Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The mission begins


Welcome back sports fans.

You may be wondering why I didn't post a picture of Guatemala City above. The reason for that is that I never really got an overview type photo of the city - I have many many pictures of Guatemala City (or Guate, as it's called here and as I will refer to it from now on) but it's hard to find one picture that shows the many different sides of Guate, and so I chose this picture of the fountain in the central park on market day because: a- I like it, and b- my mom will like it. So there you go.

As most of you know I spent the last 10 days with a mission group consisiting of myself and seven folks from Hamilton and ThunderBay Ontario, respectively.

I will not go into great detail on the mission trip because there would simply be far too much to write, and theoretically, you all have lives too. But I will give a short overview as best I can to try to explain what I've been up to.

I arrived in Guate City after a couple of flights between Belize, San Salvador and Guatemala and after a short wait met up with the rest of the group in the airport, we then left and went out front where we met one of our guides Dania, who works for CEDEPCA, which is an organization that is in a partnership of sorts with the presbyterian church.

Okay, lets try this again. I was starting to write a point for point explanation of the trip and I will have to keep remembering not to, lest I end up sleeping in this internet café (hey look, I used an accent. Hope it's the right one)

Okay, so short form. We met up the next day with our other guide Denise, who works with another organization called La Fraternidad in Xela (or Quetzaltenango if you have lots of time)

fun fact: Tenango means "Place of" hence Antigua is sometimes called Gringotenango, or "place of Gringos"

Right. So we met with Denise. In Guate we visited the relief map which is a huge model of the country of Guatemala layed out in a park - it's to scale and showes the vast differences in elevation between the volcanic mountains and the lowlands to either side of them. We also visited the central square and saw the church there and the vast, crowded market there.

We attended church on Sunday at San Juan Apostle where we were recieved like family and did our best to sing the hymns in spanish, although for the most part we recognized them from their english equivalents. It was refreshing experience to be in such a warm and welcoming place despite our differences.

We stopped on our way back from the church and looked out into one of the valleys of the city where the houses of the poor had been built right down the steep sides. I was struck by the poverty I saw before me - I had seen it on television and in movies but it was never really hit me until I stood and saw it for myself. It's hard to describe the feeling, but it was like a deep sadness, it hurt to see that people live in such conditions - many for their whole lives without a chance at a better life. I will never forget that feeling, and I have felt it again and again during my time here in Guatemala.

2 comments:

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  2. I'm sure your caring and your kindness is felt wherever you go. I'm sure it's hard to see, and that feeling calls all of us to help wherever and however we can.

    AND >>> the fountain is wonderful!!

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