Thoughts and information

Amanda, Rene, Gerardo, and Ellen Dozier (pictured above) all shared thoughts and information this week. Amanda messaged that, as far as she knows, the U.S. consulate is going to want to know exact dates, and Crescent Hill’s partners are going to receive visas for exact dates, rather than open-ended three-month visas whose clock starts whenever the partners arrive.

Rene – and, through Rene, Gerardo – e-mailed to say that they had gotten the e-mail about the possible delay with the trip and they were going to be meeting (apparently about the scheduling issues). They said they’d e-mail their recommendation.

Rene said there is a dispute about the local election in El Estor, pitting the mayor who was reelected against some others. Rene also said it has been raining some there, and Ellen said the part of the country that Izabal is in has gotten the worst rains lately, but no mass landslides.

Ellen reminded us that Karla Koll and Juana Herlinda, the PC(USA) international peacemaker whom Karla is accompanying, are currently here in Louisville (Karla, for the second time this summer/fall; Juana, with Crescent Hill’s own Paul, Jennifer, and Carolina). Ellen also said the high price of commodities such as corn, and the continuing Great Recession, are affecting ordinary Guatemalans like other people around the world.

Ellen recommended Crescent Hill folks check before the Thursday gathering to find out whether the Guatemalans have e-mailed, but call them Thursday either way (all the more so because Crescent Hill’s e-mail indicated there might be a phone call this week). Ellen stayed more or less agnostic on the how soon should the rescheduled visit be issue.

She said she had dinner with Carlos and Ana, who live about an hour from her, two weeks ago, and she remains open to trying to visit Kentuckiana during the visit by CHPC’s Guatemalan partners – but not if it’s during the second half of November and early part of December, when she’ll be in Guatemala partly as part of a Western North Carolina Presbytery trip to Guatemala.

-- Perry