Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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Simply said, Guatemala changed my life. There is no way to express every way in which I have changed and I am quite sure that I am not done learning from the experience. I returned from Guatemala July 7 and it has taken me this long to write a blog about it. Sorry for the delay but I have been processing over the last week.

 
Friday June 27
 
We flew into Guatemala City and quickly found out that 1 of our teammates bags had not made the journey from Miami to Guatemala City. We would later find out that it had been gone through and missed our plane. We finally got the bag Wednesday (we arrived Friday). We were then met by Josh, our team leader, Raul, or translator, and Giovanni, our driver for the 11 days. Then began our journey to Mazatenango where we would stay for the night. We encountered our first Guatemalan storm on the way. It was raining like I have never experienced rain before. People were sticking their heads out of their cars in order to see the road. Driving was crazy down there anyway so it was even crazier in the downpour. We got to Mazatenango safely after like 5 hours.

Saturday June 28

After driving to Paquila, the village we stayed in, and dropping of our bags we traveled to Pabeya where we would be working all week. We met the pastor’s wife and some of the members of the church. They prayed over the week and we began working. Our task for the week was to install 12inx12in tiles 1 in. thick.
 We worked half a day Saturday and then went back to set up our tents at the church we would stay at in Paguila. We ended up waiting until 10pm to set things up because there was a Quinceanera at the church. We were exhausted by the time we went to bed.

 
Sunday June 29

 

We worked half a day and then cleaned up and attended a church service in Pabeya. The church service was very cool. Even though I did not understand a thing they were saying I could tell they were truly worshiping the same God I worship (it was in Quiche, I don’t even understand Spanish so I didn’t know anything they were saying). When they prayed you could tell they were filled with the Holy Spirit. They prayed with such emotion. It was amazing to experience. We were asked to sing a few songs in English which was entertaining because we all sang in different keys! Then Josh was asked to give a message.

Monday June 30 – Tuesday July 1

Monday and Tuesday were full work days. We were getting the hang of laying tile at this point so work started to get faster. Tuesday evening I was in charge of the devotion for the evening. Tuesday was also the night I started not feeling well. After giving the devotion I went straight to bed and thus started the battle with an intestinal issue.