GUATEMALA - DAY 5
Day 5 - our final day in Guatemala - the time has flown by. Janice and I leave early in the morning. We just finished packing, took our Covid19 tests (both negative thank goodness!) and will be heading to bed soon. We have set our alarm for 3am - another early morning flight! We will grab a taxi to the airport in the morning.
PRESCHOOL PARENTING WORKSHOP
Janice, Cindy, Ruth and Rob
Ruth and Giovanni picked us up and took us to the preschool to say goodbye to the teachers and observe a parent workshop. Our preschool curriculum partner (Planting Seeds International) also supplies parent workshop materials. Watching this circle of mothers of young children interacting with the presenter, asking questions and sharing their struggles reminded me that we are more alike than we are different. We may have a different environment, but families everywhere struggle with the same basic things. The desire to pass on a better future to their children than their own, the difficulty of raising kids - providing for their physical, emotional and spiritual needs, and the need for community and support. Hope Renewed, by the power of Christ, strives to be a part of that support in Zone 3 and I feel blessed to be a part of that.
ADMINISTRATION
Before Rob left we were able to continue handling some administrative, big picture conversations with Ruth. We are thankful for her leadership. I have been more impressed by her every day of this trip. Her organization and attention to detail of the finances is appreciated so much. The detailed binder of receipts and documentation she shared with us, showed me once again how much respect and appreciation she has for the donors who support this ministry. She told us today, she feels valued and supported in her work - that mutual respect is foundational to our relationship.
GOOGLE TRANSLATE IS OUR FRIEND
After Rob left, Janice and I were on our own with Ruth and the staff team and neither of us are fluent in Spanish! But between Ruth’s English skills and our Spanish skills (we are all about at the same level in each other’s language) and a lot of Google Translate we made it work. I must admit there was a lot of confusión (confusion) and even more laughter (la risa) but we muddled our way through.
La Limonada
Cindy, Janice, Kimberly and Rob
After we left the preschool, we dropped Rob off at the airport and headed to La Limonada to meet with Kimberly and a couple of our scholarship students. La Limonada is a world unto itself. It is the largest ghetto in Central America and home to close to 1 million people. The homes are made of tin and stone with dirt or tile floors, one home stacked on top of one another built on the walls of a ravine. There is very limited access to clean water. We parked the van just inside the ghetto and met up with Alex and Kimberly.
CLAUDIA
They accompanied us through the narrow dirty streets up the side of the ravine to visit Claudia. Claudia is the mother of two (very adorable) young children and is studying English so that she can work in a call center. She invited us into the home she and her mother share with her kids. The home was small, two tiny rooms separated by a dresser and a curtain. Her kids were shy and like all kids just really wanted all these strangers to leave their home so they could watch cartoons. We visited with Claudia for a short time each of us practicing our language skills. She was shy to practice her English in front of us, since she has only been a student for 2 months, I totally understood, but she did great. Before we left we prayed over her and her family.
WALKING THROUGH THE GHETTO
Walking the streets of La Limonada and seeing all that I saw, is too much to have fully processed. I am sure that will happen more over the coming days but there were several things that struck me - odd things for sure but probably not the most profound.
There were a lot of stray dogs and cats wandering about, but also dogs and cats that were obviously house pets; my favorite being the two dogs barking at us through the rails of one of the upper level homes. Their heads were poking through the rails looking out over these strangers in their neighborhood and sounding the alert for all to hear.
There were several phone booths along our walk. And these actually looked operational. Handsets attached and booths unsullied by graffiti or damage.
There are goats in La Limonada - Two small tribes (or herd or trip according to Wikipedia) of goats were being shepherded through the concrete streets. I honestly do not know where in that area these goats would find grass to eat but obviously they were finding food somewhere as they did not look undernourished.
There is a lot of construction in the area. There were men building and/or repairing in several places along our walk. These men were walking up and down these impossibly difficult slopes carrying bags of stones or pushing a wheelbarrow of supplies.
There are a lot of small Tiendas on every street. We passed many small shops along our walk - each tiny spaces with bars on the doorway that had snacks and other items for sale.
The need for clean water is an ever present challenge for the residents of La Limonada. Hauling water up and down the slopes and steps to their homes is difficult back breaking work. I watched several people carrying water in some form or another. One man was walking up a set of stairs in one of the steep alleys between the dwellings (the way to get to yet more of the homes) carrying two 5 gallon water bottles on his shoulders. I told Alex if I had to do that, I would be flattened under the weight at the bottom of the steps. The strength and resiliency that I saw in that community was humbling.
Arelis
We stopped at the home of another of our scholars, Arelis, after crossing a bridge over the stream that runs through the bottom of the ravine. Arelis is the young mother of a new baby and a scholarship student. She is close to finishing her training to be a nail tech and she is in technology classes. She greeted us at her door and proudly showed us the supplies that HRI had purchased for her to use in her training and expressed her gratitude for the support. While we were there, Ruth invited her to come to Zone 3 to do the nails of some of the mothers. This is exactly what we love to see…cooperation between our programs so that our participants feel the support of each other as they work toward a better future.
BACK TO THE HOTEL WITH RUTH AND GIOVANNI
Ruth and Giovanni brought us back to our hotel, we invited them to have lunch with us and we continued our comical bilingual conversation. We laughed and ate and then said our goodbyes. I found it hard to say goodbye to my new friends. The connection we share through our mutual love of Christ and the desire to see a better future for Guatemala made them feel like old friends immediately.
Home tomorrow
Tomorrow I will return to the States, I return with renewed hope for Guatemala and for the ministry God has called me to. I ask you to prayerfully consider partnering with us as we Serve, Equip and Empower our friends in Guatemala so they can in turn Serve, Equip and Empower others. All to God’s glory and in His strength.
If you have questions about what we do and/or how to get involved, please email us at info@hoperenewed.org
If you would like to contribute to HRI financially, you can do so by clicking HERE.