Hello readers and supporters, I am sorry that it has been so long since my last blog. My last month in Guatemala has been filled with quite a lot. Lately I have been working on a video I am producing for Engadi ministries. This has used up a lot of my time, I have even taken off a few days from ministry to work on this side project. I am getting very excited for it, I have not yet completed it but I’m getting ever closer. The video will be a short clip around 3 minutes that will address the kids who live in the slums of zone 18. I aim to bring to light the struggle that these kids go through on a daily basis. I am using a bunch of the clips that I have collected throughout Guatemala. If you saw the last video that I made, then expect for this one to be twice as good if not more. I have put a lot more effort into this one and I am so excited to share it with you guys.
This last month in Guatemala has gone b so very fast. Teaching english with Josh in Paradise school has been so great. With a lot smaller of a class in summer school I have gotten to know the kids and adults in our classes on an even more personal level. An average day in ministry looks like this: we wake up at 6:30 leave the team house by 7:00. At 9:00 Josh and I have our first 30 minute class. After this we hang out around the school, until our next class. I usually read on my kindle. Our next class is at 10:30. At first our classes were both very quiet and did not like participating to much, but as we spent more time with the kids they started opening up to us, and having more fun in class. After all the classes were finished we would paint a badly needed new layer of yellow and green (go ducks) on the school buildings. The fresh layer helped to cover up dirt, graffiti and scuff marks the previous layer had collected through its years of life. I love this time of day because it gave great opportunities to just talk with my friends, the american ones and the Guatemalan ones. Cali, David, and Manuel, were always there to joke around with us and have fun. Sometimes a Guatemalan my age named Tato would also come to the school and help us teach and paint. Lately I have grown so close with these guys especially with Cali and David. These guys mean so much to me and love me so well. Before this trip I had never thought I could get so close to guys I can’t eve speak the same language with. Cali is like my Guatemalan grandpa, he seem rough on the outside but once you get to know him he is the sweetest funniest person you will ever meet. He will go way out of his way to help you with his numerous connections he has in Guatemala. Two times my watch broke and both times he had it fixed for me. David is like my Mexican dad, he doesn’t live with us but he does ministry with us. He has a very funny personality but with David it is hard to tell if he is joking or if he is serious. He is trying to learn english so his Spanglish is always hilarious and makes me laugh all the time. As the end of our time in Guatemala approached we decided to have a goodbye dinner with all the people we had gotten close to in Guatemala. We invited Nathan and his family, Chino and his family, David and his family, Manuel, and his girlfriend, and Cali and his family. It was such a great gathering of the amazing people we had gotten the chance to know. We said some pretty emotional goodbyes that night but nothing near as hard as the goodbyes we said the next day. After ministry on the final day we had to say goodbye to Cali and David. These were some of the hardest goodbyes I have ever had to say, knowing that I might never see these guys I had gotten so close to again. Cali gave us all bracelets that had our names inscribed on them, and the moment he put his hood over his face and we could hear crying everyone lost it. We all circled around Cali and had a group hug/cry. The last I saw of these two guys was them walking down the long street to leave the neighborhood.
After saying goodbye the next day we left for Lake Attilan where we were having our squad debrief for Guatemala. 3 hours later we had arrived in this awesome new place, with all our friends around. While in Attilan I did not even feel like I was in Guatemala. The whole place had a very hippie coastal vibe going on. Right after arriving I went with a group of people to a small town on the lake where you could go cliff diving into the beautiful water. It was pretty exciting but the cliff was not as high as I thought it was going to be. There is a cliff jumping spot back home that is higher. The whole time I was at Debrief, it was pretty go, go, go, with a lot of adventuring. For me it did not feel that relaxing but it was quite the adventure. When we had our team debrief with the leaders. Our team heard some stuff that we really needed to hear. We realized that we needed to be more vulnerable with each other and open up more or we will never get closer to each other. I am really excited to launch into Thailand and start a new chapter with my team, one where we love each other more, fight for one another, and are vulnerable. I could not ask for a better team and love each person so much, Grace, Josh, Megan, Mack, Anna and Sam. My favorite part of debrief was the sunrise hike we climbed the last morning there. We left at 3:30 to climb an incredibly tall peak called Indian Nose. After getting two thirds of the way up the sun started to rise. We did not make it to the top for the sunrise however we still made it to the top and it was a spectacular view. We realized that we didn’t make it to the top in time because most people are dropped halfway up the mountain, but we started all the way at the bottom. On the way back we got to ride in the back of the truck down the sketchy mountain road. It was an amazing view all the way down.
And here I am today about to travel to the land of Thai, Thailand.
