Question: WHAT SHOULD TWO GRANDPARENTS DO WHEN THEY WANT TO SEE THEIR NEW SEVEN-WEEK OLD GRANDSON?
Answer: GO VISIT HIM!
Well, it was a little bit more complicated than visiting their other new grandson, Ryan Daniel Ray, who was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. To visit this grandson, Hudson Michael Shead, they had to sell a cow and save up quite a bit first.
Question: WHY?
Answer: HUDSON MICHAEL SHEAD WAS BORN IN GUATEMALA CITY.
Question: WHY WOULD HIS PARENTS GO TO GUATEMALA CITY TO HAVE A BABY?
Answer: BECAUSE HUDSON DECIDED HE WANTED TO BE PART OF THE FAMILY AND JOIN HIS DADDY AND MOMMY, MICHAEL AND CHRISI, WHEN THEY WERE IN LANGUAGE SCHOOL IN XELA, GUATEMALA, WHERE THEY ARE LEARNING SPANISH FOR MISSION WORK.
Though they were in the middle of language school, they took a seven week break and went to Guatemala City to be with a midwife. Now that they were back in school and back in their host family’s house at Xela, it was time for Papa and Grandma to meet the little fellow.
On July 8th, Papa and Grandma boarded the plane, took to the skies, and flew across the Gulf of Mexico for Guatemala City. It was a perfect flight, though going through the security in the airport in Tulsa, Grandma had to be checked to see if she was a terrorist. She found out where NOT to hide money, or it would raise questions!
They arrived in Guatemala City at 1;17 and went through customs quickly with their three checked luggage and two carry-on baggage. Michael was waiting at the entrance with his Jimmy Carter smile (something his parents used to say when he was young, and Jimmy Carter was president).
All of the bags barely fit in the taxi. Then off Papa and Grandma went for a completely different cultural ride in a taxi. They felt completely safe, but taxis in Guatemala do not go by the U.S. rules of the road. The taxi took off on what really was made to be a two lane street…except drivers make it into a four lane with NO room in between the vehicles. At least one would think there was no room as one could stick their hand out the window and touch the vehicles next to them.
Surprise! Surprise! What other cultures are able to do, Americans couldn’t dare try. In between the crowded four lanes of vehicles, came a motor cycle…right between the already ” close cars” ! Oh! My! Do the Guatemalan drivers know how to squeeze into tight places! If a lane change was needed, Mr. Taxi driver would just angle his car toward the car next to. Traffic moves quickly, horns honk as vehicles about touch each other, but no one seems to get scrapped or bumped. Interesting!
Michael had the taxi driver stop at a fast food place, grabbed some sandwiches, and then took off to the bus station where a bus would take the excited Papa and Grandma up the mountains to Xela to see little Hudson.
More on how excited they were to see the little fellow on the next blog entry.
