This year's return to Guatemala was fantastic. It truly felt like we never even left. But I guess I should start from the very beginning of my trip.
I went with a small group from our church: Ryan, Miranda, Matthew, Kyle, and I. We were joining up with a group from Mt. Zion Rd. Church of the Brethren, whose trip it really was, and we were along mostly for support and add-in.
So, we left our church a little after midnight, and had a fun and deep conversation in the van. We got to the airport and settled with our luggage until Brian (the youth pastor of the other group)'s group came. And, a fun fact, we had Ryan wear his Captain America shirt and then all of our group wore a Captain America shield shirt. We got several comments both to and from Guatemala in the airport.
As usual, trying to get through the American airport was what was difficult (I hate US airports). We slept as much as we could on the flights. Thankfully, the layover in Miami went well, at least. Then we landed.
Everything felt like home. Like we had never left last year. Everything was familiar - from the airport to the smell of diesel engines that don't need emissions testing. The roads were familiar, we ate at the same Burger King (where we got 21 meals for 14 people and just gave Oscar, the guy from the school that picked us up, the leftovers)... Then the drive to San Lucas, which felt a lot shorter than last year. It was an incredible feeling to walk through those wooden doors of the mission house again.
We had good room assignments, too. Miranda and I had a room with three bunk beds all to ourselves! Then before supper we went for groceries and then came back and organized it.
Supper, which the kitchen crew made for us, was really yummy, as usual: chicken enchiladas, a not-too-bad corn-ish soup, really good mashed potatoes, a good cucumber-tomato-corn salad, and perfectly cooked and flavored broccoli and cauliflower. None of us could totally decipher what the drink was, but it was all right. Colin (an 18-year-old from the other group) sat with us and we quickly discovered that he fits in with our group very well!
Later us older kids (not the two girls, Hannah and Rebecca, ages 15 and 11) played Dutch Blitz...it was pretty insane! At one point Derek (20-year-old from the other group) was like, "I'm gonna be the only one alive tomorrow...all of you are going to be killing each other tonight!" It was so much fun, and very hilarious. The other adults were not as amused, so they went and did other things.
Lastly, we had a meeting about what the rest of the week would include. We were excited to hear that it was more ministry than work, because that was our favorite part last year. It was going to be a great week!
(P.S. we stayed where we did last year, at Julio and Jodi's mission house)
I went with a small group from our church: Ryan, Miranda, Matthew, Kyle, and I. We were joining up with a group from Mt. Zion Rd. Church of the Brethren, whose trip it really was, and we were along mostly for support and add-in.
So, we left our church a little after midnight, and had a fun and deep conversation in the van. We got to the airport and settled with our luggage until Brian (the youth pastor of the other group)'s group came. And, a fun fact, we had Ryan wear his Captain America shirt and then all of our group wore a Captain America shield shirt. We got several comments both to and from Guatemala in the airport.
Matthew and Kyle relaxing during our layover in their accidentally-matching shield shirts.
Kyle sleeping on Miranda, as usual.
As usual, trying to get through the American airport was what was difficult (I hate US airports). We slept as much as we could on the flights. Thankfully, the layover in Miami went well, at least. Then we landed.
Everything felt like home. Like we had never left last year. Everything was familiar - from the airport to the smell of diesel engines that don't need emissions testing. The roads were familiar, we ate at the same Burger King (where we got 21 meals for 14 people and just gave Oscar, the guy from the school that picked us up, the leftovers)... Then the drive to San Lucas, which felt a lot shorter than last year. It was an incredible feeling to walk through those wooden doors of the mission house again.
We had good room assignments, too. Miranda and I had a room with three bunk beds all to ourselves! Then before supper we went for groceries and then came back and organized it.
Miranda and I had plenty of room to spread out!
Supper, which the kitchen crew made for us, was really yummy, as usual: chicken enchiladas, a not-too-bad corn-ish soup, really good mashed potatoes, a good cucumber-tomato-corn salad, and perfectly cooked and flavored broccoli and cauliflower. None of us could totally decipher what the drink was, but it was all right. Colin (an 18-year-old from the other group) sat with us and we quickly discovered that he fits in with our group very well!
Later us older kids (not the two girls, Hannah and Rebecca, ages 15 and 11) played Dutch Blitz...it was pretty insane! At one point Derek (20-year-old from the other group) was like, "I'm gonna be the only one alive tomorrow...all of you are going to be killing each other tonight!" It was so much fun, and very hilarious. The other adults were not as amused, so they went and did other things.
Lastly, we had a meeting about what the rest of the week would include. We were excited to hear that it was more ministry than work, because that was our favorite part last year. It was going to be a great week!
(P.S. we stayed where we did last year, at Julio and Jodi's mission house)
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