"Please don't make me get on that plane."

Today I was sitting at a dinner table with a friend's family for lunch. They were asking me questions about my trip. (I got home last night). I explained how when the time came to get on the plane back to the states I had begged Kelly not to make me get on it. Then my friend's mother asked me, "Why?" My gut reaction was to say, "because I loved it!" She then asked why "Why did you love it?" It's not a question I got a lot on my first day back. Most people just say, "how was it?!" and I say "Amazing! I loved it!"and that's that. I like that. Short and sweet. But I'm grateful for Mrs. Robert's probing. All too often we experience something beautiful or scary or exciting or weird, and we never really stop and ask ourselves why the experience was the way it was. We judge by our emotions and file the situation away accordingly. Allow me a moment to figure out why I loved this place so much.


Why I loved Guatemala:
1. The people were kind, courteous, and generous. I did not have a single negative interaction with a Guatemaltecan. People in both the tourist town of Antigua and indigenous village of Santa Maria were welcoming of this gringa with the hot pick rain boots. Everyone I made eye contact with on the the street smiled and said "buen dia." It was incredibly refreshing and a reminder to this southern girl to go back to the roots of taking that extra moment to smile at a peer in the hallway of my school and say hello to the security guard passing me. Be kind, courteous, and generous with your time.


2. The people were strong. I will not go into the bloody history of Guatemala. I will say that it is something worth learning about though. These people are proud of their land and hopeful for its future. They have been to hell and back, and they are not broken. It was a refiner's fire and the people are stronger for it. Here again they were an example to me to not lose hope in my country.


3. The people were loving. There's this verse in the Bible that explains that we love God because He first loved us. And isn't it so true that when we feel someone's love for us we naturally reciprocate? I was not expecting to fall in love with this country. I was planning on getting in, serving, and getting out, but then the children started hugging me. The mother started giving me snacks and asking how I was feeling. Then my host father danced with me and my host mother was eager to serve us. These people loved me first, and I was defenseless against it.


So now after writing and reading these reasons over I can say that I have found a people group of the highest caliber. A group that has set the bar high for all others. I am walking away not only in love but in awe of Guatemala.


How do I wrap this up? How do I end this journey? Oh. I know.


Amen.

Mama said there would be days like this, there'd be days like this my Mama Said

Today while stoving (is that a verb?) we came to the part where you had to smooth cement on the the bricks and smooth it out to look beautiful. I was an epic fail at this task. I was so terrible at it that my mason kindly asked me to sit out of the two hour process. I was so upset and embarrassed. I wanted to help so badly, but there was nothing I could do. During the lunch break my mood was terrible. I complained and whined about things I'm too embarrassed to admit to here. My attitude was so terrible that Kelly had to kindly ask me to shut my whiny mouth. I was so upset and embarrassed. I went back to the house completely deflated while in my head I sang the song quoted in the title. Then I remembered something else my mother said. "You can choose your mood. You can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to acknowledge your blessings." 

I was sitting in this beautiful family's home while something amazing was happening to them. I was surrounded by excitement and gratitude and love, and I had the audacity to complain. I gave myself a proverbial kick in the butt, and chose to be in a good mood. I realized that, yeah, no, I'm not going to be able to participate in every task ever handed to me, but the response to that shouldn't be sulking. Instead, I need to have the humility to ask for help or say I'm not doing this well, and when the task is taken over by more capable hands my response needs to be gratitude and an attitude of readiness for the next opportunity. 

I was able to help eventually. I won't bother trying to express the emotions when we finished that stove and the family saw it for the first time. I won't waste time explaining the humbling that was done to me when the family with dirt floors and only enough food to get by gave me gifts to say thank you and said, 'Tu eres amable". I won't try to explain the grief  I felt saying goodbye to this amazing family. 

Suffice it to say I am in awe of how gentle and generous my Teacher is with His prideful daughter.

Everything is Right.

These have been two of the best and most fun days of my life. Here are two of the 200 stories I could tell from the last two days

Yesterday, during my Spanish lesson, other students and myself hiked to Cella de la Cruz with our instructors. During the hike my instructor, Lucky and I discussed everything from ex-boyfriends to politics to faith. The hike ended on a summit where a cross had been erected to look over the city of Antigua. It was breathtaking.

Today, we drove to Santa Maria de Jesus and began the construction of our stoves. I was taken to the home of the family I would be building for (Kelly was taken to her family's home). I was escorted to the part of the house where the stove was to be built. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it definitely was this. We started by banging up the floor for a foundation. Then Felix (my mason) unloaded his backpack of the 5 or 6 tools we would be using for construction. We mixed cement, carried bricks, and sawed through steel bars. It was by far the hardest work I have ever done, but I only complained when it came time to stop. Here's why, the family we're building this for looks at the beginnings of this stove with such gratitude and excitement. They're lives will be made so much healthier and safer and easier because of this and my blisters and aching feet are such a small price to pay for that families joy. 

