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.
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