"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.