White boy in the "vile" river!?
My companion and I were walking down a road to go contacting in a specific area. The road we were walking on had a river running off to the side and down a hill to it. As always in guatemala something, wasn't your ¨average¨ something. In this case the something out of the ordinary was the river. It was not blue and nor was it brown due to sand.. it was black. It was filled with trash, dead animals, tires, and presumed to be inhabited by the creature of the black lagoon.
This river is VILE in every which way you look at it. (dwrawwinnng)
As we walked down the road i noticed a male shoveling dirt below us. He was in between the road and the river. We called down to him and asked him if we could help him out and he said of course. We made our way down to where the man was working to greet him. He was your average looking spanish man with a big mustache and thick eye brows. He was a little taller than average and wore a Gilligans island hat. We asked the man how we could help him, thinking he would have us do the same job he was doing earlier, shoveling dirt from one level of the hill up to the next. Of course and as usual in my stories, I was very wrong. He took off his tall rubber boots, handed them to me, started to explain to me what we would be doing.
I´m going to skip his directions and forward about ten minutes and explain the situation. I found my self standing knee deep in the middle of the black river with his rubber boots a shovel and in my white shirt and tie. My purpose?, to scoop up mud from the bottom of the river and throw it up the hill to help the man make some sort of concrete. As I began to shovel I became very grateful for the man letting me borrow his boots, I figured I wouldn't need to receive any vaccinations after wards as long as i did not let it touch my skin, But after a short 10 minutes of shoveling my big rubber boots were over flowing with the black watery goop and my hands were constantly submerged in the water as well. (bwrooog)
After working for a bit i asked if he had more boots and shovels so that my companion could work with me. He said "of course!" and went to grab some more.We shoveled and shoveled for about an hour and eventually looked up to find a crowd gathered above. For a moment i questioned it, but then realized what this might look like to them. An english speaking american boy in a small town in guatemala shoveling mud from a black bio hazardous river, wearing a white shirt and tie. It probably wasn't an every day sight for them I realized. Well after a few pictures and alot of laughs with the people we finished up. He fed us a pumpkin and we went straight home and took a half hour long shower.
What a great experience And what a wonderful opportunity it was to show the people why we are here. We are here to serve, help, and love the people. I am quite sure that this experience will open up more opportunities for us to spread our message. Sorry! but I have to get off! I love you all so much and appreciate all the support! love Elder Nicholas Wimmer
