Dental Clinic and VBS

This is week is already turning out to be different from last week.  On Monday I worked by myself sorting bags of clothes, shoes, art supplies, and toys that people had donated.  Then Eunice sent me into the Hope of Life Village to clean a building so another group could use it for a dental clinic.  A bunch of kids from the village just appeared and helped me.  There were so many of them that I didn't have anything to do so I just tried to talk to them but failed.  They laughed at me.  After lunch, I went back to the building with the dental team to assist them.  We swept and wiped everything down again since I had only gone over it quickly in the morning.  We were about to start setting everything up when the person in charge decided that it would be better to do the clinic up at the Rancho Taiwan because they would be too hot down there.  So off to the Rancho to clean tables for them.  They were waiting for bigger equipment to be brought in from another dentist so my work was done pretty early.  I had time just to relax and journal before dinner.  Afterwards we had worship and devotion with all the volunteers.

Connor and Hugo on a scooter

Tuesday was an exhausting day.  In the morning Connor and I went with Pastor Doug's group to El Mitch, a village about 25 minutes away.  To get there, we took this road that a mini van shouldn't take and we took it in a bus.  We got so many leaves inside.  The road we were supposed to take was closed because of construction so we had to take that little detour.  When we got there, we lead a VBS type of thing for about 70 kids.  Julio translated while they talked about Jesus and did a few crafts.  Afterwards the boys played soccer and I played pato, pato, ganzo (duck, duck, goose) with the little ones.  We stopped on the way back to get drinks at a stand on the side of the road owned by a lady who lives in HOL village.  I don't like coke so I decided to get something purple in a bag.  Drinks often come in bags; you bite off the corner and then drink out of it.  It tasted like any purple drink.  It also cost me Q2 which is about 26 cents. Yes it's that cheap.  Connor's coke was Q2.50 so 35 cents ish. That was in a little plastic bottle though.

The kids praying

Purple in a bag

In the afternoon, we joined a team from South Carolina and painted Causelife, the worship center in La Casitas.  We painted it a nice bright white.  I'm not the cleanest painter so I ended up with paint everywhere, even in my hair.  I accidentally backed against a wet wall.  Oops.  My favorite part of the afternoon was seeing Claudio again.  He remembered me after all the picture taking at the medical clinic last week and ran up to me to give me a big hug.  After a well earned shower, we had my favorite churrascos for dinner.  They are flour tortillas with rice, pork, cole slaw, and salsa. So good.     

Weekend Recap

This weekend was rather uneventful.  We barely did anything.  After sleeping in on Saturday, I cleaned and organized my little section of my room.  We headed down to lunch at around 11:30.  There were only five of us so the kitchen ladies just had chicken sandwiches and pasta salad.  After that, I got to work learning some Spanish.  I'm picking up on some words but I don't know how to put them together so I wanted to look up the different conjugations and grammar things.  I found a website (studyspanish.com) that has a bunch of units on beginner Spanish.  I read through a few of them and realized that I actually know most of the concepts because they are very similar in French, I just didn't know how it corresponded in Spanish.  In the afternoon we went to the baby center again and played with more babies.

Herninio!

That night the orphans had a pizza party so we went up and helped with that.  They had a few pinatas for the kids too.  They divided it up into big girls and big boys and the younger boys and younger girls.  The younger ones could barely swing the stick.  They were precious.  After serving pizza to the kids, we played with them.  I still could barely understand them and I didn't catch any of their names but we still had fun.  They just grab your hand and pull you somewhere or point if you're holding them.  It gets dark here super early, at about 7, so we headed back to the Mission House.  Julio got us cucos so we had that while we watched another movie.

The kids and their candy

Sunday we had breakfast and then went to church a few minutes down the road.  It was such a small church that we doubled the size of the congregation.  It was an interesting experience.  They started the service with a lady who prayed and sang some songs.  We didn't know any of the words so we just clapped along.  Their regular pastor was at a different church so Brother Benjamin preached.  Nina and Julio translated for us.  He talked about how we have to pray with faith and perseverance.  When we got back, we had lunch and then went swimming. 

