Good Shepherd Clinic, Road to Tikal...Day 7

After on last stroll around Jaguar Creek, we packed up the vans and headed to the Good Shepherd Clinic to see Margret Wann. While we drove the miles to the clinic the topic of conversation in the van lead to faith and God. When we arrived at the clinic the other van was having the same type of conversation. Margret showed the kids around the clinic. Her clinic focuses on woman's health but also treats others from the surrounding area. They have doctors that come and to do surgery. Margret spoke to the kids about being a servant. She stated, "No matter what you do, give 2005 of yourself. You will be tired but you'll be able to say you lived a full life!" After this moving talk, we were treated to lunch before heading to the border.

 It took awhile at the border. Leaving Belize wasn't so much of an issue but entering Guatemala was. First there was no one present to stamp the passports, then the man filing the information on the vans only did one van and had to do another one when we thought we were ready to go, then we had to pay an illegal fee to cross the river. Needless to say this was the point of the trip where the kids stated they could have done with out. We started using the term "Waiting Place." This was just one of the "Waiting Places" we would experience while in Guatemala.

We took a brief stop at Rio Mopan to leave a lot of the bags since we were only staying in Tikal for a night. Marcus was out in the bush leading a team so his wife took care of every thing. After rio Mopan, we stopped at Boutique Antiqua, owned by the Hernedez family. This would give students a chance to see what textile items they could purchase so that they wouldn't spend a lot while in the park.

The road in Guatemala heading to Tikal is always an adventure. Some improvements were being made, like paving the road, but we still had to bob and weave to avoid massive pot holes, sleeping policemen, etc.  Eventually we made it to Tikal National Park. Along the park road, we stopped to look a different type of wildlife or to take interesting road crossing signs that you wouldn't see in America.

Once in the park, we headed to the Jaguar Inn where we would be staying for the night. Here we would have our meals, being able to pick from a menu was a nice change, and in the morning pick up our guide to the park. Doc and I worked on a little project before calling it a night.