My Week in Guatemala

(For those of you who saw my pictures posted on Facebook, I did try to post different pictures here on the blog.)

A month has gone by since I returned from Guatemala. First of all, I want to thank all the people at Fla Baptist Childrens Homes. They have a quite a program set up. They are very organized and they are doing good work, there can be no doubt. This blog entry is not meant as criticism. I am only expressing my opinion as a first time mission tripper who probably doesn't fully understand all that it takes to get a mission off the ground. I learned some things on this trip. While I have told many people what I did there, I had promised to blog about it too. The trip was, in many ways, not quite what I expected.

The Rooming and Working Conditions

What I Was Expecting -
From the information I received before leaving, I was imagining a more, shall we say, rustic experience. The handbook we were given emphasized having a first aid kit, the need for bug spray and sunscreen, and good walking shoes. I thought we would not be in close proximity to a store or pharmacy. I usually overpack when I go on vacation. I want to have options. I like to pick my clothing based on my mood, and more practical factors like weather too of course. This time I packed lighter than normal. It was a mission, not a fashion show. I packed a first aid kit with bug spray, sunscreen, bandaids, antibiotic ointment, anti-itch ointment, alcohol swabs, antacid, antidiarrheal medicine, Pepto chewables, and other things. I imagined lots of walking and not always on roads, but perhaps in dirt and mud. I imagined being hot all the time, so I packed many thinner cotton teeshirts. The handbook talked about being able to rent horses and ride up to the top of a volcano. I looked very forward to that.

What I Found -
First of all, there was no horseback ride to a volcano. Disappointing. And there was not much walking actually. Unless you count the time spent walking through the airport. Our ground transportation from the airport was arranged in advanced. It was a normal tourist van, with big windows for snapping pictures. We drove directly from the airport in Guatemala City to the hotel in Antigua, about an hour's time. On working days, we were transported in this same van from the front door of the hotel to the front door of the malnutrition center. We did a bit of walking when we went on the tour of the coffee plantation and when we did a little shopping in the market.As far as the first aid kit goes, we were very near pharmacies and other stores where those could have been purchased. Of course, I am glad I had what I did. While there, I passed out Advil, Pepto, Imodium, and Tums. I used the alcohol swabs and antibiotic ointment on a scrape I got when I tripped over a rock while hunting for red coffee beans in the field during our plantation tour. I didn't have to use the bug spray at all and only used the sunscreen when we toured the coffee fields.

The van we used all week for transportation

Our general living conditions were much better than I had expected. The hotel we stayed in was behind gates and was quite large. It had extensively landscaped grounds, multiple pools, plenty of air conditioning (which we really didn't need as it was nice temperate weather), great food, and all the normal services you would expect from a hotel. I know it was a pretty luxurious place based on this one fact. The handbook and the people at the mission headquarters had emphasized to us that, in Guatemala, you cannot flush toilet paper. You must throw the used toilet paper into the trashcan. This rule applied to the malnutrition center for sure. However, our hotel was so nice, you were allowed to flush toilet paper. This hotel was so nice that it had put in adequate plumbing to handle the paper. My friend Cara went to Costa Rica on a pleasure trip with her kids' school and she didn't stay anywhere where you could flush TP. Our individual rooms were quite nice. Decent shower and bathroom, two queen beds, a flat screen TV, and a fireplace (well that's just too much!)

Part of the hotel lobby

Breakfast at the hotel

The room I shared with Brittany - oops, kind of messy.

Our meals at the hotel were great. We ate from a large breakfast and supper buffet everyday. The dining room had a grand piano in it, which was sometimes being played while we ate. The waiters wore black and white uniforms and poured us coffee with hot milk (Si! Por Favor!). The food was good-tasting too. For breakfast, I had crepes, omelets, scrambled eggs, fried plantains, sausages, fruit, various breads, fresh juices. For dinner, there was usually two meats, rice, salad, sometimes potatoes, vegetable dishes, and a whole table just for desserts. After a couple of days, I had to restrain myself because I was eating way too much.