The front of the church

For the rest of the afternoon, we just hung around and relaxed.  After dinner, we got a ride back up to the Mission House and had a bonfire and worshipped with the volunteers and translators.  We made s'mores with Chiky's, which are sort of like shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate.  They're delicious.  It was a great way to end the weekend and prepare for the new week with a renewed focus.  

Holding Babies, Salsa Dancing, and Planting Trees

 I can't believe I've already been here for a week.  Somehow it feels like I've been here forever but then at the same time I feel like I just got here.  I've adjusted into the lifestyle pretty easily.  Thursday consisted of painting a room at Kelly's house, the special need's house.  Since we were done pretty early in the afternoon, we played with the babies in the baby rescue center for a little bit and helped the nurses give them baths before trekking all the way back up the hill to shower and change before our fiesta.   The babies are sooo adorable!

Hard at work painting

Even the little ones are fascinated by cameras

They had a banquet of sorts for all the church groups leaving this week.  They served a bunch of food that we served.  After we ate, they did a sort of presentation where the girls from the orphanage sang and danced for us.  Carlos Vargas talked a little bit.  He is quiet possibly one of the funniest men I have ever met.  We also salsa danced for a little bit which was fun since I've never done it before.  It went pretty late so we all went to bed right after. 

Connor danced too!

On Friday they took us (our mini group, the Marist group, a group from Austin, TX, and another group from Tennessee) to Pueblo Moderno, a village outside of Zacapa, Zacapa.  The Austin group painted a house and moved in furniture.  Meanwhile, the rest of us split into 4 groups-- a translator, two Tennesseens, and two Marist/us.  Our job was to plant trees and evangelize.  They give us college kids all the physical labor so I planted trees.  We started by walking up to people that were outside their house, explaining who we were, that we were from Hope of Life, and asked to plant the tree on their property.  We planted these trees that produce breadfruit.  If you cook it, it apparently tastes like fresh bread.  While Steve and I dug a hole and planted the tree, Hannah and her grandmother talked to the people about Jesus with the help of the translator.  Once we had done 3 or 4 people saw what we were doing and starting walking up to us to ask if we could plant a tree on their property.  They were literally invited Jesus into their house.  The last one we did was at the pastor's house.

First tree planted!

I really loved today because we got to see how the people live.  I've noticed that Guatemalans are very hospitable.  They will always invite you into their home.  In this village, a lot of the "houses" were not much more than a hut made out of a combination of sticks, plastic, and metal.  The property is marked by tall sticks and sometimes barbed wire to make a fence.  They still invited Hannah, her grandmother, and Andrea inside and gave them chairs to sit on while they talked.  At the end of each little session, the girls prayed for them and also with them.  A few people would pray at the same time as Hannah which I found peculiar.  In the U.S, most of the time only one person is praying aloud.

A pretty good view of some of the village

Praying with the family

Once we finished planting our trees, we headed back to the meeting spot where a bunch of children came and asked for trees for their places too.  We didn't have time to plant them but we still gave them away.  As we were about to head onto the bus to pick up the painters and head to lunch, two girls came up to me and started talking.  One pointed down to her foot which had a quarter-sized open black sore.  I called Nina over since she can speak Spanish and is also a nursing student.  We found out that the girl had fallen and scraped her foot about 3 weeks ago.  She had been to the doctor 2 weeks earlier but the doctor just gave her a pill.  She had been cleaning it with water but the water there has parasites more often than not so it got infected.  We cleaned it up a little with alcohol swabs and covered it.  Unfortunately we couldn't take her to the hospital but we very strongly encouraged her to.  If she doesn't go soon, the gangrene will eat her foot and she'll lose it.

