Short and Sweet: Home in Amerca

Well, I have been home from Guatemala for a week now, and I must admit, America is very nice; I miss my sweet children at Fundación Salvación so much, and my dear friend, Brooks, but central heating, carpet, and hot showers are all very enjoyable luxuries. My parents and I left Huehuetenango the day after Christmas, and after hugging and crying with my host family, Cony, and our sweet Tienda Family, we began a week and a half travel experience where we got to see many diverse and beautiful places in Guatemala; we traveled to Xela, the Fuentes Georginas natural hot springs, picturesque Lake Atitlán, European-like Antigua, lake-front Flores, and the mystic Mayan ruins of Tikal. It was a perfect vacation with little to no snags and amazing weather; it was difficult, though, to still being in Guatemala and not be with my children at Fundación. I have been dragging my feet on writing this blog, mostly because I don’t like writing, but I realized my experience would be incomplete without a reflection of returning home. So here is goes…

            First of all, we are SO blessed in America. I know everyone that goes away to a third world country realizes that, but I think the crucial step to having made a realization like that is to continue to remember that lesson as you become more and more integrated back into American culture. We really have it all here, and while I definitely realize there is still poverty in the Sates, from where I am sitting right now in middle class America, things look pretty good. I’ve realized how important it is to live each day with the kids of Fundación on my mind and in my heart, and to think, “Would the kids be proud to see and hear that this is how I am living?” Easier said than done with the constant barrage of consumerism and narcissism we have here, but a lesson I will not give up on.

            Another lesson learned from my time at Fundación is to just enjoy each day of life even more. It’s hard to spend time with such wonderful children and not love life, but coming back to the States I’m realizing there is a culture of one-ups-manship and pressure to constantly prove oneself, which creates a people far too stressed and far too inwardly focused. While I was on vacation with my parents, on New Years Eve to be exact, I received news that Sandra, the founder and director of the orphanage, had been killed in a car accident. Two days later, I also learned that a close friend of my roommates Lizzy and Lydia had been killed in a car accident. Life is too short and God wants too much joy for us to be so concerned with our outward appearances and reputations. Sandra was an incredible – albeit sometimes stern – person that lived her life in a way that would have made Jesus proud, and through her life and death myself and others that knew her have been taught so much.

            One other lesson that I was reminded of in Guatemala is to look for Jesus in everyone around us. In the kids at Fundación I saw Jesus every day, and I have been challenging myself now that I am back to see Jesus in everyone – in the homeless man on the street, in the rude cashier clerk, and in the drunk sorority girl. God intentionally created every last one of us, meaning that if we look hard enough, we really can see a little piece of God gleaming out of every person.

            So while it’s nice to be back to trashless streets and toilets that are guaranteed to flush daily (toilets that you CAN flush the toilet paper in, something that has proven to be my hardest reverse culture shock difficulty still), I still dearly miss Fundación Salvación and Guatemala. I have realized I met some of the most inspirational and kind people I have ever known in Guatemala, and enjoyed the best six months of my life hugging and kissing the children of Fundación, in an environment that signified they had been abandoned or abused in order to arrive there. Life is beautiful and blessed, and even through the toughest trials of our lives, the light will always push out the darkness better than more darkness (tribute to MLK Jr., since I did begin writing this on MLK Jr. Day). I will forever remember my time at Fundación, and I pray that it might inspire you all as well. God bless.     

My Last Week in Huehuetenango

            My last week in Huehue, and it certainly has been a bittersweet experience. We had a very full and wonderful week, with the last sad goodbye looming in the distance on Sunday. Monday we started out our week as usual with a morning at home and an afternoon at the orphanage. But instead of writing pen pal letters or playing with kids, we ended up spending three hours separating out gifts for the kids. Let me explain: Brooks and I received a very generous donation from the mother of one of the girls coming on the Pepperdine mission team this Spring Break. Although she had never met us, had never been to the orphanage, and her daughter had not even been to the orphanage yet, she was still touched when she heard about the orphanage through our Pen Pal Program, and donated three giant boxes chalk full of gifts for the kids. The gifts ranged from candy and bracelets to kites and soccer balls; it was incredible. So Monday afternoon, Mom, Brooks and I spent three hours going through the boxes and separating out gifts into bags for each child at the orphanage. Although it was a lot of work, it was actually pretty fun; it was fun to think about each individual child, realizing how well we know these 100 kids and that we could pick out what we thought each of them would like.

            Tuesday afternoon we had our second to last yoga class, attended by my mom, and our friends’ Emily and Marveli. Wednesday Brooks and I started our day by heading over to the orphanage to help the kids write some letters to their pen pals. Because it’s the holiday season, many pen pals have been sending Christmas gifts to the kids. It’s so wonderful to see their excitement, and Brooks and I had been taking videos and photos of them opening their presents to share that joy with their pen pals. It was actually one of my favorite, and last, pen pal writing sessions. That afternoon, after lunch, my mom and I headed over to the Halcones bus station to meet up with my dad, who had just finished his red eye flight and six-hour bus ride to meet us in Huehue. Needless to say, he was exhausted, but it was still great to see him. It was kind of my final signal that the end of my time in Huehue was coming. We all headed home, introduced him to the family, and had a relaxing afternoon while he napped away his sleepless hours. That evening my dad had an exciting welcome dinner with two of Otto’s cousins there (and drunk), and a power outage. Welcome to Guatemala, Dad.

