SJJ 2017 Guatemala Trip

Thursday, June 8 By: Robert Kelly and Michael Theis The day began bright with the sun, as always. A scrumptious breakfast of eggs, beans, and fruit awoke the sleepy boys. After a short conversation discussing the goals for the rest of the trip, the boys were informed by Coach Cabrera that our soccer jerseys were a possible requirement for the day. This created quite a hustle and bustle among the boys who were previously informed that the jerseys weren’t needed until the following day. The team departed to their work locations and arrived safe thanks to our bus driver Angel who maneuvers like a wizard among the crowded roads of Guatemala. Along this trip the boys’ normal activity of striking up conversation with random motorists was put on pause to prepare the jerseys. However, the boys had to take their mind off this excitement in order to buckle down and accomplish the day’s work which required three separate teams. The most proficient Spanish speakers were needed at the school...

Wednesday, June 7th    Our day began at 7:00, just waking up. We ate breakfast at 7:30, and then we left the retreat house at 8:10 to zone 3. Ten people went to the Francisco Coll School to help teach and tutor, while six people went to the nursery to help the teachers with the kids.    At the school, our four best Spanish speakers helped tutor kids one-on-one. The other six were divided into three pairs and each pair taught English to a class for 45 minutes. The tasks were difficult at first because of the language barrier, but silliness is universal. The fourth and fifth graders learned the name of body parts in English, from their heads, to their shoulders, to their knees, and to their toes. Sixth graders learned classroom objects, and the boys raced against the girls to see which team could write the English names of school supplies on the whiteboard faster. After that they witnessed a funny skit where an eraser was being sold for 500 Quetzales ($70), but was ...

Tuesday, June 6      The day started with sixteen reasonably healthy kids who were eager for a long and hard day of work. After a quick breakfast and bus ride to the school, we split into different teams to start the work. We had four teams: three guys at the nursery, four at construction, six people teaching at the school, and three people painting.      At the nursery, the guys played with the young kids who were eager to interact with them. At construction, we helped plant mortar, cement, and cinder blocks to build a house for a family in the community. At the school, the guys split up. Some taught English to the kids who loved the fresh aspect of the outsiders, while the other guys helped teach physical education. Those especially learned that the kids here have plenty of energy, so were eager to get back for a nap afterwards. The last group worked hard in the blazing sun to paint the school and learned that painting isn’t as easy as it looks.  ...

     The first day of actual service to the impoverished communities of Guatemala City came as a shocking eye-opener for all of the boys. For many of them, it was the first time they had truly witnessed real suffering and real social injustice. It was a stark contrast from the attractive tourist destination of Antigua; this was the part of Guatemala people are encouraged to ignore. The day began with a visit to the struggling elementary and middle school near the center of the garbage dump community. Greeted with smiles, many of the boys thought they had seen the worst of the mess known as Zone 3. However, a subsequent visit to the garbage dump immediately enlightened them of the miserable hardships that the people have to face everyday in order to merely survive in the filth.            From there, they visited some of the homes that the people were living in, and they were almost moved to tears when they discovered that many of the houses (...

3 June 2017 Guat’s Up!      So said an appealing T-shirt at the market we visited this afternoon in Antigua. Our shopping spree doubled as a first-rate lesson in negotiating, converting currencies, and getting scammed, but nonetheless resulted in soccer jerseys, paintings, jewelry, and other such “souvenirs.” One shopkeeper even offered Jarrett Irwin a jade chess set for some Quetzales and his safari hat (considered and denied). However, the market, despite all its glam and scam, wasn’t the most interesting part of Antigua.      The day started with an hour-long bus ride, during which we got to meet our new Step by Step friends, Léon, Miriam, and Haiti. After stopping atop a hill to enjoy the view, we arrived at an ornate cathedral, steeped in many hundreds of years of history, and celebrated Mass. Despite the barrage of Spanish homilies and hymns, we still deciphered a fitting sermon about how each of us ought to use our gifts and charisma to help othe...

     We all awoke on our first day in Guatemala and it was an early one. We had gotten into the retreat house the night before at around 1:00 am and it was a sleepy crowd that gathered for breakfast. We met a pair of kids from International Samaritan named Kenneth and Victoria who would offer us some much needed help with our Spanish. Luckily, we had a long van ride ahead of us that allowed us to catch up on some Z's.       The view was incredible as we traveled, and, unlike Toledo, there was a variation to the landscape that was referred to as "mountains." I guess it was something that people from a flat state aren't quite used to. The driving style was also quite different than what we were used to and at one point our van came within a half inch of another bus on a busy street; however, our driver was completely unfazed.       When we arrived to Lake Atitlan, we boarded two small boats that would take us across to the lake f...