Five Years in the Making (pt 1)

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August 2010

I went on my first journey to Guatemala when I was 14. Adolescence in full swing, dating my first boyfriend, totally lost on where my place was in the world. Typical stuff, but I was far from average. I grew up home-schooled in rural Maine, playing in the woods, reading all day at the library, riding my bike in circles. Basically doing anything I could to avoid actual school work and reality. I had gone on my first mission trip to Haiti a few years before, when I was 11. Reality had hit me hard in the face, knocked me on my butt, and threw me back into my comfort zone where I hid quietly, but reality doesn't like to be ignored.

My mother runs a child sponsorship ministry, His Hands Support Ministries, they work with previously established schools and orphanages in 11 third-world countries across the globe. The organization helps send children to school who's parents wouldn't have the funding to do so on there own. Don't take my word for it though, go check out the website and see for yourself (you're welcome, mom).

I accompanied my mother, father, and 21 other team members. Including my boyfriend at that time. It felt like this grand adventure and I was just going along for the ride. This was my first taste of wanderlust and I wanted more. Unfortunately, in 2010 and 2011 I didn't journal when I was there, and although I do remember a lot of both experiences they're very special to me in a way that words can't highlight. I've decided to keep them tucked away in my memory bank, for personal viewing only.

August 2012

"Life was made to be experienced" -from my journal

My mindset on this trip was completely separate from anything I'd ever experienced. I couldn't turn off the rushing water that was my thoughts, they went from a leaky-faucet status to full blown waterfall upon landing, once we actually landed, that is. Guatemala city was in the midst of a storm at that time, causing two failed landing attempts due to fog and standing water on the runway. I learned that once a plane has touched the ground it goes against every fiber of it's being to propel back into the sky. I set foot on Guatemalan soil with a heavy head and pensive eyes.





After our stereotypical tourist day in Antigua; we piled into a van and drove to the Lake Atitlan area. We were visiting an orphanage that our friends are partnered with. The views repeatedly took my breath away, which is not unusual for such a beautiful place. "The ride here was absolutely amazing. Volcanoes, twisting turning roads, small communities, and a massive lake. Plus emus at a gas station, those were too cool." However, I was growing more and more uncomfortable on the ride there, somehow I had gotten into the Guatemalan equivalent of poison ivy -chichicaste- and I was becoming quite an itchy, splotchy, hot mess. Benadryl became my best ally. Playing with the sweet children definitely helped take my mind off of it too.





I made a pretty startling revelation on this trip, after spending a day with Mishel; the girl my parent's have been sponsoring since the program started. I was holding her hands and I noticed they were wrinkled and worn, not what you'd expect for a nine year old girl. It clicked then that she helped her mother wash clothes in the town pila. All of the hard scrubbing had made her hands rough. For some reason this very small detail has been deeply imprinted on my mind. I think it's because that's just the way it is for her, that's her life and if she wants clean clothes or to please her mother that's what she has to do. "She asks very little of the world. Love is her request, and she's so easy to love. This must be the derivative of her happiness."





I think this is a sufficient place to leave us, I'll recap the 2013 and 2014 trips in the next entry. Guatemala bound in 8 days 😊

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Comments

[Clemma Nichols]

Blog happiness
I am excited for you and will definitely be following your journey. May God make you a blessing to the children of Guatemala!! Please give Katherine Patricia a hug for me!!