            The next morning my mom had her last Spanish class, Brooks and I ran some errands for our party on Sunday, and around 12:30pm we all headed out to have lunch with Cony at Casa Blanca. Because Cony wasn’t going to be spending Christmas with us, we wanted to have a quasi-Christmas to spend some quality time with her. Cony is an incredible person with a beautiful spirit, and I am so lucky to have met her. Our lunch was good, with all of us sharing various breakfast dishes, and getting to chat with Cony and enjoy her bright spirit. After lunch we wandered to the city center and showed my dad the central park and the church, which took all of half an hour. That afternoon we went to the orphanage, the first time for my dad, of which my dad obviously took a liking to instantly. It has been great seeing the orphanage through my parents’ eyes, getting confirmation from them of how special Fundación is and why they understand how it captured my heart so quickly. After the orphanage (where dad met his pen pal, Meme, for the first time, and bonded with a little girl named Claudia who he said he was going to take home) we all headed over to yoga. I was hoping to have a well-attended yoga class, or at least to have our three good friends from the gym, Gina, Emily, and Marveli, there. Unfortunately, none of the above happened; we showed up, and had no one else attend our class. We had a quick yoga class just to show my dad what the classes were like, and then luckily had enough time to stop by the frame shop that was finishing up a project for us. Brooks and I had made three large collages with pictures of all of the kids at the orphanage and their pen pals, and had them framed for a great price of Q420 total (about $55). Thursday evening we picked them up, and they looked spectacular. We were so excited to hang them at the orphanage, and to have them available for the kids to constantly be reminded that there is someone out there that cares about each one of them individually. After picking up the frames we had dinner with our family, and then got to participate in a Catholic Christmas tradition with our family: A posada. A posada a procession of friends and family that is meant to be a representation of Joseph and Mary asking around for lodging before the birth of Christ, a very cool and fun tradition. We started at the house of one family, attended by neighbors as well as Cony, Otto, Yesi, Fancis (the French student), and Lucia, and after a short prayer our whole group left the house to create the procession. We carried a manger scene, various candle torches, and sang Christmas carols along the way. We were progressively joined by other people, and after walking through the neighborhood for about ten minutes, we ended up at the house of another family. Once outside, we began a sort of back and forth calling, where the people outside of the door would say something (asking for lodging like Mary and Joseph) and the people inside would say no for a while and then finally say yes. Once we were accepted, we all filed into the house, which had pine needles spread out on the living room and dining room floors, and many chairs and stools set out. The pastor said a few words, and then the good part began: the food. They passed out tamales and hot punch to everyone, the traditional Christmas foods in Guatemala. Unfortunately, we were all still full from dinner, but enjoyed splitting one tamale between the four of us. We were all tired and ready for bed by 9:30pm, but I can only imagine that the party continued late into the night.

            Friday morning we ran some more errands and finished a craft project for the orphanage, and then headed over to Fundación in the afternoon. Because my mom’s last bead party wasn’t exactly what she thought (it was fun, but highly populated by boys), we decided to have another bead party, this time with only girls. We headed over to the niñas room, set out the beads, and started calling the girls in. By the end we had about 20 girls beading with us, as well as some that let me paint their nails (surprisingly not as popular as I thought). After the beading party we had plans to have dinner with the orphanage staff, but were afraid our plans might have been forgotten since Sandra had not been in the orphanage all afternoon. After resolving that dinner wasn’t going to happen, and making our own plans to go out to dinner, we got a call from Sandra that she was on her way back to Huehue from Xela, and would be meeting us at the restaurant for dinner. Phew. We called a taxi, rounded together Migdalia, Cristi, and Juanita, the other orphanage employees, and headed out by 7pm. We ordered pizza for everyone, and enjoyed the great company and a much needed opportunity to say thank you to the wonderful ladies of Fundación Salvación. They all work so hard, and deserve so many thank-yous for what they do.

            The next morning, Christmas Eve, mom, dad and I headed over to the orphanage to try to cash in on every possible orphanage opportunity. We spent the morning playing with the kids, and then last minute decided to make macramé bracelets with some of the kids. Well, when you offer something to one kid at Fundación, eventually they are all going to be interested; we came up with a good system though, where kids would line up to get string from me, mom would teach them how to make the bracelets, and dad would hold the end for them as they worked. After a good hour of bracelet making, we headed home in a rush to have lunch with our family. That afternoon I took a nap, learned how to make tamales, and made a cheesecake. By 7pm we all had first dinner together, a combination of leftovers and a prepared potato puree, because the big dinner for Guatemalan Christmas comes at midnight. After dinner, we all put on our warm coats and walked together to the city center to see the main church decorated for Christmas; it was very crowded as a mass was letting out, and I imagine the church and city center were pretty full most of the evening. It was nice just strolling through the park though, feeling like you were sharing Christmas with more than just your family. After returning from the church, we started presents time. Lucia, my almost four-year-old host sister, was the Vana White of presents, passing them out to everyone with a Christmas hug, and obviously getting most excited when she found one of her own presents. We started opening presents at 11pm, and were still sitting around the tree and nativity opening presents at midnight, the official Christmas moment in Guatemala. Fireworks were being set off outside in all directions, some small and noisy, some giant and sparkling, all set off in probably an unsafe manner. We watched the fireworks for a few minutes, and then all headed back in for our midnight Christmas hug. We all hugged, and sat down to finish opening presents and eat grapes and candy-filled marshmallows. After that snack we all headed downstairs, and had second dinner of tamales and hot fruit punch, a dinner all of Guatemala was enjoying at that exact same time. It was certainly one of the most unique Christmases I have ever had, and definitely a memorable one.