Anywho, point of the story is this: I never would not be having this incredible experience if I didn't take risks, and push myself to achieve lofty ideas. I wouldn't be having the some of the best days of my life if I had been content to look at a powerpoint of whiteboard for the majority of my college career. 

Students and professionals alike, please grow discontent with the mundane and strive for the lofty!

I speak Spanish?!

Today we had FIVE hours of Spanish class, and I loved every single minute! They're one on one lessons, and I was able to carry on a conversation (or something resembling that) for the majority of the time! It was awesome! I'm not great at speaking Spanish, but being surrounded by people who are so encouraging makes such a difference. I'm not embarrassed to make a mistake because no one is making fun of me here. The Guatemalan's are impressed that I'm trying to learn and the volunteers and staff are eager for me to learn, so any mistakes that are made are met with smiles and sweet corrections. I hope I'm able to continue learning Spanish when I get home. Mom, Dad you're only allowed to speak to me in Espanol en el futuro!


Me adoro Guatemala!

There's a river where the road used to be.

It's invierno here in Gua (rain season), and it rains everyday. It's the loudest rain I've ever heard... and I love it. 


Today, we met our host families. We're staying with Don William and Dona Lolita; they're adorable. The host families are super attentive and care so much that we are comfortable and feel welcome. 


We also had orientation today where we went over the do's and don't's during our stay here: Do work hard and play hard. Don't be stupid. Pretty simple.


I was really excited after learning more about our stove building project. Because of the stoves Kelly and I are going to build, a family will save thousands of dollars and  their health will be dramatically improved. It's cold splash of water. I was initially skeptical of this project because I wanted to work with children, and to be completely honest stove building sounds boring. I trusted Kelly's discretion in the matter, though, and I'm so grateful that I did. Realistically speaking, we weren't going to be able to make that drastic of a difference in children's lives in five days, but with these stoves we are changing families' life in an intense way!


It's an important lesson to be learned: It's so great to want to serve, but make sure you don't walk into an opportunity or situation with an inflexible agenda. Be willing to do what needs to be done. People can be surprisingly selfish in their service, and they get away with it, too, because technically, yes, they are serving, but man, sometimes it's important to set aside your desires, ideas, and sometimes even your gifts (because I GUARANTEE that I am better at teaching than stove building) for the greater good.


See a need, fill a need.   

Everything's in Spanish?

I'm sitting in a little cafe in Antigua and as I look around at the options on this website's toolbar (sign-in, help, exit, etc.) I'm seeing that it's all in Spanish. Fun!


We've made it to Gua. safely, and we are having an amazing time! We've been exploring this ancient city all day with no agenda outside of play and experience. As soon as I find my camera's cord (buried in luggage no doubt) I'll post the pictures of the amazing sights we're seeing. I'm in awe of this town's beauty. The traditional garb here is so intricate. The buildings are painted bright pastels. There are so many exotic flowers bloom. This place is an explosion of color. I've definitely been in sensory overload, whether it's from the constant, "Senorita, solo 15 quetzales" ("Miss, only $2.50" as vendors push trinkets into my hands), the crazy vibrant colors, or the smells of great food cooking in the street I haven't stopped experiencing amazing things since I got off the plane in Guatemala City. This is brilliant! And exhausting.


I have been awake for almost 33 hours. We're forcing ourselves to stay awake until at least 7:00pm. We're two hours behind the east coast. This will be a short blog for fear of saying something incoherent due to my exhaustion. Tomorrow we'll meet the family we'll be staying with for the remainder of the trip as well as have our orientation then it's off to another day of exploration before we start our program on Monday.


To say I am happy would be an understatement. I am having a marvelous time. I keep thinking, "Really? I'm really exploring Guatemala? Really? I'm really about to change a family's life?"


My cup overflows.

Last Day in the States

Tomorrow we leave for Guatemala! It's been a pretty normal day outside of buying a fanny pack (they're safer to carry). I'm trying to tell myself that it's not as lame as I think, but man, I think it might be.

Anyway,

Back in November I went into Kelly McPhee's office and started the conversation off with, "I have this kind of ridiculous, outrageous idea." I proceeded to tell her that I wanted to take a group of students to Bolivia to serve for the summer. She told me that it wasn't ridiculous at all, and that I should write the proposal for it. I did, she loved it and we began meeting to see what this kind of trip might look.

To make a long story short the trip looks like this: Kelly and I are going to Guatemala to serve with the organization Global Vision International for eight days.

When I graduate from UB (Valedictorian or Summa Cum Laude, please Jesus!) I would like to leave a program behind in which students give a week or two of their breaks to serve domestically and globally. I truly believe that through hardcore, radical service student's perspectives will change for the absolute better! 

This is a limited edition blog. I'm going to chronicle this serve-abroad trip everyday while I'm gone. It's going to be hard and fun and scary and exciting and exhausting, but I know that this is going to be a trip that I remember for the rest of my life (for the good reasons not the scary ones).  Let's go to Guatemala!

P.S. I'm totally going to find the coolest place to plank while I'm gone! Volcano Picaya anyone?!