Guatemala Day 2

Our second day here became more immersed. We visited another community which is supported by UNBOUND, however we made our first house visit, since yesterday’s was cancelled due to the traffic. It’s always humbling to visit someone’s home. On a selfish level, it’s always a reminder of how good I and we collectively have it in America. It was a very similar experience in the rural parts of Vietnam. Today’s family was a family of 4, with #5 on the way and a grandmother living with them. The father took off from work, just to be home and thank the visitors who are part of the sponsorship community that helps his family, his hospitality was a humbling reminder of appreciation. My math maybe wrong, but if they are lucky, they all live in 200 square feet.

The drive back and forth was fairly enjoyable as there are many beautiful mountains and views, it’s just very challenging however since I noticed on the GPS we literally drove in a big U, just to get to our destination due to mountains and roads. What should be a 30 minute drive max, is 2 hours. The food was enjoyable and we had a nice local Lenten treat made of chickpeas, honey and coconut pieces. Lunch was a chicken soup with a piece of chicken in it. Everything was produced with love and greatly appreciated.

After lunch many of the children invited everyone to dance, thankfully out of our group only myself and one person weren’t asked to dance. If anyone knows me, it’s one of the few things I’m really not comfortable with. For good measure, I started to look like I was taking photos so others would feel like they didn’t want to interrupt me in case they had any ideas lol. After our house visit we made our way back to the property we are staying at. We enjoyed a nice meal with beef, grilled potatoes and some home made salsa and vegetables. in addition to getting to know each other more. The night finished watching a short video on the founders, one of which was with the Christian Brothers. I thought that was providential to hear, considering today was the feast of St. John Baptiste de La Salle, founder of that group.

In close I also touched and saw my first real coffee plant, previously I would just order them online and they would arrive and die shortly after due to Virginia being the wrong climate. Here’s the link to theHere’s the link to the photos and videosphotos and videos

3 guys from NYC riding on the back of truck, like it was the back of the bus. Video in the phoot albumn