The People We Meet

Although I still have about 2 ½ months left here in Guatemala, I again can’t help but notice how quickly my time here is going by, and how soon I am going to be home. And although I was initially very content with the idea of going home after six months – and of course I still really miss home and am excited to return – I can’t help but wonder if I made the right decision to go home after six months. Because the truth is I am really comfortable in my life here, and whenever I think about the day I have to say goodbye to the kids, I get this terrible, that’s-going-to-be-a-really-sad-day, feeling. The other reason I am sad about going home so soon is because we have just begun to meet some really amazing people, and I would love to have more time to grow relationships with them.

Thursday afternoon Brooks and I got coffee with Guisela and Ubaldo, a missionary couple we had met a couple of times at the orphanage, but had never really connected with. It wasn’t until last weekend when we went to the anniversary dance with them, and then again when they gave us a ride home last Sunday, that we exchanged numbers and set a date to meet for coffee. Thursday afternoon, they picked us up and we headed over to Café Museo, where we all ordered a coffee drink and got the conversation started. Sometimes coffee dates with new people can be awkward, because you are trying to come up with enough conversation topics so the silence isn’t uncomfortable. But with Guisela and Ubaldo, the conversation just flowed, and Brooks and I were soon listening in awe, learning about their lives of service. Guisela and Ubaldo are both pastors, and although they used to preach in a big church in Xela, they heard God’s call to move to Huehuetenango and began leading a life of mission here. They have helped grow up a church here, drive two hours to the mountain fincas (coffee plantations) and share the Word there (to mostly illiterate men), they have several discipleship groups, work with street kids, and have even found a new place in their heart, and time in their schedule, to love on the kids at the orphanage. Needless to say, they live an incredible and inspiring life, and it was humbling to listen to everything that they do, which they shared in a humble tone as well. It was easy to see they were just two people madly in love with the Lord, and were taking every opportunity to share this love with others. After coffee, they drove us first to their church, which was a beautiful little building atop a hill in Huehue. Here they shared their dreams of expansion for the church, and further discipleship opportunities. After this, they drove us to their home, where they had been taking care of one of the babies from the orphanage, Florecita, because of a number of illnesses she was dealing with at the time. They not only have opened their hearts and time to so much, but their home as well. There we found out Guisela writes regularly (in English. Her English is amazing) for a Christian magazine in Indonesia, and they also showed us magazines of a group in Eastern Guatemala with a whole orphanage, school, hospital and ministry compound. They shared with us how it was their dream to see something like this in Huehue also. After seeing their beautiful home, Brooks and I had to go quickly to our yoga class, although neither of us wanted to leave. I think we were both on cloud nine of inspiration, and hope to help them with some projects in the future. Although we feel our lives here are full, and we are content with dedicating the majority of our service to the orphanage, meeting them gave us a healthy dose of reflection for our lives here, and inspiration that maybe we could do more.

Once at the gym for yoga, I was hyped up on both inspiration and coffee. I walked downstairs to ask the front desk girl for some toilet paper for the bathroom, and I realized I didn’t even know her name – someone whom we interact with pretty much on a daily basis. She told me her name was Gaby, and we had a good laugh trying to fit the toilet paper into the toilet paper dispenser. Yoga class attendance was low – we started with just Brooks and I, gained a guy and an 11-year-old girl, lost the guy and ended the class with only three. I had been hoping a new friend I had made from the class, a nice Guatemalan girl named Gina who is about my age, would come. But unfortunately she hadn’t made it to the Tuesday or Thursday evening classes, and my hopes of getting coffee with her or having dinner with her family (both things we had discussed) were dwindling. It has been difficult for Brooks and I to meet people here our age, because most of the guys only care about whistling at girls, and the girls only care about being whistled at. But I met Gina two weeks ago in class, and after finding out she was a nice Christian girl who didn’t seem to be interested in unsolicited attention from boys, I really hoped the friendship would go somewhere. Sadly, I have such a short amount of time left here, and the chances of forming a lasting friendship in this amount of time may be slim.

