Guatemala Mission Trip: Day Five

Today was another fantastic day in Guatemala.  We are starting to get the hang of our routine and are much more confident getting around and using our Spanish.  Today was our last day at the Safe Passage CRE (Education Reinforcement Center…again, the acronym makes sense in Spanish).  We worked with the fifth and seventh grade classrooms again and did two new projects with the classes.

The fifth grade team prepared a game to learn about balance in an ecosystem.  It is a game many of our youth have played at Camp Orkila on Orcas Island.  The team did a great job of explaining the game in Spanish with almost no help from translators.  The students were very engaged in the game and had a great time.  The seventh grade team did made paper airplanes with the class to learn about observation and trial and error.  There were airplanes flying in every direction!

The projects we prepared and led were important for classroom learning, but the greater value for us has been the relationships that have been built in a few short days.  Nearly each one of our youth has a student of two that they have bonded with during our short time at Safe Passage.  One group of students wrote notes to several of our youth that said, “Best Friends Forever.”  I asked our support team coordinator if every team leaves with best friends.  She said no – a lot of teams don’t engage very much with the students.  That speaks volumes to how open and intentional our youth have been in seeking and serving Christ in others.  Classroom knowledge is necessary, but it is the relationships and memories that will last.

This afternoon, we had the chance to hear from two women in the adult literacy and social entrepreneurship programs.  Both are of indigenous Mayan descent and moved to Guatemala City from villages in the mountains during Guatemala’s horrific civil war.  There is still a great deal of racism and discrimination against Mayans in Guatemala.  The women shared their stories with us and taught us some words in a Mayan language (though I’m not sure which one…there are many).  As we left from our time with them, they gave us all hugs and it was a beautiful moment.  We had another chance to buy some of the jewelry made by the women of Creamos, too.

Some of the jewelry made by the women of Creamos.  The multi-colored beads are made from paper from the garbage dump 

Showing off the things we got from Creamos

Arne making a new friend

Dinner this evening was at El Frijol Feliz – a Guatemalan cooking school.  We had to work for our dinner tonight!  We had the chance to learn how to make some fantastic Guatemalan dishes: chiles rellenos, refried black beans, guacamole, and plantains with black beans and chocolate.  It was a ton of fun to talk and laugh together while we cooked and then ate the food we had prepared.  We have some chefs on our hands!

Making guacamole!

Our team with our cooking instructor (far left)

We will be spending our day tomorrow the Jardin Infantil (preschool) doing some projects with classes there.  It will be a change of pace and a lot of new faces for us, but we are excited!