The Hidden Gifts That We Receive...

First off, I want to apologize because it has been a very long time since I last wrote on this blog!

Where to even begin with what has gone on in the past 2 weeks or so!

Well, two weekends ago my community members and I went to Antigua, Guatemala for the weekend to relax and just enjoy ourselves in this beautiful country. We got to Antigua on Saturday afternoon and did a bit of browsing in the market. Afterwards we all went to Mass together and then went out for a night in Antigua.

We went to dinner at this really fun restaurant that had a live band playing Latino music. The entire restaurant was getting into the music and the cooks in the kitchen were even flickering the lights on and off throughout some of the songs to get people hyped up! We enjoyed some delicious food, drinks and fun music. As we were leaving I noticed a sign for ¨Camino Seguiro¨ the program Jake, my brother, volunteered at for 6 months this past year. It was fun to know that some of the money made at the restaurant goes to help that program so it was fun in that moment to know that I was unknowingly helping a program that my brother is so passionate about.

Jake I thought about you ALL weekend! It was awesome to walk around and realize that Mom, Dad and I were just there back in February/March visiting you and realizing that those were the same streets you walked down for 6 months. I think the coolest thing was realizing once we got off the bus that I knew exactly where I was and how to get to the Aurora.

Sunday morning Rita, Erica and I woke up at 6 AM to hike up Volcan Pacaya which is an active Volcano here in Guatemala. We took an hour and a half shuttle to the foot of the Volcano and had the privilege of riding with a guy from France and 7 Spaniards who were here in Guate to volunteer their medical services. The ride at 6 AM was and adventurous one filled with LOTS of laughs as the Spaniards quizzed me on my Spanish and gave me tongue twisters. We then in return gave them a couple English tongue twisters and laughed at their terrible pronunciation as well.
The hike up the volcano was amazing and once we got to the top we were able to stand right next to lava. We even enjoyed roasting some marshmallows over the lava. Just an all around fun experience!

On the shuttle back home I was EXHAUSTED but the Spaniards asked us tons of questions of what kind of songs Americans sing in the car on road trips. We then explained that its usually whatever is on the radio and I even said that Disney songs are very common to sing within my group of friends. They continued to insist that we share a song with them, and NOT Disney, after they sang a famous song sung in Spain in the car. Rita, Erica and I then began to sing ¨99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall¨ haha since we had NO idea what to sing!

We met up with the rest of the community and all took the bus back to Xela after purchasing some ice cream for the ride home. The chicken bus we took was LOCO! There were 3 people to a seat and then they continued to pile people into the aisleway. There were at least 75 plus people on this bus. Erica and I had a little boy sit on our laps and everyone was crammed into this bus that stopped for a half hour or so because of traffic. At one point I was incredibly frustrated but then realized that I needed to take in the experience and then laugh at it later and just enjoy the moment. I then began to look at the people around me, at the little boy sitting on Erica´s lap, at an elderly women near me whose eyes shimmered and toothless grin made me happy inside, and at the incredibly caring girl sitting next to me who reminded me SO much of Miss Andrea Stella Berkemeier! Just tried to take in the beauty of the sweaty yet beautiful Guatemalans that surrounded me. In that moment I realized that instead of worrying about the sweaty, uncomfortable position I was in, I needed to take in the gifts that these people around me were sharing. In that moment my mind was opened and I was able to appreciate those gifts for what they were.

After getting off the bus, Tom realized that his wallet was no longer in his pocket so we gave him a telephone and told him to call his family to cancel his credit cards IMMEDIATELY. As Tom was calling his mom, Rita realized that she did not know where her wallet was either so she rummaged through her backpack and realized that someone had opened the front pocket of her backpack (which was sitting on her lap) and slashed through to the next pocket to take out her wallet. As Rita was calling her family, Regina checked her purse (which was sitting next to her on the bus) and stuck her hand out of a slash that was within her purse... her wallet was gone as well. Three out of the seven of us had been robbed.

It was a very eye opening experience that we need to ALWAYS be aware of our surroundings and to just be careful because even though we might be sitting next to the nicest elderly man in the world, we still need to be aware of our belongings at ALL times!