The malnutrition center

At the malnutrition center, conditions were a little less fancy. There was one unisex bathroom with toilets and sinks. The sinks had no running water. There were jugs of hand sanitizer sitting around. Each toilet was in its own stall. The doors stated that one was for Men, one for Women, and one was Private. I didn't know what Private meant. At some point during the week, I used the men's, women's, and private stall. There was a water cooler where we could refill our bottle during the day. The building was not pristine but seemed to be in decent and pretty clean condition. The laundry was done in a large room with old laundromat style machines. Clothes were dried in a machine or hung out on line in a big concrete courtyard outside the laundry room. We volunteers had a bag lunch each day that usually consisted of a cold sandwich, some sort of fruit or vegetable, and either a dessert or a bag of chips. The weather was cool enough outside that it didn't get too hot inside. I am not saying I didn't sweat. I did. Carrying kids around on your hips and changing diapers did give me a little workout. I am just saying the building wasn't sweltering hot.

The bathroom stalls

Cribs

Pollos play area fenced off in a hallway

Lunch being served up

The Mission Work

What I Was Expecting -
I knew there would be a language barrier but we were going to have translators with us. I expected to see more of the local people, to have more interaction with them. I memorized a few Spanish words and phrases that I thought I would be needing more often than not. Lociento meaning I'm sorry. Yo no se meaning I don't know. Con permiso meaning excuse me. I didn't know what to expect of the malnutrition center actually. I had read a few blog entries and looked at a lot of pictures, but it was hard to tell what it would really be like. We had received a schedule of activity too, but I wasn't sure what group I would be working in when I got there.

What I Found - 
We did not have much interaction at all with local people. We were kept together as a group. The leader of our group asked us not to leave the hotel property, even in groups. I had been under the impression that we would be able to walk around the city, as long as we went in large groups. Our interactions with Guatemalans were limited to the staff at the hotel, the staff at the malnutrition center, and vendors at the market. The language barrier was a problem at times. Mostly at the malnutrition center when I would need to ask a staff person where something was. how do you say "onesie" in Spanish??? Luckily I worked a lot with Brittany, who is the childrens ministry leader at my church. She had a decent amount of Spanish under her belt and was able to help. In the marketplace, the translators really helped, but many vendors had enough English that we could communicate on a very very basic level. Although we did not have much interaction with the locals, there were a few opportunities to speak to people. I was at a vendor stand looking at a purse. The woman who worked that stand was named Nellie. While negotiating price, we were able to talk a bit about her religious life. She ended the conversation by taking my hand, telling me her name, and asking me to pray for her. Now perhaps she was talking to me to get me to buy the purse, which I did, and at a good price. But I have her on my prayer list. On the bus, I listened to a conversation between Brittany and one of the translators about what place or role God, Jesus, the saints, and Mary played in her life.  It was very interesting. The people who went to the house-building site spent a little time with people of the neighborhood, but I was not on that team.

Pastor D with some kids from the Pollos group

Working with the children was great! They are in such desperate need of physical affection. Many of them just wanted to be held all day or a good portion of the day. I worked with the Pollos, a group of toddlers. Their ages ranged from 1 year to 3 years. They were all in diapers.About half of my group could feed themselves. The other half had to be fed. Our day started out by helping out with the morning baths or watching the kids whose baths were done.We would play with them, talk to them, hold them, rock them, etc until around 10:30 am when a bell would ring throughout the building announcing that snacks were coming. It sounded like a school bell announcing the end of a period. The kids knew what this bell meant. If they were crying, they would stop. If they weren't crying, they might start because they were impatient for the snack to come. For the Pollos, the snack was a warm grainy beige-gray-colored liquid that they sucked down like thirsty elephants. After snack, it was back to play time-love time. Lunch was usually late and arrived around 1 pm. We would put the self-feeders at a table and give them their trays. The ones we needed to feed we would sit in chairs along a wall. We would kneel in front of them to feed them. Oh my old lady knees did not like that! Often we would be feeding more than one kid at a time. After we got them fed, no easy feat, we would change their diapers and put them down to nap. Often we had to change their clothes too! Especially after the kids were served pickled beets as a side dish one day. There were magenta stains on everything! We put them down for a nap and then headed out to our lunch. We always ate outside. After lunch was some other work, like doing inventory or sanitizing the toys. At 3 pm, we went back to start getting the kids up. We had to be back on the bus by 4:30 for the hour trip back to Antigua.

