GUATEMALA
Part I On arrival, our small bus was immediately mobbed by a hundred smiling, waving, shouting, laughing kids. They were aged 5 to 9 and formed small groups to greet, surround, hug and escort each of us coming off the bus into the building, all the while continuing to laugh, smile and shout. It was eerily similar to the scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind , where Richard Dreyfuss is ushered up the ramp and into the spaceship by a covey of waist-high aliens. I had made my way to a little village called San Martin Chiquito via a 5 hour drive from Guatemala City. There are countless similar remote villages throughout Guatemala, all lacking infrastructure, decent housing, healthcare, employment, education and water that is safe to drink. Many of the rural poor are descendants of ancient civilizations such as the Mayans, and communicate exclusively in one of the 23 dialects spoken in the country. Once you move outside the capital or tourist locations like Antigua,