Hello from Guatemala

I never intended for it to take me so long to provide a first update, but here we are. Hello!!

I’ve been here for 4 weeks now, but it feels like it has been so much more. About two and a half weeks in it really started hitting me—I live in another country. This isn’t just a one or two week trip like it’s been in the past—it’s my life at this moment. It has been so easy these past few weeks to think of all I’m missing back home, but in doing so, I’m not giving my all to what’s right in front of me. So every morning I say a prayer about where my focus would be with my work here and a prayer of gratitude for those loving and supporting me from so far away. It is SO hard being away from family and friends, but I hope and trust this experience will be worth the sacrifice. I am so thankful for how easy technology makes it to stay in contact regularly.

Where do I even begin to explain daily life here? So much of what I see on a daily basis is now “normal” to me, having been to this country 3 times prior. It’s easy to forget that the things that are normal to me now are still (quite literally) a foreign concept to those who have never traveled here.

Just to recap, Hope for Home Ministries (hopeforhome.org) is the organization I am working with, and it currently has two children’s homes for children with special needs. I am living at house #1, which houses the directors, their family, the interns, and the 16 children who are cared for in this home. There are roughly 27 of us here, and it’s chaotic, but I love it! I work with 15 children at house #1 for occupational therapy and 7 children in house #2, which is just across the street. The ministry employs Guatemalan nannies to care for the children during the daytime, and the interns care for the children during the evenings and weekends. The interns are usually young women and men who come from the U.S., Canada, or other countries for several months at a time. I have quickly befriended the current group of interns here, and they have been a huge support system during these first few weeks.

Courtyard of house #1

Stephanie (maternity care director), Katie (nurse), Cassidy (intern), me, Julia (intern), Kelsie (intern), Andrea (intern)

My work schedule is roughly 9-5, with some variation during the time that I am living at the home. I found a place to rent nearby and will be moving there in the next couple of weeks. Last week I had the opportunity to travel to a rural village 4-5 hours away for a 2-day therapy clinic. The team included Daryl (the director of the ministry), his son Jeremiah (who translated for me), Marleny (our physical therapist) and Rosario (our speech therapist). It was a great experience working in collaboration with Marleny to provide therapy to both children and adults. The work here is so meaningful and so needed; resources are few and far between. Access to health care is limited, let alone quality health care. Many of the people we worked with were seeking care for injuries that happened one or two years prior. Others had very obviously been misdiagnosed. To say the least, health care surely is a different world here.

The area we live in is called San Antonio Aguas Calientes— it’s very close to Antigua (the most touristy city in Guatemala) and is located in a valley. This area is divided into 3 smaller towns— San Andres (where the two children’s homes are located), San Antonio (where I will be living soon), and Santa Catarina. My favorite view is looking over all 3 towns from a higher elevation, though this photo really doesn’t do it justice.

From the rooftop, two volcanos are visible on a clear day— Fuego (translation: fire) and Acatenango. Fuego is active, and often bursts of smoke can be seen rising from its peak. This is the volcano that erupted when I was in Guatemala last summer. It’s a safe distance away, about 7 miles. Acatenango is dormant, which is easy to see by the amount of vegetation on its slopes. I love the mountainous terrain here, especially compared to how flat Ohio is.

Fuego (far left), Acatenango (right; has two peaks)

The street view here is much different than in the U.S. Almost every home has a wall that borders the street, so you never really know what a person’s property or house looks like. Often the front door opens up into a small yard space or parking spot, rather than directly into the home. The types of roads here vary greatly: sometimes it is asphalt, other times concrete bricks, in the rural villages it may just be dirt, and in Antigua it is very bumpy cobblestone. Many families convert the front room of their house into a small store, called a tienda, to help provide income for their family. Tiendas are usually stocked with snacks and drinks, as well as basic cooking and household supplies.

View from our street

Street view in Antigua

Interior of a tienda

Many people in town ride motorbikes for transportation—it’s much less expensive than purchasing and maintaining a vehicle, though vehicles are common here as well, especially in the city. There are also little taxis called tuk-tuks (pronounced took-tooks), that usually only cost a few quarters to catch a ride in. Public transportation comes in the form of “chicken buses.” I have yet to ride one from our town to Antigua, but they are very easy to spot!

Tuk tuk

Chicken bus

Traditional grocery stores here somewhat resemble those in the U.S., just on a much smaller scale and with a much smaller selection. All dairy products are expensive, so my consumption of cheese and milk has drastically decreased. Fruits and vegetables are quite inexpensive and are easy to find—many families set up stands along the street during the day. Eggs don’t have to be refrigerated because the protective coating hasn’t been removed—a change I’m still getting used to! We eat a lot of rice and tortillas, which are staples in the Guatemalan diet.

The weather here is beautiful (sorry to all those who are still trying to survive winter). Temperatures are usually in the 50s-60s overnight and upper 70s or low 80s during the daytime. It is currently dry season, so rain showers are infrequent. I’ve seen rain only 3 times since I’ve been here. Air conditioning is a rarity, but it is also not a necessity with the comfortable temperatures. It’s common to leave doors and windows open during the day and night.

Central Park, Antigua

The picture below is a pila (pronounced pee-luh). Though I had seen them before, I didn’t know the term or how they worked until this trip. The center section is filled with clean water, and the idea is that this section is never contaminated. One side of the pila has grates for hand washing laundry, and the other side is for washing hands, dishes or other items. The clean water in the center section is scooped out to rinse items in the other sections, but nothing contaminated is ever dipped into the center section so that the water source always remains clean. In many homes there are not sinks—this is the sink. There are also public washing areas in most towns where families come to hand wash their clothes. This is much more common than owning a washing machine, and owning a dryer is extremely rare—nearly everyone hangs their clothes on a clothesline to dry.

Pila

Drying clothes on the rooftop

The currency in Guatemala is named after the national bird: quetzal. $1 in the U.S. is equivalent to approximately 7.5 quetzales (the exchange rate fluctuates). In the opposite direction, 1 quetzal is about 13.3 cents. It’s not the easiest of conversions, but overtime you start to memorize what are normal prices for things here. At the tienda, a bottle of pop is usually 3Q (40 cents), a snack size bag of Doritos is 3.5Q (47 cents), and an ice cream bar is 5Q (67 cents). Some things are much less expensive here, such as fruits and vegetables, but other things are more expensive, such as dairy products. A handful of avocados may cost around 5Q (67 cents) while a bag of shredded cheese or a gallon of milk costs about $5. Other things are just hard to find here; the closest place I have found Reese’s cups is 40 minutes away. Who knew! 

There is so much more I could talk about but I don’t want to overwhelm (or bore) you all! If you have questions, send me a message! I’m sure they are questions others are thinking as well, and I’d be happy to answer them in a future post. Overall the transition has been a good one—I am so happy to be back here! Thank you all for your love and support as I follow this calling and dream of mine. Please continue to keep me in your prayers and know you are in mine. Updates on the house I am renting are coming soon!

Much love,                         

Lindsey