A Spanglish Post

Our amigo asked us to do a blog post in Spanish. However since that would be impossible for most of you to read, I thought I would do a Spanglish post with a few introductory Espanol words to get you all started (:
I can't believe we're going home tomorrow. When I was feeling homesick at the beginning of our viaje, it felt like tres weeks was a year away. Now it's increible to think we are going home tomorrow. We are all feeling muy homesick though, so I know it's time.

There are things I will miss. Cafe while looking at Volcan Agua, Volcan Pacaya, and Volcan Acetenango in the manana is a big one. Guatemala is a land of stark contrasts. Stunning natural beauty walks hand in hand with desolating poverty: the real reason we became acquainted with this pais at all. It's easy to forget until your racked with amoeboes vomitting: "oh yeah, the agua source isn't filtered like back home." (Lily and I are feeling much better, gracias for your thoughts. Pray for the folks back at the mission who are feeling pretty enferma). I will definitely not miss brushing my dientes with bottled water. Or constantly sanitizing my hands. Or worrying about every little thing Eve puts in her boca.

But in reality these are small inconveniences that we have freely chosen to expose ourselves to. The larger social problems of a lack of food, health, educacion, proper sanitation, shelter, and access to even the most basic of needs is not chosen as was this trip for our familia. And so we continue to struggle. How do we help? Was coming here a aprender the language for future trips worth the cost, or would the better moral choice have been to just send our dinero? Indeed, does throwing money at social causes really help at all? Tough questions, but questions we should never stop asking ourselves so long as el mundo is turning.

So I'm left sitting at the end of our trip wondering: was it worth it? Exposing Lily, even on a pequeno scale, to how much bigger our mundo is than her school, city, estado, country, was certainly rewarding. Whether she has any real understanding of 3rd world poverty, I doubt. She's a relationship-oriented child (much like Latin-American culture, ironically), so probably the most memorable parte de this trip for her was meeting new amigos and people from the mission she has heard us talk about, but never met. The gato at Fernando's cafe next door will probably be the thing she tells you all was her "favorite part of the trip."

And it was certainly bien to be away somewhere as a familia and just spend quality time together. But this trip in particular was certainly not very relaxing. Not a vacation by any stretch of the palabra. Most of our dias were filled with language immersion, and estudiando. Brett and I were more academically challenged than we have been in many years. Learning an idioma is intellectually exhausting, especially while caring for young ninos at the same time. I think if I was going to sum this last 3 semanas up in one word, it would be "hard." But we went into it saying we didn't want a vacation, we wanted an adventure. And nothing worth doing in life is easy. I like doing hard things, the hard things are usually worth it, they're more memorable. Plus our family motto is: Go Big or Go Home! So it fits.

We miss you all. We hope our blog made your mundo a little big bigger as well. We are all one grande human family, and taking care of one another is one of the most importante cosas we can teach our ninos. One of my favorite theologians, Thomas Merton, wrote about martyrdom and I have never forgotten his words: . “Why should I be afraid of martyrdom, [he asks us]? I am already suffering it. My body is being killed in Hungary and Yugoslavia and China and it was killed before in Mexico and Spain and Germany. And in France a hundred and fifty years ago and in England and Ireland and Scandinavia before that. I am always being killed." He had an unequivocal understanding of what it means to be "one big human family." That we are all connected. I hope that one day, I feel that level of connection to humanity. 

For now, I do what I can. Which is all that I can do. We hope that our trip has inspired you to do "small things with great love as well."

And if you find yourself thinking: "what do I do?" Don't guilt-trip yourself. Social-change doesn't come from wracking yourself with guilt. But maybe think about the things and people you really care about, and ponder how you care. And then watch this song. We are musicans after all...you didn't really think you were doing to get away from our blog without at least one song, did you? (;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ccjjt5OihM

Lori