Water- both too much and not enough!

This is a story about a wild run across town in the rain with 4 wheelchairs while in church shoes!

But I'm getting ahead of myself-- first, here's the issue with water.

771 million people don't have clean water close to home according to the WHO.

This is a huge problem in Guatemala, because 1 in 5 families living in remote areas do not have access to any water source. Even when a family has access to water, they are unlikely to have purified water. Imagine having to daily cary all your water from a remote well or source, and boil before use or live with chronic intestinal infections or parasites!

These are my water filters; old and new. They recomend a family change them every 6 months. This was the filter for 1 person after 5 months!

Our town has had pretty spotty water over the last month. Some say this, and the suddenly intermittent electricity, are a political ploy since elections are taking place. More recently a large pipe burst below the street and repairs are in progress.

Friends up the road have not had so much as trickle in 4 days! Neighbors knock on the door to see if anyone has running water. My house has 2 water sources, so the unfinished upstairs sometimes has water, although my shower, kitchen, and living space pila have none.

Your best friend right now is a nice and full pila!

Dishes are carried out to the pila, and shower buckets are filled here too. Soon the pile runs dry too, and you leave buckets out, luckily it's rainy season, to fill enough to flush the toilet, water to bring from upstairs, and friends who offer to share!

Many families have to take buckets to public piles for water. That can be a long trek, so I'm grateful for our single flight bucket trip!

The children's homes in this town have also been out of water off and on as well! Now that's a challenge! Cooking for so many, cleaning bottles, showering children-- all of this gets so much more complicated without flowing water.

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Then there is the issue of too much of the wrong water!

As rainy season is under weigh, the streets flood regularly while tapwater is nowhere to be found!

This is especially problematic as the sewage drains overflow. You try not to think too hard about what water is flooding the streets!!

The Fulp and Chapin homes are "down river" from the town center, so the road often floods from one side to the other. The running water can be pretty deep, and cut off entry to the Fulp home.

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So here's the story! On Sundays, we rotate around who goes to church, and who stays back since taking 16 children with special needs anywhere is utter insanity. This week, we took 5 kids with us, and left 11 kids at home.

The first hiccup came when we stepped out-- The street is closed because the neighbors are celebrating corpus Cristi, and have beautiful flower petal and pine needle alfombras across the road. Our gracious neighbor did't bat an eye when we slowly, carefully had to cross an edge where his alfombra blocked the street leading to their house, a station for the coming procession. He smiled as we apologized.

Up ahead the procession was already coming!! We halted our little caravan, and retreated, taking the long way around and hoping to miss them at the corner.

Things were going great... Ok, as great as things every go at church!! Our little man Humberto was a tad excited, and when he gets tense, his muscle tone gets very tight.

This time, right as the first song began, he blew his top! Quite literally!!

Humberto got so excited and tense that his tense muscles were enough to create pressure to pop open the cap on his g-tube! He actually flipped his lid!! With his tube open, his breakfast leaked out all over his dress shirt and pants, his chair, and some on the floor.

The great news is, the diaper bag is prepared for all, and the church is used to our distractions by now!

Although initially distressed by this, Humberto soon thought all the fuss was hysterical- he didn't even mind not getting to keep his church shirt!

Worship continued as Sandra cleaned up Humberto, and I worked on the chair, floor, rolling out the carpet in the back. Seriously, what a great church to buy a carpet just for the kids when they need to stretch and relax tens muscles!

Now, I wish that were the most notable thing that happened!

The rest of service went really smoothly with the kids... until the sky began to grow dark.

Concerned looks passed between us, but there was nothing to do! We were wedged in tight! No quiet escape for us!

Wheelchairs are bulky. Even if a tuk tuk or friends in cars could fit the kids, the chairs would be out of the question, and no chairs at home is problematic. Walking is the best option.

The real question is this-- is it better to leave as early as possible and try to beat the rain? That risks a 15 minute walk minimum, possibly in pouring rain! Or is it better to try and wait it out and hope it passed; It might not ever pass. Visions flashed through my mind-- people often huddle under doorways until the downpour passes, but a wheelchair can't fit under these! What will people think if they see us taking children, especially with obvious disabilities, in the rain!!?? When service ended, we moved as quickly as possible toward the door.

It was already sprinkling!

The decision was made- we were running for it!

If you have ever run through he streets with a wheelchair in the rain... well who does that? For the record, it's quite exhilarating and ridiculous!

Karin and Sandra were first out. We all knew it was each man for himself! Ok, not quite ;-)

Karin donated her jacket to cover the two in the double stroller. There was one ball cap between the others. Until little mister chucked it aside. -- Thank's man!! -- Hat retrieved, we continued the run.

Sandra ran like a gazelle and I can only assume Humberto enjoyed it as much as she did!

I passed up Karin. She had the double stroller plus Brenda running at her side acting as a natural drag. I had Kimmy-- by far the most aerodynamic.

Soon I had to slow to a rapid walk, and Donny passed. I don't think I'll win this race-- but Donny did take on Brenda when he passed Karin-- she will slow him down for sure, so maybe I'm still in this.

Sandra is so far ahead we can only see the smoke coming from Humberto's tires!! She has clearly been secretly practicing wheelchair racing.

Karin was just behind me, and the scream/laughter that came from Kevin was evidence enough that he was having the time of his life! Also fairly dry with her jacket and the stroller cover. (how incredible are our ladies who take the coat off their own backs for the kids!!)

The rain kept at a reasonable sprinkle, and the pedestrians were cheering us on as they also scurried to get somewhere dry. It was pretty obvious that we might be the silly folks that forgot to pack the large ponchos to cover the chairs, but that we were sure trying to make up for it!

We were getting to the home stretch. That's it, one more sprint! I passed Donny again for pride sake, and I am pretty sure Kimmy went airborne on the speed bumps! Sandra got home first, and we soon got all the kids inside.

We had made the whole trip in just under 10 minutes!! I honestly did not know that was possible!

We ladies continued breathing hard for the following 10 minutes and needed to share the kids' breathing treatments!!

A little later, the rain picked up a little later. It had been the right call to run for it.

The kids were soon in dry cloths, though nobody actually got too wet. Humberto couldn't stop laughing about his 3 outfits before lunch!

Lessons learned:

1. Remember the ponchos next time!

2. Tape Humberto's cap securely when he might get overexcited.

3. Kevin REALLY likes Running.

4. Sandra runs like she sold her soul to the devil-- more church for her!

Ok-- we made some oopsies, but it sure was a ridiculous and fun mistake!