Today we traveled
the whole day. I woke up very early and headed to the Atlanta airport with Katie's parents to begin our journey. When we walked up to the group, I was a little nervous. I only knew a handful of the people going on the trip, and I felt a little out of the loop. But my friend Kristen walked up to me immediately and hugged me, which made me fell a part of the group. Funny how a little hug changes everything. So we began, went through all of the check points with no problems. We boarded the plane and the nerves started! Here we go on our way to Guatemala! The flight was three hours long and they served lunch, which was disgusting!
When we landed and got all of our baggage and made our way to the bus. I had heard stories
about this bus and that taking dramamine would be a good idea. I do not get car sick, but I took it anyway, because it was going to be four hour bus ride down the mountain. This is the school bus we rode on. The luggage was tied tot he top of the bus as we drove down the mountain and rounded curve after curve after curve. I'm not gonna lie, it was a scary expereince. But Manuel, our bus driver was awesome. He wasprobably the best driver ever. He was able to dri
ve backwards and make impossible curves, all in a school bus. He was amazing! Once we got to San Pedro, the guys helped unload the bus and we went to our rooms. The hotel was gorgeous! I had one roommate, my friend Catalina, so it was great! We had our own bathroom. It was a wonderful experience. There was no air conditioner, but the weather was cool at night, so we were not too hot. The one part of the trip that was horrible was the smell that was all around. It was gross. Apparently it was the burning of the coffee shells, who knew something that smells so good could have shells that smell so bad! For dinner we had hotdogs and soup, crazy huh? I guess the minisrty we are with decicded to feed us American food that was familiar. At the end of the day, my roommate Catalina and I decided we were going to read through the book of Ephesians together ans discuss it every morning. I was excited for the days to come, but exhausted from all of the driving!
Day 2: May 12, 2008
Today I woke up and got ready, then I looked outside. It was still dark, but it was supposed to be 7:00. When Catalina looked at the clock on her phone, she discovers that it was only 5:00 am, my phone did not switch to Guatemalan time, so I woke up at 7:00 Atlanta time. So I climbed back into bed, clothes and all and slept another two hours. That morning we headed off to another village to build the houses. There are twleve villages surroun
ding Lake Atitlan, and they are named after the twelve disciples. We were located in San Pedro and went to a different village to build the houses. Above is what the house looked like when we got there. To the right is the family we built the house for. There is the mother and the daught in law with her grandchildren. In Guatemala, when a man finds the woman he wasnt to marry, he brings her his family's clothes with their fabric pattern on it. She then wears the clothes and moves in with his family. This usually happens around the age 13. The daughter in law pictured here is 20 and already has three kids. We gave out a ton of candy. When we walked down the road the kids would come out of their houses and meet us at the road. They all wanted candy from us and we would give it to them. After we did we would get the biggest smiles and a "Thank you", which they said in english. Today Catalina and I read Ephesians 2.
Above are the pictures of the family. To the left is their old house made of tin, which gets very hot in the summer and very cold int he winter, not to mention leaks rain. The middle photo is the daughter in law and her daughter weaving yarn, while the right picture is some Mayan ruins that the owner found on his land when he was digging his wells.
Day 3: May 13, 2008
After we did all of that we went outside in the street to play. We brought soccer balls, face paint, and bubbles. The face paint was so much fun. We were painting things all over the kids faces and arms, while they painted flowers and stuff all over our arms. We left pretty colorful! One of my favorite parts of playing with the kids was letting them teach me some Spanish words and me teaching them some English words. It was tricky to communicate, but fun to learn new
words!
There
was this boy, his name is Rodrigo, he followed us everywhere the second he got out of school. His mother has passed away and has two little brothers. He remembered my roommate Catalina, from years past and loved her. One day, two summers ago, she bought him ice cream, and he has loved her ever since. So every year, when he comes, she tries to bring him and his brothers clothes and shoes and toys. everyday when he comes to see us, he leaves with candy and small toys. So today he brought his brothers. We decided to give them some shoes, so after VBS we measured their feet and found some shoes for them to wear. They loved it! They were so excited about their new shoes. It made my day to see their faces light up when we put new shoes on them. They were so cute, I just wanted to take them home with me so bad!
Day 4: May 14, 2008
I woke up early this morning and did my quiet time on the hammocks at the hotel. As I was
reading through Ephesians 3 I ran across the 19th verse that says, "And to know that this love (the love of Christ) surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled with the measure of all the fullness of God." As I sat in the hammock, God reminded me that even though I do not have the knowledge to speak Spanish and verbally tell kids about Chirst, showing them the love of Chirst through my love of them is showing them more of Jesus then I could ever tell them. His love is greater than my knowledge! Isn't God amazing?
Today I spent a lot of time at the second work site, because there was little for me to do at my original site. There were a lot more kids at the second site so I spent my morning dancing, singing, and playing with kids. It was a blast! They loved our candy, poor kids probably had a sugar high when we left them! The pictures speak for themselves, showing howmuch fun we had swinging kids around, dancing and singing.
When we went to lunch we had coke out of real glass bottles!!! I loved it, one of the highlights of
the trip! haha! On the way to continue working on the houses that afternoon, we gave away some rice crispy treats. The kids loved them! As we were walking to our house we were building, we ran into some girls, they were about ten years old and had babies on their backs. They came running toward us wanting some r
ice crispy treats. After we gave them some treats, they followed us to the house and we played with them all afternoon, instead of helping with the house. (By this time we were up on scaffolding and only so many people could be that high and help) We were able to love on the babies and girls for the afternoon. My friend Kristen braided their hair and and my friend Jonathan played the guitar and we all sang some songs. It was a fun afternoon. the only downfall was one of the babies peed on my friend Taylor, but she said it was worth it.
Day 5: May 15, 2008
Today was our last day at the building sites, we finished the houses!!! We went to each house and dedicated it. Each team leader read a bible verse and prayed over the house. We said our goodbyes and gave each house a bag full of candy and peanut butter. (Peanut butter is in high demand, and they never get it because it is so expensive) The owners of the house were so moved by how much we helped them. Now they have a big new house that will keep them cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.
Then we climbed in the bus and headed to San Marco to do our final VBS of the trip and
Happy Feet (giving away the shoes we brought). It was a scary trip up a mountain, around a lot of sharp twists and turns in a very big bus. Needless to say, I was very scared and prayed the whole way up! When we got there it was a church full of kids waiting to do VBS with us. We sang some songs and did the same bible story as before, only this time we did it fast because we had to get to Happy Feet.
When VBS was over, we shuffled all of them out of the church and started getting ready for Happy Feet. It was crazy! There was a huge line outside of the church, people waiting to come in and get shoes, and us inside helping several people at a time, and matching up shoe sizes. After we were done, we gathered everything up and hurried to the bus to get back down the mountain. I know one thing, I slept good that night.
The lovely village of Santiago, Guatemala San Pedro Volcano
The teacher in me had to put this picture up. It is an Elementary school in Guatemala! YAY!
ome other coll buildings around Guatemala City.
After shopping we spent the night at a college in Guatemala City and ate dinner at a friends house. The next morning we woke up early to go to the airport. We all got through and sat in the airport, with no air conditioning might I add and no air movement at all, nothing as little as a fan, for about two hours. Getting on the plane was a relief. Getting back to the States was great. Walking through the Atlanta airport and hearing "Welcome Home", never felt so good. It was an awesome trip that I loved every minute of. Thanks again to everyone who helped me make this trip happen and for all of your prayers. I hope you enjoyed this small bit of my trip.
