Here it is! Y’all‘s question my answers. Love you all!
- How is Guatemala?
Guatemala is beautiful, amazing, welcoming, colorful, and a land of Shalom in Jesus name. I absolutely love the culture and the people. I wake up so thankful that I get to spend another day here. There are dogs everywhere, but I can’t touch any of them. Chicken buses are the way I get from place to place. The coffee is SOOOO good. And the base staff are absolutely amazing, Christ-like, and humble.
- What are you doing there?
I am serving in the town of San Lorenzo. The ministry I work alongside is One Way Community. Most days are spent tutoring kids from kindergarten to 2nd Mondays & Wednesdays, and 3rd-6th Tuesdays and Thursdays. We tutor them in Math, Reading, and English, and we also do Bible studies with each group at the beginning of the week. On Tuesday mornings we’ll build a stove for a family in San Lorenzo. Then on Fridays we do house visits all over San Lorenzo.
But I’m also getting discipled and poured into by the leadership team. We have a weekly Deep Dive into a passage of scripture, which means we read 3-4 verses and then discuss what we see, what the Holy Spirit is showing us, and what we can learn from what we just read. We also have different Team Times during the week which help our teams grow closer to each other and the Father. In the mornings before we all head off to our different ministries we have time set aside to spend in The Word. This month we will be starting the book “The Art of Listening Prayer” and incorporate that into our devotional time.
I’m also learning more about the importance of community while living in community with about 50 people. It has been truly beautiful to see nearly 50 people my age live together in harmony as the body of Christ. It’s not always perfect, but I can honestly say it has been good.
- What kind of food do you primarily eat there?/How is the food? Is it five star quality like I’d imagine?
We actually eat a lot of the same type of food as in the States so I will answer this question by telling y’all one of my favorite foods that is not like food from the States, and the story of my worst food experience so far.
So my favorite Guatemalan meal is Chapin Breakfast. “Chapin” is what Guatemalans call themselves, so it’s technically called Guatemalan Breakfast. This meal consists of eggs (preferably scrambled), black beans (with cream the consistency of sour cream but it’s not sour cream), plantain slices the have been cooked so that they are browned and soft, tortilla chips (or at least that’s what I’m pretty sure the are), and a slice of bread. If you wish you can also serve it with sliced avocado but it’s not necessary. This meal is absolutely delicious and you don’t even have to worry about keeping the beans away from the eggs because they taste great mixed together! I usually put the eggs and some of my beans on the bread and eat that. Then I use the chips to eat the rest of my beans. Saving the sweet plantains for last.
Okay now for my worst food experience so far. I was really surprised to find that the food that made this the story it is was tamales. Let me just say this: the delicious food you are probably thinking of is not what you should be imagining. These tamales were pure mush with chunks of meat thrown in with the bone. It is very possible that I just got a bad batch, but it doesn’t change that I could not eat it more then picking out the few pieces of meat and three small bites of the mush, after those bites just the thought of eating more made me feel like gagging. I was really surprised by this mostly because it seemed like a nicer restaurant so I was not expecting to be served something that was almost completely inedible.
But that was my only bad food experience so far, so all in all I would give most everything I’ve had five stars (?? ????????), just don’t try the tamales.
- What’s been your best day so far!?
So far my favorite day was the day we built our first stove. First off: I learning how to build a stove. Second: I got to use a plumb line to mark the place for the whole we would make for the chimney. Third: I got to hold the little baby, and I made her smile. Last, but far from the least: my team and I got to pray over the family and fill not only a physical need but also a spiritual need for the family. This was the day I fell in love with stove ministry, and I can’t fully express the joy it gives me to know that I get to do it every week.