Snack time for the Pollos group

Edwin calming down on my squishy belly

Gladis and Billy rock (literally)!

This was our schedule Monday through Thursday. On Wednesday, I got to go into the town of San Juan Sacatepequez with some of the other helpers and some of the Pollos kids to get them their immunizations. We each took two kids, one easy and one hard. By that, we meant each of us would take one easy kid, a kid who didn't cry or fuss much, and one hard kid, a kid who might cry a lot or hit other kids or not sit still. I took Gladis, who was my favorite. She was a quiet little girl who would have been happy being rocked for the rest of the her life I think. I also took Edwin, who was more active, had been known to throw fits or bang his head or cry occasionally. Holding both of these kids and then trying to step up into the van while bending down to avoid hitting my head on the door was difficult for a fat old lady like me, but I managed. On the way to get their shots, we sat with them on our laps. No seat belts, no car seats. We pulled up to a clinic on a busy and narrow street and parked the van by the curb. We walked into this dark clinic and sat on wooden benches in the hallway. One by one a lady called out a name, grabbed that kid and took them in for their shot. Then she would come back out and return the kid and take another. Some of them were crying when they came out, but most of them did not fuss for long. Then we loaded back up on the van and returned to the malnutrition center.

William on the bus to get his shots

Since I worked with such a young group of kids and since I could not speak Spanish anyway, there was little I could do to give them information about the gospel. The most I could do was to love on them. Brittany had a good suggestion that I followed. Whenever I was rocking or playing or holding a child, I would make a point of praying specifically for that child. The language barrier also meant that I would often sing to them to calm them down from crying or while rocking them. Mostly I sang a bunch of Casting Crowns songs because I knew the words by heart. I talked to them all the time even though they couldn't understand. By the end of the week, I had learned three important phrases: sit down, eat, and stand up.

There was much talk by the leader about how Thursday would be an emotional day, since it was our last day. I didn't expect it to affect me, despite my deep and long history of being emotional. The last day was frustrating for me because I was stuck in another group and didn't get to spend the time I wanted with my Pollos. The last 15 minutes of the last day I just rocked Gladis and cried. That, I was not expecting.

I cannot imagine how this place functions when there are no volunteers for the week. The staff must have all their time taken up with diaper changes, laundry, and feeding. When there is not a group visiting, I imagine these kids don't get tons of affection or one-on-one time. It's a good thing that they have groups down there as often as they do.

Who wouldn't smile with Gladis in their arms?

Best parts of the trip
Time spent playing and loving on these kids was great. Some of them were orphans and some are from families that could not provide well enough for them. Some will eventually go back to their home. Some may not. All of them were a joy to be around, even the little stinkers like William and Natalie. There was lots of drool, lots of poop and pee, and even some vomit, but I loved taking care of them.

Some nice liquid poop that squirted through a diaper and 2 layers of clothes to land on my Eeyore shirt! That's some kind of pooping girl! I threw the Eeyore shirt away. Luckily someone else had an extra shirt for me to put on.

Praying for each of these kids individually. I remember to pray for them, at least as a whole group if not individually, now that I am back in the U.S.

Hopefully, our group and every group that FBCH sends down there is able to give a non-ugly American impression to the Guatemalan people. Hopefully we were able to witness even a little by our own actions, talk, and behavior.

I enjoyed getting to spend some time with the people who were in our mission group but from other churches. I learned some things from them, both good and bad. I also enjoyed getting to know the people from my own church better. You definitely see other sides to people that you wouldn't normally see at Sunday service. I was very impressed with some of my fellow church-goers.

Dale and Brittany

From left to right: Debra and Nikki from another church and Debbie and Ashley from mine

Guatemala was a beautiful country. The weather was spectacular. Highs of upper 70s to low 80s during the day. Lows at night around 60. It rained only once while we were there. Practically no humidity when it wasn't raining. We had great views of volcanos from our hotel.

Picture of volcano taken from a few feet outside my hotel room door on a beautiful clear day.

