expect the unexpected

I didn’t expect to fall in love with Guatemala so quickly, but I definitely have. The people, the culture, the language, it’s so different from America but I really like it. I also didn’t expect for my heart to break for Guatemala so quickly.
After a 3 ½ hour plane ride then a long, hot, 7 hour bus ride where our driver played Total Eclipse of the Heart and Hotel California literally 10 times each we finally arrived at our new home in Puerto Barrios! We settled into our tiny rooms with 6 people in each room and then enjoyed a nice dinner. Our hosts / the ministry we’re working with are such wonderful people.
The first night of ministry we went to a park to do sports ministry, all 20 of us packed into a van and headed out. I was hesitant at first because if you know me, you know I don’t like any type of physical activity. We got there and some of people from our team started a game of basketball with a local team. I was sitting on the bench when the sweetest little boys, around 5 or 6 years old,  came up wanting to play. So a few others and myself started playing Frisbee with them but soon enough they  started to climb all on us. They loved getting on our shoulders and pulling our headbands over our eyes as we ran around with them. It was such a blessing getting to know these boys and getting to pray with them. The best part of the evening was when one of the men playing basketball with our team decided to accept the Lord, it was so awesome.

The rest of the week we did a lot of team building which was really good, I love how much our team has grown since training camp.
While we are very blessed with the food we’ve been fed and where we’re staying, it’s not the same story for the rest of Guatemala. There is so much poverty and so much brokenness here, it’s unbelievable. On Thursday we got into groups and went to the market to do a scavenger hunt and while it was a lot of fun, it was also hard. There was a precious little boy who was mentally ill just sitting on the floor in the market with a bowl begging for money, he couldn’t have been older than 8 or 9. We left the market and went to a park where we met a little boy, Douglas, who was probably 6 or 7 who followed us around the entire time and wanted to be in all of our pictures. He was so sweet and just wanted some attention, I’m thankful we were able to give him some that day.
Sorry if this isn’t the most coherent blog, there’s a lot to say but this computer is about to die haha. Thank you to everyone who has been praying and supporting me throughout this, it means so so much!