Saturday afternoon, Brooks and I had another opportunity to try something new and to get to know new people. Almost every day, Brooks and I stop at this one tienda near our house to get either “helado loco” (crazy ice cream – basically just homemade popsicles) or chocofrutas. From visiting this tienda so many times, we had started forming a relationship with the family that ran the tienda. The mom even told us one day that we were both very good-looking, and she wanted to take a picture of us to put near her bed. Hmm… Anyway, Brooks and I stopped by the tienda Friday night to get our usual movie night snacks, and one of the daughters (Laydi) ended up inviting us to a social event at her church. Brooks and I had nothing better to do Saturday afternoon, so we gladly accepted. By the time 3pm on Saturday rolled around, we found ourselves sitting inside the house of this family, a house we had only seen before by peering in past the tienda (the tienda was really just a front part of their house kind of sectioned off, with a small gate in their front door so tienda patrons can’t get inside). It ended up that the mom and two of the sisters were going, along with a girl named Michelle who lived down the street. As we walked to the church, Brooks and I learned the names of everyone in the family (for the first time), and groups of people started joining our little group so pretty soon I felt like we were in an introduction to a TV show. The event was interesting – it was mostly just a church service with special tickets, aimed at jovenes (although there were people of all ages there). The message was about love, what love means, and how young people need to honor love, one another and Christ by not having sex before marriage, and not having multiple girlfriends. It was kind of a no brainer message, and Brooks and I were both wishing they had gone deeper in the message. But in a country where machismo rules and healthy relationships aren’t necessarily the norm, this was at least a start. Brooks and I left the service early to head over to the orphanage, content with the growing relationship we were forming with the family. Laydi even ended up telling us she buses all over Guatemala to share the Word, most often going to another small finca town near the Mexican border. She invited us to go with her sometime, so we’ll see if Brooks and I are daring enough to try that as well.

When we arrived at the orphanage (after our ritual Telepizza dinner), we went first to the Kinder’s room, where they were almost literally bouncing off the walls (and dancing and singing for me like they were at a stage performance, tying towels around their waists as skirts). After hanging out with the Kinders for a bit, taking in every ounce of cuteness I was witnessing, I headed over to the Pequeños room. As I was walking over to the Pequeños room, I had a moment of premature nostalgia, realizing again how much I am going to miss seeing such cute and heartwarming things on a daily basis. In the Pequeños room, we found all of the little boys (there are eight of them) sitting on a blanket in their PJs and eating Cup of Noodles with Tikis (a type of chip), looking like they were at a picnic. The boys were so cute, and so funny, hyped up a little on the Pepsi Brooks had just shared with them from our dinner. We learned later that the Cup of Noodles and chips were a treat from their group leader, a 17-year-old named Marta Julia. She had chosen to spend her own money to buy the little boys soup and chips, simply because she knew they liked it; Brooks and I were blown away by this display of selflessness. Seriously, what 17-year-old do you know that would spend her own money to treat eight little three-to-six year old boys, who she has to put up with, dress, shower, and care for day in and day out? Incredible. I finished off this energetic night going over to the Niñas room, where I was staying, only to find that the majority of them were already asleep. The ones that were awake came over to my bed to read a story, and then it was lights out after that.

Being in Guatemala has been an amazing experience, and while I’m glad that it’s not over yet, I’m sad that it will be soon. I think the realization of how special this experience is will not fully affect me until I am home, because it’s almost too much novelty and joy to take in all at once. It’s moments like meeting amazing people like Guisela and Ubaldo, people that give hope to a hopeless country, or moments like seeing eight little boys dressed in PJs, sitting in a circle enjoying Cup of Noodles like it’s the best dinner they’ve ever had, it’s moments like this that make this experience truly inspiring and beautiful.