A Future

We're happily settling in. The Sotos are a wonderful family and treat us affectionately and openly. They seem to be as interested in us as we are in them. They truly care about us!

Ruth Soto is a very admirable woman. She works from sunup to long after sundown. She cares for her four children, cooks, cleans with diligence with the little water available on any given day, runs the little store they have connected to the front of the house, and maintains her household with calm dignity and authority, and with apparent ease.

I have only seen her sit to mend clothes. She works tirelessly, except for the intermittent, nagging migraines and an occasional toothache or backache. She taught me how to wash the dishes, after I insisted, with only a few handfuls of water at a time. She wants to learn to cook with more variety and healthier with the local resources, which have been few lately with the flooding and the bridge washing out. Ruth also wants to learn English and Maya Kekchi, how to use a computer, and more about health topics, especially nutrition. Her father could only afford three years of education for her back in Guatemala, but she has quite a vision for her children.

Ruth is an ideal host mom and in-country friend.

Upon her request, we have begun English and Spanish lessons together at the kitchen table, when time permits. It allows for cultural exchange and benefits both of us. She has requested I teach a nutrition class for her women's group at the church that occupies the corner opposite their house. Her husband Demetrio is a kind of pastor and plays guitar and sings. Almost every night of the week, we can hear familiar Christian songs being sung with much heart and at the top of people's lungs.

Ruth says that she and Demetrio work so hard because they want to raise their children right and want them to have more than they have had here. Ruth and Demetrio want to give their children their best, so that they can be educated, good people. As parents, they want their children to understand the sacrifices that are made for their futures.