Day 7: Yo quiero zapatos. Friday

We started off the morning with Khadijah's devotion and then we shared personal prayer requests. We then prayed for each other.
Today we first drove to the dump. This dump is the largest in central America and 3rd largest in the world. Pablo explained that the men and women that come into this dump are in a position where they either scavage in the dump or they sell drugs or prostetute themselves for survival. That reality is so hard for me to grasp. I live in a country where even if you have absolutely no money and no assests, you have opportunity. We have scholarships, we have wellfare, we have social services, we have OPPORTUNITY. These people have 2 choices.

Driving through the cemetery to get to the overlook of the dump.

Shacks that lined the cemetery.

Overlook of the dump. We prayed for the people and their families in the dump.

After seeing the dump we went to Safe Passage. They work with children and adults to educate them and teach them different trades so that they don't have to scavenge in the dump. We learned about the organization and then shopped at the jewelry shop where women make jewelry out of trash from the dump. Safe Passage teaches the women how to manage their microbusinesses.

After that we went back to the feeding site outside of the dump. It was the same place that we went to on Tuesday with Pastor Mercedez. This time we washed the children's feet and gave them new shoes. After we fitted the children for their size we gave them a card with a picture of one of the kids form Valley Grace Brethren Church because the kids raised money for the Guatemalans during VBS. I found kids their shoes after they were sized. I loved being able to take the time to tell them in Spanish about the kids from Valley and telling them that they are loved by Jesus. One child looked at me and said "Yo quiero zapatos" and I understood that she said "I love the shoes"! I was so excited to finally use my minimal spanish. Toward the end of hanidng out shoes a mother was crying. I asked her in Spanish if something was wrong or if she was having pain. She said no. Then it hit me, I said "conenta?" and she shook her head and said "si." This mother was moved to tears as her children received new shoes. That was such a special moment for me. The women who washed feet said that it was very humbling because the hygiene was extremely poor and the dirt was on their feet was so dense.

When we were driving away I saw these kids with their new shoes!

 After giving away the shoes we went back to Dorie's Promise to spend the rest of the day with the kids. I played with Alex and we played cards with Louis and another little girl. They love Uno!

Louis

Louis and his many expressions. The bottom 2 pictures are of him "shuffling" and handing out the deck. Which was him handing out the cards that he wanted to to who he wanted to. He liked me because I had a good hand with lots of wilds! :)

Alex and Wendy

The little girl beside Karen took Uno very seriously and she was good at the game!

Alex and Leslie

Alex and me at dinner! I love this precious boy!

We had a dance party with disco after dinner! So much fun!!!

Honestly, my heart was very sad to have to say goodbye. God definitely worked in my heart in a special way to love these kids and especially Alex and Elvis. I pray for them daily and it still warms my heart when I think of their giggles.

Day 6: What it feels like to be hungry Thursday

Becky opened up the day with a really impactful devotion. She asked if we have every been really hungry. Although most of us agreed that our experiences of hunger are not nearly the same as true hunger or starvation, we were able to think of a time that we might have felt hunger of some sort. When someone is really hungry they will do anything to get food. She made the connection between this physical reality and being spiritually hungry for God. If we are truly hungry and thirsty for righteousness we would do anything to know God more and to be satisfied by Him alone. "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." Matthew 5:6. To take this a step further we talked about he correlation between that and fasting.
Today was something of an off day because we were able to go to Volcano Pacaya and ride horses up it. That was amazing! My guide's name was Micheal. When we reached the top there was a volcano shop with really awesome jewelry and trinkets that were made from the volcano rock.

The view during the ride up the volcano was insane! Guatemala is a beautiful country!

My guide, Micheal. He looked like he was having back pain so I prayed for him during our time together. 

Abel was in charge of teaching children how to brush their teeth at the feeding site that we went to. He used my aunt and uncle's dental horse puppet to show kids how to brush their teeth. So it was only fitting that he had a random toothbrush with him on our ride and pretended to brush the real horse's teeth.

The view!

The scariest part of the ride was down some loose dirt at the top of the volcano. That was exciting to say the least.

The Volcano shop. The last time Pacaya errupted it destroyed a village. The village took this negative event and decided to make it into a positive by taking the lava rock and making it into jewerly. It was very inspiring and really really neat items!

When you bought something they put it in these bags that were made of old women's traditional clothing.

After the ride we had the opportunity to go to a market to buy souvenirs.

I can't remember her name, it was very unique, but she was so much fun to shop at her stand. She let me try on lots of ponchos and scarves!

After our time to explore and shop we went back to Dorie's promise and spent time with the kids. I love spending time with my boys, Alex and Elvis. I did zumba with Alex and Lexie danced with Elvis. Their giggles and hugs are so precious in my memory. (No pictures because I was savoring the moment!)

