Right now I am sitting on the second floor of an internet cafe overlooking Quiche’s town square, listening to a marching band reherse and watching the locals as they walk by:
THe school girls that stopat the street vendors for ice cream
The traditional local women wrapped in 7 yards of beautifully embroydered cloth for modesty
the more modern local women in their heels trying to overcome their average height of 4′ 8″
Those going into themain cathedral to say their prayers andlight their candles…
and as dirty as the streets may be… I wish I could share the absolute beauty of this place with every person I know.
I was nervous about my first month in the field, it being my first mission experience ever… But everything has gone rather well.
For those of you who don’t know, I was chosen for the honor of being on one of the few ALL GIRL SQUADS. I have been teamed with 5 beautiful women and when we had the chance to choose a team name we wanted to embody our femininity and power. So we chose the team name AGAPE WARRIORS.
We flew out of Atlanta Tuesday for a 3 plane to Guatemala City, to then load a bus for a 6 hour ride (for most of which I was nearly- if not- hanging out the window)up and down the windiest roads I have ever seen in my life into the mountains to the hospital ministry called “AGAPE IN ACTION.”
The contact here is a wonderful couple who decided to split our squad up and send us to seperate ministries around town. A few teams are working in the hospital doing maintenance, working with premature babies and malnourished children. One group was sent to a home for special needs children, one to a nursing home and another to the fire station.
The Agape Warriors were sent to a childrens home/ school called “Casa de Sabiduria” which translates “House of Wisdom.” Where we will be spending the first half of the day leading devotionals, working with and helping the teachers teach mathematics (on my part) and English, and helping with any other random projects (for example helping make costumes for the students for the parade- which is what we did on our first day).
After the children get out of school we then get to… (NOTE,,, the pastor that runs the school asked for an all male team… which does not exist… and then somehow wound up with US) help the school build a new wing.
YES we get to do CONSTRUCTION.
We are going into town tomorrow to purchace boots and gloves. It will definitely be a challenge but I know we will rise to it and enjoy it.
Because not only do we come here in LOVE (AGAPE) but we are WARRIORS and we get to show this town how fierce we are.
<3 AJAX
journal entry 9/11/14
To answer some questions you may have:
YES I am sleeping in a tent
YES we have hot showers
NO we cannot flush the toilet paper
NO we cannot drink the water
YES it is rainy season, so it is cold at night and wet durring the day
NO the locals do NOT hate us (they actually invited many of us to be in the parade and have been taking pictures with us)
NO we do not have WIFI everywhere we go
YES … I LOVE IT.
MY CHALLENGE TO YOU
Don’t let all the modern day “conveniences” trick you into missing out on life. Put your phone away for 24 hours and see how much you notice that you never saw before.
