This is going to be a significantly long post compared to my usual blog length. I have so much to tell!
La Senda in Guatemala was such incredible experience that I can not fathom the words to fitfully describe. It will be etched in my heart forever, especially the children that I met there. They all were wonderful in their own beautiful way. Some with hearts like Lions, able to overcome any tragedy that has befallen then during their precious young lives. Others still with scars visible emotionally and physically. All of them with a life inside of them that exceeds that of men and women with ten times their lifetimes lived.
Each day we got up at the crack of dawn (well... it was for us Americans, anyway) to find work around the Children's Home that would keep us busy for that day.. and what an abundance of work to do there was! By the end of the trip we had moved (as Martha Lee calculated) 650 cubic feet of dirt and painted over countless tiny hand prints lining the walls. Each evening when the kids got out of classes we spent as much time as we could getting to know them all, playing games, and going to quiet prayer time.
I really grew attached to one little girl who I think grew attached to me too. Yeny was absolutely the most precious, amazing, funny, wonderful girl I had ever met. We would sit quietly together in quiet time every evening for a few minutes before going outside to play. That time was really a precious little moment that I will never forget, and it really put life in perspective for me. The whole experience did.
All the girls seemed to be fascinated by Brandon. I would always see them running up to him to ask him questions and giggling their little heads off.
The lives of these people, not only those who lived at the children's home, but those living in the surrounding city of Sumpango, were so radically different from mine. Their main concern was the survival of their family and all other things fell away. They did not notice when a new blockbuster movie came out and they didn't watch CNN. If they did have a tv it came on once a year to show the world futbol cup. Their world was what they saw around them. Their lives depended on how many avocados they could grow that year.
There were three gigantic volcanoes looming over the city of Sumpango. You could see them very well from the back yard of the children's home. Also, when we visited the town of Antigua, you could clearly see the monstrous volcano that had recently erupted, causing the deaths of many Guatemalans. Thankfully, it seemed that the rubble from the natural disasters had been mostly cleared and the most that remained to be seen from the roads were tall piles of ash and some small rock slides.
In Antigua I had my first experience with the people of the market, who were the most aggressive salesmen I have been solicited by since Mary Kay (especially if they knew you were American, which of course was obvious haha). Once I expressed interest in buying a necklace from one woman, what seemed like fifty of them swarmed on me, practically throwing their crafts at me. They followed us around the square until finally giving up on me, with very unhappy faces.
The last night at La Senda was an emotional evening, although we had only been on the compound for a few days. I realized that we had to leave the next morning and I would not re-unite with these people until next year.
They are all watching the World Cup and so am I, thinking of them every game. Especially my little Victor, the coolest kid I have ever met.
