So I may or may not have written all of those other blogs JUST to get to this one.
Ok, maybe not, but this is still country number 2 (and it sometimes becomes country number one) on the “places Mer is most excited to go” list.
In fact, I’m so excited we’re gonna shake things up a little bit. 🙂
Why I’m Excited: Meredith loves Latin America. Meredith wants a house full of Latino babies and wants to speak Spanish all day and spend a large chunk of her life in this culture. It’s one of the first things you’ll learn about her when you start talking to her! It started in Brazil and then flourished through college, she’s a bit of a nut! Third person aside, I’m passionate about this place. It’s culture, it’s language, it’s people, the history, the architecture, the music, the art, the FOOD!!! This is my place… these are my people. This is where my heart is.
Aside from that, I’ve actually spent time in this place! Instead of a vacation or a sports car after I graduated college I sent myself on a backpacking trip to this country. I bought a one-way ticket to Guatemala to explore this region of the world I love so much and study this language I’ve spent so much of my life studying that I never seem to master. I spent almost two months there studying Spanish and exploring the country, climbing volcanoes and eating my heart out. I made so many friends and soaked up every drop of this experience. The thing was, I went as a student – as a tourist. Guatemala stole my heart, but I went there for me. Now I get the chance to get to go back there and serve these people I love so much. My heart is so full. (Oh, but Luna de Miel, Dona Louisa, and El Refujio… I’m comin’ for you!)
Warning: there will be WAY too many pictures in this blog.
We will probably get back to more reasons I’m excited before the end of this blog, but without further ado…
GUATEMALA
Geography: This little place is smack in the middle of Central America. It’s below Mexico and sandwiched next to Belize, El Savlador, and Honduras. It contains 7 of the 10 tallest peaks in Central America. And guess what:
I climbed three of them.
I climbed the third tallest peak in Central America. I camped on it overnight, watched the sun rise, watched the volcano next door erupt, then climbed back down. Don’t believe me? Just watch. (OW!)
Yeah. Pretty spectacular. I hiked three of those things and I’m not a hiker. I’m just crazy and competitive and a glutton for punishment. (DO YOU SEE HOW STEEP THAT THING IS?? That path goes straight. up. I couldn’t move for a week.)
So yes. 🙂 Guatemala has mountains 🙂
Size and Climate: Guate is about the size of Tennessee. So it’s a little smaller than Georgia, but the third largest country in Central America. The climate is about perfect… it’s close to the Equator so it doesn’t so much have 4 seasons as 2 – rainy and not rainy. Un/fortunately we’ll be there at the very beginning of the rainy season. That could mean a month of not much rain or a month of very much rain – it will just depend on how early the rains come. The weather is hot and somewhat humid towards the ocean and cool and beautiful in the highlands. Antigua is just about perfect all the time. It’s carved out into a bowl surrounded by mountains that just becomes a vacuum for breeze 24 hours a day. It’s perfect there… When I was there from February to April it was cooler in the mornings and evenings and a perfect 75ish throughout the day. Flawless weather. I can’t wait to go back.
Language and People: Just because we are in Central America doesn’t mean we should make things easy, should we? Of course not. 60% of the country speaks Spanish, but the other 40% speak native Mayan languages. There are 23 unique indigenous languages spoken just by the people that live around Lake Atitlan. We most likely won’t be near big cities, but it’s not improbable that they would know some Spanish. I never ran into a problem being understood, but then again I went as a student and stayed with Spanish-speakers with the schools I studied in.
Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America. As you can see:
It also has a pretty high fertility rate (the highest in Latin America, actually.) It also has the highest population growth rate and almost half of it’s population is under 19 – making it the youngest population in Latin America. What does that tell you? It suggests that these trends are likely to continue because half the population is of reproductive age and they already have a high birth rate. So let’s see what kind of lives these kids are being born into.
Guatemala is the most populated country in Central America, but it has less than half the GDP per capita of other countries in the area. The average is $7,500, but more than half the population lives below the poverty line. 13% of children under 5 are underweight and 21% of children under 14 have to work to help provide for their families. I traveled all over this country. I didn’t just stay with the wealthy, but I’m pretty sure the average Guatemalan family doesn’t have wifi, and every place I stayed did. Language tourism is huge in Guatemala and there is a rigorous process for families to go through to be able to host students that come through. Their Spanish has to be above par, their houses are inspected, and they have to jump through a lot of hoops to remain a host family. I’m pretty sure the places I stayed were above average… and they weren’t resorts.
(Bonus) Why I Loved It: Guatemala is one of my favorite countries in the world. It stole my heart and I can’t wait to go back. Not only is it beautiful, (check these out…)
But you walk around and boom.
There’s a 500 year old church.
Boom.
There’s some of the tallest mountains in Central America (which I climbed!)
You have adventures where you scramble up a rock face and jump off a plateau into a 1000 foot lake like this
With views like this!
The markets are miles and miles of this…
And the children look like this….
Have you ever seen such delight on little faces ever in your entire life?
(More Bonus) Extra Reasons Why I’m Excited: I’m thrilled that Guatemala is my ninth country. I’ve never had a huge heart for Asia so after 5 months there, being 12 time zones ahead, and winding down towards the end of the Race, I’m going to need a recharge. Guatemala will be familiarity for me… a “going home” of sorts to a place I know and adore. It will be my second wind. Plus being in Central time instead of being an entire day ahead of everyone back home will make life much easier. I would so much rather finish up there than start there if I had a choice. After 8 prior months of new cultures and languages and food, things I know will be a breath of fresh air, and a lot of anticipation to get to that point. Guatemala will be like Christmas for me and a great way to finish off the last leg of the Race.
But most of all, I went here and fell in love as a tourist. Now I have the chance to go back to this place I love so much, but now I get to serve. I get to share this place with my squad, take them to all my favorite coffee shops and banana bread places and hopefully one or two places to eat 🙂 But I get to love those children. I get to give back to this place I have such a heart for. That makes everything so much more meaningful to me.
I have such a heart for this place, but I can’t go unless you send me. Please pray about what the Lord would ask you to give, and partner with me to help send me to change the world. If you can’t go, then I’m asking you to help send me. Click the SUPPORT ME link at the top of this page in my green fundraising bar. Thank you for helping me change the world.
1 – All pictures are from my adventure in Guatemala. All taken with my iphone. They can be liked at Instagram.com/meredithshaddix 😉
2 – All other information from the CIA World Factbook for Guatemala
