"Little House" Meets "Swiss Family Robinson"

Like any other father, my dad would prefer that I stay closer to home. Although he is always supportive, I know that he is harboring a secret hope that my first two weeks in Guatemala will be a reality check. He wants me to succeed, but he wouldn’t mind if I called from the Louisville airport tomorrow, asking for a ride!

But Dad, and anyone else who is wondering, I am going to stay! I do miss home, and ice cream, and electricity, but I love it here!

My routine is set. Everything I do seems so purposeful—whether I’m making a poster-board chart to organize the widows feeding program or hiking up the mountain to bring baby formula to a downtrodden family, or sitting on my front porch chatting with the always present village children…

This week has been a busy introduction to Guatemalan living and mission work: “Little House on the Prairie” meets “Swiss Family Robinson!” I’ve been learning how to cook without the grocery store nearby—we make lemonade by taking lemons from the tree outside! Gas is too precious to keep our refrigerator cold—but powdered milk can taste great when we froth it on the stove! Does anyone have an easy recipe for bread-making? I am excited to give it a try, because tortillas can get old quickly!

This picture is my and Melanie’s apartment—with my hand-washed clothes clipped across the line. On average, it rains about 2 hours a day, so it’s nice to have a sheltered place to let them dry.

There are many other gaps to fill around the mission, and I’ve been running full-steam to organize all of the programs we have in action. I think it’s important to stretch all of the resources that are already present in Pinalito to their full capacity, whether it’s taping names on the donated toothbrushes so that the children can brush their teeth after lunch, or decorating a classroom with cardboard from old cereal boxes!

Here is a picture of my neighbors, David and his son Tabo, working in the greenhouse. We were transplanting orange tree seedlings so that we can give several hundred trees to the families in the village in a few months. I have also gotten involved with the school again—English classes for the younger kids start tomorrow in my very own classroom
Visiting the families of Pinalito is a great way to spend the afternoon—It’s my chance to slow down a bit, work on my Spanish, and eat some boiled eggs and tortillas. Yes, I did say boiled eggs—what a treat. Melanie and I will visit houses until our shirts reek of wood smoke. I like to sit in the kitchens and talk with the women.
The older ones literally howl when I ask them about the rotten chili peppers and plants hanging from the ceiling. They always offer me a nice bench to sit on, while they fold their tiny, wrinkly bodies onto short stools beside the fire. The younger mothers (who appear to be 17, or maybe 20, and often have a baby on her hip and another hanging on her leg) love to write their names in the dirt with me. They show me how to grind and roast coffee, and help me with my Spanish. I am really excited to start some classes with them.

As I collect my itinerary for the week, I have to report on my only “low.” Even the Ingles family experienced some set-backs, am I right? The thing that I find hardest while working in Guatemala is coming to terms with what can change. I do not always know where to draw the line… how many bags of baby formula can I give away before I am unable to buy my own Kelloggs Cornflakes? How much time have I put into programs that the villagers will not sustain when I am gone? It is hard to keep pushing, when, as Dr. Paul Farmer says, “There are always more mountains beyond the mountains.” There are two things that keep my fire going:
1) My hope in education: and am grateful to have such a tangible TO-DO list: TEACH THIS VILLAGE. If one person learns how to read, how to plant a garden, how to keep a clean house, then I have succeeded.
2) God’s presence: Really, I never realized that following this path that God set for me would be so peaceful.

Welcome Back to Guatemala--3 Months Later

I’m here! I’m safe! I appreciate all of the thoughts and prayers as I get started in Guatemala. Despite some crazy travel predicaments along the way, I have felt everyone’s support so earnestly that I have yet to be discouraged…

Read on for some Guatemalan excitement:

Day 1, Tuesday: US Airways left my luggage in Charlotte, NC and I had to wait in Guatemala City an extra day.
Day 2, Wednesday: The roads were too muddy to take a truck up the mountain, and I had to wait another day.
Day 3, Thursday: I eventually caught a ride with another missionary family who live in a village halfway to my home, “Pinalito,” and I jostled in their overstuffed Suburban for two hours.
Day 4, Friday: With my backpack, water bottle,and some M&Ms to spur me on, I hiked the 2 remaining hours to Pinalito with a donkey carrying my duffel bags.

The road was treacherous, the rain has washed the once passable road into deep gullies and landslides.
(This is a picture of Melanie, my roommate, rounding a bend.)

Upon arriving, I found that my apartment has a very leaky ceiling and a rat invasion!

Day 5: SUNDAY: I went to church and, when the pastor invites me to the podium, I tell the tiny congregation that although my friends and family in the U.S. think that I am crazy, there is nowhere I would rather be than HERE, in Pinalito, Guatemala, spending a year with them. Their smiles are huge. It is all worthwhile.

With that said, here are the beautiful advantages to my wild arrival:
It was a pain to lose my luggage... but several other people on the flight also lost their bags, and so I had a team of tourists to sightsee for a day. What a great way to start out in Guatemala! We went to the Museum of Anthropology, and I read about Mayan culture, and how the indigenous people live. (Useful information, considering I live among them!)

In addition, I met a team of American missionaries that will be working very close to my village this week. They invited me to come and learn more about their program, for they have already started an orphanage, Christian school, and nursing home.

It was also great to meet the missionary family that lives nearby… It’s so nice to have someone to speak English with, and learn about Latino cooking, i.e., “It is SUPPOSED to smell like that?"
Bottom line, my arrival in Pinalito was just amazing. Although the roads are terrible, with all of that rain comes a lot of GREEN! The mountains are a sight to see. Before I even reached the village, there were children running around shouting my name, women offering tortillas as a “welcome back” present, and a general hubbub of excitement. And although the rats are pretty gross… ok REALLY gross… my roommate, Melanie, and I have decided to get a cat. And leaky ceilings? Well, let’s just say my minor discomfort really puts things in perspective… the villagers barely have roofs at all. Their doorframes are held together with stolen barbed wire… they cannot BEGIN to afford caulking and ceiling tile.