UNREAL

I am here! After months of preparation and anticipation I arrived in Guatemala for my summer study abroad program in Social Work.

 I still can't fully express to you why i chose to visit a war ridden third world country for the summer but I have a feeling each day here will unravel it all....I am here for almost 10 weeks!

My host mom carried my luggage on her head when i arrived. Unreal.

I walk the streets everyday in Panajachel, Guatemala and still don't believe i can look up and see waterfalls in the jungle, three volcanoes, and a gorgeous lake...Unreal.

I wake up to a rooster every morning. and a few goats apparently watch me wash my face. Unreal.

I can eat a meal for less than 4 dollars a day here. Unreal.

My host family makes about $200 a month. They feed 10 people, 3 full meals a day. they are blessed. joyful and some of the most loving, helpful people i have ever met. Unreal.

I witnessed the birth of a baby this week. Unreal.

I spent time with 40 Mayan women at a parenting class. Spoke about "bullying". Played musical chairs to Reggeton and sat and listened to them commit to parenting their sons and daughters in the midst of some of the worst poverty i have seen in an urban/rural city. Unreal.

I listened to the tearful testimony of a woman in Santa Lucia who lost her husband, father and unborn child in one year in a ruthless Civil War that continues to haunt the people of Guatemala 30 years later. Unreal.

I identified the historical genocide of a history that affects us all. I wonder why and fear the answer, so i don't ask. Unreal.


I have been here a week, all i can think of is my BED, but you know what my host mom is thinking about? How can i make Michelle more comfortable in my impoverished home? Unreal.

You know what is REAL? The fact that while these things sound so unreal to a people from the US they are very REAL to a people in Guatemala.

I have done social work for over 10 years, but LIVING INSIDE the homes of people where brokenness, poverty, pain and desperation begins, is probably the most powerful, moving, and growing things i have ever done. REAL.

Not sure if I can capture all that is going on here, in my heart or in my head in a blog or in pictures...but moving forward past the culture shock and sickness this week is beginning to UNCOVER things in me.

I Pray for Grace to hide the diva in me. The judgement in me. The negativity that rises. The utter pain i feel each time I say no to a 7 year old street vendor. Each time I see a senior citizen carry wood on his back or 50 pounds of grain on her head.

It is unreal the amount of tears I've cried. Selfish tears. Painful tears, Humbled tears. Joyful tears.
REAL Tears.

Keep us in your prayers y'all. All this is about to get REAL for me.

Matiosh. (thank you in Kachukel)

Meesh.

"Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me, Lay any burden on me only sustain me, Sever any tie but the tie that binds me to thyself"-D.Livingstone