Bantioche! Thank You!

My message to St. Michael school children at Mass on April 4, 2012:

Shanshaquil! La cab’a Tom Olp.

Hello! My name is Tom Olp

Ani Lacab’a? What is your name?

Barr Qual Kot? Where do you live?

Well, if you are confused, imagine how we felt hearing villagers speak Kekchi to us in Semachaca, Guatemala!

We traveled to Guatemala from Chicago a week ago Sunday, flying direct from Chicago to Guatemala City, a four hour flight in the middle of the night, then riding in a microbus for six hours to Rio Dulce (Spanish words for Sweet River), and finally, on Monday morning, enduring a two hour back jarring ride in the bed of a pick up truck to reach Semachaca, high in the mountains.

The road was barely passible, and rutted with the recent rains. But luckily for us, not a drop of rain fell on us during the three days we were there.

We brought our tents, but didn’t have to use them, for we found a large dormitory-like room to sleep in. All 15 of us fit into it, and slept on thin mats provided for our use. We cooked our own meals in a large comedor, or dining room/kitchen.

What did we do while we were there? We worked on the medical clinic that we planned for, that you helped pay for through your contributions. We went swimming in the nearby river, and we visited with the locals we met.

There are thirty two (32) villages within a 4 or 5 hour walk from Semachaca. The road ends near Semachaca so everyone from other villages WALKS to Semachaca or rides a horse. Why do they want to come to Semachaca?

Because the parish Semachaca is in -- San Antonio de Padua in Rio Dulce – two hours away, where Padre Javier is the pastor, is building a “Centro,” a community center, which will include a medical clinic, and meeting rooms where the villages will be able to gather to discuss matters of interest to them. Like how to grow corn that will produce fatter ears. What other crops might be good money makers. (Right now Cardemon is a big cash crop. People in the middle east, Saudi Arabia, drink cardemon like coffee.) And how to raise healthier kids.

Right now there is no doctor in Semachaca or in ANY of the other 32 villages in that area. Imagine having no doctor in town! And no pharmacy where you can get aspirin and prescriptions. In Semachaca now, someone who gets sick either suffers through the illness at home, or travels 3 to 5 hours to get to a hospital – assuming they can even get a ride. Since there are no roads, there are no cars. People either walk or ride horses. We saw plenty of pack animals while we were there.

We did what we came for in Semachaca – we started framing in the medical clinic building for windows. And we watched workers install solar panels so the entire center will have permanent electricity. The solar panels power batteries during the day, which then energize the lights at night. Before the panels, expensive gas generators had to be used to power lights. Now electrical energy is cheaper. Your contributions made this happen. We also saw workers complete the first flush toilets in Semachaca. All others are outhouses. We joked to the villagers that we were sure the toilets worked, since we were the first to use them!

On Wednesday, we had mass with the paster, Padre Javier, from the parish of Saint Anthony of Padua, Rio Dulce. You may remember Padre Javier from his visit to the Spanish classes here at St. Michael last September. The entire community turned out at mass, packing the salon to say thank you to Saint Michael for our care and involvement in their lives. Few other foreigners have ever visited Semachaca.

Our psalm today, Psalm 69, reads:

See, you lowly ones,

And be glad;

You who seek God,

May your hearts be merry!

For the Lord hears the poor,

And his own who are in bonds

He spurns not.

Semachaca, a village of about 50 families, is home to many of these “lowly ones” spoken of in the psalm. The families there have no indoor plumbing, electric lights, paved roads, medical care, pharmacies, supermarkets, 7-11’s, McDonald’s, railroads, restaurants, street lights, refrigerators, automobiles, air conditioners . . . Well, I could go on and on.

But on Wednesday, one week ago, the hearts of those in Semachaca were merry, as the Psalm promises, for our mass was said under lights newly powered by solar panels, and the medical clinic next door was becoming a reality. The Lord is hearing these “lowly ones” in Semachaca, thanks, in part, to us.

And of course, we also felt blessed to visit that community, to see the moms with their colorful huipils and skirts, their children around them, with their husbands and fathers and mothers, singing and praying with us at a Catholic mass.

Who was God blessing? Not only the community of Semachaca, but St. Michael’s too, and not only those of us who were there, but all of you whom we represented there. I said a few words at that mass too, translated from English into Spanish and then into Kekchi. I said, “Not only do we want to help you build a medical clinic because we recognize how important accessible medical care is to any family, in Semachaca and here in Wheaton, Illinois, but we also wanted to come and meet YOU, to be with YOU and to help YOU build something -- a medical clinic -- that is so important to you. “To be with you,” in the way that Christ came to be with us, living with us, and suffering with us, ultimately in his passion and death, for which we give thanks this week.

Christ asks us to suffer a little to “be with” our neighbors, to lower ourselves a little to help them, to love them by raising them up as we are able. By making ourselves “lowly,” by expending our time and resources for others, we can help to raise up our neighbors and to make them -- and us – as the Psalm says, merry! Then we are all the “lowly” raised up! That is our Christian calling, the command of love that is given to us as an invitation against the background of God’s wonderful love for us, a God who so loved us that he sent his Son to be with us, and who raised us up with him in his death and Easter resurrection. We experienced that love at first hand in Semachaca!

At mass in Semachaca I thanked the community there for being friends with St. Michael’s, and so I thank you for your generous response of friendship to our central American neighbors, a response that is, as I speak, raising up a medical clinic in Semachaca and with it the health and happiness of the people who live there. This, I believe, is how we share in God’s wonderful work of love, the love that is the core and fruit of our Christian faith.

As the Kekchi say in Semachaca:

“Bantioche!” Thank you!

And I say: “Uss”, which means Yes, and Good!

And, as we said to our friends in Semachaca, “Until we meet again, may God bless you and keep you. . .

“Cuamba!” Goodbye!

Hear some Kekchi choral songs.

Listen to ancient mayan music.