Historic U.S. Election Night in Guatemala

This month-long trip to Guatemala is for the purpose of greeting our eighth grandchild. S/he will be child number two born to our youngest daughter, Courtney and husband Josh. They own a pre-school and elementary school in San Marcos on the Lake. To learn more about the school and city, scroll back to March 2008 when we were last here.

We departed DFW Airport on November 3 using two free bonus-miles tickets from Continental Airlines. The price was right, but the schedule was less than desirable. Landing in Guatemala at 10:30 p.m. is not our idea of a safe destination. But we had lots of people praying for us, so everything worked fine. After getting through customs, Gloria exchanged our currency, while Jerry was hustling our five heavy bags and arranging for a cab. As he was trying to talk to a moving cabbie through the passenger side window, he stepped off a dark curb and fell headlong in front of a dozen startled people. His biggest fear was that the cab would run over his ankle, but the only thing injured was his pride. (Thank you Lord.) We got to our little hotel with heavy security gates and barbed wire overhead around 11:30 p.m. It was located on a dark back-street. After a call on the squawk box, we were greeted by two tiny, sleepy-eyed ladies, neither of whom spoke English. With no elevators, Jerry once more drug the bags up the stairs to our humble room while Gloria got us registered.

Next morning we were served a continental breakfast, consisting of cereal, toast and coffee, by the hotel owner, a very friendly man who spoke English fluently. We watched the news in the lobby on Election Day, lamenting that on this important, historic occasion, we would not be home for all the action. Our shuttle, arranged by our daughter, was 50 minutes late, but that is life in Guatemala. Andres, our driver, took us to Price Smart, an arm of Costco, before leaving the city so we could gather some rations and other things not available in San Marcos. The trip from Guatemala City to and from San Marcos is always a rather harrowing experience. The chicken buses are aggressive, people pass on the wrong side, and speeding, oncoming traffic in the passing lane can be scary. However, Andres is used to the system and is safer than most drivers. His much dented van has lots of rattles and many scars from the streets and highways. On this trip we were delayed at one point for 45 minutes due to a rock slide. Road construction is an ongoing process here. Once we were at our rental home, the narrow cobblestone streets presented many obstacles, but Andres did not faint from the task. We practically got a front door delivery to our lovely cottage on Lake Atitlan. Josh, Courtney, and Althea, age six, were a welcome sight. We met the rental agent, got briefed on the house, and made our way to the home of our children high on the mountainside overlooking San Marcos for dinner.

We learned that an election party was being planned at the Blind Lemon’s Restaurant, San Marcos’s most lovely restaurant. The owner, Carlos, an American, already had Direct-TV broadcasting the exciting news on CNN, as Courtney, Josh, Althea, Gloria, and I arrived right on time. Soon the room was filled with Americans and Internationals. Most were under 40 years old. Vermont went Blue quickly, and Kentucky fell early to McCain, but after that the Obama well-greased machine began to roll. When Pennsylvania fell to the Democrats, the room erupted in a noisy applause. Then Ohio checked in with a surprisingly large majority for Barrack. As soon as the polls closed in California, the BIG announcement came. “We project Barrack Obama to be the next President of the United States. Again, there was a thunderous applause at the Blind Lemon. John McCain quickly gave an eloquent concession speech. Like U.S. Grant, John McCain is always at his best when he is down. Then came the grand acceptance speech from Barrack. He needs and deserves our most fervent prayers. We remember Jackie Robinson breaking the racial barrier in baseball, President Truman signing the U.S. Military desegregation order, the fall of Jim Crow bus seats, the Martin Luther King speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, and the racial integration of churches in the South. Now we have witnessed the defining moment in racial opportunity and equality.