Yesterday as we drove to Antigua to do ministry and also help out the Wrestling Federation, by promoting the sport, I got a chance to read some more about the history and cultural background of Guatemala City and the country as large. A couple of things I’ve noticed about driving around the city of Guatemala is the extreme divisions between class and the amount of nasty pollution. With that in mind I was intrigued by the following quote from my tourist book, The Rough Guide to Guatemala,
The divisions that cleave Guatemalan society are at their most acute in the capital’s crumbling streets. While the wealthy elite sip coffee in air-conditioned shopping malls and plan their next visit to Miami, swathes of the city have been left to disintegrate into a threatening tangle of fume-choked streets, largely devoid of any kind of life after dark. A small army of street children lives rough, and gang violence is growing. The disparities of life in the city are glaring extreme, as glass skyscrapers tower over the sprawling shanty towns, and shoeless widows peddle cigarettes and chewing gum to designer-clad night clubbers.
