Guatemalan Friends

An encounter with an angel

In the early 1990s, my wife and I hosted two young men from Guatemala, Hector and Israel. They came to the USA to study business at a vocational school near our home. We originally agreed to host one student, but the lady doing the arrangements convinced us to take two.

When we arrived at the orientation meeting, Hector and Israel, our two students, greeted us with broad smiles. Both spoke a little English, so we could communicate, but it sometimes took a while for us to understand each other.

Israel stood tall and handsome with sleek black hair combed back and to one side in a wave. He had penetrating eyes and a knowing smile.

Hector was shorter, rotund, a little bald, and a jolly sort.

Though they had to share one average-sized bedroom with two twin beds, neither complained.

I took them to school each morning and picked them up in the evening. Thankfully, the school was less than two miles from our house. After a few days they began ridesharing with a friend of ours who was hosting two women students. We’d take turns transporting the students to and from school and to various activities.

The school provided lunch, and we provided breakfast and dinner. I was out of work at the time, so we had to stretch our food budget to cover two young men with healthy appetites. We managed and no one complained. Each evening we enjoyed our meal together.

Hector discovered that we had an exercise bike in the basement. Being a little on the heavy side, he began riding it every day. One day while exercising, we heard him running up the stairs. Panting, he yelled, “Señor Jasper, come, agua! Agua!” Agua? Water? What’s he talking about, I wondered.

Hector led me downstairs, and pointed to the wall under one of the basement windows. Sure enough, water was streaming in around the window. Rainwater from the storm that had just passed through had nearly filled the window well and was pouring in through the cracks around the edges.

I ran outside to discover that the downspout to the rain gutter had come loose. Apparently, the installers had forgotten to screw the lateral diverter pipe to the downspout and it had come loose allowing rainwater from the roof to find the lowest point which was our basement window well.

I quickly reattached the diverter and went back inside. Hector helped me move things out of the way and mop up the water. Thanks to Hector, we discovered the problem almost immediately. Otherwise, it might have been a day or two before anyone would have ventured into that part of the basement and found the problem. Who knows how much damage could have occurred? After that incident, we began calling Hector our angel. He had the heart of an angel, too.

Although we were initially attracted to Israel because of his good looks and better command of English, we soon discovered that Hector had the better, more-likeable personality. He helped around the house, set the table at mealtimes and helped with clean-up after each meal. When it came time to do housecleaning, Hector pitched in. He did not mind hard manual labor.

Israel, though less inclined to help out around the house, was much more outgoing and often asked for rides to meet up with friends he had met at school.

We learned that Israel’s family owned a coffee plantation back home in Guatemala while Hector made a living as a cobbler.

Hector wanted to find some special nails he used for making shoes. We went to a couple of shoe shops, but neither had the type of nails he needed, or if they did, they were not willing to sell him any. (This was before the world wide web and online searches.)

Though it was a challenging time for us, we enjoyed hosting Hector and Israel. They stayed with us for a month. When the time came to say goodbye, we all had tears in our eyes.

We had hoped to stay in contact, but that didn’t happen. I guess we all got busy with the demands of our lives. Letters sent did not get answered, perhaps because of the language barrier or the limitations of the postal system.

Still we look back fondly on those days and wonder how things turned out for Hector and Israel and how their experiences and training here impacted their lives. Truly they impacted ours.

When asked about angels in our lives, my wife and I always think about Hector and Israel, but especially Hector. He was such a gentle and caring man.

We thank Hector and Israel in our hearts for the time we had together.

This story was written in response to Trista Signe Ainsworth’s prompt to write a Thank You Note about an international friendship.

Happy Reading, Writing, Thanking and Connecting!