4:45 . . . that was the time I woke up this last morning. Not fun. We were shuttled to the airport and at 9:45 we boarded our plane to Guatemala, which was only a three hour flight. That through me off a little bit. After an 8 hour flight to Atlanta I thought getting out of country would be much longer for some reason. Luckily I have the spiritual gift of being able to sleep absolutely anywhere so I got some good ZZZs on the plane.
After arriving in Guatemala and seeing a breathtaking view of Guatemala city from the airplane we went through customs, which was very much a brease. Our squad then split into the groups we are working with for the next 3 months and we said goodbye for the foreseen future. At the airport our Group of Team Geronimo and Lavished Warriors met Nathan our contact host, David a minister who will be working with us and Callie our bus driver. Nathan is the only one who speaks English, he is from Guatemala however is very much a white guy. His parents came down to Guatemala as missionaries and that is where Guatemala. When he was in college he went to the foreign country of The United States to study. However he is now down here In Guatemala serving in Engadi Ministries. He has a wife and three kids that I have yet to meet David is Mexican, he is an older guy and has this air of wisdom around him, even though I don’t understand anything he says. I realize he knows more English than he lets on because when I or someone else would say something funny he would laugh along. Cali is an older Guatemalan and is such a sweet guy, whenever I look at him I just smile for lack of Spanish words and he returns it with his awesome smile. All three guys are absolutely fantastic and I am so excited to be working with them for next 3 months.
Driving through Guatemala, I definitely had an extreme culture shock. Traffic is insane, with just as many people and motorcycles in the street as there are cars. I know I could not drive their without lots of time, I am not nearly aggressive enough and would have no idea what to do with all that insanity around me. Visually there is so much to take in while driving through Guatemala City. Crazy ghetto looking homes made out all different types of material and all different colors are packed as close as the people that inhabit them. Because Guatemala is one of the most dangerous countries in the world there are a lot of things to discourage violence. Guards with guns are literally everywhere, I was a little bit shocked from that at first. You could easily see a hundred separate men with guns from just walking around the city for a little bit. Tall walls with barbed wire are also almost everywhere you go.
When we passed through security into our gated community in San Lucas Callie brought us to what would now be our home for the next 3 months. Guys I was honestly expecting so much worse. It is a quaint mid sized 2 story casa (ooh spanish word!) with 5 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a dining room. I absolutely love this home! I am so excited we get to have such good accommodations! Nathan then sat is ll down and talked to us the fascinating story of Engadi Ministries and how it came to be. He then told us what we would be doing this next three months, but I already told you that in my last blog. For the next three months we will be buying our own groceries as a team and making our own food! We took our first trip into the grocery market, which is about a ten minute walk, and bought food for the next day.
The next morning we got to go to the schools that we will be teaching at! Nathan gave us a tour to the Elementary and Middle Schools. Right away we got to interact with the kids there. We were all huddled up in this central area, with kids in recess all around us. Honestly I felt a wii bit out of my comfort zone but Sam, with his abundance of outgoing enthusiasm soon broke the ice and started playing with the kids which made it easier to play along. Btw I feel so blessed to have Sam on my team, because dude can speak Spanish real fluent! After he broke the ice it was much easier to follow along and play with the kids. We played so many different games that I lost track. I had a blast playing Soccer with Josh and a bunch of Guatemalan kids. Although we spoke no spanish, we figured it out with the kids, it helped how enthusiastic and inviting they were to us gringos. I think my first mistake however is when I picked one of the kids up and put him on my shoulder. From that moment on all the kids wanted to do was ride on our shoulders and I got worn out pretty fast but endured for the sake of the kids. The joy and laughter they had on our shoulders was well worth the weight on our backs. After what seemed like an eternity the recess bell rung and the kids went back to class. At that point my back was mucho sore. We then got more of the tour of the community we will be building up relationships with and the place we will be investing our time and gifts into. Callie then drove us back to the casa where we then walked to the grocery store and got food for an amazing meal of rice, soup and potatoes. After that we had team time, talked about the day, and how we would go about teaching English tomorrow, and then had a worship sesh led by the incredibly talent Joshy. That then leads you to now . . . I am currently in my hammock right now surrounded by the sound of Guatemalan rain all around me, and I couldn’t be happier. I feel so #blessed to be here and am so excited to see what the future has in store for me.
I am a little bit nervous about teaching tomorrow, yet eager to start.
By the way I have very limited wifi access, so I posted two blogs at the same time.
