Guatemala: Love. Pretty. Community. Warm. Fulfilling. Ice Cream. Our group members defined their experience of the day in one word with the words above. We finally started getting our hands dirty (literally). Hailey took lead and finished a stove project to fine-tune her skills while enjoying snacks with the family they were supporting. The kindness of the community and genuine nature of the local people truly showed throughout the smallest of acts.
The rest of the group journeyed to lay flooring on Doni’s house. We learned to make concrete, sifting, and how to smooth each layer of flooring. René, one of the construction workers, let us use a speaker to jam out to music, we had conversations with Doni and introduced ourselves, ages, and had some jokes. Our group formed relationships with ourselves, Cecilia (a long-term volunteer), and the community of San Lucas as well.
After a fulfilling lunch with some delicious fruits, the girls took a journey to pick up their bracelets at Señora Maria’s store. We met again with all of the Gannon groups present to go on our cultural excursions of the day: the women’s center, the coffee storage, hospital, and school. The women’s center provided an educational background on how the friends of San Lucas were teaching useful weaving and stitching classes as an alternative source of income. Ariel bought the best pants in the market and our entire university will be jealous of her style now! Thereafter we visited the hospital where the health majors engrossed themselves into the ability to help. After Father Greg held a child in his arms and the child passed away, a vision was born to make a hospital for the community to never let a child die. The hospital opened under Father Greg’s supervision after 10 years of construction that has thrived ever since it opened. It has rapidly grown from originally being marketed by Father Greg going door by door in the community to serving over 74 patients daily. Our excursion to Juanana Coffee provided insight on the process of coffee and the opportunities it provided the families to continue to progress as a community. Our last visit of the day was the school. Here we learned the innovative ways of teaching the students how to be holistic individuals. Not only do they provide an education that requires dedication and teachers going the extra mile, but they provide cooking classes and expect proper manners from their students to be better stewards of the world and each other. We agreed as a community that the teachers that are responsible for building the leaders of the next generation and the central column to growth of our world were underpaid in the schematic makeup of professional jobs.
Reflecting on the various projects we entered, it struck us with the thankfulness each individual we interacted with had for our presence. Unable to communicate in the most efficient ways possible, we communicated our appreciation for the community to dedicate their time in educating us and welcoming us into our new homes.
Continuing our trip, we recognize the frustration in the language barrier and our wishes to do more. However, one resounding statement that we all agreed upon that was communicated to us at our school visit hit home. We may not be able to communicate in our language, but the one thing that allows us to know all is well is our smiles. So, as we journey along this week excited for each experience to come, memories to be made, and lessons to be learned, we will do so with a smile in solidarity with our Guatemalan community.
Thank you for the prayers, thoughts, and journeying along with us, see you tomorrow!
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