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.
No comments:
Post a Comment