Here is an outline of what my days look like here in Guatemala, and this day is specifically Wednesday, April 21st!
6:58 a.m.
One of my teammates shook me awake and told me breakfast is in two minutes. I jump up, put on my glasses, make my bed a little, and run to breakfast in my pajamas (I’m not a morning person).
7:00 a.m
I get to breakfast and get in line. We had french toast and fruit, my favorite breakfast meal (our cook Teresa is amazing).
7:30 a.m.
Two of my teammates and I are waiting to be picked up by our ministry, One Way, to go to a town an hour away. Since it’s Latin America, people are normally late here. We wait for 20 minutes, and a white truck pulls up and the people tell us to get in the back of the truck. We ride in the back of the truck in the rain for an hour, honestly having so much fun driving on the highway in the back of a truck.
8:30 a.m.
We get to Comolapa, the town we do ministry at on Wednesdays. Since it rained, we have to sweep the water off of the outside basketball court/soccer field and push it into the drains. In my sandals in the cold, I learned this is harder than it looks.
9:00 a.m.
The kids show up and they break into two groups, the older kids and the younger kids. My teammate and I go with the younger kids, and we have art class with them. You can tell their smiles are huge, even though they’re wearing a mask. We help them paint and talk to them as they do so, then went and started doing soccer drills.
11:00 a.m.
We start to play a soccer game with them, and the leaders asked me and my teammate to play and each be on a team. So, I’m playing with my team, happy that I’m finally playing a soccer game on the race with people of my skill level (haha). We cheered and had fun with the kids, and you can tell how much they love it and how competitive they are. At the end of the game, we gathered by the benches and talked about loving our neighbor. The main leader gave a devotion about how to forgive others who hurt you and how to be nice to others and love them well. From this, I saw how big of an impact One Way has on the kids. Most of them come from homes where the dad isn’t there and they have to work all day long to help provide for their family. One Way gives them something fun to do and a community to be a part of while also teaching them how to love each other and how Jesus loves them.
12:00 p.m.
We eat the lunch we packed and rest for an hour, then get in the back of the truck again to drive to another town 30 minutes away. We pick up two other people, so now there are five people in the back of the truck constantly sliding and moving around. When we get to the town, we break into two groups. The first group uses the school’s basketball court to have art and soccer lessons, and the second group (which I’m in) goes to do house visits. We first visit a family that One Way just built a house for. We walked through the woods to get there. This family was living in a house as big as my brother and my bedroom combined, and there are 7 people in the family. So, we checked on the family to see how their new house was. They also didn’t have any beds, so One Way gave them 7 beds (three bunk beds and a full bed). The family was really happy with their new home and very grateful to One Way for providing the home for them.
1:30 p.m.
After that house visit, we went back through the woods to get to the main road again. We then walked to the end of the main road and saw a family loading cinder blocks off of a truck. We talked to them for a bit and found out they were building their own house. We asked if we could help at all, and they said yes. So, we made another assembly line and helped to throw blocks down the line to put in a pile. It took probably 30 minutes and started to rain halfway through. Being drenched in rain and also my own sweat, we finally finished and sat down with the family for a bit. Our translator then told us they were going to cut off the head of a chicken sometime for fun. We were confused and asking if it was for some ritual or something, but he said no. We thought how it was weird they were going to do that later. At that moment, the mom went to a crate and lifted it to grab the chicken that was underneath it, and handed it to the dad. We were all freaking out now knowing they were doing it now. They brought it over to the open area, and the dad pulled out his knife. Us three girls were screaming and hiding our eyes, and the Guatemalans were all laughing at us. Another man held the chicken’s body and the dad held the head and started cutting its neck slowly. The chicken was making noises while the dad was sawing its neck off. We three American girls were still shirking and hiding our eyes. Once they finally got the chicken’s head off, the dad smiled and held the chicken’s head as the chicken ran around flapping its wings. After that when we calmed down the family brought us chips and drinks (it’s very rude to refuse food a family gives you because they’re giving from what little they have), and we ate as the 8-year-old girl held the bloody knife and the dad kept smiling and showing the chicken’s head to us. When we finished, we thanked them and left the house to go back to the truck. We loaded everything in the truck and sat down in the back of it again, and started heading back to Comolapa. We dropped off two volunteers, then headed back to the base.
5:30 p.m.
We finally get back to the base, and dinner just started so we get in line to get our food. We have chicken, salad, and tortillas. We told everyone the chicken story and share stories about our day at ministry.
6:00 p.m.
Dinner is finished, and we have team time. Our team of three goes into our room to discuss our day and what we’re struggling with. We have a really good conversation about God and how He is moving in our life.
7:00 p.m.
Worship starts, and one of the guys on our squad sings and plays His guitar. We spend an hour and a half worshiping God and thanking Him for everything He’s done. We share words with each other and pray over each other, and each individually do what we chose doing that time. Some journal, some stand and sing with their arms up, some are on their knees praying, some sit and think, some draw and paint, and some dance. We all have different ways of worshiping, and they’re all beautiful.
9:00 p.m.
Worship ends, and I go into my room and sit on my bed. During this time at night, I either read the book Captivating, which is about unveiling the mystery of a woman’s soul and why God created women, read my bible (I’m currently in Leviticus), or talk to my seven roommates about whatever. I’ll also shower if I need to, talk to someone from another room outside, or play a game as a group in the main room.
10:00 p.m.
At this time, the lights go out and we start to go to sleep. Some people stay on their phones for a while (sometimes I do too because I struggle staying off my phone), but most of the people in our room are exhausted and are asleep right at 10. Eventually, I go to sleep, waiting for one of my teammates to shake me awake the next morning.
Every day changes a bit, and normally during the week we go to children’s houses and help teach them English or help them with their homework. Seeing their smiles warms my heart, and at the end of the hour hearing that they memorized what I taught them brings me so much joy. I’m excited for the last two weeks of doing ministry with this organization and being able to spend more time with the kids. In that, I can’t wait to see how God will move in these people’s lives and in my own. He is good.
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