Hello it’s me, Gaby, live from Guatemala. I am here to inform you all that i, despite my lack of blogging to prove it, am alive. I have had such an incredible thus far in my new home. I must warn you, though, that this blog post will most likely not contain any profound or thought provoking content. The reason i mention that is because i have spent the past two weeks contemplating the creation of epiphany-like stories to use for an absolutely ground breaking blog post. I have come to the realization, however, that if I’m hoping to become a New York times journalist before i will ever write a blog post then my blog will remain forever empty. So here i am, throwing in the towel of scholarly written material and embracing the rawness of a simple post de blog. In addition to accepting the imperfection that is my writing material i have also come to the conclusion that it is nearly impossible to express in words the impact my trip has had on me so far, but that i can sure as heck try. I can tell you one surefire thing, God is here, undeniably, powerfully, truly here. God is in this country, God is in my teammates, and let me tell ya…God is in the coffee. The delicious beverage that is Guatemalan coffee is not solely limited to morning consumption, but has become more of a day long event. You heard me, coffee drinking, around here, is a activity in and of its self, an activity that i gladly partake in. Ice cream eating, along with delicious chaco-banano eating, has also become a serious addiction. Sometimes we even take breaks from snacking and over-caffinineing to eat meals. Meals that are beautifully crafted by our host’s wife Susie. I find every meal to be majorly delicious and, despite popular assumption, i am not even close to being tired of eating rice and beans. In fact i strongly encourage you to incorporate more rice and beans into your diet for one simple reason… yummy. The moment in which i can not bear to eat anymore rice and beans will warrant its very own blog post. Believe it or not, however, we have been doing more than just habitually drinking coffee and eating food. We have spent some time in ministry at a school in a nearby village. I can not wait to see God’s incredible plans for these children to be revealed. We have also spent mucho tiempo learning Espanol. I am constantly trying very hard to apply my newly learned Spanish words into real life situations. Every time i speak to a Guatemalan in my newly learned language, however, i get laughed at. So i am thinking that more learning is in order. We have also recently spent some time working in a local wheel chair manufacturing factory, which consists of lots of heavy box lifting, pick up basketball games, and speeding around the warehouse in wheelchairs. The difference between hardly working or working hard has become one heck of a blurred line. I also have some specific moments i find to be worth noting.
Speeding through Guatemala late at night on the top of a bus, holding onto fellow WorldRacers to prevent any of us from flying off of the roof.
Dancing in the rain with some of the local children at a big fiesta in the town, trying not to pass out from doing a few too many spins.
Learning the guitar, please don’t expect me to come home as the next Taylor Swift, music is a process.
And living in a decent sized room, at best, with fourteen other girls, i still need to work on keeping my stuff a little neater (sorry Lexi, i promise i will clean up my stuff soon).
Woah, the thing that continues to blow my mind is that this is just the beginning. I have over 8 months of these crazy cool experience left with The WorldRace and a whole lifetime of adventures ahead of me. This is exciting, welcome to my journey… (I am fully aware of how cliche that ending is but just bear with me, I am very new at this.)
PS; I plan on writing many more blog posts in the near future, hopefully including some pictures and/or video, so stay tuned. Also any and all prayers are so very welcome and so very appreciated.