Day 5: Luz del Paraiso Wednesday

Today we started early by loading up into the bus and heading to Luz del Paraiso (Light of Paradise) which is located in Palencia. Light of Paradise is a place helping 60 children with food and tutoring classes who suffer malnutrition, poverty, and violence in their home life. The program is run by college students and we had the opportunity to go there and 1st take 3 meals to families in their homes and then we did a medical check. Palencia was different than the feeding center by the dump, Nueve Generacion, or Dorie's Promise. When we arrived it felt very more rural and remote. The drive was absolutely beautiful with rolling hills and patchwork of farms along the side of mountains, but this sign of nature also represents a lack of education and opportunity for the people of these rural communities. Light of Paradise works against a culture that is very trade and work oriented so children are poorly educated. There are many cycles of poverty that are obvious in the fact that entire families live and work together.

The drive to Light of Paradise

The drive to Light of Paradise.

The Light of Paradise building. The pools were empty and used for playing soccer.

The kitchen. Very primitive. The women in the community take turns making meals for the children.

A few kids from the morning group being tutored. They would have school in the afternoon.

Main street. Not much to it. The homes were on dirt paths off of this main road.

On our way to give 3 meals away and pray for 3 families.

The first home that we visited. The first house that we went to asked for prayer for her husband because he has been very ill recently but still goes to work to provide for his family. It was wonderful to pray with each family.

This little girl was sitting beside me at the first house. She was absolutely filthy. She was pretty overwhelmed by all of us being in their small home and invading her space. She was adorable!

This mother (far right) in particular was very strong and believed in educating her children as a priority. This is very unusual for their culture. Elaine was able to encourage her in Spanish and even became very emotional. Elaine's mother and grandmother sacrificed so that Elaine would have the opportunity to grow up in America and so that she could be educated. I can only imagine how inspirational Elaine must have been to the mother who wants her children to break the cycle of poverty by becoming educated. Elaine's family is a perfect example that it is more than possible!

Another home we went to in order to give them a meal. "God is love."

Cooking by fire.

This woman has experienced multiple strokes. She was nonverbal but expressed an abundance of emotion. It was very difficult to tell if she was expressing happiness for our presence or frustration and despair because of her condition. This struck a nerve with me because I take care of stroke patients frequently on the unit that I work on as a nurse.

Come back out from handing out meals. The orange and blue building is the Light of Paradise from the front.

As we went into the homes each family had their own prayer requests. Two out of three of the houses that we took food to prayed for their husbands/fathers because they were into drinking alcohol.  One of the mothers that we talked to said that she was very blessed by us coming to help them because the rich Guatemalans do not reach out and help the poor communities. I found that to be insightful. 

When we arrived back at Light of Paradise we had the opportunity to eat lunch with the kids which was a highlight of my day! I got to use some of my basic Spanish and they were practicing some of their English. We laughed at each other a lot! I still get very warm feelings inside when I think of these precious children and getting to make friends with them despite the language barrier. I also was grateful because I had the opportunity to tell them "Jesus es amor." I don't ever want to be too task oriented to look someone in the eye and tell them that Jesus is love and that Jesus loves them.

I'm not sure what the first little boy's name was. He jumped in the picture. But the girl beside him is Yojana Noemia (9 years old), the boy in the red is Jose Raul (11 years old), the girl beside him in the orange is Alexandya (she is 8 years old), and the girl beside me is Paola (she is 10 years old). I had them write down their names and ages in my Spanish book :)

"Photo loco!!!"

Between lunch and doing medical checks we got to play with the kids some. We were invited into the pool to play soccer. Its a very small area and I was pretty nervous taht I was going to get smacked in the face with the ball. Instead a little girl went to kick the ball with all of her might and missed and kicked my shin instead. That left a mark.

After lunch we set up to do medical checks like at Nueve Generacion and the feeding site. Elaine and I were the last to see any children who had a specific complaint.

Right before we were loading onto the bus to leave we looked over to see these girls brushing their teeth by the outside sink. No one told them to do that, they just put into action what they had just learned!

Mi amiga, Paola from lunch  using her toothbrush :)

After working at the light of Paradise we went back to Dorie's Promise. Mom, Karen, Elaine, Kelsey, and Peggy did a special devotion with a group of special moms again but with a different group of women.

After doing nails with the special mothers we went down into the play yard with the kids and played. I got my boys, Alex and Elvis to dance with me but they would only dance with me if we were holding them :) I danced with Alex and Elvis danced with Lexi. Talk about a workout! I loved every minute of it thought!