The bus we take everywhere

We stopped by Guto's, a restaurant in Zacapa (the capital city of Zacapa), for lunch.  They served us these delicious taco like things with pork and coleslaw.  We were all so exhausted from working out in the sun all day that almost everyone took a nap when we got back around 3.  After getting showered and cleaned up, we headed down to the baby rescue center and played with the babies for a little before dinner.  They were especially squirmy but still just as cute.

Herninio!

 After dinner, the pastor from the village came up to the Rancho to preach.  There were about 16 of us just sitting in a circle listening to him.  We started with some worship, led by Jill.  I think that was my favorite worship session ever.  It was so quiet and intimate.  We didn't have any words in front of us but we were all familiar with the songs.  The verses were quiet but then when the refrain came in, we were so strong and you could just feel the Holy Spirit flooding the place, just like in the song.  The sermon was interesting as well.  The pastor doesn't speak any English so Julio translated.  One sentence in Spanish, the same translated into English.  It broke it up a little but it really made you pay attention and remember what he was saying.  I was able to recognize some of the words in Spanish too!

Anna Paula

 We finished the night watching the movie Salt outside and then going to bed.  Saturdays are free days for us so we can do whatever we want basically.  We started by skipping breakfast and sleeping in.  We might head down to the river and the waterfall this afternoon.  

Communication

Tuesday we took a field trip with the Louisiana group to the Mayan ruins, which are about an hour away, closer to the border of Honduras.  We basically just walked around and looked at the ruins.  There were a lot of big rocks with carvings on them. There was also an arena where they played pelonta, some sort of ball game.  I have no idea how they got up and down those steps. Guatemalans are rather short and I was having a little trouble.  Along the path were mango trees but since they aren't in season, they have maggots.  Some tried to eat them before they knew this. This area is also apparently known for its jade so there was a little museum/store with jewelry.

Our mini group at the ruins

In the afternoon, we moved cinderblocks that are going to be made into new rooms for the older girls in the orphanage. It was hard work but I enjoyed it. We were all dripping in sweat by the time we were done so we went swimming before dinner. After we ate, we went to the orphanage to hang out with the kids for a little bit.  It was actually a little chilly out.  If it had been any colder, I would have needed a sweatshirt. We've been with the Marist College group a lot so we have some worship together before we go to bed.

This is only about half of the little pile that we moved. We actually did this times about 7.

The view from the orphanage where we were working

Wednesday we helped out at the hospital, sweeping, mopping, and cleaning the windows and furniture to get the first three floors ready to be open. After lunch, Rachel and I went to Causelife, the village started by HOL.  Two doctors were there taking heights and weights of the kids so we helped with that as much as we could with our limited knowledge of Spanish. The med student led a mini class on women's health that we sat in on. I understood the general idea of it.  Then we played with kids for a little bit. I put Claudio on my shoulders because he ran up to me and then when Rachel showed him the picture she took of us, he took it and started taking pictures of everything. He showed me his house and the puppies in front of it. The other little boy had a camera too and they had such a blast taking pictures of each other taking pictures. I think I used every single Spanish phrase that I know.

This is Claudio's house, which he very proudly showed me

Our little photographers

Claudio and his puppies

More kids! They all just want to take pictures.

Before dinner we went to a soccer tournament that HOL was hosting.  I thought it was just going to be a few games but they went all out.  The entire village was there and the teams had jerseys.  They're legit.  I had my camera out and one of the kids wanted to take pictures so he took it and then someone else got it and so many others too.  So lesson of the day: the best way to get pictures of the people in the village is to have a kid walk around with your camera.  Other than that, Rachel and I mainly played with the kids while the others played soccer. I learned my body parts again thanks to a little girl.  Also, there was a group of girls from the orphanage that had on cheerleading uniforms from Virginia Tech.  They were precious.

Anna Paulo, basically the most precious baby I've seen

Hugo, one of the translators, and Rachel

The men's soccer team

I think this is James?

