Hey friends!
As most of you probably know by now, I’m currently in Guatemala! My whole squad is living at the AIM base near Antigua, and we’ll be here until the end of the race. We are so incredibly blessed to be here. Each of our teams get their own rooms – (oh yeah, we had team changes! My new team is Team Dauntless, which consists of me, Jess, Lydia, Katie, and Kim!) Anyway, we have our own rooms with our own bathrooms, which have western toilets, toilet paper, sinks with running water, and a shower with hot water! These are things that I wouldn’t normally get excited about back home, but after experiencing other cultures and how they live, I realize how blessed I am to have these things. We also have our own beds, which are super comfy.
For the past few weeks and for the next two months, my team is doing ministry at a special needs home called Los Gozosos. Gozoso as an adjective means joyful, so I’m pretty sure Los Gozosos means something along the lines of “joyful children.” There are 24 people with special needs that live there. Most of them are young children, but there are a few that are older (the oldest being about 23). Although they all have physical, mental, or both struggles, there is so much joy within all of them. The way they go about themselves, untouched by society and its expectations – they just live. They don’t care that they’re different or that the world may see them as outcasts, because God doesn’t see them that way. He sees them as precious and valuable and important and intelligent and beautiful – and they are! Their smiles are always unreserved and pure. They love you simply because you’re there with them. They don’t expect you to be something you’re not and they don’t expect anything from you, but that you be their friend. I can’t wait to fall more in love with the kids and the amazing staff at Los Gozosos during our time here. Heck, I’ve only spent five days there, and I already don’t know how I’m going to leave them. Please pray for our time there – pray for patience and continued love, and for hearts to keep serving and not grow weary. Pray that the staff there would know that they are incredibly valued and seen, and that they would find new joys every day. Thanks friends!
Another thing that is now a daily occurrence is the chicken bus. Chicken busses are literally school busses that are painted different colors. They drive back and forth between locations to take you where you need to go. To get them to stop and pick you up, all you have to do is hold your arm straight out and flap your hand up and down. Kinda fun, huh? Then you get on, hope for a seat, and hang on. Sometimes bearable, usually uncomfortable, and always an adventure.
You’re probably wondering why I named this blog “Cheeks Mall Ten Angle.” Well, I was thinking of a title that might confuse people enough to check it out, so I broke down Chimaltenango (the town where we do ministry in/kind of live – we are in between Parramos and Chimaltenango) and put it into random words that sound like it. And I decided to make Cheeks plural because Cole, Sam, and Hunter adopted a bunny and named it Cheeks! Fun fact: in sixth grade, I learned that rabbit is “conejo” in Spanish, and I’ve called my brother Connor that ever since. Love you Conejo.
