Guatemala: Days 4-6
We woke to a beautiful day on Thursday. In fact, I don't recall a day that wasn't beautiful in Guatemala. It was around 70 degrees and sunny every day we were there. Talk about a dream when we were coming from late November in Virginia! :) We had a delicious casserole for breakfast along with refried beans, fresh pineapple, and sweet bread. The morning was filled with fun. We had about 43 kids show up for our camp that day (almost double the amount from the day before). We spent the several hours teaching a lesson, playing games with the kids, doing art projects, singing, holding hands, and laughing. I remember sitting with a sweet little boy name Richard, we were sitting in the sunshine and he kept trying to tell me something in Spanish. I clearly did not understand, so he hopped up and found a translator who came over to tell me that he wanted to sit with me, but that he wanted us to sit together in the shade. :) I can't wait to go back to Guatemala and talk to those sweet kids in their language (#goals).
On Tuesdays and Thursdays Love Guatemala hosts feeding center for the kids in the village. They can be dropped off or their parents can sit with them while they eat. After our team lunch, we were able to help serve the meal and spend more time with the kids and some of the families. I was also able to try patting out tortillas for the meal. I was terrible at it! It kept sticking to my fingers but the Guatemalan women were pros! I love that LG offers a feeding center because many families struggle financially and this allows their children to get a healthy meal twice a week.
That afternoon we spent time decorating LG for the youth night. It was the equivalent of a Sunday night youth group, but it happens on Thursday nights. This was one of my favorite memories from the trip. Kelly and I taught the large group lesson, along with our helpful new friend Walter. Walter is a former graduate of LG's English school and he served as a translator and huge help the entire week we were there. Teaching a lesson in English and having it translated to Spanish proved to be very amusing! Hopefully not too much got lost in translation. :) After our large group lesson, we sat with the teenagers in smaller groups and asked them some questions. Before they left for the night we tried to teach them the Church Clap dance. It was hilarious and so much fun! After everyone had gone home, we hung out on the roof around a fire pit. We laughed a lot, danced, and sang together.
The last day of camp went really well. We had more than 50 kids! There were three sweet girls who lived near LG that I really loved hanging out with. We learned that many of the families get paid $5 a day to grow and export flowers for other countries. It's very hard for a family to live on that kind of wage. It leaves you not only grateful for what you have, but also sad and frustrated over the injustice of it all. The people there are joyful though, regardless of their living conditions or their financial situations. That says a lot about their hearts.
After camp was over, we spent the afternoon painting a team mural and painting the entry ways of LG.The mural turned out beautiful (no thanks to me, because I'm not artistic!). We had a delicious dinner that night with tres leche cake for dessert. Yum! After dinner I went to the kitchen so I could hug the sweet women who had cooked for us all week. I made Walter go with me so he could translate "Will you please come home with me?" They laughed, but I was being serious. :)
We spent the rest of the evening singing and praying with the missionaries and their families. It was a beautiful evening. When I woke up on Saturday morning I had so many conflicting emotions. I loved my time in Guatemala. It was so fulfilling to help people every single day, in a different way than what I do at home. I wasn't ready to leave, but I was definitely ready to see my family. I missed my babies, husband, and dog! It was the longest that I had been away from them, and I couldn't wait to get home to smooch their faces. Before we left for the airport, we took several food bags to some of the neediest families. The conditions in which they lived were heartbreaking. One woman lived in a single room with three or four children. We gave them food and prayed over their families. It was a very humbling experience. They never hesitated to invite us in, never ran around to straighten up, never told us it was a bad time. They hugged us and allowed us to pray over them and told us a little about their lives. It was definitely a very moving and impactful day in our trip.
I loved serving at LG because we were able to serve the whole time we were there. Our main focus was the kids camp but we didn't stop there or sit around from day to day waiting for the camp, we went on home visits, packed food bags, helped with the feeding center, lead youth night for the church, helped paint LG, etc. It was an amazing experience. I can't wait to go back!