The most valuable lesson that I learned today was that a lot of communication is nonverbal.  I already knew that from my gcom class but it didn't sink in until today.  I speak barely an Spanish but I was still able to interact with the kids through motions, facial expressions, and just showing them  love in general.

I have so many more pictures that will be up on facebook so look at those!

Saving a Life

Today was a very interesting day.  The best part is at the end so you'll have to read all of it. Sorry =]  We woke up at 6:15 so that we could all shower and have time to walk down to breakfast.  I actually slept pretty well.  It was warm but not completely unbearable.  We have fan now so hopefully tonight will be a little cooler.  On our way down to breakfast, we saw a bunch of the kids from the orphanage walking to school. in their uniforms.  They are precious.  Also, where we're staying is on top of the mountain so our walk is the village hill times 10 just to give you an idea of what its like. Breakfast was a mix of Guatemalan and American--beans, eggs, bread with peanut butter, and cereal.  After we finished we had a meeting with Eunice, the volunteer coordinator, so that she could fill us in on what we were going to be doing that day.  Hugo, one of the translators, took us down to one of the warehouses with a group from Marist College so that we could put together furniture which will probably go in the hospital once its finished.  When we were done, we headed back to el Rancho for lunch and had grilled ham and cheese BLTs. They were delicious. 

One of the chairs we built

After lunch, we went to one of the feeding sites with the group from Louisiana.  It is at a dump about 30 minutes away.  HOL has built an area with a concrete floor and a roof where a few tables with food were set.  A lot of kids were already lined up by the time we got there.  Groups go three times a week to serve food.  They brought all sorts of containers and bottles to get their food, which was a sort of bean paste, rice, and a tortilla.  I was given the task of serving lemonade.  The children were so precious.  They just held up their bottles with these big smiles.  It was also extremely sad to see how they lived.  There was trash everywhere and their houses were made of whatever they could find.  Rafael told us that they collect plastic and cardboard to sell but they only get about $30 for 100 pounds which takes them about a month to collect.  Basically, they live on next to nothing.  Many times, the food they get at HOL is the only meal they get.

All the kiddos waiting for food

Kids nomming

While we were there, Kasey found a little girl holding a baby.  The baby was not looking very well.  She was bloated, had lice, and diarrhea.  They took pictures of her to take back and then we headed back to the compound.  Carlos Vargas, the director and creator of HOL was there so we walked up to him, prepared to show him pictures of this girl to convince him to let us go back and get her.  As soon as Kasey introduced herself and said that we had just come from the dump and found a baby, he asked why we didn't already bring her back.  He said he'd get us a vehicle and told Hugo to go with us to go get the baby.  So back in a truck to go back to the dump.  There weren't enough seats for all six of us so Connor and Hugo sat in the truck bed.

One of the houses

We were hoping the baby would still be at the feeding site but she wasn't so we showed her picture to one of the men there who told Hugo where we could find her.  We drove about a mile down the road through the village to her house where one of her sisters was holding her.  As soon as we pulled up, all the children ran inside with the baby.  It must of been rather intimidating seeing a truck rush up and stop right in front of your house.  We went around the side and Hugo talked to the mom, explaining who we were and if we could take the baby.  She said ok and we ended up bringing the mom and the sister back as well. They didnt bring anything with them which just shows that they really only have a little.   We drove them straight to the baby rescue center where the nurses took the baby and starting examining it.  She wasn't that sick but if we didn't get her back, it would get a lot worse.  She'll probably get some medicine and formula to get her healthy again.

The baby girl that we rescued and her sister

At the baby rescue center

There was nothing more we could do there so we headed back up to el Rancho where we just relaxed until Jill and Tanner asked us if we wanted to come down to the village to get cucos so we did.  Cucos is basically like an overfrozen frappucino in a bag that this lady makes in her house.  I got a chocolate one and it tasted like frozen hot chocolate.  It was so delicious.  I have a feeling this will become a daily occurance.  They also have water in bags and you just bite a hole out of it and drink it.

