So it has been a while since I last made an update on the happenings in Guatemala. That is because I was kidnapped and just recently escaped. Jk, late April Fool´s joke...and not very funny, well kinda :)
When in the midst of so much to write about and lacking the will to just sit down and write, the days pass on by regardless if documented or not. Days granted that have been filled with many unforgettable experiences and hopefully bits of a new language that I will not forget as well.
All continues more than well as I near the end of the time here in Guatemala. With about 3.5 weeks left of language classes it is a bit hard to believe that the 3 month period is almost complete.
I have met many persons in the time here and continue to be amazed at the importance of 2 simple things: relationships and conversations. So much of life revolves around the simplicity of these actions. And as I look back on the many things to write about or bring light to, it is the relationships and conversations I have experienced in the past 2 months(but also just in life) that are worth mentioning.
Which brings me to another 2 things: a rose and a thorn. There is a group of friends I have made and spent a good bit of time with while I have been here. They are volunteers at the city dump in Guatemala City and they help educate and feed the children that are being raised in that environment. We sometimes get together or explore the beauty of this country in travel, usually on the weekends. One of the memories I have and will never forget are the times we have sat down for a meal together and shared conversation together in a simple game known as rose-thorn. It is where you share your low-point of the day, or thorn, along with the highlight, or the rose of the day. Everyone gets their turn to speak and verbalize what the thorn and rose of the day was and it makes for great conversation and also provides rain for cultivating some good relationships.
And so as I write and am in thought about a rose and a thorn, I will share mine for today. My thorn: would have to be getting back on the blog and realizing how long it has been since I have written and wanting to write and inform about so many things but just not being able to. My rose: walking into the school here in Ciudad Vieja, where I help out 3 days a week, and hearing the kids call me by name and then receiving big hugs from them as I still have difficulty in understanding exactly what it is they are spitting out in spanish en mucho mucho miles per hour.
I recently took a week break from classes, as I was advised to at outset, to let the brain recover and soak in the information from the first month and a half. A good buddy of mine, Austin, from Nashville came and visited and we had an incredible time traveling and seeing some of the wonders in the country.
Relationships and conversations. With God, with man, with creation. After a long swim in the lake, known as Atitlan, I scaled the rocks onto a bluff that overlooked the cool, crisp, clean water where the mountains and volcanoes surrounded. And I began talking to the Creator. And though I heard nothing but the wind as it whispered by, I saw with my own eyes the beauty of a very Powerful and majestic lake, which I believe to be crafted and molded by the Power of an unbelievably powerful source. And we all swim around in our daily routines and find ourselves in circumstances unique as the fingerprints we rarely think about and as common as the air we breathe...and we long to be connected to source of our being, our faith and our beliefs. Looking and searching and only hoping our lives are ones of purpose, giving hope and inspiration, perhaps joy or peace, maybe even happiness and prayerfully life to those we find ourselves in relationship and conversation with.
And yet it is not easy, this life. Not all relationships and conversations are roses, some hurt and stick with you in a painful way. With distractions at every corner, grasping for our attention without end, yet our days go on, and unknowingly when they will end. I am greateful and appreciative for any moment when I can stop and think back to all the many roses this life has produced, in forms of family and friends, knowing the thorns are there as well and will continue to follow. So in hope and thought and prayer for all persons I have been and am in relationship and conversation with, thank you in ways grand.
The season here in Guatemala continues well, thank you for your concerns, thoughts, and prayers. My thoughts and prayers in these words and in the name of Jesus Christ.
