We made it to Guatemala! We have only been here for two days and we have done a bunch of things. Day one: we arrived in Guatemala City and went to grab our packs. We waited for our ride to come and pick us up to go to our destination. German (the g sounds like an h) picked us up along with Dave, who is in charge of Go Ministries. After forty five minutes of riding on the bus we arrived in Xenacoj. It is a very small village area, the houses are tiny, with dirt floor, and tin roof. But the mountains and all the trees and plants are the most amazing things I have ever seen. The people are super friendly, the occasional drunk, and many stray dogs. The first day we just walked around Xenacoj and exchanged our money. We are super lucky that we have houses to stay in with beds, blankets, pillows, three meals a day, which are delicious, and sometimes a warm shower.
Day two rolls around! We woke up and ate some breakfast. We headed to Antigua which is an hour bus ride. We crammed, and by crammed, I mean we were literally sitting on top of each other. That’s only bus one; we had to take three to get to Antigua. Bus two: This bus cost three Q’s, We all got on the bus and again crammed on the bus. The third one was the same way. We got into Antigua and we shopped around, and got coffee. I bought some awesome looking jacket thing. The jacket cost me 17 American dollars which is 125 Q’s.
Day Three (FRIDAY!!) We had our breakfast and then we headed to a city about twenty minutes away. Today we went to a school and played with the students. A couple of us helped make Atole which is a drink. The “kitchen” that they cooked in was a small shack, which was full of smoke, so when you walked into their “kitchen,” my eyes immediately turned red and I started crying! Dave told us that many of women who work in an environment like that most likely end up having COPD. With the kids, we played soccer, threw them into the air, and just had fun with them. Before we left, the kids put on a talent show for us, they danced, sang, and did so many other things!
I have loved these three days so much, and it’s only been three days! I have three months left! As Americans we need to be thankful for what we have! God has blessed us with so much! All we need are two things in life: One, God and Two, happiness. Many of the Guatemalans don’t have much but all of them are happy people!
You read my whole post! That’s so awesome and I thank you!! So now I’m going to give you a heads up: Around Christmas time, we would love your support by helping the kids here to have Christmas presents. In the future I will you give you more ideas, but AIM will send you gifts to Xenacoj and will give them to the kids! Just keep that in the back of your mind!
God bless you all!
Nikolas S. Yoder
