Well, this was it, our final full day in Guatemala. We headed to Antigua Guatemala for the day. There will be a write up with photos soon. Even after our return, there will be a few updates with our reflections, photos, and the reminder that if you are interested in the trip next August (Aug. 2-9, 2014), paperwork will be due in September.
I wanted to post a reflection from one of our teens. Please see below for Ana's thoughts on one of our first days in Guatemala:
Well today is August 7th 2013 and it is the third day that I am on this mission trip. Today was the first real day of work for me, the other two days were getting settled and visiting Guatemala City.
First we got to visit the nursery in the garbage dump and then we split off into two groups. Some of us stayed in the nursery and the other group went back to Francisco Coll School. I stayed at the nursery and was placed in a class full of six year olds. They welcomed me with a bunch of hugs and questions, I barely speak Spanish and there was a little bit of a language barrier but in a way I still understood what they were trying to say; the kids are so full of life, the smiles lit up the room, along with the giggles and the Spanish words being spoken so quickly that I didn’t even get a chance to think about what they said before they were on to the next topic. Seeing the conditions that they live in its amazing to still see not only the kids but the parents and the other adults so happy and full of joy and greet people with such politeness.
This has been my second year back with my church and volunteering with International Samaritan, last year we built a cement roof but this year in the afternoon I got to use a sledge hammer and a chisel and attempted to chisel away cement, it was harder than I imagined and I had help from some of the men watching but it was still an honor to do something to help the School.
This trip has been wonderful so far, I was born in Guatemala and when I found out that there would be another trip to Guatemala I jumped on the opportunity, I will gladly take any chance I can get to come down and help out.
This has truly been a great experience, one I will never forget. -Ana
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