[un]common sense

Guatemala was great! I had a lot of fun. The first two days we got there were relaxation days. We went swimming on Saturday night. The water was freezing.. nothing like Florida pools thats for sure! Sunday morning we went to church. It was all in spanish so only a few of us picked up words here and there but it was a good experience nonetheless. Sunday afternoon we spent time in Antigua. Antigua used to be the capital of Guatemala until it was ruined by a hurricane.. I believe it was hurricane Mitch. So because of the destruction, the capital was moved to Guatemala City. This is where we stayed during the week.

Monday the real work started. And when I say real work.. I don't really mean work. It was more like spending time with the kids with a little painting on the side. Since we were there with AMG Guatemala, we worked at the school called Verbena which was also the headquarters for AMG Guatemala. The kids there were so adorable and loving. While they were in class and we walked by, they would all look out the doorway and wave and say "holaaaa" or "padrinos." In Spanish, padrinos means god parent but in this case, it meant sponsor parents. It was encouraging. Monday and Tuesday we prepared and painted the walls of three classrooms alongside playing with the kids.

Wednesday we went to Las Vistas which was another one of the schools/projects they had. Las Vistas was set way up on a hill. It was a very scary ride to get there but we made it and when we got there, we got a tour of the project, then were able to hand out gifts to some sponsored children in our church. The kids were very appreciative of everything they were given because they didn't have that much to begin with. When the gift giving was over, we went out to lunch at a place called "Pollo Comparo" which was very similar to Chick Fil A. We went there with a bunch of the workers and a handful of the office staff from headquarters. The ones who knew both English and Spanish helped each of us order. We developed a good relationship with the maintenance workers in Verbena. We couldn't communicate with them very well- at first, but as the week progressed, we picked up more Spanish and they picked up a little English. After lunch, we headed back to Verbena to hand out some more gifts. Here I met a little girl named Estephany. She was so cute. At first, she had someone who could translate with her, but when the translator was pulled away, I was on my own. I thought it was a little awkward so I tried to make the best of it. Before the translator left, she had communicated that she was a little bit disappointed that her sponsor parent couldn't be there to meet her, but I tried my best to make it a good time for her. By the end of the day, Estephany and I had really connected even though neither of us spoke each other's language. That just goes to show how far body language goes. She had gotten a new baby doll so I played dolls with her and then played with balloons. By far, this was my favorite day.

Thursday came along quickly. We went back to Verbena to finish up the painting job and played with the kids all day. In the morning, we had a very neat, humbling experience. The social worker at Verbena took us all in two groups down into the ravine. The ravine is where many of the teachers and students live. It is a very poor neighborhood behind the school where living conditions are just awful. To get into the ravine, we had to park on a narrow street where we drove past a gang. Just a side note: the kids in these schools generally don't make it past the 6th grade because of gang involvement. In Guatemala, kids are only required to go to school through the 6th grade even though they offer middle and high school. So, once these kids make it past sixth grade, many drop out to join gangs. When we were driving down this street, we saw the gang and the missionary/director of AMG Guatemala, Brian Dennett, said that they wouldn't hurt us because one of his kids was enrolled in the Verbena school. Even though we knew they wouldn't hurt us, it was still very scary to be out there. Walking down into the ravine was also scary. The steps were very steep and easy to trip on. On the way down, we saw the houses and then right there was the "dump" where they just dumped everything-trash- down into the ravine. The smell was putrid. When we got to the house- or tin shack with one room and no bathroom- it was very sad to me to see what they lived in. It was a single mother in which the father had abandoned them and so the mother made her living by selling tortillas. The food that we saw laying around had rainwater and flies all over it. There was only a single bed- if you want to call it that because it was just a pile of blankets. she had a small stove with two burners and a small television. As a gift to her for allowing us to see her home, we gave her a bag of rice and a bag of beans. It was a very humbling experience. After this, no one wanted to talk because we were all just so shocked that people actually live in this all over the world. We are very blessed to have what we do and God has blessed us all according to His plan. I tried to keep that in the back of my mind the whole time we went there so I wouldn't feel so guilty. Thursday afternoon we played a nice game of soccer with the maintenance workers at Verbena. Thursday we found out very unexpected news. While we were all playing a game, one of the team went outside to find it raining ash. It was like black sand was falling from the sky with rain mixed in. It was then we found out that Mt. Picaya had erupted after 14 years of nothing and we were not going to be able to leave on Saturday morning as planned. That night we also found out that schools were cancelled across Guatemala for Friday so we were not going to be able to say goodbye to the kids. At this point, we didn't know what the plan was for anything so we all just went to bed.

The next morning, we had our devotion time then Brian picked us up to go to Verbena to help with clean up. Most of it had already been taken care of when we got there so that day we had another relaxing day just hanging out with what teachers did make it to school that day and some of the staff kids. That night, we had reservations to a nice Italian restaurant (Italian, I know right?) It was so delicious. But, while we were at dinner we saw it pouring so hard outside so we flipped on the news station at the restaurant. Apparently, Mt. Picaya erupted a second time and this time was about as bad as the night before. We also found out that all this rain was from a tropical storm that had settled in over us. At this point, we really didn't know what the plan was. There had also been some earthquakes, one of which I felt earlier in the day. Saturday morning we got to sleep in and by sleep in I mean 8. =) Late in the morning Brian came and picked us up and we all went to his house for the afternoon/night to hangout with his family. It was a good day of fellowship. We found out that an alternative to waiting another week to get on a plane in Guatemala City was to drive up-8 hours to El Salvador and fly out there. That alternative became the new plan and wouldn't you know that at 4:30 AM we were all up and in a van driving to El Salvador.

On Sunday, there were only two tickets available for team members who needed to get back to their families so we said goodbye to Jimmy and Walter. After dropping them off, we went into the city to find a hotel and eat lunch one last time with Brian Dennett. It was sad saying goodbye but we were all excited about so much adventure taking place in one week. Sunday night we relaxed and hung out at the hotel. We went swimming and played our new favorite card game- RAGE.

Monday we hung out in the hotel for the morning then went for a walk around the city. We came back when we were all hot and tired and went back in the pool to swim. It was a relaxing last two days and I think it really helped us all grow as a team to spend the extra time together. Finally on Tuesday morning, we were headed on a plane to Miami. We got there, our plane was late, but we found out our connecting flight to Boston was delayed an hour but that was nothing... after everything we just went through... it really was nothing! So I finally got home on Wednesday morning at 3 AM. Such a trip!

If there was one thing I learned on the trip, it would be that I have no control over anything. We can make our plans, but God makes His and those plans are the plans that happen. It may be nice when our plans align... but on this trip, God really showed me that His plans are better and I need to stop thinking I'm in control when I really am not. It was a great trip for me and a great learning experience and I would gladly go back any day. I miss the team but at least I get to see the majority of them every week at church. I am so blessed!