It’s been too long since I’ve written a blog, I am sorry for that. You might think that because it’s been so long, nothing is happening, but these past 2 months in Guatemala have been anything but slow. So much has happened in ministry and in my own personal journey. I am going to try and catch you up on my life currently, and with only 3 weeks left of the race, there is a lot on my mind.
As I mentioned previously, my team is teaching English class at our base, and that schedule has changed, but molded into something that we pour ourselves into throughout the week. This class was anticipated to run 4 days a week, 2 classes each day, morning and afternoon. Unfortunately, all 4 classes were not filled, and out of the 2 that were, one of them lost funding for their bus and could not get to our base anymore. Since the end of April we have had only 1 class on Wednesday and Fridays from 2-4. This is my class, I am the lead teacher and the rest of my team is my support, sitting with students and helping them follow along. At first, I’ll be honest, I was not excited the only class continuing was mine. It seemed unfair to me that I had to keep making lesson plans and leading, but ultimately it has been really fun, even though I spend much more time outside of ministry hours preparing.
With all of our classes being cancelled, the ministry coordinator for Adventures Guatemala helped us find more people to connect with during the week. Almost immediately after our classes were cancelled, we started going to a feeding program at a local church Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 6:30-8. Early mornings make for long days, but this really is one of the best parts of our week. We love this church and the people there. We take a short bus ride to the town square, walk a couple minutes to the church, and then take over the kitchen. Each one of us takes a job, flipping breakfast burritos, frying eggs, stirring beans, making coffee, serving kids, or washing dishes. There is something special about this church, in English it is called the Restoring Families Church, and it restores our morale every morning we are there. The conversations we have as a team in the kitchen are some of our favorite parts of the day.
The reason I mention this church restoring us, is because on top of that, we got another ministry added. Our third and final addition is a school outside of Antigua called Casa del Nino (CANI). At CANI we are teachers’ assistants. We spend 2-3 hours doing whatever they need us to do, but this school is so great they don’t need us to do anything. In my experience in schools on the race, teachers usually need you to teach English or copy out assignments into the students’ notebooks. At this school, there already is an English teacher who comes once a week, and the students all use the same curriculum which has a workbook. With nearly all their needs being met, this leaves us sitting in the back of the classroom with hopefully a good book to pass the time. I took this opportunity to read 1984, and then passed it along to Grace, who sits in the 1st grade class with me, so we could have a “book club” during class. Often times this school creates a lot of anxiety in us due to the overstimulation surrounding us and the lack of opportunities to serve. Monday through Friday you can find us at CANI from 9-11 or 12 depending on whether we are teaching our school in the afternoon or not.
Between all our ministries and the fact that I am one of our teams translators, I usually fall asleep around 9 with my brain smoking. On the bus rides to and from all our schools and churches, I am usually thinking about coming home, going to school, having a summer job, real life things. I know I shouldn’t be thinking about stressful things all the time, and so I have been open with my team about where I am at, and we have been praying for each other since we are all thinking about similar real world problems. I don’t want the thought of student loans creating a cloud around my amazing time here. Gap M is full of awesome people I know I will miss. Transitioning will not be easy, but each day I am getting more and more ready to come home, despite the difficulties I know it will bring. 22 days left (I’m smiling and crying at the same time).