            The next morning, Sunday, we all slept in after having been up until 1am the night before. We slowly wandered downstairs, and had a breakfast of leftover tamales. The rest of the morning passed by with packing and finishing touches to our Christmas party, and after a quick lunch at home, Brooks and I headed over to Fundación Salvación for my last time. Because it was my last day, Brooks and I were planning an elaborate Christmas party for the kids, complete with individualized crown awards, pizza, videos, presents, and hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy canes. We arrived around 2pm at the orphanage, and began getting everything ready for the party, with myself sneaking away to the baby room and playing with other kids periodically. By 4pm it was time for the despedida to start, which began with the portion organized by the orphanage. It began with a song by the Kinders, a rock band of some Parvulós and Escolares, and a dance by the Escolares and Pequeñas. It was all so sweet, and got my tears started early. After these performances my parents and I went to the front for a gift presentation and parting Bible verse reading, followed by a few tearful words from myself. After our moment up front, Estela, one of the older girls I was close with, sang a beautiful song, which was followed by a closing prayer. After this portion, Brooks and I started up our Christmas party. We began with crown awards for each of the children, which consisted of Pollo Campero crowns turned over, decorated with a specific award written for each kid, such as “best smile” or “the most likely to fall asleep while writing a pen pal letter” (which actually happened… Three times with Cente). Some were funny, some were sweet, but I think most of the kids really enjoyed the laugh and the personal recognition. After the crowns, our pizza miraculous arrived on time (our friend who was picking up the pizza and making our hot chocolate thought the party was the following day… So that presented a problem), and it was stuff-your-face time. Luckily, all of the kids were separated into tables by their groups, meaning we could just pass soda and pizza to the leaders of the group and have them distribute to their groups; this made what could have been a very chaotic moment much less stressful. After pizza (accompanied by American Christmas music, of course), Brooks and I presented our Pen Pal frames, and then passed out the boxes of gifts to every group leader. I think we were intending to give some sort of signal to start opening, but after waiting a couple of minutes without any signal, a beautiful moment of chaos ensued with kids unwrapping presents and stuffing their faces with the candy they found in their bags. After the kids had a chance to check out their presents, we found some of them over at the Pen Pal pictures, finding themselves and pointing out themselves and their pen pals to everyone. It was wonderful. I slipped away for a minute to the baby room to give Nila and Lesly their gifts, and watched Galilea play with the new blocks the baby room has received. After this small, chaotic break, Brooks and I started up the videos portion by showing the Xela trip and Thanksgiving videos we had made. The kids loved seeing themselves on screen, and I teared up again remembering all of the amazing things I have been able to do and the beautiful kids I have shared them with. Right after those videos ended, in perfect timing, Marveli showed up the hot chocolate, ready to serve. We poured out pitchers full for each table, and ran around sticking two marshmallows and a candy cane in each cup. Interestingly enough, Brooks and I had known a while back we wanted to do hot chocolate with candy canes, but didn’t have any luck finding them in the local grocery store, Paiz; miraculously, when we opened up the boxes of gifts on Monday, we found 125 large candy canes. Perfect. The kids loved the candy cane/marshmallow/hot chocolate combo, and again we did this all while blasting Christmas music; it just felt like the perfect Christmas to me. After handing out the hot chocolate we showed another video, a compilation of videos from various pen pals our friend Laura had put together. Each pen pal greeted their kid on screen, done in various levels of Spanish (some really funny, some really good). Again, I think the kids loved seeing their pen pals on screen and loved hearing their name and knowing that someone was thinking about them. After that video I was surprised by a fourth video; Brooks had made a video for my going away, a compilation of still photos and videos he had taken of the kids saying nice things about me. It was incredible, and reminded me again that I am so blessed to have a friend like Brooks, and an amazing place to have shared with him. When the video ended, Brooks called all the kids forward to mob me with hugs, and for a good five minutes I was surrounded, giving hugs left and right.

The night was perfect; it was the perfect way to say goodbye to Fundación, and although it was still painful, I know I will not soon forget the kids of Fundación Salvación; they will forever positively affect me. After the hug mob and clean up, I began my goodbye rounds, giving hugs and kisses in every room. Some kids began crying along with me, reminded me that my time at Fundación was not in vain. After the hundreds of sad goodbyes, Marveli and her mom, Teresa, gave us rides home, and one last hug and goodbye.