Another Humbling Day in Guatemala 1-12-16

   It's funny, back home in the US we often judge a day on what we did. If we do normal or mundane activities, we often consider that day a waste and try to make other days as exciting as possible. Today, as well as throughout the week, I have learned that even a day full of ordinary and "boring" activities can be a VERY great day. To start things off, our group was split into 3, 5 going to a house to build a stove, 2 going to a schoolyard to help clean, and 7 going to the house we were at yesterday to continue helping with building the new home.

   

   I found myself very fortunate to go with the group to continue to help build the house. Yesterday we worked on the foundation of the home. Today we worked on as what we all described as a boring job. For most of the morning, our only job was to transfer cinder blocks from one place to another. Very soon, however, we soon found three children in our company. The children, named Julio, Olga, and Jennie, lived the house next door to the house building site. It wasn't long before I was able to start having simple conversations with them. After awhile I along with the other Saintsmen in my group began to teach them words in English and they taught us some words in Spanish. Even though they were simple nouns and verbs, the children were filled with joy and laughter, a truly amazing thing to watch. It just goes to show how such a simple act can go a long way to make someone happy. 

   I cannot steak for the other groups, but during our reflection time tonight everyone seemed to have a great time and they also met some amazing children. The group consensus tonight was that everyone was very humbled.

   After lunch we all had the pleasure of visiting the Women's Center again to learn how to do some the daily activities of the women there. Such activities included laundry, making tortillas, balancing laundry baskets on our heads, and how to carry large bundles of wood. Everyone had a great time as many laughs and smiles were shared. We learned so much and are all grateful to the women there for helping us.

    To wrap us the day we had another group reflection. Everyone agrees that is so shocking here in Guatemala how close poverty is to wealth. We have all seen some of the best, such as the huge mansions by the lake, as well as the worst, such as the houses with dirt floors. We are all so humbled by our experiences here, and we all look forward to see what God has planned for us next.

   -Joseph Mikolaycik

Olga, Julio, and Jennie

A demonstration on how to carry the wood bundles

An open flamed stove on which we cooked the tortillas