One word to describe it all, UNFORGETTABLE. This trip has been an experience of a lifetime; making an impact on a community, teaching kids English, visiting beautiful sites, and forming long lasting relationships. It wasn’t just a service trip, it was something to remember. I recall losing myself counting down the months, then the weeks, then the days, then the hours for the day my life would change forever. Living in Colorado all my life, I did not know what to expect, I was ready to see the world from a whole different perspective.
The day my flight left I was the happiest person alive that I couldn’t even sleep the night before, but the day finally came. Connie picked me up that morning at about 10, we went for some breakfast, and went straight to the airport. We had a layover in Houston, where I barely got the chance to try What-A-Burger(wasn’t impressed) and we went to board our flight straight to Guatemala. After 5 hours of flying, what seemed like an eternity, we were finally in Guatemala. Lucas was there to pick us up and take us to the place we were staying at, soon to become a high school, where we would meet the other scholars and staff from other affiliates.
On the second day, we went to the school to talk about the day to day plan and had the chance to do a money exchange. We later went to the city market, visited downtown, visited the cathedral, and ate dinner at residential homes. For the next two days we went to the school to visit all of the Esperanza Juvenil scholars, went to a specific class and engaged in many activities with them. On the fifth day, we went to a Mayan village called Tecpan where we helped build the foundation for a classroom of a school, painted walls, and bonded with the Guatemalan scholars that joined us. On the 7 day we went out and did a little tourism across the country. We first went to Lake Atitlán where we took a boat to dinner and then another to a hotel where we would stay overnight. The next morning we woke up early ate breakfast and left to Antigua to do a little shopping in the market place and visit Kristin Ostby, the CEO of Boys Hope Girls Hope. Then we went back to Guatemala City so we could catch our flight back home.
It all went by too quickly! I miss my newly made friends, I miss Guatemala, and I miss the cultural immersion.