Adventures in Atitlán Day 3: Panajachel
Atitlán Adventure day number three started with a beautiful drive a quarter of the way around the lake and over to Panajachel (commonly referred to as “Pana”)
Read MoreAtitlán Adventure day number three started with a beautiful drive a quarter of the way around the lake and over to Panajachel (commonly referred to as “Pana”)
Read MoreDay 2 began before sunrise! We left the hotel at 5:45 and walked over to where the “taxis” line up to take passengers to various villages around the lake.
Read MoreAfter years of hearing how wonderful Atitlán is, I finally had the opportunity to see for myself
Read MoreSunday morning worship, a scenic neighborhood stroll, and visiting a chocolate farm rounded out one of the best weeks I’ve ever spent in beautiful Guatemala!
Read MoreI hardly know where to begin to describe my recent trip, but “Blessed” is the word that comes to mind.
Read MoreOn the verge of heading back to Guatemala, I'm excited to finally bring this blog current with highlights from last year's Summer trip.
Read MoreAmid the "worst trip ever" craziness of this year's February/March Guatemala journey lay a "best trip ever" opportunity to travel with Cyndi and her parents to the department of Petén, which is home to the ancient Mayan city of Tikal...the most famous Mayan ruins in Guatemala.
Read MoreIf I had believed that seven was a lucky number, trip #7 (February 2017) would have put an end to that idea. Some of the prayers I'd been praying over the last couple of years started to be answered, but not how I'd expected. My "comfort zone" was shaken, and I learned that I am not really all that flexible, that I am terrible with change, and even worse with goodbyes.
Read MoreWhat a blessed girl I am to have not one...not 2.... but THREE wonderful families! Adoption is indeed a beautiful thing, and this trip I was blessed to spend a lot of time with and even be a part of some special celebrations and life events in both of the Guatemalan families who have taken me in and treated me like their own.
Read More"What is it about Guatemala," I'm often asked. "Why do you like it so much there?" My response: "Everything!" But it really comes down to 2 things.... beauty and people. Specifically beauty IN people. (Well... and coffee. Haha!) As I went down for the 5th time in June of 2016, I still was convinced this is where I belonged, where I needed and wanted to be, though I still had no clearly defined mission. I was growing and seeking... still working on learning the language, still building relationships, still enjoying the warmth. This trip was all about the PEOPLE and the friendships and enjoying the present beauty as I prepared to find more clear definition for WHY.
Read MoreIn 2016, I went to Guatemala 3 times, starting in February. By this time, I had made some "permanent" living arrangements. My plan was to be in Guatemala about 3 times a year for around 6 weeks at a time, so it felt great to have a place there to call home instead of always being a visitor in someone else’s house.
Read MoreHaving been blessed in April with the opportunity to learn about the work at SOHW orphanage, I wanted to explore other ministries in the area and was kindly welcomed by a missionary friend who has established a youth center and English academy in Monjas. So… in September 2015, I was off for a 3rd adventure in Guatemala!
Read MoreOne of my favorite adventures from that 2nd trip to Guatemala was babysitting these two fun characters while their owner was away on vacation. Life with Ali and Boyka was constant entertainment, unparalled enthuaiasm, and more affection than I knew what to do with.
Read MoreI came home from that first trip to Guatemala knowing it couldn’t be the last. Ready and restless to go back, I already wanted to move there, buy a big farmhouse and take in a bunch of kids. Sure I knew that taking in kids and playing homesteading pioneer woman, while attractive in the imagination, was neither practical nor possible in reality…
Read MoreAmong the many blessings with which I returned home after 10 days in Guatemala were the following “perspectives.”
Guatemala taught me that:
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Armed with what seemed like thousands of stickers donated by various church members, we drove to a nearby coffee community and hosted a VBS.
Read MoreI have a confession. I didn’t do very much painting! Mostly, I “talked” to the kids. That’s a stretch, because my Spanish consisted of some basic words and phrases I’d picked up from the first few lessons on Duolingo!...so the “talking” was actually a combination of charades and random words (badly pronounced) on my part followed by a lot of giggling on theirs.
But somehow it worked. We hugged and laughed and took tons of pictures.
One group of girls invited me into their room where I was pampered with a manicure (along with more laughter) and given a necklace....half of a heart to take with me while the necklace with the matching half stayed there.
We were treated to a tour of the kitchen and even a lesson in tortilla making. Hats off to these cooks who make tortillas and other food every day to feed 500 teenagers. They graciously added us to the meal plan a couple of days while we were there and this was especially exciting to the kids because, cooking for North American guests meant meat was on the menu. It was very touching to me that people who don't have much (materially speaking) would go out of their way to share and give their best to people who have everything.
One afternoon, we offered a bracelet making activity for anyone who wanted to attend. I'm not crafty (at ALL!) so I circled the table with shoulder rubs and, afterwards, some of the girls gave me the bracelets they had made.
I was amazed at how warm and friendly these kids were... and at how happy. There wasn't a lot of money, but there was a wealth of joy, warmth and laughter. And acceptance.
Also, there was singing in the form of an impromptu performance of the elephant counting song!
Saying goodbye after those few days was hard. I came home and made a Facebook group to share photos and started chatting with a few of the kids via Messenger…. an interesting undertaking given my lack of Spanish and theirs of English. In order to build any kind of sustainable relationships, I was going to need some Spanish skills, so I became a bit more diligent about learning the language and longed for the day when I could communicate without Google Translate
The adventure for this decade of life began in Guatemala. I reluctantly went along on a mission trip with a group from the church in my old hometown…where I grew up and where my sister still attends.
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