Cucos

After dinner, we played soccer with some of the kids in the village.  They are crazy good! And then more cucos. Coffee this time.  So good.  Tomorrow we're leaving the compound to go to the Mayan ruins!

I have arrived!

My day on Saturday started at 3:30 am. After getting around 3 hours of sleep because of last minute packing, my dad and I headed off to the airport. He dropped me off outside and we said "tschuss." Everyone was just as sleepy as I was as the for security inched forward. Of course they opened a second lane as I was to put my things on the belt. The flight to Miami was pretty quick since its only two and a half hours and I was tired so I slept most of it. Thankfully I had a window seat and a normal person sitting next to me. After meeting up with Rachel, we grabbed some breakfast at Starbucks and walked around to kill some time since we had three and a half hours. We saw so many groups going to Honduras, El Salvador,

The Final Countdown...

The final countdown has begun! 24 hours I will have landed in Guatemala! It is finally becoming so real and tangible.  This trip has been on my mind since December but the excitement hadn't really hit me until this past weekend.  I typically don't get nervous or excited for anything until right before it happens and that is true for this trip too.  Finalizing the details and packing  has made me realize how much different this trip is from any other vacation, or frankly anything else I've ever done.  This is the first trip I have planned and taken [almost] completely by myself.  While my parents have been helping me whenever I need it, they are encouraging me to take care of things myself too.  After all, they aren't going to plan every vacation for me so I need to learn how to do it myself.

Last week I went to a travel clinic in the area and got all the vaccines that they recommend that you get for Guatemala.  I only got one shot and then a prescription for 3 other medicines.  I don't think I've ever had this much medicine at one time in my entire life.  I am taking a bunch of generic medicine as well, just in case I start not feeling well.  I feel like I'm bringing a mini pharmacy but I'd rather bring all of it rather than risk getting sick down there.

I will also be an insect repelling shield. I went to EMS to get a sleeping liner to sleep in and the sales lady gave me the insect repellent one and showed me basically every other insect repellent thing that they had.  I didn't get all of it but I think I am fully armed to combat the bugs.  I'm fine with almost any animal except little bugs.

The difficult thing about this trip is that it is an in an area where none of my family has been before and also, I have no clue what I'll actually be doing, making it a little difficult to pack for.  I aimed for packing a variety of clothes that would work for almost every situation.  The other obstacle was making sure everything is wearable in the heat while still being relatively modest so that I don't stick out like a sore thumb among the native people.

Especially over the past two weeks, I have been able to share about this trip with so many people.  I saw many family friends and after asking how my first year of college was, most asked what my plans for the summer were.  As soon as I mentioned the words mission trip, they asked more questions, like where I was going, how long, what would I be doing, etc.  In some cases, that was the end of the conversation, but then others told me about their own mission trips, either to Central America or anywhere else and what a fantastic time they had.  Hearing their stories made my trip more realistic and not as far-off anymore.  Even in the waiting room at the doctor's office, a man overheard me telling the secretary that I would be going to Guatemala and he started telling me about his daughter's trip to Haiti a few years ago and how she left a piece of her heart there.  This man is the perfect example of how mission trips and experiences like these can provide strangers with a connection that they hadn't had before. 

The name for this blog came about when my roommate and I were brainstorming names one night at the end of the semester.  We decided on Travels and Testimonies because I'll be traveling obviously but also because testimonies are how I see God working and how He speaks to me.  This past year, I've realized that He makes things apparent to me about my life through other peoples' testimonies.  I am trying really hard not to arrive with too much anticipation, so that my eyes, ears, and heart will be fully open to absorb God's message and not clouded by any expectations even though it is kind of difficult when I have heard so many wonderful stories about others and their experiences.

I leave tomorrow morning at 4! Please pray for a safe flight and arrival! I will hopefully be posting again in the next days with some pictures.