetables for a family of 6, an hour or more deep into the mountains when they must also pay for the food, clothing, and passage to town- really their lives off that amount, and stretch it when there is no work.

The kids are not in school because there isn’t enough to pay fees and send them.

In this case, several members of the household sleep on blankets on the floor.

With what then do they buy a bed? Or any shelves for their kitchen?

Or where does the money come form to put food to put on those shelves?

Their door doesn’t latch.

Who fixes that, and with what tools?

We discussed that these kids are malnourished in a way that appears to be a simple lack of calories. Quick fix- just feed them more! That is better than a medical condition for sure, except that the solution of “simply give them more food” is not so simple when they cannot afford the food.

So, fruits are out. Too pricy when a pineapple costs about $2, and doesn’t fill many bellies.

Fresh veggies are often out too- a lot of work, time, and money traveling to the market an hour or more into town, and vegetables don’t stretch as far as rice.

But 1lb still of rice costs just under a dollar.

On the last visit, there was no food in the kitchen, except for some bags of sugar left from a previous gift. They shared they had eaten rice for breakfast. There did not appear to be any rice remaining for a lunch.

This is the situation for many families, not just them.

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We have been visiting these friends for a while, developing a deeper friendship.

With permission, their needs have been shared, and the body Christ has stepped up in raising funds to help supply some of their needs like beds, pots and food.

Now, these friends may not have enough land to grow food on, but they do have a section of the mountain they could cut out for chickens. This would go a long way in helping them sustain themselves.

They have already been responsible to carve out this space in preparation for raising chickens.

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After some time preparing, the day finally came to take the donations up to the family.

A visiting team joined and we loaded up!

First off, let me just say, Guatemalan men are born with innate knowledge about tying down loads on the back of a pickup.

Folks. I’ve seen things.

A friend even shared the picture of how one would go about timing a full grown cow onto the back of a Moto.

A cow. on a moto.

It’s always an experience watching how focused the guys get, and they do it so well!

With extra hands needed to cary beds up the mountain, we had a second car.

We tested the route since they are laying concrete on the main way up the mountain. The car made the journey well.

Let me pause to add here– that there are some certainties you can nearly always count on during dry season. Like Dryness.

Dry season means dry roads and choking on dust, while rainy season wet roads mean sliding around in the mud.

So, why it has been raining in February is quite the mystery.

It also created some real problems!

Even in all wheel drive, the car simply could not make it up with the depth of the mud. We decided to turn back for safety.

Except… that wasn’t so simple!

In the mud, there was no way to turn around on that hill.

While backing down, the car started sliding sideways for the edge.

Canadian experience in snow saved the car I think, but not before it was stuck with one tire off the ground entirely.

The drop off and river below are not apparent in the photos, but they were very present on our minds! Missing this rescue would topple the over the edge!

Thankfully, a lot of hands and a good rope were able to push the car onto better traction and continue down the hill.

After the car was rescued, it was necessary to return on foot to the top of the hill and see what could be done for the truck loaded with beds.

Although it was not trapped, it had also been sliding a fair bit, and faced the same backward decent on slick mud if the crest of the hill could not be reached.

This I love for Guatemala- in the mountains, when you get stuck, anyone who comes along becomes your friend.

A few different folks stepped in to lend tools, share advisories for conditions, and help move around vehicles.

Fortunately the truck was able to climb then turn, and we watched with a little less tension as it slid side to side, but facing the right direction down the muddy hill.

Then all that was left was calling our friends and explaining we would have to try another day.

This is not unusual when mountain conditions cause life to be more flexible.

After cleaning the thick layers of mud off our shoes, well trying to, we loaded back in for the return.

Nobody was feeling defeat here, rather gratefulness that 2 vehicles and 8 people were returning.

Changing plans are always a good opportunity for some extra coffee!

And a very helpful little guy came to finish cleaning off the shoes!

So now we plan our next visit with our friends.

Or, the next attempt at least!

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In the meantime I sit and reflect on that 4 dollars as I buy more vegetables this week.

It is not something to take for granted to be able to buy the food I need, and the food I desire week after week without fail.

While I lift up families who will not have enough calories this week, I also thank God for all the families who will.

This is no small thing.

It is something to remember. It something to thank God for because providing food is huge.

He provides. He sees. He is good.