Thank You, Guatemala.

Thank you, Guatemala.

Thank you for the late night tuk-tuk rides, however bumpy.

Thank you for your amazing people who are always open to a friendly conversation.

Thank you for your beautiful language; I’m praying I won’t forget it.

Thank you for the colorful flowers that were sold in the market from smiling women.

Thank you for your vibrant colors; they brought me so much joy!

Thank you for chicken bus rides, however crowded. 

Thank you for free salsa classes. I found a new thing I love to do!

Thank you for the satisfying feeling of two quetzales jingling in the palm of my hand while I waited for the bus.

Thank you for the night everyone lit paper lanterns over the city.

Thank you for my team, Daughters of Zion. We grew together, laughed together ( a lot), cried together, and learned together. I’m so grateful we got to do that in this beautiful country. 

Thank you for the rainy seasons and all the days I walked home in the downpour.

Thank you for the cobblestone streets; I don’t even mind all the times I tripped.

Thank you for the countless tiendas; your easy and cheap snacks are truly missed.

Thank you for chocobananas; they got me through the long and hard days.

Thank you for Sean and Michelle’s panaderia in San Pedro and for how God is moving there.

Thank you for inside jokes with many students and their mischievous laughter.

Thank you for hours and hours of playing soccer with our students. I don’t even like sports but I loved this more than I could say.

Thank you for your beautiful, green hills; they were a great source of awe and comfort.

Thank you for all the street dogs and their name in Guatemala, ‘chuchos’.

Thank you for Dia de la Independencia and the epic torch run in the rain.

Thank you for Maggie and Emily and coming home to a warm dinner every night.

Thank you for our balcony and the nights I spent up there playing ukulele for hours and hours.

Thank you for the school’s drum line and music program with recorders; the constant repetition of the same three songs will never leave my memory.

Thank you for Saturday mornings at the Eco-market and all the amazing people I met there.

Thank you Antigua for your never-ending shortage of coffee shops and kind baristas, especially Coffee Bloom!

Thank you for how Antigua looks at night; it’s one of the main reasons I’ll be back soon.

Thank you for your festive nature. There was never a time I wasn’t looking forward to a special day or festival.

Thank you for Emilio, his beautiful farms, and all the things I learned through him.

Thank you for Shoreline and the amazing family we found there.

Thank you for your abundance of plantain chips, need I say any more?

Thank you for each and every student I got the chance to teach and love, they are truly a gift!

Thank you for teaching me about how intertwined the spiritual and physical world are.

Thank you for the Square in Antigua and it’s convenience for people watching.

Thank you for team times every night; they were my consistency among chaos!

Thank you for the Sumpango Kite Festival and the giant kites that towered over the crowd.

Thank you for your coffee, even if it was too strong for me to drink.

Thank your for your food; I can’t wait for the next time I have Pepian.

Thank you for showing me that travel isn’t as hard as I thought, and imparting to me the dream of traveling the world.

Thank you for the many days we spent leveling ground for a house and the unexpected joy and fun that came from it.

Thank you for the dream team, Ellen, Abby Nass, Lily and I and all the jokes, hours of teaching, laughter, and love we had the chance to share with each other in beautiful Antigua.

Thank you for the stillness of Lake Atitlan in the morning. I was only there for a day but I feel blessed to have seen it.

Thank you for the low- floating clouds. I spent a lot of afternoons looking up at their beauty and swiftness.

Thank you for your love of fireworks for every occasion. I loved falling asleep to the sound of the constant loud booming.

Thank you for every classroom, big and small. I can say that I ultimately spent more time learning how to love people there than teaching English.

Thank you for Bodegona, our local grocery store. I have a new appreciation for all grocery stores after spending three months of constant trips there.

Thank you for the volcanoes, Agua and Fuego, and their constant proclamation of the power and serenity. 

Thank you Guatemala for these three months I had the chance to experience your passion and vibrancy through every one of these things. You changed me and I’m truly in love with this country. I hope to be back very soon to find another hundred things to fall in love with!

 

Although this post is about Guatemala, I am now in South Africa! I’m going to miss Guatemala a ton, but I’m planning on going back very soon in the future.

Exciting news! I have a new team of seven wonderful ladies! We are staying in White River on the beautiful campus of Africa School of Missions with the rest of the squad until December. I’ve been learning so much here about the Holy Spirit from just being here for a few weeks! We’ve been doing ministry with children without a permanent home at Michael’s Children’s Village and doing evangelism in the neighborhood where our church is. I’m loving it and am so excited to finish the month here!

Also, I still have quite a bit of money to raise in order to continue this beautiful adventure. By November 30th, I need to have the rest of the 13,800 raised; I have a little over 1,000 left. I trust that God will provide and I’d love for you to be a part of that in any way you can. Tell your friends, share my blog, and pray with me!  Keep praying folks; our God is doing incredible things. Thank you all!