The sun

rises around 5:20 a.m. in central Guatemala, washing the

small villages in a hazy light, which signals the start

of another day of work, study, play and worship.

In

Guatemala City, a thriving metropolis dotted with modern

office buildings, Burger Kings and tin-roofed housing,

the roads are choked with brightly painted buses, trucks

and cars by 6 a.m. On the city's outskirts, donkeys and

horses compete for a space on the shoulder of the

highway.

Up in the

higher mountain elevations, low-lying clouds shroud the

trees in an eerie whiteness. Laborers are already busy

hacking rock from the mountain sides for road

construction, and women guide their herds of sheep or

goats to grassy spots for feeding.

School

starts at 8 a.m. for children lucky enough to attend. The

desks are old and rickety and the learning materials are

nil.

These are a

few of the observations made by a ten-member fact-finding

team from Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Peachtree City,

visiting Guatemala for five days last week. The purpose

of the trip was to assess the needs of parishes in the

Diocese of Huehuetenango in order to provide future

assistance in areas such as construction, medical care,

educational supplies and finance.

The group's

findings were overwhelming. For example, doctors are

found only in sizable cities, leaving thousands of people

to seek medical help from clinicians trained on the level

of U.S. physician assistants. Most of these clinics are

provided and administered by the Catholic Church. Dental

offices consist of a chair, a table and what looks like a

pair of pliers.

Parochial

schools outnumber state institutions seven to one. One

school visited in the town of San Pedro Soloma educated

approximately 700 children with 17 teachers, five of whom

were members of the religious order of sisters. The

monthly salary of teachers working in church-run schools

is $100. State teacher salaries are $200 per month.

The

churches are the hub of each community and are usually

located on the square. The faithful bring handfuls of

small lit tapers throughout the day and evening to place

before statues of Christ and a multitude of saints,

praying quietly or aloud for loved ones. The pews are

rough-hewn and dusty. The altars are dotted with

hand-picked bouquets contained in cans or sometimes,

vases.

About 18

priests circulate among 30 parishes, often traveling long

distances on substandard roads, sometimes walking hours

to the church to celebrate Mass.

The people

of Holy Trinity made a commitment during this Jubilee

Year of the church to take on a social justice project in

keeping with the central theme of the 2000 celebration.

To fulfill their promise, follow-up trips to

Huehuetenango are scheduled, the next one set for Aug.

7-13.

Tentative

plans are to work with the bishop of the HueHuetenango

Diocese to provide needed support in the most desperate

areas including medicine, money for school breakfast

programs, and school supplies. Members of the

fact-finding team were the Rev. Fernando Molina-Restrepo,

David Suwinski, Rudi Forster, Bill Camper, Pedro Cabrera,

Clare Reed, Marta Ramos, Maria Ramos, Kirsten Foschman

and this reporter.