The sights I saw during our 2-hour commute each day to and from San Juan Sacatepequez were well worth the trip. Horses carrying firewood. Women carrying baskets of laundry or food on their heads while they walked along the road. The ubiquitous souped-up and repainted school buses that drove like crazy through the mountain roads. The homes/shacks on the hill side made of scrap wood and metal. The number of dogs. The open air laundromats, where clothes are washed in giant concrete vats. People working in the lush green farm fields. The men in uniform walking around with machine guns. (We were advised not to take pictures of them and so I have none to show you.) The wallpapering of the roadsides with political campaign posters. While we were there, Guatemala was preparing for a presidential election. There are 13 political parties. So imagine how hard they were all trying to get the attention of voters. Campaign slogans and pictures were everywhere. Occasionally, we saw mini-parades with music playing or people talking through huge loudspeakers while other people marched behind carrying posters.

Horse train along road side

Laundry vat

Typical structure seen on trip to and from the center

Narrow streets and crazy buses

Farm land on a hillside

Homes near San Juan Sac

The political posters often had other political parties just X'd out. I can't imagine trying to vote in a 13 party system!

The trip was so well organized. Howie Hooper, who was our leader, explained each step very well to us, including customs, transportation, luggage, and schedules. It was nice to have our most basic needs pre-arranged for us. The hotel put about 40 bottles of water in each of our rooms when we got there. You could not use the tap water to brush your teeth or drink. The time at the malnutrition center, the transportation back and forth from the hotel, the meals, everything was laid out for us. Because of that, we were able to concentrate on the more important parts of the trips.

Each morning after breakfast, we had a little worship service and sang songs. Each evening after dinner, we had what Howie called a WOW moments meeting. We would talk about what had happened during the day, what amazed us, what saddened us, what inspired us, and what cheered us up. We would talk about the schedule for the next day.

What I would have wanted to do differently
The first full day we were there, Sunday, was not a work day. According to the handbook, this was a day to get used to the altitude and get adjusted from the travel time. However, it was not a day without activity. This day was spent going to a coffee plantation for a tour or zip-lining. While this leisure activity was enjoyable enough, I would have rather gone right to work that day (since we couldn't do the horse ride thing). After the plantation tour, we were driven to McDonalds in Antigua. We had been in the country for less than 24 hours and already we were eating at McDonalds. I am sure it was chosen because the food and drink and water and ice were already proven safe for us to consume. As it was, a couple people got sick on our trip. So I understand the extra caution. I was hoping that some other restaurant in Antigua could have been cleared as OK for us to eat at. Wednesday night we did go out to eat at a regular restaurant. This restaurant had live music, which was interesting. The musicians played guitars,drums, and used a surprisingly big amount of pan-flute. The restaurant featured American food though.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, some people went to a house construction site instead of working at the malnutrition center. This left fewer people to help with the children. I would have liked for the whole group to have a chance to go the construction site for a day or two and then the whole group work at the malnutrition center after that. I would have liked to have an extra day or two so that we could do both things.

I would have liked to have a little more freedom to go out in the evening and see the town and people. Antigua is a pretty town and, according to what I read, fairly safe and tourist-friendly. I would have liked to have a little free time to wander about and perhaps have a chance to speak to locals. Once we ate dinner, we stayed at the hotel for the night. Some nights were fun because we played cards. Some nights I was exhausted and went to bed early. Only once did I turn on the TV. I watched about 30 minutes of Law & Order LA with Spanish subtitles. I learned the word for body - cuerpo - and attorney - abogado. Even in Central America, I could not escape my L&O obsession.

Views of Antigua

I also am not sure we needed to stay in the level of hotel we stayed at. I felt uneasy and wondered what portion of the trip cost was spent on the hotel. I am sure it was chosen because the food is safe and the security is good. Guess I was hoping for more of an adventure.

Overall, I would do a mission again. I am not sure I would do this exact same mission again. However, it was a good mission for me, a first-timer, and for my church, who had not done a foreign mission trip before. Good trip to get our feet wet. Now we have a better idea of what we are looking for in a mission trip, I am fairly itching to do another one. I feel such an urge in me to do more work for His glory. God willing I will be able to go on the next one. I can't wait!