Team Shelby on Dishcrew

Here are some photos from yesterday's dishcrew:

Team Brandon -- 1

Joining in the Celebration

Our team leader, Brandon, happened upon the musicians practicing for the Sunday evening Mass in the parish church and they invited him to play with them.  Being a quick and generous learner, he was able to assist the ensemble for the lively worship music.  Notice the new shirt he's wearing acquired from the group's visit to San Antonio on Lake Atitlan.

Dishwasher Crew

Different groups have the responsability of setting up for meals and washing dishes afterward.  The crew follows the protocol approved by the World Health Organization to ensure proper sanitation.  Dishes are pre-rinsed, then washed in soap and water followed by a rinse in water and chlorine bleach before left to air-dry.

Early this morning, the group went for an early morning hike to watch the sun rise over Lake Atitlan.  We are heading out for our morning project of assisting with building wood houses in one of the nearby communities.  Thanks for your good wishes and support.

Team Shelby

To our Family and Friends-

Thank you for waiting patiently for my teams first post.  These past three days have been crazy busy for us!  We traveled with Brandon's group from Gannon to Guatemala, and his post has more about the travel details.  Once we landed in Guatemala, the Gannon Groups split into out teams and we started the 3 hour journey to San Lucas Toliman.  Below you can see a very tired group of travelers.

Upon arrival of the mission, we went to our "castle" (as the locals call it) hotel to settle in and then we had our first dinner as a group.  Everyone went to bed early as we prepared for our first day in San Lucas.

On Sunday, we were given the opportunity to be tourist for the day and go on a boat ride along Lake Atitlán in San Lucas.  Lake Atitlán is the deepest lake in Central America.  The Lake has an interesting history and I recommend reading about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Atitlán
Or first stop was in San Antonio.  Here we were able to find the best pottery on the lake.  Our second stop was in San Panajachel.  We stopped here and had lunch as a group and then were able to walk around the town for 2 hours and shop.  After a day on the boat, we came back to San Lucas and had dinner then hung around as a group and played some games.

On Monday, today, we started to do the work we came down for.  Today in the morning my team was split into groups of two.  One group went to a block housing construction site.  The site we were working on was a house for a family of 14.  The seven of us helped to move the blocks and tie rhubarb.  The other group went to a wood housing project where they were nailing wood frame on the wood house.

 After lunch, we had a tour of the mission projects.  We visited the Womens Center, San Lucas Clinic, Coffee Plantation and the San Lucas Montessori school.  During these, we were given a brief overview and history of each.

To all of the parents who have been worried about their child, everyone is doing great.  We are coming together not only as a community within our group, but with the community of San Lucas.  Take a deep breath, (especially you Dad).  We will keep you updated as our adventure continues throughout the week.  We appreciate any prayers and good thoughts you are sending us in Guatemala.
I am signing off for today, but stay tuned for posts later in the week!

With love and gratitude,

Shelby

Team Brandon - Zubda's Post

Today was the first day we arrived in Guatemala! I didn’t think our 17-hour journey to this unique country could be any more ever-changing. We all promptly arrived in Waldron Campus Center at 2AM for the bus driver to confuse our departure time with 7AM. Luckily one of our trip leaders called the company and was able to reach our driver and he arrived at 3AM. Thankfully we were able to board our plane with 3 minutes to spare, talk about a close call!

When we finally arrived in Guatemala City, we were so surprised to see how industrialized the main city was. There were glass skyscrapers, food vendors, and overall an extremely lively city.

The intensity of our journey took flight on our 3-hour drive to San Lucas; this drive showed us the slow progression from city life to rural living. We saw skyscrapers turn into dirt floor houses, children waiting for their loved ones turn into beggars in the street; yet the sense of community never changed no matter where we went.

My favorite part of our arrival was how fast our bus zipped and sped in between congested streets; this was so similar to a trip to Pakistan I took 7 years ago. There were brightly colored busses with obnoxious horns of various pitches and tones all for the purposes of speeding through traffic! Luckily we arrived to our hotel San Lucas, it’s located right along Lake Atitlan. The view is breathtaking!

