So on our last evening here, we decided to go get some Picadilly Pizza. Along with a couple of Guatemalan beers, it was a nice way to complete our trip and prepare for the journey home. Even Eve has eyes for a cold one!
It has gotten to the point now where we have all come to peace with returning home, and even anxiously await it. Things are very different here from home. The water is not all safe like we enjoy back home. The streets aren't as nice, or as clean. The air has a lot of pollution in it when walking around the cities because the roads are so tight making it difficult at times to breathe. The poverty here appears more desolate than back home. Middle class Americans are considered quite wealthy down here. Where we spend 10,20, or 50 dollars in the States and don't think very much about it, down here that's a very large sum of money to most people. When we spend $2000 on tuition for our children or whatever amount, people down here struggle just to come up with $60 to send their kid to school for a year. Back home it takes approximately an hour to drive 60 miles depending on your stretch of roadway. Here it takes almost 2 hours unless you are on the freeway. Back home, we have everything automated, and tools to make every task easy. Here they carry firewood and coffee on their backs for miles and miles.
So much appreciation can be felt by adults that experience this kind of a culture, and the special experience it is to be here and live it. As with any plans of any parent, we make choices to include our children on things we wish for them to experience and hope that they take some kind of "adult" lesson out of it. That's probably wishful thinking. But if after all of this time on this trip, my daughter Lily uses random Spanish words when talking with her friends, or thinks harder about it when she doesn't want to share her toys, or makes sure to finish her meal because children down here starve every day, then I will consider this a huge success. The fact that we all stayed predominantly healthy, safe, and without any major pitfalls, and learned a bunch of Spanish along the way, this has been a success already. If some of the lessons get forgotten in the future, then, as parents, we will always be here to remind them. :-)
Lily and Eve are ready to go home, they started building forts in our room just like they do at home!
There is so much a person could write having the experiences we are blessed to be able to partake in. There are many things to be thankful for: the blessings of experiencing a different culture and environment, the blessings of family and friends both at home and abroad, the blessings of individuals you know you will never forget, even if it was for a small period of time in the grand scheme of things, taking in the overwhelming beauty of nature around us and appreciating it even though many times we hate it depending on how much it intrudes in our life, and being aware of the signs that God gives us to encourage us on our journey in the way that he calls us. We only have to take a second to take notice of the things he places around us. For myself, I have a great family. I have great friends both at home, and here in Guatemala. I have a great job and work for a company that I plan to help carry forward now and in the future. I am blessed with a house to live in, and food to eat each day. I do my best to look for the ways that God calls me, and I will never admit to seeing all the ways he calls me, I do my best. When I find myself wondering if I make the right choices, and if I chose right in a difficult situation, I always try to center myself, clear my thoughts, and even for a second, just look around and see if there is some sign from Him that I'm on the right path. When I am able to do that, I sometimes catch, even if for a short time, something that answers my plea.
This showed up the last evening as the sun was going down. I take this as a sign that I am on the right path, and that at least in part of my life, I'm making the right choices. :-)
Thanks for reading and sharing in our experiences from this trip. It's a pleasure and a blessing that we have been able to share this with you, and if at any point, there is anything that you would like to know more about feel free to contact us. We are an open book! :-)
Take care and God bless!
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