I’ve seen the extremes of life in Xela.

I’ve seen The Future of this country.  Close to our apartment is this private school just letting out and all the kids looked sharp in their school uniforms. These kids are fortunate there are resources (Mom and Dad or other family members) that can put them in this school.

Yesterday was Father’s Day here in Guatemala and Leslie and I happened to be in a shopping mall to pick up some stuff after school.  We headed up to the food court to grab a bite and saw a lot of families also grabbing a bite to eat.

At a table close to us, we watched as a young woman was trying to take a picture of her group on her iPad so Leslie volunteered to take the picture with all of them.  They were gregarious and laughing so I asked if I could take their picture.  Sure!

After I’d snapped my picture, they brought out their smart phones and asked to Bluetooth my picture with their phones.  They’re intelligent, educated, technically savvy, independent and strong.  These young women are The Future.

Across the food court Leslie noticed a family having a bite to eat, but Dad and his young son were both wearing BurgerKing hats.  I walked over and in my halting español congratulated the Dad on Father’s Day, said I liked his hat and asked if I could take a picture of the family.  Sure!  After the photo, Dad whips out his iPhone and we Bluetooth my photo to him.  Another strong, middle class family with a Dad (and family) who will ensure his son has all the resources necessary for a productive life.  This young boy is The Future.

And I’ve seen The Maybe of this country.  Every Wednesday morning is trash day and the tenants from the 10 apartments in our complex put their trash bags outside the gate for pickup.  Over the past several weeks since we’ve been here, we’ve noticed these sweet young girls waiting outside the gate for every bag of garbage brought out.  They open every bag and scavenge anything of remote value.

They’ve chosen our complex because there are a number of “extranjeros” (foreigners) here and our neighbors have clued us in about the girls.  They separate the “good stuff” (plastic, cardboard, etc) for the girls into the green bags to make things easier for them and now so do we.

There’s obviously a reason they’ve got to scavenge.  They’re maybe not in school (don’t know for sure) but they certainly don’t have the resources of the above.  They, and many kids like them, may have a difficult and uncertain future.

This shy, sweet girl is part of the Mayan community, where the Moms and grandmothers meet to sell produce on the sidewalks around our school.  I know resources are tight for this demographic so I wonder what kind of future greets her every morning in the mercado.

And I’ve seen The Lost of this country.  The man on the left is having a seizure and the man on the right is in a stupor.

I’ve reflected that in many respects, these contrasts aren’t that much different from my country.  We too have The Future, The Maybe and The Lost.