Ironically enough, my dinner at the “bibliotheca” (dinner hall) connected to the church was much more nutritious than my average college student dinner of pizza or mac and cheese. There was homemade hot sauce and strawberry cinnamon jam! Each component of the ABST trip correlates to the 4 pillars of the covenant; even the food we ate, we ate in moderation based around the idea of simplicity.

The hospitality shown by the volunteers of this organization is a testament to the good work that is done here on a daily basis. The mission’s work, having religious undertones all throughout, consist of 24/7 healthcare, education, women’s workshops, coffee harvests, and so much more all done to help create a local sustaining infrastructure so the people of San Lucas all can live in a dignified manner. 

 

Until next time,

Zubda K 

A day in paradise

Hoy fue fantastico. Today was fantastic!  It was so full of experience and learning. We visited several sites sponsored by the mission including the women's center, the coffee project, the reforestation project, and a hospital. All places offered vast amounts of knowledge. Personally I made a friend, and his name was Samuel! I met him in the hospital as he was pretending to be un tigre! The day's experiences culminated, at least for me, on a rooftop sight to see as a silver lining setting sun revealed the ominous Toliman volcano looming in the distance as clouds rolled into the valley. It was a view I will never forget, and the air held an encompassing radiant glow filled with tranquility and life that encaptured the attention in Guatemala's soft clutch. A feeling not soon to be forgotten. 

As written by Josiah

You Don't Grow Unitl You Break Out Of Your Comfort Zones

Our journey started with many different emotions. However, we could be nothing but excited after gazing out at a beautiful sunrise on out 1st flight. 

After a 13 hour journey of rock planes, bumped bus rides, and most importantly bonding, we finally made it safe to San Lucas Toliman, Saturday 2/27. 

We started off this morning(2/28), with not to mention surprising hot showers, but also with a Spanish spoken Catholic mass. At mass the people of Guatemala filled the church inside and out. People were gathering on the steps to hear the Gospel after it was filled to the max inside. 

We had the opportunity to take a boat tour around the lake Atitlan. San Lucas Toliman is right on the lake. The lake is known as the most beautiful lake in the world and also the most unknown and the deepest in Central America. "Atitlan" actually means where the rainbow gets its colors. It is in a valley surrounded by 3 volcanos, 1 is still active. We were able to absorb the vibrant pink, yellow, and blue colors. It is surrounded by many towns. We stopped at 3 including: San Antonio, Santa Catarina, and Santa Cruz. Each was filled with different stands of hand crafted art and jewelry. We are now all expert barters. We stopped for lunch in Santa Cruz at a lake side restaurant. 

After the the boat tour, we wanted to explore San Lucas on foot. About half of us went on a hike. We explored many different parts of the city but one of the most intriguing things we stumbled upon was the cemetery. It wasn't like what we see at home. It was filled with vibrant colors and above ground graves due to water that way they can't wash away. 

Once we explored the cemetery, locals pointed us in the direction of small nature trail leading up a hill to get a better view of the city. 

Here is what we saw. All the bright "buildings" are the graves in the cemetery. This depicts how their graves represent the celebration of life instead of the on going grieving. 

We finished off the evening with a games of tag with local children after dinner, in front of the mission. It started with Shelby (one of the students) asking a little boy may what his name is. He is name is William. Shelby then started a game of "la lleva" or tag. Two other boys were with William and played with us. They were so happy with giant grins and bigs laughs. We made plans to meet again after dinner tomorrow to play soccer with William and his friends. 

To end this post we would like to leave you with a Guatemalan proverb:

"Everyone is the age of their heart"

With love from Guatemala,

Annmarie, BethAnn, and Shelby  

Thanks for stopping by!

Thanks for stopping by the Guatemala ABST blog! The 2016 group is still getting to know each other but we'll start sharing our journey together soon. In the mean time, please take some time to read previous trips' blogs to get an idea of what we'll be doing.